Battlestar Galactica is Over… Now What?

By Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

If you’re a fan of Battlestar Galactica, whether you liked the finale or hated it, there will be (almost – keep reading) no more. So now what? Will Friday nights now be spent cradling a DVD boxset of Firefly? Now, I offer no guarantees, but here are some upcoming series that may help fill the void – or at least, the SciFi channel (or “SyFy” which I still can’t quite get on board with) hopes they will. After all, if Patton Oswalt is right and it really is the silver age of television, then it can only get better from here.

Caprica

This is probably the obvious choice – a prequel of sorts to BSG, Caprica is set about 50 years before the current series. Whereas it does tell the story of how humanity created the cylons who would ultimately cause their destruction, it’s been described as a “family science fiction drama.” The early trailer made it look more like a Romeo & Juliet type story about dueling families than what you might expect from the BSG world, but the new trailer that aired during Friday’s finale seems more promising. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait too long to find out; the pilot is premiering on DVD on April 21. Though after that, it’s a wait until 2010 for the actual series to start airing on television.

Stargate Universe

The third installment in the popular Stargate series, Stargate Universe is set to begin airing on the SciFi channel in October. Described as a “separate entity” rather than a spin-off like Stargate Atlantis, the new series involves a ship that gets stuck in the far reaches of the universe. That actually sounds a little familiar – Voyager, anyone? In any case, it’s supposedly darker than the other two, and also more relationship-based. (Stargate is one of those series that has inspired massive amounts of fan fiction, so I’m not sure if that’s considered a good thing or a bad thing for those writers.)

Warehouse 13

A preview for this new SciFi channel show aired during the BSG finale as well, which was actually the first I’d heard of it. It was a pretty long trailer for a commercial, and after it was over I still felt like I had no idea what the show was about. Something about FBI agents… and a giant warehouse… and weird stuff? Apparently it’s part X-Files, part Raiders of the Lost Ark, and part Moonlighting, which from what I’ve seen sounds about accurate. Oh, and it features a male “rule-bending” agent and a female “by-the-book” agent, which I guess comes from the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” school of television writing. Though the female agent is played by Joanne Kelly, who was really hot as the vampire Bianca in the short-lived Dresden Files series. This one will start airing this summer.

Of course, for those of you who don’t want to wait for your new science fiction fix, let me throw out a recommendation if you haven’t already checked it out:

Dollhouse

This new show got pretty mixed reviews at the beginning, but after the new episode on Friday night (which, since it overlapped with the 2-hour BSG finale, I watched yesterday on Hulu), I’m completely sold. I think that the show may have suffered from the FOX curse of rearraranging episodes at the beginning (and that worked so well with Firefly), but now it’s hitting its stride. Plus, if you’re missing BSG, you can get your weekly fix of Tahmoh Penikett (Helo on BSG and Agent Ballard on Dollhouse). Also appearing on Friday’s episode was Mark Sheppard – Romo Lampkin on BSG, though you may also remember him as Badger from Firefly – as another FBI agent. I personally rather like Joss Whedon’s tendency to use the same actors over and over, but only because he also tends to pick good actors. I think Eliza Dushku (Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Amy Acker (Fred on Angel) are doing a great job on Dollhouse. (And while I’m on the subject of Joss’s actors, I’ll give a tentative thumbs-up to ABC’s new show Castle that airs on Monday nights, though Nathan Fillion – Mal from Firefly – is definitely the best part.)

So if your Friday nights are now woefully science fiction free, you may want to give Dollhouse a try.  Or wait and see what SciFi (SyFy? Hrm.) has in store next… but wait!  As I mentioned, BSG isn’t quite over yet, and that’s not just a reference to Caprica.  Airing in November is a new TV movie, a “reimagined” version of BSG – from the point of view of the cylons.  Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is directed by Edward James Olmos (aka Admiral Adama), who says that it will make fans want to watch the whole series over again.  I’m sure the DVD box set will be out just in time.



Worm could bring down US power grid

The idea of hackers bringing down power grids may sound like a far-fetched plot from the current series of 24, but a security firm insists it’s a genuine threat.

The threat is now a possibility because of the use of a technology known as Smart Grids. This involves around two million devices, largely wireless, which send data back and forth between power stations and homes. The idea is to better manage demand for electricity based on the actual needs customers have at any moment.

Unfortunately security researchers at Seattle-based IOActive say they’ve proven the devices are vulnerable to hacking. Using equipment costing $500 they were able to create a worm virus which spread rapidly across the meters in the network.

Naturally the researchers didn’t do any serious damage: according to PCWorld they simply tweaked the meters so that their LCD screens displayed the word ‘pwned’ rather than the meter readings. But the researchers believe a similar technique would allow hackers to either remotely shut down the supply to customers, or send bogus increased demands for power to a station causing blackouts. Such an attack could cause a knock-on effect to other stations in the network.

The firm has passed on its findings to officials and is not making the precise details public. However, it’s thought the technique involved exploiting a bug in a chip used in the meters.

A malicious attack on the electricity network may seem unthinkable, but last year the National Journal claimed Chinese military and government officials may have been behind two blackouts in 2003. It reports a theory that a Chinese hacker who was intending to gather data on power systems had either made a mistake or got carried away and wound up triggering the blackout.



Apple coding hides mystery device

Apple is planning to release an iProd. And no, that is not a typo.

