Archive: July, 2008

If someone were to ask you to name the ninth largest object that directly orbits our sun, odds are you would respond with Pluto. After all, even if you can’t call Pluto a planet anymore, it’s still the ninth biggest rock in local solar neighborhood, right? Actually, no. The ninth biggest rock directly orbiting the sun is Eris, a dwarf planet named for the Greek goddess of discord. Considering how much disagreement was engendered by the discovery of Eris and her sibling dwarf planets, there’s probably no better mythological namesake for this local celestial object.

You see, lots of folks are still bent out of shape that Pluto was demoted from actual planet to dwarf planet. Fan though I am of that most famous of trans-Neptunian objects, Pluto’s claim to planethood was shaky at best. Besides being outsized by Eris, Pluto is actually smaller than seven moons in the local solar system. Its orbit is rather eccentric, slipping occasionally closer to the sun than Neptune before swinging further away again. In fact, Pluto was in many respects considered a planet simply because it was found during Percival Lowell’s attempts to locate the mythical Planet X beyond Neptune, and because initial estimates of its size were far larger than Pluto’s true mass. Put another way, Pluto earned planet status mostly because it was found at the right time and by the right people, who made the right mass-estimate mistakes.

Still, some argue that because Pluto was considered a planet for so long — more than 75 years — it should be grandfathered into the planet club. That notion breaks down when you cite the Ceres precedent. Asteroid Ceres was listed as a planet for more than 50 years, mostly because no one knew what else to call it. Ceres led directly to the coining of the term asteroid to describe sub-planetary rocks of significant size, a title it inherited once it was stricken from the roster of planets. Because of Eris, Pluto went through the same it’s-not-really-a-planet-so-let’s-invent-a-new-category process, giving us dwarf planets.

So, if Eris stirred up such an astronomical hornet’s nest, why haven’t you heard of it? Actually, you probably have. For a long while, Eris was listed by its minor planet name, 2003 UB₃₁₃. That catalogue number was a little cumbersome, so the discovery team nicknamed it Xena, after the famous fictional warrior princess portrayed on television by Lucy Lawless. (Yes, many astronomers are sci-fi/fantasy geeks. Duh.) The Xena title got a lot of media play, as did the nickname Lila. Funny thing is, nobody ever actually called 2003 UB₃₁₃ Lila, despite media reports to the contrary. It was all just a rather comical misunderstanding bred by ignorance of — believe it or not — the Internet.

WHAT INTERNET-RELATED MISTAKE LED TO THE DWARF PLANET ERIS BEING MISLABELED AS LILA IN NEWS REPORTS?

Get the answer.

If you uncover a questionable fact or debatable aspect of this week’s Geek Trivia, just post it in the discussion area of the article. Every week, yours truly will choose the best quibble from our assembled masses and discuss it in a future edition of Geek Trivia.

This week’s quibble comes from the July 15, 2008 edition of Geek Trivia, “ZIP code of honor.” TechRepublic members bgiroux, wwest, support, sysop-dr, tutor, and somethinggood4 all wrote in to remind me that the United States isn’t the only country with special postal designations for letters addressed to Santa, with the latter explaining:

“Everyone knows, the North Pole is located in Canada (some ‘international site of interest’ politicking notwithstanding) and hence, Santa’s Postal Code (which follows the letter-number-letter (space) number-letter-number format standard in Canada is H0H 0H0!”

Now that I know, I’ll be sure to add international postage to my daughter’s Christmas list this year. Thanks for the quibble, and keep ‘em coming!

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For those of you still making the drooling noises over The Dark Knight and wondering what geektastic movie Christian Bale has slated next, here’s a hint. Unfortunately, instead of director Chris Nolan, Bale will be teaming up with McG to make this… ahem…”blockbuster.” On the bright side, Mr. I-Directed-Charlie’s-Angels has hinted at the various types of kill-droids we’ll see in this flick, and this io9 article has the breakdown. The list includes:

• The T-600
• T-Hydrobot
• T-Harvester
• T-Aerostat

Almost sounds cool. Almost.

(Found via the Awesometer.)

As the United States enters yet another Presidential election cycle, the American media deluges us with campaign messages warning of the nation’s foreign dependencies, and the importance of responsible future development with a close eye on our environment.

They’re talking about IDEs, right? Because, seriously, allowing global variables just leads to a namespace littered with inefficient dependencies that make future upgrade almost impossible. Thus, we have this timely t-shirt from ThinkGeek, which remind us of that stalwart truism of cleaner, smarter software design: Think globally. Code within local variable scope.

Quick question: Who holds the intellectual property rights to poker? Gin rummy? Spades? Nobody, that’s who. These games can be played with any common set of playing cards — and these games are just a handful of the possibilities open to anyone with a basic 54 card deck. This philosophy is what influenced game maker Looney Labs — the same guys who created the geek favorite card game Fluxx – to develop the Icehouse game system. It’s like a 21st century set of playing cards, as designed by Egyptian pharaohs from the distant future.

The Icehouse game system uses trios of colored pyramids that stack atop one another. Each color gets a small, medium, and large pyramid, and using various sets of these playing pieces unlocks dozens of potential games. For the beginners, there’s Treehouse; for seasoned players, there’s Rotationary; and for the hardcore, there’s Martian Chess, as shown above. More to the point, there’s nothing stopping you (or anyone) for dreaming up new games using these basic tools. So, Linux fanatics, I expect Martian Chess to be a staple at the next Penguicon. Any other board game would be hypocritical.

