What's In Your Gadget Bag, Xeni?

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Podcast: Xeni interviewed on "The Gadget
Show"

Podcast: Xeni interviewed on "The Gadget
Show" 03/28/2005 01:17 PM
Xeni Jardin: Following in the footsteps of my blog-mate Cory, I was interviewed on Richard Giles' Australia-based podcast radio program "The Gadget Show." Link to interview, and here is Cory's earlier appearance.

Wardriving Ms. Xeni

Wardriving Ms. Xeni 12/02/2003 04:55 PM
Xeni Jardin wardrives on NPR's Day to Day: Xeni takes a trip with two SOCALWUG members (Frank Keeney and Mike Outmesguine) in this segment. The audio element of wardriving is great because they have voice synthesis on that's beeping and speaking wireless access point detected over and over again. Frank or Mike said: If we see passwords...it's because people have set up their networks without any form of encryption....

Xeni Flies Zero-G

Xeni Flies Zero-G 09/10/2004 02:08 AM
Xeni Jardin: Next week, on Wednesday September 15, I'm going on a zero-gravity flight about 32,000 feet above earth.

The company operating this flight is ZERO-G, whose founder Peter Diamandis is also the man behind the Ansari X-Prize competition. I invited Dr. Diamandis to speak at Wired Magazine's NextFest earlier this year, met him there, and learned he'd been working on this program for more than ten years.

The flight I'm taking next week (for NPR and Wired News) is part of ZERO-G's five-city media launch. Soon, they'll begin a commercial service on specially-equipped Boeing 727-200s. For about $3,000 US, passengers will be able to experience about 20 doses of parabolic weightlessness during a 90-minute trip.

Nothing like this has ever been offered to American consumers before. ZERO-G is the only company with FAA approval to conduct weightless flights for the public within the US.

NASA operates flights similar to this for training astronauts (Link), but not to the public. Space Adventures -- the company that made space tourists out of Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth (and, almost, N'Sync's Lance Bass) -- sells "vomit comet" flight experiences to paying passengers, but they cost closer to $10K and depart from a remote location in Russia. The combined costs of the flight, the prep, and getting to the departure site add up to a hefty five-figure sum. With the launch of this new service in the US, zero-G above the earth will now only cost a few G.

I've never done anything like this before. What will weightlessness feel like? A rollercoaster? Or floating in water, but without the water? When I was little, I used to have lots of recurring dreams about flying -- the dream-sensation of weightlessness felt so vivid, once I half-woke-up and sleep-jumped right off a flight of stairs. How is it that our bodies already know what zero-g feels like? Are we remembering what it felt like to float in utero? That waking dream of flight and floating -- it's something each of us physically understand. I'm looking forward to feeling the real thing.

My grandfather was an amateur astronomer. He taught me a lot of things about stars and space when I was a kid. He was there, downstairs in the living room, when I realized I couldn't fly that day -- about halfway down the stairs. He picked me up, held me in his arms, wiped my tears, and probably had to work really hard at not laughing.

Later, after lots of band-aids and kleenex, he explained what gravity was. I remember feeling really sad and crying all over again when he told me, "Honey, people just can't float like that." I wish he could still be here now, and float with me next Wednesday.

Xeni does her thang

Xeni does her thang 07/30/2004 08:39 AM

Xeni Jardin is one of the shining lights in the blogosphere. She crosses over to maintream journalism with style and grace.

Here's her latest....

I just filed this story for MSNBC about the business value of social networking services. Truth or hype: can some SNSes become helpful professional tools for businesses -- in particular, independent entrepreneurs and smaller companies, for whom each new personal connection is a significant business building block? Includes interviews with unrepentant compulsive digital networkers danah boyd, Frank Keeney of SOCALWUG, Noah Glass of audblog, Scott Beale of Laughing Squid, Scott Rafer of Feedster, Travis Kalanick of RedSwoosh (and, once upon a time, Scour.net), and human router Joi Ito -- who said this:

Their usefulness depends on your needs and networking style. LinkedIn, for example allows you to search histories and CVs in your network -- it's great for finding people who work in a particular company, or who have worked with someone you know. It's also an interesting way to find references for people or companies you're getting to know.

I think email is broken in a serious way, and SNS is trying to address some of the issues associated with that breakdown. These networks may get it right and really change the way we do business, but we're still at the beginning of the development and evolution curve.

Link [ BoingBoing]

Xeni on NPR: MP3 bl0gs

Xeni on NPR: MP3 bl0gs 08/27/2004 01:46 PM
Xeni Jardin: On today's edition of the NPR program "Day to Day," I explore the odd universe of MP3 blogs with with host Noah Adams. On these personal websites, music lovers trade and comment on rare finds, mashups, and unusual twists on familiar favorites -- and recently, major record labels have been taking notice in an unexpected way. During the radio segment, we'll play a few funky tracks scraped from the blogs, should be fun. Link to online archive for today's NPR "Day to Day" segment on MP3 blogs.
(Thanks to BoingBoing reader Skye Ashebrook for pointing me to tons of great, lesser-known MP3 blogs, and to Jason Schultz of the EFF who provided astute tech law insight for this story.)

