Bjørn Jørgensen Image taken: Jan. 22, 2012 Location: Grøtfjord close to Tromsø, North Norway

Also to listen to the effects, check out the software defined radio from Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The low and middle bands show the activity.

I recently got hosed big time by Go Daddy. My domain was up for renewal and instead of notifying me, they sold it. Now I have a new domain, but I lost my search engine standing (my old site was numbers 1,2 and 3 for a Google search of my name). Anyway, if you have a minute, give my new site a click and help a guy out. Thanks.

tim-kaiser.org

We acquired an old iMac, went to upgrade the OS today and got an error about it not having an Intel processor …. we like the big screen and the prioress has a not as old MacBook she wants to DX for an AirBook.

(1) Is there any way for a common man to take the good parts from the MacBook and update the iMac?

(2) Are there any other suggestions for the old iMac? Can we load some flavor of Linux on it for the web-savvy here at the Mission?

As most of you have probably noticed, Perfect Duluth Day has changed its background colors. The changeover started several days ago, and there have been some issues with the old colors popping up in a few spots …

… but we think we’ve taken care of all of those issues now. Please let us know if you see the old colors popping up anywhere.

Also, let us know if you love or hate the change. If you love the change it will make us feel good. If you hate the change we will get all defensive and accuse you of having poor taste.

I was wondering about the tone of the Nerd Night events at Teatro Zuccone, as in, are they appropriate for children? I have an 11-year-old boy with Asperger syndrome who probably would like to see the robotics demonstration, but I don’t want to put him into any situations that he would not understand. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks a bunch people!

Duluth got a mention in this 2010 Ted Talk by cell biologist Mark Roth: Suspended Animation is in our Grasp

[ted id=796]

More specifically he mentions the miraculous case of Janice Goodger …

There was a 65-year-old woman in Duluth, Minnesota last year that was found frozen and without a pulse in her front yard one morning in the winter, and they brought her back to life. The next day, she was doing so well, they wanted to run tests on her. She got cranky and just went home.

Before Call of Duty and Elder Scrolls, there were these quirky little things called Text Based Adventures. Primitive on the graphic front (with NO graphics in them), these were the first dungeon crawlers and computer based rpgs like Minnesota’s own Oregon Trail. In 1982, this was super addictive stuff. Well, as I’m an active user of Goolge Docs, I came to realize that it might be possible to use their forms and spreadsheets to “crowd source” the content for a text based “pub crawler” or some text based questing game based in the PDD ethos.

Sorry, this is where my mind goes when I’m feeling ill and home alone from work for the day. So I started a test survey. It’s not perfect or definitive and really just a test so I can have a bit of crowd sourced data to try and put together in game form.  Once there’s a few entries, I’ll make a game out of it. I hope to refine the survey to better automate the process. So, take a few minutes and unleash your inner geek. BTW, This is NOT an official PDD sponsored thing and no folk bands will be hurt in the programming of this game.

Seeing what makes the northern lights happen from space is pretty amazing.
Time lapse photos shot from about 350 km above earth.
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Last night’s “Lost Grey Cat in Lincoln Park” post was the 10,000th post on Perfect Duluth Day. We didn’t realize it at the time, and forgot to drop balloons from the ceiling.

Quantity is no substitute for quality, so let’s celebrate by linking to favorite posts from the past. Dig into those archives and find your favorites. And find that lost grey cat, too.

Since this summer, I’ve seen several large, blaze orange coils of fiber optic cable being installed throughout the city. As of today I spotted some by Holy Rosary and up near Home Depot on Central Entrance.

Does anyone know if our Google overlords are trying to pull a fast one on us? Were area ISPs startled into actually building out their networks up here? Please tell me I’ll be browsing the Internet at satisfyingly fast speeds in the near future.

Discussion is getting underway today about setting up a bike share system here in the Twin Ports, modeled after the Nice Ride MN nonprofit in the Cities. In case you missed it, check out this article in the DNT.

The basic idea behind the Nice Ride system is to provide affordable access to bicycles for short trips inside the city, as an alternative to taking the bus or driving a car. (more…)

Join us for a zombie-themed symposium that is free and open to the public. Six UMD professors will give talks about how their work relates to zombies. Refreshments appropriate for the topic will be served. BYOB (Bring Your Own Brain).