(Found via io9.)

Any true Simpsons fan who enjoys a good cocktail upon occasion has dreamt of one day drinking a can of Duff beer, the official beer of Springfield. More effete Homer-o-philes might eschew a pedestrian drink such as Duff for the more sophisticated cocktail, the Flaming Moe, the signature beverage of Moe’s Tavern. Well, the dream is now a reality…sorta.

There’s two roads leading to Duff-dom. The easy way is to go to any Universal Studios theme park gift shop (or eBay) and grab a Duff or Flaming Moe, as pictured at the left. Sadly, these are mere non-alcoholic energy drinks made to merely look like the true Simpson’s icons.

The hard way involves a trip to England and/or some daring mixology. There is a real Duff Beer, as brewed by Daleside brewery of England. Duff, you see, is Gaelic for dark, so Daleside can legitimately brew a duff beer. Whether they can brew a Duff beer — to say nothing of its Duff blonde — is a matter for 20th Century Fox’s lawyers to sort out. So far as the Flaming Moe, the WikiBartender site has concocted a recipe for a Flaming Moe, though it’s of dubious legality for commercial pubs. Not only does it contain four kinds of alcohol, but it also calls for two teaspoons of grape cough syrup (though if it is served in the traditional manner — on fire — the octane rating should go down a bit). You’ve been warned.

(Found in part via Required Eating.)

There’s no easier joke in the world than one criticizing the U.S. Postal Service for being slow. How slow? It took them 19 years to decide to implement the service’s most successful process improvement in its history: the Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP) code. Postal inspector Robert Moon submitted the original proposal for a numerical ZIP in 1944, but the U.S. Postal Service didn’t get around to implementing non-mandatory ZIP codes until July 1, 1963. And you thought second-class parcel service moves a little slow.

So what were these zones that Moon wanted to improve? Beginning in 1943, the U.S. Postal Service assigned one- or two-digit numerical zones to major cities so that post offices serving these areas could more quickly determine to which part of, say, New York City a letter was headed. Moon wanted to preface these enumerated zone numbers with a three-digit code for the sectional center facility that bulk processed the mail for each area. To this day, ZIP codes still follow this general pattern. The first three digits indicate a processing facility, and the last two digits indicate a delivery zone — usually a local post office that serves the delivery area.

In 1983, 20 years after implementing the then-optional ZIP codes, the U.S. Postal Service adopted the still-optional +4 ZIP codes for additional precision. The +4 codes might represent a delivery area as discrete as a city block or a single apartment building.

The above rules apply mostly to Standard ZIP codes, but there are three other types: P.O. Box-only ZIP codes, Military ZIP codes, and Unique ZIP codes. The Unique ZIPs are for specific buildings or locations that receive such a high volume of (or such highly-sensitive) mail as to require special handling. For example, the White House is assigned ZIP code 20500, despite being physically located in ZIP code 20006. The main processing center for the Educational Testing Service — through which passes every SAT packet ever graded — has the Unique ZIP code 08541. A number of corporate HQs, government offices, and major universities have Unique ZIPs, but only once in its long and cautious history has the U.S. Postal Service ever granted a Unique ZIP code to a fictional character.

WHO IS THE ONLY FICTIONAL CHARACTER TO RECEIVE HIS OWN U.S. POSTAL SERVICE UNIQUE ZIP CODE?

Get the answer.

If you uncover a questionable fact or debatable aspect of this week’s Geek Trivia, just post it in the discussion area of the article. Every week, yours truly will choose the best quibble from our assembled masses and discuss it in a future edition of Geek Trivia.

This week’s quibble comes from the July 8, 2008 edition of Geek Trivia, “Monument alley.” TechRepublic member Desmodeus set me straight as regards to my shallow knowledge of the Hippocratic Oath:

“Actually it’s more like 2 quibbles: 1) The phrase ‘first do no harm’ does not appear in the Hippocratic Oath. It is a translation of the Latin phrase ‘Primum non nocere’ which is generally attributed to Thomas Sydenham (1624 - 1689). The phrase that actually appears in the Hippocratic Oath is generally translated as ‘I will keep them from harm and injustice.’ 2) You claim that this ‘mantra’ is recited by all physicians. Contrary to popular belief modern physicians are not required to swear the Hippocratic Oath and my understanding is that the vast majority don’t.”

Clearly, I have a lot to learn about modern medical ethics (and Latin). Thanks for the quibble, and keep ‘em coming!

Falling behind on your weekly Geek fix?

Check out the Geek Trivia Archive, and catch up on the most recent editions of Geek Trivia.

Test your command of useless knowledge by subscribing to TechRepublic’s Geek Trivia newsletter. Automatically sign up today!

For all you lazy bums who choose MMORPGs over real exercise, a couple of hackers have given you a two for one deal. Now you can control the movement of your World of Warcraft character using a Wii Fit Balance Board. Now you can raid and work out you core muscles at the same time. Leveling your various alts should work off that rootbeer gut in no time.

(Found on Softpedia with the help of Felicia Day.)

I have never been a big fan of rock bands whose talent is based on the fact that they can move their index finger up and down the neck of an open tuned electric guitar. To my way of thinking, I can do that and I suck. So while I was waiting for the Apple iPhone 3G to arrive so I can Crack It Open, I came across this fascinating YouTube video.

So now we have robots built with what looks like a glorified erecter set that can make music just as well as some of those rock banks pulling in big bucks for mediocre music and lackluster live performances. Isn’t technology wonderful?