Xeni on NPR -- Death, Sex, and E3

Xeni on NPR -- Death, Sex, and E3 05/14/2004 09:27 AM
Today on the National Public Radio program "Day to Day," I report back from the E3 gaming convention taking place in Los Angeles. Porn-themed video games, first-person combat shooters with real-life resonance, and a live tactical urban assault demonstration by the US Army -- complete with copters, guns, and terrified pedestrians -- to promote the latest edition of its online computer game/recruiting tool, "America's Army: OVERMATCH."

And on Wired News, these photos I shot at the convention this week.

Link to Day to Day home, Link to archived audio for today's show, which will be available after 12PM PT.

Xeni on NPR -- digicams and Iraq

Xeni on NPR -- digicams and Iraq 05/25/2004 01:19 PM
Today on the National Public Radio program "Day to Day," I talk with host Alex Chadwick about discredited news reports that US Defense Secretary Rumsfeld issued an edict banning phonecams in Iraq -- as well as the confirmed release of a new Pentagon directive (PDF) outlining new restrictions on consumer wireless tech at DoD installations worldwide. While there may not be a Pentagon-issued ban on phonecams or connected digital cameras per se, there do appear to be new efforts under way to address the proliferation of those technologies in the military theater and throughout the DoD's "information grid." Alex says,

The images of abuse at Abu Ghraib, the photos of returning soldiers' coffins -- we see them because of this technology. And it's caught defense officials off-guard.

Link to Day to Day "Xeni Tech: Phonecams and the Front Lines" (online audio available after 12PM PT, station search here)

HOWTO de-Xeni BoingBoing

HOWTO de-Xeni BoingBoing 03/19/2005 03:03 AM
Xeni Jardin: Jason Gill says,

Someone has posted a script for GreaseMonkey (a Firefox extension that lets you add your own Javascript code to any website, to remove ads or add features: Link) that automatically removes any post by Xeni when viewing BoingBoing."

Link< /a>. Of course, if you're not reading my posts you're gonna miss this one. D'oh!

Update: Jesse Andrews, the fellow who wrote this de-Xeni script, would appear to be busted. :-) Chad Hurley, who identifies himself as Mr. Andrews' employer, says:

Hi Xeni,

Just a note about Mr. Andrews and his "de-Xeni" plugin - We’ve caught him looking at far worse things than your "over the top" posts. Why he has picked you to filter, one may never know, but I have an idea for a plugin. Maybe I will add it to the Grease Monkey requests. It’s really simple. When Jesse opens Firefox, it directs Jesse to a folder on my server called, "Things Jesse needs to do today before the big hand is on 12 and the little hand is on 5"! Just an idea.

Keep on keepin' on,

Chad

Xeni on NPR "Day to Day:" in-car video
tech... and the law

Xeni on NPR "Day to Day:" in-car video
tech... and the law 01/27/2004 02:51 PM
On today's edition of the National Public Radio program Day to Day:

"Never mind cell phones -- the newest trend in driver distractions is having multiple in-car video screens. Day to Day tech goddess Xeni Jardin profiles one man with 11 LCD video screens in his SUV -- even though, the man admits, he couldn't possibly fit 11 people inside. We go channel surfing on the highway."

Lin k to NPR feature, including photo gallery of life inside a blinged-out SUV, and archived audio.

Xeni on NPR: INDUCE Act update

Xeni on NPR: INDUCE Act update 07/27/2004 01:18 PM
On today's edition of the NPR program "Day to Day," I speak with host Madeleine Brand about the Hatch/Leahy INDUCE Act, much-blogged here and there and elsewhere of late. The law seeks to ban technology that would "intentionally induce" copyright infringement. Hollywood and the recording industry back it, seeking new muscle to combat filesharing. Tech companies, digital liberty advocates, and geek activist groups like savetheipod.com say it's ill-conceived and badly written. In its current form, INDUCE would unfairly stifle innovation, they say -- and could outlaw a wide range of gadgets and services we take for granted, from iPods to PDAs to web search engines (et tu, Google?).
Link to online archive for today's "Day to Day" show, available after 12pm Pacific time.

Xeni on NPR -- Kaiju Big Battel

Xeni on NPR -- Kaiju Big Battel 09/23/2004 04:05 PM
Xeni Jardin: On today's edition of the NPR program "Day to Day" -- snip:

Old-time professional wrestling fans nostalgic for the days when camp was king and characters like Junkyard Dog and Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka ruled the squared circle have a whole new set of heroes to cheer for -- on the Kaiju Big Battel wrestling circuit. Think of Kaiju Big Battel as the horrific spawn of Japanese monster movies and the WWF ("Kaiju" means "monster" in Japanese). It's a tongue-firmly-in-cheek contest of "athletes" wearing patently silly costumes, looking to give their opponent a solid (and likely pre-ordained) smackdown.

In the mythology of Kaiju, the matches are part of the balance of the universe, where earthly forces of good counter evil creatures invading our planet, bent on world domination. Or something like that... Day to Day technology contributor Xeni Jardin recently infiltrated this underground wrestling circuit, filled with far-out science-fiction characters with names like Silver Potato, Gomi Man and Louden Noxious. She was witness to the coming-out party of Kaiju's rising star: Dr. Cube, a "human-genius-turned-quasi-monster" who, with his evil army, continues his quest for world domination.

