Flying Around CERN in the Millennium Falcon

This is a very rough cut of an image that I’ve had in mind to make for awhile, but I thought I would show off this early draft. There’s a poster of the Falcon flying into the heart of the second Death Star in ROTJ, so I thought I could recreate it with Lego. I pulled this image of the LHC tunnel 1 and applied a motion blur. Then, I cut out photos of my 4504 Millennium Falcon and 6212 Luke’s X-Wing Fighter. I added engine effects and lights to the front of the Falcon. With more time and effort, I believe that I can turn out a very nice composite reproduction of the ROTJ poster. Though, I will need to take a new picture of the Falcon with Billie Dee and Nien Numb at the controls. If you know of a better tunnel image with exposed pipes, please mention it in the comments.

The Apple iPad and Slate PCs, Promise and Peril as Content Production Machines

I have waited for a true tablet-sized PC for a long time. I have dreamed of having a way to easily operate a computer without a mouse and be able to seamlessly write without a keyboard. Perhaps this is rooted in my trouble learning to type in the seventh grade, or it could be from the images of handheld computing devices that litter science fiction stories and film.

I was reading on Liliputing today about Lenovo’s resistance to cutting the keyboard from their ThinkPad tablet PCs. The post’s author, Brad, wrote:

Sure, cutting the keyboard would let you make thinner and lighter devices that can be used with stylus input and/or on-screen keyboards. But ThinkPads are productivity machines first and foremost, whereas tablets like the upcoming iPad are designed for consuming media rather than creating it. [read the whole post here]

He’s absolutely right about the current importance of media consumption on the iPad. It’s something that I’ve given some thought to, particularly because of the limitations of the iPad in terms of ease of writing and the lack of a built-in camera. The lines of access, the ways in which we can get our ideas and work with them within the digital space of the computer are squeezed, not shut, but pushing the limits of anti-ergonomic torture. However, I don’t think that it should be this way.

I disagree with Brad’s idea that slate PCs are all about consumption. We are just beginning what I hope to be the emergence of cheap, lightweight, portable keyboard-less computing, but even in its infancy, we should (and I’m sure many of us will do so) push the limits of this new technology. We shouldn’t settle for just using these things for the consumption of entertainment that others make. We have to do the making, and we should find ways that we can use this new technology in ways it may not have been imagined by its creators. Furthermore, Window 7’s handwriting recognition has significantly improved over its earlier iterations, and Apple is pushing its iWorks suite on the iPad (with virtual keyboard and sans handwriting recognition). So, the possibilities for content creation are there.

If the iPad had a back facing camera, the first thing that I thought about was augmented reality, but it would be so much closer to what James Cameron used for ‘filming’ Avatar. Gripping the sides of the iPad like the stick of an airplane would have felt like flying a camera through space.

I had wished the iPad had handwriting recognition, but there are many other tablet and slate PCs out there and coming out soon that have this feature. Will someone develop an app that will provide this kind of feature, or will Apple bring this into the fold with an update to the planned iPad-based iWork?

Regardless, I believe that we have to rethink these new tools and I’m confident that many folks will do exactly that. Apple, as demonstrated by their recent moves with the app store, want to define what their products are used to do. Obviously, we, the people who use their products, can find our own uses for their products that challenge and disrupt the models proposed by corporations.

Why can’t tablet or slate PCs be productivity oriented computers? They can be, and will be, because we will make them serve our purposes despite the worst intentions of their corporate creators.

And a final note: K9, pictured above, would be a significantly giant leap forward over the iPad and any slate PC. Just saying . . .

A Means to an End, the PhD and Professional Emergence

Andrew Pilsch posted a link to Matt Feeney’s article about the PhD doldrums that adds another perspective to the ongoing discussion here about finding work in the promised land, or at least having fun strolling through the desert even if you don’t make it there.

I agree with many of the things that Feeney has to say about what to do as a PhD student in the here-and-now such as connecting with folks outside the department, focus on what you’re doing right now–reading and working with the things that you’ve read, develop an engaging dissertation topic that will take you places (give the means to get to where you need to go do research), and getting done as soon as possible.

