While they aren’t a sponsor, Audible.com has been kind enough to treat Sword and Laser fans to a free download of the first story from their new Metatropolis series. So we said, why not?! METAtropolis is an interesting project. It’s an original audiobook, meaning there’s no print version. The stories are published directly to audio. The first story is entitled “In the Forest of the Night” written by Jay Lake (author of “Mindspring“) and features the voice of Michael Hogan better known to many of you as Colonel Tigh from Battlestar Galatica. The complete audio book, featuring five unabridged novellas will be released on Oct. 21, 2008. Go here to download the first story of the audio book. No credit card required, though you will have to create an account. Hey they wanna get something out of you for free. Don’t feel like registering for an account? No problem. Audible’s also throwing in a free sample of another story from METAtropolis called “To Hie From Far Cienia” by Karl Schroder (read by Stefan Rudnicki). This isn’t the whole story, but there’s nothing required except to click to download. Download sample of “To Hie from far Ciena” Let us know what you think of the series, and the idea of free stuff like this in the comments! Less

Can't see the video? Watch this video now in a browser or download this video now. In today's episode of Boing Boing tv, we float around in zero gravity. With me on this Zero-G weightless flight are Intel Chairman Craig Barrett; my friend Sean Bonner from metblogs; and a bunch of science teachers from grade schools and high schools throughout the United States who were on board to conduct microgravity experiments for the kids back home. As you watch, keep an eye out for the floating lego robot, a flying pig, and the barfing guy who is totally barfing for reals -- the rest of us did not, btw, I don't get sick in space. What you see in this episode is what it feels like, guys, and it feels awesome. -- Xeni Jardin. (Special thanks to Peter Diamandis, and George and Loretta Whitesides) Less

Hey everyone..Kreg here…I didn’t visit Dragon Con this year, and truth be told I never have. (You can remove 1 Geek Point from my stats) I haven’t visited any Cons except for the Podcast Expo which is admittedly quite different in focus than Dragon Con. BUT…through the magic of social networking and podcasting I asked some friends to share with me their experience from this years Dragon Con to do a little field research, if you will, if this would be a better fit for me to visit next year. Podcasters that called in Mr. Command Line of the Command Line Podcast Ginger Campbell of the Brain Science Podcast The Encaffeinated one from The award winning The Weird show Susie the Southern Geek from How to Grow Your Geek Brian Richardson Producer of Dragon Con TV and What the Cast We appreciate your support. If you like the show, there are many ways to show your love: Call the Listener Line: 206-222-CHAT (2428) Email: technorama@chuckchat.com Web Site: www.chuckchat.com (forums, swag, webcam, mail lists, links in the show notes, and more) How about a donation to the tip jar: one time or monthly micro payment. Or a review on the iTunes music store, Podcast Pickle, Podcast Alley, or any one of the many podcast directories. Thanks to the following people for donating their time and talent keep Technorama going: Mad Marv for providing the great blog content. Scott Reynolds and uStream who keeps our modest live streams going on Sunday Chat room provided by freenode.net This show is a member of Friends in Tech. Find out more at FriendsInTech.com If you’re getting this show by clicking on the link on the web site, consider subscribing to get the show automatically delivered to you for free. Drop either one of us an email if you would like more information. Tell a friend about Technorama and… binary high five Less

Hey everyone..Kreg here…I didn’t visit Dragon Con this year, and truth be told I never have. (You can remove 1 Geek Point from my stats) I haven’t visited any Cons except for the Podcast Expo which is admittedly quite different in focus than Dragon Con. BUT…through the magic of social networking and podcasting I asked some friends to share with me their experience from this years Dragon Con to do a little field research, if you will, if this would be a better fit for me to visit next year. Podcasters that called in Mr. Command Line of the Command Line Podcast Ginger Campbell of the Brain Science Podcast The Encaffeinated one from The award winning The Weird show Susie the Southern Geek from How to Grow Your Geek Brian Richardson Producer of Dragon Con TV and What the Cast We appreciate your support. If you like the show, there are many ways to show your love: Call the Listener Line: 206-222-CHAT (2428) Email: technorama@chuckchat.com Web Site: www.chuckchat.com (forums, swag, webcam, mail lists, links in the show notes, and more) How about a donation to the tip jar: one time or monthly micro payment. Or a review on the iTunes music store, Podcast Pickle, Podcast Alley, or any one of the many podcast directories. Thanks to the following people for donating their time and talent keep Technorama going: Mad Marv for providing the great blog content. Scott Reynolds and uStream who keeps our modest live streams going on Sunday Chat room provided by freenode.net This show is a member of Friends in Tech. Find out more at FriendsInTech.com If you’re getting this show by clicking on the link on the web site, consider subscribing to get the show automatically delivered to you for free. Drop either one of us an email if you would like more information. Tell a friend about Technorama and… binary high five Less