Link to archived audio: NPR Day to Day "Kaiju Big Battel: Wrestling Meets Godzilla". Link to previous BoingBoing post.

Xeni profile in the LA Times

Xeni profile in the LA Times 04/10/2005 08:54 PM
Cory Doctorow: w00t! Our very own Xeni Jardin is the subject of a gigantic, flattering profile in today's LA Times! Go, Xeni!

Jardin is a very specific sort of rising star, the type born of the 21st century whose celebrity is fluid and self-made — she's a journalist, a blogger, a TV personality, an artist and an entrepreneur. She is, at once, a member of the media and a media darling, who translates light-speed cultural shifts as they happen and looks great doing it. Jardin is the child of artists who revels in the Internet's infinite reach, but fights ambivalence about its impermanent legacy. She wears Gucci and drives a convertible Mercedes, but sees herself as an outsider.

"I want to see how far I can push it," Jardin says, "before they realize I'm a nerd."

Link

Update: Jeremy Joseph forwards this excerpt from a response Xeni sent to pho list members discussing the story:

I'm humbled and grateful, and more than a little disoriented. Feels like that feeling you have when you step out of the vomit comet, after floating around in microgravity for a while. A little woozy. A little drunk on weightlessness and thin air.

It would be irresponsible of me not to clarify two things right away. First, the kevinsites.net project mentioned in the story was hardly something I created singlehandedly for our tireless, intrepid correspondent friend. JP put in a lot of time, hard work, and sharp thinking to raise that digital barn -- as did other folks like David Ulevitch, who has donated hosting for the project since day one.

Secondly, as flattering as the phrase might be -- I'm no "self-made woman." Until they sell those handy self-cloning kits we've all been waiting for (and I'm keeping an eye out for 'em on engadget or gizmodo), that's just not possible. Each of us are the product of families and mentors. Communities of people who gave because the act of giving was imperative. People who gave when they didn't have to, even when the act might go unnoticed, or come at personal cost. People who gave because generosity is part of what makes us truly human beings, and is of itself a life-affirming act.

Xeni says:

For the record, the note I sent to pho (re-posted here on Boing Boing) was a response to members' comments -- I wasn't responding to the text of the story itself. I was attempting to clarify statements made in that forum by subscribers, not implying any lack of thoroughness in the reporter (Gina Piccalo)'s work.

Xeni on Dennis Miller, via BT

Xeni on Dennis Miller, via BT 04/14/2005 02:25 AM

I'm trying out blogtorrent on my server here, and my first test file is a 12 minute clip from tonight's Dennis Miller show with Harry Shearer, Xeni Jardin, and Mickey Kaus, as they talked about blogging. I think all three were great though I can barely stomach Dennis Miller these days.

Throughout the late 90's, I used to get HBO solely so I could see the new Dennis Miller shows on every Friday night and I used to look forward to watching them live. But then everything changed and his sense of humor was replaced by anger, and his showed died soon after. Oh well.

Xeni on NPR: Renaissance of Breakin'

Xeni on NPR: Renaissance of Breakin' 07/20/2004 11:03 AM
On today's edition of the NPR show "Day to Day," I report on one of the cooler '80s flashback trends -- break-dancing, which is enjoing a popularity boom among urban youth. From headspins to poppin' and lockin', b-boy style is back in the house, yo.

I went to one underground hiphop dance competition in LA recently, and talk to some of the participants on today's program. At left, one of the judges bursts into a spontaneous headspin at the end of the b-boy competition. View more snapshots I took at the event here.

More story background: website of competition organizer Joanna Vargas, an LA-based choreographer: Link. Bboy.com, a popular website for the breakin' community... several judges and dancers described it as a popular networking hub: Link. And Culture Shock, one of the larger groups that participated in "MAXT OUT" competition -- two members were interviewed in today's NPR piece: Link.

Listen to NPR show audio here after 12 noon Pacific Time.

Xeni on NPR: US government crackdown on
P2P

Xeni on NPR: US government crackdown on
P2P 04/12/2004 02:11 PM
Today on the NPR program "Day to Day," I talk with host Alex Chadwick about recent actions in Congress and the Department of Justice to crack down on filesharers, and new studies that show a rise in P2P popularity. Link for today's show, scroll down for online audio of "Peer-to-Peer File Sharing On the Rise"

Xeni on NPR's "Day to Day": more
gadgets!

Xeni on NPR's "Day to Day": more
gadgets! 12/23/2003 02:11 PM
On today's edition of the NPR radio program "Day to Day," host Alex Chadwick and I chat about more last-minute gadget ideas for the geek in your life. Wireless fishfinders, bluetooth headsets for your mobile phone, and how to buy a DV cam -- including my current favorite toy, the Panasonic DVX-100 (true 24P for under $3G. Sweeeeeeeet) . Link, audio stream will be available after 12PM Pacific.

Xeni on NPR: bl0gs and the tsunami
disaster

Xeni on NPR: bl0gs and the tsunami
disaster 01/04/2005 11:55 PM
Xeni Jardin: On the NPR program "Day to Day" this week, I join NPR's Alex Chadwick to discuss the role of blogs in responding to the tsunami disaster. From first-person accounts, to amateur videoblogging, to tech aid, to fundraising coordination, to "citizen journalism" (nod to Dan Gillmor) that sometimes pokes holes in official government-isssue accounts -- we explore online voices around the world.