However, I don’t buy into Feeney’s first major point, “View the Ph.D. as an end in itself.” This sounds too much like spending precious time, money, and creative effort without some sense of where I am going. It reminded me of the picture above of Miao Miao playing in her catship. She’s having an awful lot of fun doing her cat thing, and she revels in the process of being-cat. However, she doesn’t, as far as I can tell, have a end goal in mind for her being-cat. For Miao, it is an on-going process of being-cat, or cat-emergence.

Unlike Miao, we, PhD students, have to have a means for providing for our being-professional, being-teaching, being-professor. Our emergence as an intellectual worker and teacher depends on our securing a job that enables our becoming. Miao, through the grace of the maker and Yufang’s and my good will, has the support and patronage that allows her cat-emergence as it configured within the confines of our house (her emergence outside the safety of our home would be very different than it is now). It is with this need of financial, institutional, and community support in mind that I consider an end goal, the PhD as a means to an end, the degree as a means to make my work possible.

Obviously, we all may not end up where we want to be at the end of the PhD process, but I intend to marshall every resource I have available to achieve my own pedagogical, research, and professional goals, all of which are made possible by my work in and beyond the PhD program.

I, like many of my friends in English PhD programs, began this arduous journey of learning and preparation in order to get some where, namely teaching and research. The latter augments the former through expertise and cultivating an ever-refreshing approach to teaching in the university environment.

Perhaps some folks begin PhD programs as a kind of holding pattern, not knowing what they want to do or where they want to go, but I, and many others, realized that we had a goal in our sights that was made possible only by the successful completion of our program with ancillary work augmenting our CV.

Furthermore, I and my compatriots joined this particular wagon train because we enjoy the journey as much as our arrival in the promised land–the frontier’s edge. Our journey doesn’t end there, at least not for all, because we should continue venturing further into unexplored territories of research, ideas, and pedagogy. We are, like Miao, in a continuing emergence of self as professor, researcher, and professional, but the PhD makes those things possible. Holding the degree as an end unto itself may erode the possibilities that the degree and one’s other work make possible.

Considering the PhD as an end unto itself is a step backwards. It reinstitutes the holding pattern, the wandering without a focus. We, as PhD students preparing for jobs in whatever way suits our individual goals, need to revel in the joys of our work and the professional preparation that we are daily engaged in.

Perhaps PhD programs do not instill enough plasticity into our selves that we can draw on if our goals do not work out as well as we would like. Finding new ways to employ our skills if we don’t land the job we desire is necessary. However, the PhD program is only one aspect of our lives, and the many other places in which we learn and those we learn from should augment our skills to roll with the punches, to seize success despite the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” Enjoy the process, prepare for the punches, but most importantly, keep your eye on the prize.

Lego Star Wars Millennium Falcon 7190 Custom Rebuild

And here it is–my custom rebuilt Lego Star Wars Millennium Falcon 7190 model. It took me several months of tinkering to get it in the shape that it is now–beat-up, derelict, and having it where she needs it.

In the following, I will show how the model began, how it evolved, and then a more thorough description of the changes that I made to the model.

Below, you can see how the 7190 Falcon looked after I initially built it. It gestures toward what the Falcon should look like, but it has too much non-battleship gray color and the design is aimed toward play more than appearance.

Below are two pictures of the interior with the upper hull removed. Again, the emphasis is on play instead of accuracy. The interior is segmented by straight walls and there is no visible engine, which I believe a big, fast ship like the Falcon should have.

Initially, I hadn’t planned on redesigning the interior. I thought that there was more to be done with the exterior, with the large quarter panel pieces that could make the 7190 rival the newer 4504 model.

Below you can see how I have selected a single color for the upper hull, reduced the profile for the gun turret, increased the size of the engine compartment at the rear, and changed the forward cargo loader from a single flat piece to a more accurate raised profile.

Also, I improved the cockpit so that it bends into the main hull and connects to it with a single flat round brick. Below are detailed photos of the cockpit redesign.