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Google has been increasingly active in Minnesota lately. It joined the Minnesota High Tech Association, has been hiring, and held a series of workshops in St. Paul.

I’m tickled … Angela’s Bella Flora has been featured as part of Google’s Minnesota Get Online initiative.

With Collector’s Connection’s recent addition of a pinball lineup I have gotten the bug again for this lost art. I was wondering what machines are in the area and what condition the machines are in. Can be private or public.

Collector’s Connection has a decent lineup of Solid State

• Data East’s Laser Wars

• Williams’ Junkyard

• Stern’s Magic

• Data East’s Tales from the Crypt (The only good machine Data East made)

Even though none of those games are my favorite, it is a solid and much appreciated lineup. All the but the Stern machine in good condition.

Other machines, or Port pinball stories to share?

Hey everyone! This is a map I made in college a couple years back that shows patterns of income and racial segregation in Duluth. I have been going through all the files on my computer and figured the fine folks at PDD would appreciate this one. If you want to see more, I have started a photoblog: http://codiemaps.wordpress.com. I will try to post something new every couple of weeks. (Spoiler: My next map is a pseudosociological breakdown of Minnesota’s core regions.)

On the DNT story! This is for you …

Map of American English Dialects

Minnesota Pronunciation Samples — Mayor Don Ness and “miner’s wife” Mildred Opacich represent Duluth. (By “represent” I mean that they are used as examples, not as the whole of the study by any means.)

[via/via]

For those of you who weren’t at the last Geek Prom, I was the perpetrator of perhaps the first Geek Prom marriage proposal ever (at least that I am aware of). Adam, Crystal, & Paul were awesome enough to help me with a geeky engagement, I’m hoping that the PDD community will be awesome enough to help me create a geeky wedding.

In order to pull off the ultimate gamer-geek wedding, I need the incomplete board game sitting at the bottom of your closet. Seriously. Do you have any junk games you were going to throw away? Throw them at me instead! Thanks everyone!!! :D

More info at Broken Games For Love

Friday, Sept. 9: Come play games at Collector’s Connection, milling about starts at 5:30, action starts by 6pm. The game this week is “Empire Builder,” led by William Belcher.

I myself have taken the Empire Builder on Amtrak to Milwaukee and Chicago dozens of times, and I have taken it to Portland and Seattle. (It goes nowhere near the landmarks depicted on the box, stopping some thousand miles short of the Statue of Liberty and north of the Golden Gate Bridge.) I would ride that train to the moon if they’d let me — the views of Glacier and of the Mississippi/Lake Pepin alone are worth the ride.

It has its own Wikipedia page. Bill is a good teacher for the first time gamer.

collectorsconnectionduluth.com/

(When can we start posting stuff to the calendar?)

Friday: Come play games at Collector’s Connection, milling about starts at 5:30, action starts by 6pm. The game this week is “Nuts,” led by William Belcher. Will is a good teacher for the first time gamer.
http://collectorsconnectionduluth.com/

Saturday, come meet Alex Ness 2-4
Poet, Blogger, and Comic book author.
http://alexnesspoetandwriter.blogspot.com/
Come chat with the man himself and get some cool stuff signed.
at DragonPort Games and Comics
http://www.dragonportgames.com/

I spent Friday night playing Munchkin Cthulhu at Collector’s Connection near the Mall.

This is a stock image.

Jason and Clare and Lisa were Munchkin veterans, while Katherine (age 10), Kate, Rachel and I were newbies. Katherine drew the card to face the Great Cthulhu in the first round and became a cultist.

The choice of game was accidentally very appropriate, as yesterday was H. P. Lovecraft’s birthday.

“HOWARD PHILLIPS LOVECRAFT (20 August 1890–15 March 1937) is probably best known as a writer of weird fiction, but some believe his voluminous correspondence to be his greatest accomplishment.”

It was a great evening, mostly because the rule of the night, for most of the game, was “Keep Rachel from Winning.” We did that, successfully, until the shop closed at 8. Then a few of us went to Bridgeman’s for a cone.

…

Gaming thrives in Duluth lately. At DragonPort, Warhammer tournaments are running this weekend.