Li nk to archived audio for this program, expanded coverage on the NPR website includes pointers to video files and torrents. Link to NPR Day to Day home. This week, listeners in Boston are hearing the show on their local affiliate WBUR for the first time -- so, consider this a shout-out to Boston.

Xeni on NPR: "E-Girl -- Hack your way to
Hollywood"

Xeni on NPR: "E-Girl -- Hack your way to
Hollywood" 05/05/2004 12:52 PM
On today's edition of the National Public Radio program "Day to Day," I report on a young woman who, as a former employee of America Online, used the company database to access the accounts of celebrity members. She then formed relationships with these celebrities, and sold the story of her life to Hollywood.
Link to archived audio online (available after 12PM PT today), and Link to earlier Wired News piece.

Xeni Flies Zero G, #6: Like prom in your
brain

Xeni Flies Zero G, #6: Like prom in your
brain 09/14/2004 03:48 AM
Xeni Jardin: Creative genius and zero-gravity veteran Matt Fraction says,

This is gonna be like prom in your brain.

Like, one of those things you're never, ever gonna forget. You'll tell your kids about it and describe it to people you meet for the rest of your life.

I went to Space Camp. Shut up. I rocked that flight suit, goddammit. Anyway. So, you get -- or got, i dunno if they do it any more -- to sit in this weirdo chair device that looked like a giant C-clamp. [Ed. note: The consumer-oriented space joyride I'll be taking on Wednesday includes no such device; the Zero-G Corporation sells an entertainment/adventure travel experience different than the research-oriented NASA space camp Matt attended.] So you sit in the C-Clamp, with the bottom curl of the C running between your legs like a saddle, and the curve of the C at your back. The top and back of the C were connected to the ceiling by bungee cords and an elaborate weight and pulley system. Now, the bungees were connected to some sort of wheel-strut-track thing thing, like the cars on a roller coaster track, only the track was bolted to the ceiling. And the track went straight forward for about 10, 20 yards or something. Got it?

Okay, so, the important part was the weights. See, the weights, when in cooperation with the bungees, would replicate moon gravity on your body which, if my geek remains on, is 1/6 earth weight? Something like that. So, you'd walk-hop the length of the track in moon-weight with earth muscles. You could leap 15, 20 feet straight into the air and control your fall back down, span yards with every step, and basically kick it Armstrong style until it was the next kid's turn.

It was unlike anything I've ever experienced. It's one of those things that i'm just gonna take with me to my grave, probably the closest I'll ever come to space, in its dippy space camp way, you know?

Anyway. Ever since -- and it's been 15 years now -- my dreams are plagued with strange gravity situations, somewhere between flight and swimming, all because of those five little minutes in that tourist's chair. In my dreams i'm a whirlygig, i'm a helicopter, i have invisible bungee cords connected to god and I can move like superman.

It happens a lot, and my life, waking and sleeping, feels richer and stranger and better because of it.

My fingers are, like, triple-crossed for you. And, hey, not *everyone* throws up on the vomit comet. Oh, and If you want to be, like, totally hardcore, you should bring an iPod (or whatever mp3doohickey you have) and listen to the Ramones. In ZERO-G!

Previous "Xeni Flies Zero-G" posts: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Xeni on PBS TV tonight -- RFIDs and
privacy

Xeni on PBS TV tonight -- RFIDs and
privacy 05/06/2004 04:12 PM
On this week's edition of the PBS television program "California Connected," I join host Lisa McRee with guests Beth Givens, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, State Senator Debra Bowen, and Mark Roberti, RFID Journal to debate consumer privacy issues related to radio frequency ID tag (RFID) technology.

There's a great online discussion salon going on concurrently, too, with Professor Shyam Sunder of the School of Management at Yale University, Chris Hoofnagle, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Lee Tien, senior staff attorney at the EFF, and Dr. Daniel Engels of the MIT Auto-ID Labs.

Dubbed by one skeptical journalist as "Big Brother in small packages," RFID chips are tiny transponders that can be attached to almost any consumer good. While companies are set to use these radio frequency identification tags to track their merchandise from assembly line to warehouse to store shelf, privacy watchdogs suggest these same RFID tags could be used to keep tabs on consumers -- beyond the confines of a store or supermarket.

Link to show home page. Link to stations and airtimes for both the TV and radio editions of the show. Video will be archived online later.

Xeni Flies Zero G #8: Dude, where's my
zenith?

Xeni Flies Zero G #8: Dude, where's my
zenith? 09/15/2004 12:12 AM
Xeni Jardin: Before I first blogged that I'd be heading up on tomorrow's west coast launch of the Zero-G adventure flights, I had no idea so many friends, acquaintances, and BoingBoing readers were already weightless oldtimers -- they'd had similar experiences on board NASA's "vomit comet," which is not offered as a commercial service to the public. Discovering this has been kind of cool. It's like learning that all of these people walking around in your life have some secret extraterrestrial superpower they'd never shared with you before. I feel like I'm about to be initiated into their clandestine little fez-wearing society or something. One of those veterans of freefall was Wired Magazine editor Adam Rogers, who says,

"I flew the Vomit Comet at Johnson Space Center a few years ago. I vomited. But it was supercool. Unsolicited advice: remember the Ender lesson. In a weightless environment, down is whichever way your feet are pointed at the time. Don't orient off the floor of the plane. That way lies upchuck."