In the final version of the 7190 redesign, I opted to replace the cockpit with the same one found on the 4504 model, the parts of which I found on bricklink.com, an excellent resource for finding sets and bricks at reasonable prices. In the future, I may reincorporate the curve and passage way in the above pictures into the 7190 redesign. However, I do have some other ideas about how to make it look more accurate, following the ideas in the 4504 model, but I need additional pieces to make this work.

So, here are more detailed photos of the 7190 redesign as it now stands. I will include exterior shots first, and then I will show the extensive and exciting interior redesign that I made.

As you can see in the two photos above, I streamlined the front prongs into the main hull, extended the port and starboard hatch covers so that they are level, added surface color and detail to more accurately match the Falcon, and utilized the natural design of the quarter panel spacing for the rear engine compartment exhaust grills.

The cockpit is the same as the one in the 4504 model, but I used a different computer display brick in front of Han and Chewbacca. Also, I designed the cockpit-to-hull connector to indicate the connection while making it easy to remove the upper main hull. I believe that I will continue working on this in the next iteration of the model.

Below are images of the interior of the Falcon based on the films and my own ideas about the engine for such a large and fast ship. I departed from the designs in the 4504 model with my design of the engine with built-in hyperdrive.

Below, an all-inclusive shot of the interior of the Falcon. In the upper left, you can see everyone gathered around the Dejarik table. In the middle front you can see the cargo storage area followed by the passage way leading to the cockpit. The central column holds the gunner stations. In the rear, you can see the main engine with integrated hyperdrive.

Below, a detailed shot of the cargo area with a nod to the Lego Space series.

Below, a detailed shot of the crew area and Dejarik table and navigational computer.

Below, a detailed photograph of the main engine and its support structure, integrating it into the framework of the space craft.

Building my custom version of the 7190 Falcon model is something that I’ve wanted to do ever since I first owned the 7190 when it first came out at the end of the twentieth-century. The nice thing about Lego is that I can continue changing and altering the design as my imagination shifts and permutates.

Besides the awesomeness of building with Lego bricks, you may be wondering why I have devoted a good deal of space to my Lego work on dynamicsubspace.net. This is something that I am continuing to work on, but I see Lego as a transitional example of what Haraway calls the Informatics of Domination. Lego serves as a metaphor for the dilemma and its solution. Lego is a double edged sword, swinging both ways, but holding a promise greater than its representative ills. Expect to read more about these ideas in the near future.

Below, I have included a gallery of more images of my custom 7190 Millennium Falcon. Enjoy, and thanks for visiting.

Vernor Vinge’s “True Names”

I read Vernor Vinge’s “True Names” last night, and what a read it was! Published in 1981, the story prefigures the Internet and the “true names” of its operators hidden by the disembodied near-anonymity of the virtual space known as the “Other Plane.” Merry prankster hackers come up against the Frankenstein monster creation neglected and forgotten by its Federal government funded researchers in a global network. The capacities for mischief and mayhem are acted out as two of the pranksters/hackers/warlocks/wizards do computer-mediated, real world effective battle for control of real life via its computer and database dependence.

As I was reading the novella, I was struck by two things. First, it felt like I was reading a story about being in a game world like World of Warcraft or Everquest had those things been melded with the daily practices of Internet usage (which can be partly true with the various add-ons for WoW). Also, the way he reduces complex operations, such as switching carrier lines or performing an action to protect himself (like a firewall or virtual private network) or probing another operator (port scan, denial of service attack, etc.), into gestures and realistic actions (like flying and navigating as a bird = charting communication networks).

Second, it is hard to imagine that this story was written in 1981! Furthermore, it, looking back from my personal experiences in the computer age, proves much more prophetic than Neuromancer (though both were overly optimistic regarding human-computer interfaces). TRON, released in 1982, seems to mediate between the worlds of “True Names” and Neuromancer.

I’m left wondering why so much more scholarship is written on Neuromancer than “True Names.” Is it because “True Names” didn’t achieve the circulation that Neuromancer did, or is it because it was too early to attract the attention that Neuromancer (and the cyberpunk authors) did?

If you haven’t read “True Names,” I cannot adequately stress how badly you should read it without burning out your EEG leads. Go read it, now.

You can find a copy online here.