Can't see the video? Watch this video now in a browser or download this video now. Astronaut and space hero Dr. Buzz Aldrin speaks with Xeni about his belief that America -- and that means you! -- must return to the moon, and soon. His nonprofit, Sharespace.org, seeks to provide "affordable space travel opportunities for all." Buzz believes that commercial space vacations should not be available only to the wealthy elite. Editor's note: the comment trolls really are taking over around here. One of them invades this very BBtv episode. Teresa, why doesn't disemvowelling work in video? We'll have to get our hamster-engineers right on that. (cameo by BBtv Production Assistant Rob Bergsma) Less

Can't see the video? Watch this video now in a browser or download this video now. Today on Boing Boing tv, Xeni is joined by astronaut and American hero Buzz Aldrin, Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson, Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan, and other space luminaries for an exploration of private space travel -- the technology, the science, and the human experience. We fly to the Mojave spaceport to witness the unveiling of WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft that will carry SpaceShipTwo and passengers on Virgin Galactic suborbital space flights. Related: All about "Eve": Virgin Galactic mothership unveiled. Less

wwwade, video, Internet Wade Roush wrote: That’s the question I’ve been asking myself lately. Partly, it’s because my 12-month introductory rate from Comcast just expired, putting my yearly cable bill into the $1,000 range. That’s a lot to stomach, especially considering that about a third of the content coming down the co-ax is commercials. A friend says that I just need to call the “retention specialists” at Comcast and talk the price back down, but I’m terrible at haggling. And it’s not just about the cost. The truth is that I just don’t watch much traditional TV anymore. I stopped watching TV news long ago; I get my daily dose of current events from NPR and the Web. There are no good TV comedies these days, unless you count The Daily Show. I can’t stand reality shows. I get all my feature-length movies from Netflix. And out of the current crop of dramatic series, there are only about eight that interest me. (If you want to know, they’re The Closer, Saving Grace, Heroes, Grey’s Anatomy, Friday Night Lights, Pushing Daisies, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Battlestar Galactica.) And half of the year or more, most of those shows aren’t even on. But my affection for those eight shows—and the convenience of having new episodes show up on my DVR automatically, when they do come out—is the one thin thread keeping me tethered to Comcast. And now even that thread is unraveling. Much to the cable companies’ dismay, I imagine, the broadcast and cable TV networks—along with video sites such as Hulu, Veoh, and the Apple iTunes Store—are now putting full episodes of all of the shows I watch online. Because the Internet video scene is evolving fast, you can never be sure which shows are available where. But I took a few minutes to track down my favorite shows, and discovered that they’re all available from at least two different sources (and remarkably, six of them are available at Hulu alone): ABC.com NBC.com Fox.com TNT.tv SciFi.com iTunes Store Hulu.com Veoh.com Battlestar Galactica X X The Closer X X X Friday Night Lights X X Grey’s Anatomy X X X X Heroes X X Pushing Daisies X X X Saving Grace X X Sarah Connor Chronicles X X X And of course, beyond these studio-produced series, there’s terabytes of other programming available from free video and movie aggregators like Joost, Miro, and Lycos Cinema. There are also several good video search engines out there now, including Blinkx, AOL’s Truveo, Google Video, and Veveo’s Vtap (for mobile devices). The point is that content deprivation is no longer a reason to fear cutting your umbilical cord to the cable companies. But what if you, like me, are the proud owner of a new(ish) high-definition LCD or plasma HDTV? Doesn’t your beautiful screen deserve to be nourished with high-definition cable? That’s the last question I’m struggling with. If I said goodbye to Comcast, there are a couple of high-definition features I would definitely miss, including GalleryPlayer—an on-demand slide show service that I wrote about here back in April—and occasional Discovery Channel HD Theater specials such as When We Left Earth . But here, too, there’s a growing list of ways to circumvent the cable companies. A basic one is to invest in a cable to connect your home computer to your HDTV, which instantly turns your TV into a big external monitor. (Just be sure to change the video settings in your computer’s control panel so that you’re getting full 1080×720 or 1920×1080 resolution on the HDTV.) Once you’ve done that, you can download the PC-based version of GalleryPlayer, which actually offers a much greater selection of images than Comcast’s on-demand channel does (though at a nominal price). And anything that you can watch on your computer, you can now watch on the big screen as well. If you’re not feeling up to the process of connecting your PC to your TV—which can still be a bit dicey for non-geeks—there are several convenient gadgets designed specifically to grab video content from your computer or straight from the Web and show it on your TV, including Apple TV, ZeeVee’s ZvBox, and Roku’s Netflix Player. Or you can dispense with the big display altogether and just watch your shows on a wearable device like the MyVu Crystal, though these devices don’t yet feature high-definition resolution. So, as you can probably tell, I’ve nearly talked myself into unbundling the phone, Internet, and cable TV service I get from Comcast and dropping the cable part. At this point, the company would have to offer a pretty steep discount to keep me on. (You’ve got my number, Comcast.) But I’m still eager to hear readers’ opinions on the subject. Are you ready to cut the cord? Or have you gone cable-free already—and if so, what’s it like? Please vote in the poll below—and leave your detailed thoughts in our comment section. Online Surveys  &  Market Research You can subscribe to World Wide Wade via RSS or e-mail. Comments | Permalink | Share |  E-mail UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS Less