And reader Kenny says,

"Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller) wrote a good account of taking a ride on a vomit comet with Billy Gibbons (from ZZ Top)." Link to Learning to Fly, Strip, and Vomit on a 727

Previous "Xeni Flies Zero-G" posts: 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Xeni Flies Zero G #10: goodbye, gravity

Xeni Flies Zero G #10: goodbye, gravity 09/16/2004 01:40 AM
Xeni Jardin: Remember dreaming you could fly? It's exactly like that.

Before you move into weightlessness, between parabolas, g-force is about double what it is on earth. Suddenly you're 300 pounds, and it pushes your hair to your skull to your spine to your tail to the floor and the meat on your body is suddenly stone. They tell you not to look back, to keep your head still and aligned when the pressure starts. Anything to avoid vertigo, because where there's vertigo there's vomiting.

Waiting, your face becomes newly dense. You're a chipmunk carrying cheeks full of bullets. Your blood strains. Your veins are streams carrying too much silt.

And then, when the weight is worst, the invisible hands cramming your spine into the plane's padded floor lose interest and lift away. What was concrete is cotton. The hands reach beneath you, and lift you up into nothing, and you float. And all there is to do when this happens for the very first time is to laugh. Because it's impossible. Because it's unnatural.

But the joke in your bones is that it feels perfectly natural, like all your life you were intended to float. After all, just before you came into the world, that's what you were doing in liquid. When you leave, there you are again, becoming vapor. Breaking down from matter to dust to air. Floating.

Last week, a friend said, "You'll tell children and grandchildren when you're old, over and over again. Your family will be totally sick of you explaining how awesome this felt the first time." He was only half right. The grandchildren won't need my explanation. They'll know it better than I do now. These zero-g joyrides will seem as crude and dated to them as Model T Fords or ink-ribbon typewriters are for us. They'll be floating plenty.

As I sit here, I can still feel it in my body. It comes in waves. I want to hit "post," shut the application, close the laptop lid. Then bend my knees a little and shove off, push up into the air above my desk. Do the superman. Do a backflip. Bust a "crouching tiger hidden dragon" move, karate-chop martian foes mid-air. And float away into bed. It's natural now, and will remain that way forever. I miss it already.

Images: (1) A weightless photo from today (Link to full-size). (2) Floating with Dr. Buzz Aldrin in a zero gravity parabola during today's preview flight (Link to full-size image). Both images courtesy of Jim Campbell, Aero News Network.

Previous BB posts: 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Also: here's the Zero Gravity Corporation's patent listing for "A system and method is provided for rapidly reconfiguring a jet aircraft from a cargo or passenger configuration into a parabolic flight configuration." Link (Thanks, Jason)

Xeni Flies Zero G #5: Hungarian Zero G
Rhapsody

Xeni Flies Zero G #5: Hungarian Zero G
Rhapsody 09/15/2004 12:12 AM
Xeni Jardin: BoingBoing reader Peter says,

"I was reading about your upcoming adventure with considerable envy when I realized i'd seen something similar in june or so and sure enough, a Hungarian online mag has a first-person account of such a flight right here in budapest. a 20-year old soviet-built Antonov 2 plane is used for the stunt, apparently flown by one of hungary's top fighter pilots (this part is not clear). it's all in hungarian but check out the pictures. it's groovy."

Link

Update: Péter Kelemen says, "Well, the pilot is Gyula VÁRI (former squadron leader), the article says nothing about him being one of Hungary's top fighter pilot. But he is the President of the Hungarian Aeronautical Association. (Link). The flight itself is about 20 minutes in 1000-3000m altitude while having 10-12 weightlessness-sessions of 7-10 sec each. G changes between 0-3 during the flight."

Previous "Xeni Flies Zero-G" posts: 4, 3, 2, 1.

Xeni on NPR's "Day to Day": Hollywood
Wardrive

Xeni on NPR's "Day to Day": Hollywood
Wardrive 12/02/2003 04:58 PM
On today's edition of the NPR show "Day to Day," I go wardriving with founders of the Southern California Wireless User's Group -- we hunt for wireless LANS that might be vulnerable to security breaches.

"As wireless network technology becomes increasingly popular, users still seem unwilling to outfit their networks with proper security to protect their information from hackers. "

Link to "Day to Day" home, listen to the archived show using Real or WinMedia here.

Xeni on NPR's Day to Day: RFIDS and
privacy

Xeni on NPR's Day to Day: RFIDS and
privacy 11/04/2003 11:03 AM
On today's edition of the NPR program "Day to Day," I speak with host Madeline Brand about RFIDS -- radio frequency ID tags -- and the technology's potential impact on commerce and personal privacy.

Wal-Mart executives are scheduled to meet with some of their top suppliers today to establish RFID compliance standards. Participants in the meeting to be held near Wal-Mart's Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters are said to include Kraft Foods, Proctor & Gamble, Tyson Foods and Unilever. A number of large IT companies are also expected to be in town for an RFID-related tech event slated for Wednesday, including IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Philips Semiconductor and SAP. Both Wal-Mart and the US Department of Defense plan to require that their major suppliers implement the wireless tracking technology by early 2005 -- a move similar to Wal-Mart's push for UPC (bar code technology) some two decades ago.