All in all, it’s a good time to game in the Twin Ports.

From time to time the geeks who comment on this website will get into arguments about grammar, spelling and so on. It doesn’t happen too often, but when it does it kind of excites certain people while it embarrasses and annoys others. Some people just love to show off their mad English skills, while others don’t care if their capable of getting there sentences from here to they’re properly.

With that in mind, this post has been created as a separate bitching ground — similar to the Troll Zone — for uptight word nerds.

Don’t let this post stop you from creating your own post to showcase public blunders in the future, it just seemed like this type of stuff needs a home base.

Here are some related posts from the past:
Really? And I had my hopes up …
Need Fun!
Great food. Bad punctuation.
Unnecessary quotation marks are sometimes disturbing
A Small Request

To help this discussion along, we’ve started the “Perfect Duluth Day Writer’s Guide,” as a handy reference to Duluth-related nouns that are frequently botched.

Let your ranting begin.

Climate change is already impacting the U.S. Midwest with higher average temperatures, more frequent heavy downpours, decreased Great Lakes ice cover, and more frequent heat waves.

Projected future climate changes in the region include a likely rise of another 5-10 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, continued increases in winter and spring precipitation, decreased summer precipitation, and a possible drop in Great Lakes water levels.

The region will likely face the greatest adaptation challenges along Great Lakes coasts and waterways, as this is where many significant economic and ecological impacts will occur as a result of a changing climate.

While climate impacts will vary regionally, it is at the state and local levels where critical policy and investment decisions are made for the systems most likely to be affected — water, land use, energy, transportation and public health and natural resources, as well as important economic sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, forestry, manufacturing, and tourism. By factoring a changing climate into planning decisions today, communities and agencies can avoid future costs.

Find out more at “Planning for Climate Change Impacts in the Western Lake Superior Region” on Thursday, Sept. 22, from 8 a.m. til 5 p.m., a workshop geared for planners and professionals, but open to everyone.  The workshop will be held at the EPA Midcontinent Division (map) and costs $20, which includes speakers, lunch and materials.  Registration is available online.

Spock is not impressed with the Cascade Park mural. Apparently neither are some of the Hillside residents.

Nerd Nite 10 will showcase some of the favorite nerdy presentations from the past year and half. Come enjoy some midweek entertainment, learn something you didn’t know you didn’t know.

It’s like the Discovery Channel with beer.

Were you planning on going to Friday night’s Le Cirque Rouge show but don’t have your tickets yet? You’re in luck! I’m a dumbass and accidently bought 4 tickets when I meant to buy 2! Take advantage of my error in resubmitting browser form data by winning or buying 2 tickets to Friday night’s show!
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Who is on Google Plus?

For such a wee little place, it seems like Duluth has a pretty large footprint. Your thoughts? Comments?

I’ve been enjoying it, but it is definitely a very tech heavy crowd that I’ve seen so far (for obvious reasons, who else would you want to beta test something?). But I’m always game for connecting more with liberal arts, socks-with-sandals, bumper-sticker activist types.

Teen zombies descend on Duluth

I heard this morning about World of Fourcraft which uses Foursquare as an engine for a giant game with teams trying to take over New York City.

So, fellow nerds, why don’t we have this for the Twin Ports? Anyone want to tackle this? Sounds like great fun! Imagine Cakeeaters battling marauding hordes of displaced Trojans. I mean, just the team names would be a hoot!

Perfect Duluth Day is eight years old today — Wednesday, June 29. We’ll be celebrating tonight at Burrito Union around 8:30ish. Stop on by. There will be a weird cake and an array of door prizes. (We’ll probably be out on the deck — space and weather permitting — so look there first. Find the people with cake on their lips.)

Also, yours truly (Paul Lundgren) will be a guest today on “The Local” with Christine Dean the Radio Queen, celebrating PDD’s birthday by playing songs with “Duluth” in the lyrics or title. That’s at 5 p.m. on 103.3 FM KUMD.

Thanks to Barrett and Starfire for starting this thing and to all you bloggers, cloggers and corn doggers who keep it going. We’re on a pace to hit 10,000 posts before the end of the year. That’s kind of something.