The device is one of four works-in-progress which have been exposed by those folks who enjoy nosing around the coding of the iPhone operating system (as opposed to, say, making phone calls or listening to music). They’ve noticed the upcoming third edition of the system includes support for four new devices:

  • iPhone3,1
  • iPod3,1
  • iFPGA
  • iProd0,1

The iPhone and iPod references are self-explanatory, though it’s worth noting that in Apple’s numbering system these indicate new generation models: the 3G iPhone was known as iPhone2,1 which means these new devices should have some major changes.

IFPGA appears to refer to “field-programmable gate array”, which is a type of computer chip which can be configured after manufacture. This doesn’t exactly sound like something that will be on sale to the public, which may explain why it has no version number.

The iProd is clearly a work in progress as Apple labels the first edition of a product to go on sale as 1,1. Unfortunately that means the name may not necessarily give any insight into what it will actually be, so we’re probably not talking about a device which lets you round up cattle while listening to music. The most likely explanation is that ‘Prod’ refers to ‘prototype device’ and is being used as a generic name to protect the secrecy of a major product in development.

The most popular theory at the moment is that it’s a tablet computer along the lines of a giant iPod touch which aims to bridge the gap between the iPhone and the Macbook. Apple has already received a patent for a device along these lines.

There are also rumours the iProd will be an iPod touch with a high-definition screen (which seems fairly pointless given its size), or that it will be a Nano edition of the iPhone (a case for which is apparantly in development in China).

2009 Hugo Award Nominations

By Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

hugoThere are two major literary awards in the science fiction and fantasy genre–the Nebulas, given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and the Hugos, voted on by the members of Worldcon (which will be held this August in Montreal). The Hugo nominees were announced yesterday, and I always consider them a great reading list if you’re interested in genre fiction.

As usual, Asimov’s dominates the novella/novelette/short story categories, and there are some familiar names, like Nancy Kress, Mike Resnick, and Michael Swanwick. The graphic novel category includes some Vertigo favorites like Fables and Y: The Last Man, as well as the first comic offering in Jim Butcher‘s Dresden Files series. Interestingly, there are two young adult novels up for best novel, Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother (available for free download) and Neil Gaiman‘s The Graveyard Book, in the company of a GAS favorite, Anathem, by Neal Stephenson.

The long-form dramatic presentation category is favoring comics-based movies like The Dark Knight, Iron Man, and Hellboy II. And as for the past few years, up for short form are episodes of Battlestar Galactica (“Revelations”) and Doctor Who (“Turn Left” and “Silence in the Library”), as well as Lost (“The Constant”) and Joss Whedon’s Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. (Of course, “Silence in the Library” is probably the favorite – DW episodes penned by Stephen Moffat have taken the award three years in a row.)

There are several other categories, including the John W. Campbell award for Best New Writer, which can be one to keep an eye on; past winners have included Orson Scott Card, Karen Joy Fowler, and Cory Doctorow.

[Image Source: Flickr]

Carl Sagan on The Drake Equation

The Drake equation (also sometimes called the “Green Bank equation”, the “Green Bank Formula,” or often erroneously labeled the “Sagan equation”) is a famous result in the fields of exobiology and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).

This equation was devised by Dr. Frank Drake (now Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz) in 1960, in an attempt to estimate the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy with which we might come in contact. The main purpose of the equation is to allow scientists to quantify the uncertainty of the factors which determine the number of such extraterrestrial civilizations. Source.

Klein Bottle House Looks like a Crashed UFO

Designed by McBride Charles Ryan, the Klein Bottle experimental house has first started as a sphere, but as shown in the picture above, was deconstructed to provide functional living space to its inhabitant. The green geeks among you will be pleased to learn that the structure also features a rain water collection system and a multitude of solar panels. Given the chance, would you be interested in living in a house that looks like this?

[Via Dornob]

Feature: The Diet Coke & Mentos Saga of the EepyBirds

Two of my favorite people to interview – ever- are Fritz Grobe and Stephen Yoltz of Eepybird.com, a performance troupe based in Maine. If you’re anything like 40 million other people in the world, you know these guys from “The Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments” – a recreation of the Bellagio Fountains using nothing but Diet Coke & Mentos.

And while watching the Diet Coke & Mentos fountain is cool, cooler still are the minds behind the viral video sensation.

I first interviewed them at a show they produced at Maker Faire Austin 2007 – which is when the first part of this two-part video was filmed, and then again at Maker Faire Austin 2008, which is when the second half was filmed. In it they talk about the process behind both “Mentos” and the newer “Post-It” projects, including when 3M (the maker of Post-it notes) showed up at their house in the woods of Maine with two tons of post-it notes, when they went to Castile, Spain to set a world record – and about their rivalry with a business school in Riva, Latvia.

All from Diet Coke & Mentos.

If you’re just interested in skipping the interviews and seeing a high definition, live-before-an-audience version of Diet Coke & Mentos, you’ll find two opportunities to skip ahead, one at 2:40 of the first video, and the other at 7:32 of the second video.

But really – these guys are insane geniuses, and little, to date, has been asked about the methods to their madness. Hopefully, you’ll be inspired by it. Or entertained, at least.

If you’d like to see the videos in full HD resolution (well worth it!), just hit this link for part 1, and this one for part 2. The links will take you to the videos’ high-def pages on YouTube.

The Diet Coke & Mentos Saga of the EepyBirds – Part 1 (2007)

The Diet Coke & Mentos Saga of the EepyBirds – Part 2 (2008)

[Picture source: Flickr]