Link to "Day to Day" home, listen to the archived show here after 12PM Pacific.

Xeni on The Dennis Miller Show, Wed Apr
13

Xeni on The Dennis Miller Show, Wed Apr
13 04/13/2005 03:52 AM
Xeni Jardin: I'll be one of the guests on tonight's episode of CNBC's The Dennis Miller Show. I was seriously outclassed and out- l33ted by my fellow guests Mickey Kaus (of Slate/Kausfiles) and comic genius Harry Shearer (of The Simpsons and KCRW's "Le Show"). We taped the program earlier today, and talked about blogger's rights and the Apple v. Does case; Al Gore's new TV network; and presidential iPods, among other things.

Image: mysterious graffiti inside the closet in my dressing room today. I think I'm lucky to have escaped alive -- the cryptic scrawl looks like a sekrit cry for help for guests who may have been held there against their will. Where are these former talk show hostages now? Did the Nutter Butters and Fig Newtons in this basket do them in? Maybe things just got too hot. On the opposite wall of this Closet of Doom, the words FRENCH TWINS 04. A gang of disenfranchised AFTRA members? A pair of Parisian porn princesses? A command from the other side? Don't know, but it terrifies me.

L ink to Dennis Miller Show website.

Xeni on CNN Int'l.: Digital Cinema

Xeni on CNN Int'l.: Digital Cinema 04/06/2005 02:48 PM
Xeni Jardin: I'll be joining host Kri stie Lu Stout on CNN International today to talk about the business and technology of digital cinema, and an article on that subject I wrote for the current issue of Wired Magazine. Air time: 745PM ET / 445PM PT. See also this site for CNNi's new tech show, "Spark."

Previously on BB: The Cuban Revolution, South African villages to get digital cinema network, and Ireland's movie theaters to convert within a year?
Image: this is not a digital cinema projector. It's an ad for the Kinetoscope, a home theater system designed by Thomas Edison which used 22mm film. (via the wonderful 100 years of Film Sizes)

Xeni on NPR's Day to Day: VoIP crackdown

Xeni on NPR's Day to Day: VoIP crackdown 11/12/2003 01:26 PM
On today's edition of the NPR program "Day to Day," I speak with host Madeline Brand about the boom in consumer voice-over-IP telephony, recent efforts by states to regulate, and the FCC hearings on December 1. As an increasing number of formerly state-run monopolies overseas open up to competition, a global 'net telephony boom seems imminent -- who doesn't want lower phone bills? What will be the cultural impact of a technology that makes a call to the other side of the world (or anywhere else) as cheap as an e-mail or IM? Link to "Day to Day" home, listen to the archived show here after 12PM Pacific.

Xeni on NPR: Computer limbs help triple
amputee run again

Xeni on NPR: Computer limbs help triple
amputee run again 06/15/2004 01:26 PM
Today on the National Public Radio program "Day to Day," I speak with Cameron Clapp. In September 2001, he lost both legs and his right arm in a train accident.

Supported by his large extended family -- and his identical twin brother Jesse -- Cameron fought against his disability to make an astounding recovery. Not only can the young man swim, run, drive a car, and even play golf again, he recently won four gold medals at the En deavor Games, a sports competition for amputees. He can do this in part because of advanced prosthetic limb technology called the "C-Leg ," short for "computer leg." The device (which Cameron demonstrated at Wired Magazine's NextFest) includes many tiny sensors controlled by a computer chip, and provides much greater mobility and control than conventional hydraulic limbs.
Link to archived audio (after 12PM PT), a photo gallery, and more on both Cameron and the high-tech prosthetics he uses.

Xeni Flies Zero G, part 3: Superman
Moves

Xeni Flies Zero G, part 3: Superman
Moves 09/12/2004 12:45 PM
Xeni Jardin: New York Times reporter John Schwartz took a flight on NASA's zero-gravity "vomit comet" earlier this year, and wrote a terrific first-person piece about his experience. You have to pay $2.95 to read it at nytimes.com, but I found helpful site in Turkey that coughs up the complete text gratis. Yay for Turkish websites!

For the first few parabolas, I did as the flight surgeon, Dr. James Locke, told me. Lie back in my seat with the seat belt unbuckled, holding the ends. When the plane rounded the top of the first curve, I felt a momentary dropping in the pit of my stomach and then gravity simply went away. I floated up from the seat. Thirty seconds later, my body pressed down against the seat once again, but with twice the normal weight as we slammed upward.

After growing used to the sensations through a few cycles, I pushed out of the seat and floated toward the ceiling, grabbing the canvas straps along the wall to move around. Dr. Locke told me that I was bouncing around a little too tentatively.

"Try the Superman move!" he said, stretching out his arms in an imitation of comic-book flight. I did, and gave a gentle kick against the wall and sailed to the other wall, slower than a speeding bullet, but nonetheless fulfilling childhood desires I had forgotten I had.