Can't see the video? Watch this video now in a browser or download this video now. Continuing in the Blade Runner theme of our most recent Boing Boing tv episode, today BB Gadgets editor Joel Johnson speaks with artist and futurist Syd Mead about this rare treasure -- the only one in the world! -- spotted during a BBtv shoot in Mead's home and studio. So what is that, Joel? A one-of-a-kind official LEGO version of Mead's "Spinner" flying car from Blade Runner, presented to Syd by LEGO when he attended a design summit in Billund. Syd let me pick it up and swoop it around my head like a child. LEGO and Blade Runner, two great tastes that taste great together. More on the story in this episode, and more iPhone snapshots from the shoot here. If you like this BBtv episode, you might want to pick up: BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT [Amazon] VISUAL FUTURIST: The Art & Life of Syd Mead DVD [sydmead.com] And more Syd Mead books on Amazon. Previous episodes in BBtv's Syd Mead series: Syd Mead with Joel Johnson, part 3: BLADE RUNNER Joel Johnson interviews Syd Mead: part 1. Joel Johnson interviews Syd Mead: part 2. (Footage from the movie Blade Runner courtesy Warner Bros. Entertainment / Warner Home Video; Artwork courtesy of Syd Mead Inc.) Less

…and by Weird Show we mean The Weird Show. Chuck and Mark (the Encaffeinated one of the The Weird Show podcast) hang out one night and have a sorta informal interview/chat. Whatever you call it, we hope you enjoy. Less

…and by Weird Show we mean The Weird Show. Chuck and Mark (the Encaffeinated one of the The Weird Show podcast) hang out one night and have a sorta informal interview/chat. Whatever you call it, we hope you enjoy. Less

Can't see the video? Watch this video now in a browser or download this video now. In today's episode of Boing Boing tv, Xeni catches up with John Behrens and "Omega Recoil," a group that builds giant Tesla Coils. Their work explores how electronic fields can be excited in the environment, and their creations become the centerpieces of interactive public art performances. Some of the tinkerers and performers in the SF Bay Area-based collective were previously associated with Dr. Megavolt, an electrical art project which... [featured] a person in a metal mesh suit interacting with artificially generated lighting. The Doctor sets objects on fire with electricity originating from large Tesla coils, spars with the electric arcs and exhorts the audience to worship the elemental force of electricity. Less

While we’re busy sifting through all the wonderful interviews, panels, and events that we captured at Balticon 42, we provide a little something to get your heart pumping and your blood racing. For the first time anywhere, Dave Williams reads from his debut novel Mirrored Heavens. Mirrored Heavens, from Bantam Spectra, is available on the [...] Less

While we’re busy sifting through all the wonderful interviews, panels, and events that we captured at Balticon 42, we provide a little something to get your heart pumping and your blood racing. For the first time anywhere, Dave Williams reads from his debut novel Mirrored Heavens. Mirrored Heavens, from Bantam Spectra, is available on the [...] Less

Without which not indeed, Ron.... after skipping a Friday for Memorial Day, we are treated to a VERY contravercial episode. We've heard someone say it came close to Woman King as his least favourite episode. Ouch. Matt loved it, Nat not so much, but what about you? Less

Can't see the video? Watch this video now in a browser or download this video now. In today's episode of Boing Boing tv, Cory Doctorow checks in from his ongoing book tour for "Little Brother," and reads a passage from this latest novel. We also learn all about the contents of his hotel minibar, and a cool steampunk watch he received which shoots cockroaches accross the room. Previously on Boing Boing tv: * Cory Doctorow: Show us your "Little Brother" HOWTO videos, and "Dumpster-Diving Philosopher." Less