Laddie John Dill

June Chikuma, Keita Hoshi - Planet Quarry

Microsoft announces all the things 

Nowadays, Microsoft is a serious consumer electronics device vendor and the company presented a load of hardware at its October 6th event:

- A developer version of the VR HoloLens will be available in Q1-2016 for $ 3,000. Cool!

- An new version of the Microsoft Band is ready. The wearable band now has Cortina integration, a curved gorilla glass display and the device is fully packed with fitness centric features such as continuous heart rate monitoring, UV monitoring, GPS, a barometer and Microsoft Health integration. The Microsoft Band can be preordered today for $250 and it will be available at the end of October.

- Microsoft unveiled three new Windows 10 Lumia phones including the high-end 950 ($550) and 950XL ($650) devices and the budget Lumia 550 ($140). The 950 devices feature USB-C connectors, 5.2” or 5.7” high resolution OLED displays, 20 MP cameras with optical image stabilisation, 32GB of storage and support for additional SD card storage. The devices will be out at the end of November. Reasonable specs for high-end devices, but I’ve been burned before by Microsoft’s mobile eco system.

- The Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is the company’s new tablet. The device fits a larger 12.3”  2,736 x 1,824 resolution display in the same design foot print as last years’ Surface Pro 3. The Surface Pro is 30 percent faster than the SP3 and comes with an updated Surface Pen. The pen features 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, one year battery life and nifty magnetic storage. The new and slimmer Type Cover has a 40 percent larger glass track pad and updated key mechanism compared to previous models. The Surface Pro 4 will be available at the end of October with prices starting at at $899.

- The big surprise of the event was the Microsoft Surface Book, the company’s first lap top. The convertible notebook has a 13.5” 3000 x 2000 resolution touch screen and Microsoft said it was pound for pound, the fastest laptop in the world. It can be yours for $1499 and pre orders start today. The Surface Book looks nice and the “fulcrum hinge” enables the device to bend in all kinds of positions even though it actually won’t let you fully close the lid.

Happy ‪#‎InternationalWomensDay‬! Learn more about Kevlar, invented by Stephanie Kwolek: http://wp.me/s4aPLT-kevlar

Chai spiced blondies

In the Woods

Nearby Star System May Host an Earth-Like Planet

101 dalmatians style sweettea mishap.

this was really fun to do, and i feel a lot better now that it’s done! glad I didn’t give up part way like I wanted to!

Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies

Here are some fun and unusual galaxies from the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a catalog produced by Halton Arp. A total of 338 galaxies are presented in the atlas, which was originally published in 1966.

1. IC 883 (Arp 193), remnant of two galaxies’ merger     2. Arp 147, an interacting pair of ring galaxies 3. Giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1316 4. Interacting pair of galaxies: Arp 238 (UGC 8335)  5. Merging galaxy pair named NGC 520 (Arp 157)

A colorful canopy made up of recycled plastic bottles by artist Garth Britzman. 

Casa del Mar