Link to John Schwartz: "Mild-Mannered Reporter Gets a Superman Moment"

T minus 72 hours to liftoff. Previous posts: Link to Xeni Flies Zero G part 2, and Link to part 1.

L.A. Times's long profile of Xeni Jardin

L.A. Times's long profile of Xeni Jardin 04/11/2005 05:59 PM

latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-ca-xeni10apr10,1,4514152.story
track this site | 3 links

Xeni on NPR: Cheeseball pop love songs
are poetry, too.

Xeni on NPR: Cheeseball pop love songs
are poetry, too. 02/13/2004 01:18 PM
On today's edition of the NPR program "Day to Day," I interview a University of Pennsylvania writing instructor who is teaching her students the common literary elements found in simple pop songs from the '70s and '80s, classic love poems, and sonnets. Her course is called "Hit Me Baby One More Time -- The Erotic Lyric Tradition", and uses two recently-published compilations of uber-schlocky pop song lyrics: I Can't Fight This Feeling (love songs), and You Give Love a Bad Name (breakup songs).

Listen to the archived audio segment after 12PM PT, and hear what may well be the most hilarious 30 seconds in NPR history: award-winning news man Carl Kassel performing a reading of the Pat Benatar classic "Love is a Battlefield." Who loves you, baby? Link to archived audio (Real and WM), available after 12PM PT.

Xeni Flies Zero G, part 4: zero gravity
toilet

Xeni Flies Zero G, part 4: zero gravity
toilet 09/12/2004 08:07 PM
Xeni Jardin: Will they have one of these on board Wednesday's flight? As your trusty spaceblogger, I vow to phonecam it for you if they do. Zero-G Corporation's commercial weightless flights are intended for fun, unlike the NASA KC-135 flights, for which the primary purpose tends to be research. At $3000 +/- per ticket, discriminating fans of weightlessness should expect all mod cons. Link to Zero-Gravity Toilet Instructions, from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Previous "Xeni Flies Zero-G" posts: 3, 2, 1.

Xeni Flies Zero G #9: You are now free
to float about the cabin.

Xeni Flies Zero G #9: You are now free
to float about the cabin. 09/15/2004 12:12 AM
Xeni Jardin: In about 12 hours, I'll be heading into freefall. Before I go, some sage advice for first-time weightless flyers from BoingBoing pal David Rich, a researcher at the UC Berkeley Microgravity Combustion Labs. WTF are Microgravity Combusion Labs? Glad you asked. David says,

"The focus of our work is flammability behavior of materials that could be used for the construction of space craft or facilities on the moon or Mars. We generally look at composite materials like carbon fiber or fiberglass since these have seen increased usage in spacecraft design owing to their high strength and light weight. Unfortunately these materials burn more readily than metals. They also have different burning behavior in zero gravity than on the ground. For these reasons, an understanding of their behavior under conditions found in space craft is important. [Research missions aboard the NASA KC-135 "vomit comet'] allow us to simulate those conditions for short periods and gain some understanding of material flammability behavior. I've been on two previous campaigns and I'm scheduled for an aditional set of flights in October. We are scheduled to send this project up on the ISS in 2007."

And for those about to float, David says:

"Sit with your back against one wall of the aircraft with your head completely motionless for the first few parabolas. Each time you enter the low gravity period you will float up the side of the aircraft so have something to grab and stabilize yourself. Many people find the 2g pullup period to be the nausiating part so continue staring at the opposite side of the aircraft well into the pullup period.

After a few of those you can start moving around but no sudden head movements especially during the pullup. Try not to get your head into an orientation of looking at your feet or above your head, and no rapid head movements.

NASA provides participants with Scopolomine (an anti-nausea medication) and Pseudoephedrine (a stimulant to combat drowsiness resulting from the Scopolomine). I took more than the flight MD's recomended on the first day to play it safe. I strongly suggest you take these medications.

Some frequent fliers eat ginger snaps on the morning of the flight. I ate a light breakfast of yogurt and granola with green tea and that seemed to keep my stomach calm.

If you get sick, don't get discouraged, just sit against the wall for a few more parabolas until you feel better. If you really have a problem, they will get you back to a seat and things should improve. Above all, don't get too stressed about the prospect of getting sick, being relaxed is very helpful."

While the combo of Scopalamine and Dexedrine are a popular measure against "protein loss" (we're talking spacespeak for heave, hurl, keck, lose it, puke, regurgitate, retch, ruminate, spew, spit up, throw up, upchuck), I'm not taking any scopedex speedballs tomorrow morning. In part, because Zero-G Corp.'s "adventure travel" flights seem to focus more on creature comfort -- they're designed for maximum fun, in contrast with the NASA flights, which function more as research missions. It's my understanding that the parabolas will be shorter in duration, and fewer in number (15-20, instead of 30-40) than on the KC-135 flights. These and other factors may reduce the likelihood of lost lunch. Then again, maybe not.

But instead of amphetamines and belladona derivatives (not that there's anything wrong with 'em) I'll be packing ginger chewing gum at the recommendation of NPR "Day to Day" host Noah Adams, and a fist full of Jolly Ranchers I received from the elderly Italian lady who lives next door. She said they always calm her stomach mid-flight. I think she's been holding out on me. All along, I had her pegged as a mild-mannered, arugula-growing, opera-loving, pistachio-cake-baking WWII refugee from Palermo. Secretly, lo these many years, she's been logging those frequent zero-G flyer miles behind my back. That's the thing about experienced space-travelers (Swift Float Veterans for Truth?) -- you just never know. Until they hit you with the secret handshake.

Finally, a moment of sigfile zen. Snipped from the contrails of David Rich's emails:

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Walden, 1854.

Image: 1957 ad for "Rid-Jid" ironing tables -- Link to more background on the ad.

Previous "Xeni Flies Zero-G" posts: 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

This weekend in SF, join Xeni at Wired
NextFest

This weekend in SF, join Xeni at Wired
NextFest 05/13/2004 01:58 PM
If you're anywhere near San Francisco this weekend, join me at the inaugural edition of Wired Magazine's NextFest.

I worked with Wired Magazine to produce a series of panels, presentations, and "fireside chats" at the event -- guests include Andrew Stanton from Pixar, "Doom" creator John Carmack, Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson, X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis, James Luyten of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Xcor CEO Jeff Greason, NASA Space Architect Gary Martin, robotics guru Rodney Brooks, and creators of the film "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow."

The event is presented by General Electric, and takes places Friday through Sunday at Fort Mason center in SF. Tickets are affordable and available. It's a family-friendly event aimed at consumers and deep geeks alike... think Epcot Center meets 1904 World's Fair. Robots, rocket ships, and an abundance of geektastic eye candy. Going to be great. See you there!
Link

Xeni on NPR's "Day to Day": Holiday
gizmo-shopping

Xeni on NPR's "Day to Day": Holiday
gizmo-shopping 12/12/2003 03:09 PM
On today's edition of the NPR radio program "Day to Day," host Alex Chadwick and I talk tips about which of this holiday season's crop of electronic gadgets will make great gifts. This week: Words of advice when shopping for portable DVD players, mobile MP3 players, and universal remotes. In next week's show, more gadget fun. Link, audio stream will be available after 12PM Pacific.

Xeni on NPR: Taking Surround Sound to
Next Level

Xeni on NPR: Taking Surround Sound to
Next Level 08/04/2004 03:24 PM
On today's edition of the NPR program "Day to Day," I report on IOSONO, a new audio editing and delivery system that uses hundreds of speakers and complex software to create what developers tout as "3D sound." This technology is the creation of Dr. Karlheinz Brandenburg, a pioneer of the MP3 codec, and was developed by a team at Germany's Frauenhofer Institute -- where MP3 was born.
Link to online archive for today's NPR "Day to Day" show. (see also: MP3 Pioneer Debuts Spatial Sound System, for Wired News)

Xeni Flies Zero G, part 5: Hungarian
Zero G Rhapsody

Xeni Flies Zero G, part 5: Hungarian
Zero G Rhapsody 09/14/2004 03:48 AM
Xeni Jardin: BoingBoing reader Peter says,

"I was reading about your upcoming adventure with considerable envy when I realized i'd seen something similar in june or so and sure enough, a Hungarian online mag has a first-person account of such a flight right here in budapest. a 20-year old soviet-built Antonov 2 plane is used for the stunt, apparently flown by one of hungary's top fighter pilots (this part is not clear). it's all in hungarian but check out the pictures. it's groovy."

Link

Previous "Xeni Flies Zero-G" posts: 4, 3, 2, 1.

Xeni Flies Zero G, #7: Remaindered
particles, radio waves

Xeni Flies Zero G, #7: Remaindered
particles, radio waves 09/14/2004 11:17 AM
Xeni Jardin: Come on -- you saw this one coming. BoingBoing pal and resident Obscure Smut Scout Vann Hall says,

"I'd been holding off on sending this in hopes someone else would beat me to it -- right now it looks as if my most enduring legacy will be as "the person most-often thanked on BoingBoing entries having to do with sex" -- but to no avail. There's an adult title from 1999 -- "The Uranus Experiment: Part 2," from Private -- that included a brief scene filmed in zero-G, supposedly onboard what had previously been a Soviet counterpart to the Comet. It also received a somewhat tongue-in-cheek (he says, somewhat tongue-in-cheek) nomination for the 2000 Nebula Awards, which led to the following coverage: Link 1, Link 2."

BoingBoing reader Gary says,

"I assume, of course, that when Xeni has completed her mission she will want to purchase all of the official Zero G swag. I particularly like the Break the Law t-shirt: Link. Not to be confused with this Think Geek T-shirt that the rest of us poor folks will have to make do with: Link."

Reader Chris says,

"I wanted to point out that there is a less expensive way to experience the feeling of a parabolic flight. go and rent a helicopter. you should be able to get a seat small one (like the R22 or R44) for 75-150 bucks. ask the pilot to gain speed and climb at the same time, then after 30 seconds to push it down. you will be lifted out of your seat for a good second, if done right. nowhere near a parabolic flight (where you will be weightless for much longer) but it's the feeling alright."

And on today's edition of the NPR program "Day to Day" show, I speak with host Alex Chadwick about all of the weird pieces of zero-g-prep advice that well-meaning friends and neighbors offer when they hear you're about to float on a weightless commercial joyride. Link to archived audio for today's program, available after 12pm PT.
Previous "Xeni Flies Zero-G" posts: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
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