Technology

The Life and Times of Buckminster Fuller 203

The New Yorker features a review of the life and work of R. Buckminster Fuller, on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition in New York 25 years after his death. Fuller was a deeply strange man. He documented his life so thoroughly (in the "Dymaxion Chronofile," which had grown to over 200K pages by his death) that biographers have had trouble putting their fingers on what, exactly, Fuller's contribution to civilization had been. The review quotes Stewart Brand's resignation from the cult of the Fuller Dome (in 1994): "Domes leaked, always. The angles between the facets could never be sealed successfully. If you gave up and tried to shingle the whole damn thing — dangerous process, ugly result — the nearly horizontal shingles on top still took in water. The inside was basically one big room, impossible to subdivide, with too much space wasted up high. The shape made it a whispering gallery that broadcast private sounds to everyone." From the article: "Fuller's schemes often had the hallucinatory quality associated with science fiction (or mental hospitals). It concerned him not in the least that things had always been done a certain way in the past... He was a material determinist who believed in radical autonomy, an individualist who extolled mass production, and an environmentalist who wanted to dome over the Arctic. In the end, Fuller's greatest accomplishment may consist not in any particular idea or artifact but in the whole unlikely experiment that was Guinea Pig B [which is how Fuller referred to himself]."

Clear Channel Goes Private and Streamlined 94

7Prime writes "Clear Channel Communications Inc., the nations largest radio, billboard, and entertainment outlet, announced their intention this morning to sell the company to a consortium of private-equity firms for over $26 billion. In addition, Clear Channel's TV division, as well as its smallest 448 radio stations would be sold out of the company and will be looking for potential buyers." From the article: "The buyers, led by Bain Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners, also are bidding for Tribune Co., which owns several newspapers and television stations. That process is ongoing. If Bain and Lee purchase Tribune, they may be forced to sell certain newspapers and television stations to comply with Federal Communications Commission regulations that prohibit one company from owning a newspaper and radio or television station in the same city. The buyers paid $37.60 per share for Clear Channel, the highest price the stock has seen since mid-2004, and a 25 percent premium on the stock's average price in October. The purchase price includes the assumption of about $8 billion in debt."
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Back In Effect 17

It just so happened that both Nate and Hemos were back in town, and the result was yet another show. We talk about TiVo, Napster, and CmdrTaco and Hemos' recent trip to Japan.
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Turbo Nitrous Version 16

Well, it's been a long time since we've had an update to the radio section, and that's partly due to us not recording the show very often. Also, it's in part that we lost this show and found it later, or something. So anyway, from deep within the GiS vaults is yet another episode. It features special guest Jamie McCarthy, from Slashdot's own YRO section, as well as Dune discussion, anti-aliasing lust, and more.
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Hemos The Iron Chef 55

So Hemos decided he should stop back in Holland to visit some family, pick up some comic books, and eventually visit the Blockstackers office. We felt that was reason enough to record a new episode. We talk about TiVo hacks, the Napster/BMG agreement, and I ask everyone for Bloody Mary recipes.
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Live From The Garden 16

After another extra long pause, we're back with another installment, this time with Chris DiBona, man of many titles, and also the benevolent soul who found me a place to sleep at ALS. In this episode, we talk about bootable Linux games on CD, SQL, life as video game art, fancy chairs, and a healthy dose of anime as well.
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Post Apocalyptic 53

After a super long break, We return with a smaller than usual crew, but with special guest Geoff "Mandrake" Harrison. We talk about KDE/Debian issues, price changing, GPG vs. PGP and more. We don't know when our next episode will be, so savor this one, and find it at TheSync.
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Goodbye Geek Compound 31

In this week's episode, we're back from the office move to discuss Microsoft buying Bungie, the new release of GNUCash, stupid processor naming schemes, the BT hyperlink patent, and more. This might be the last episode for awhile, as the Mackie (our mixing console) broke and I just shipped it back for repairs, so hang tight while we get it fixed.
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Open Grill 38

In this week's episode we talk about the AMD Thunderbird, the "opening" of the Playstation 2, and not much else. (except for the ever-impending Krull invasion) If you've got a high tolerance for pain, give it a listen.
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Spring Break 29

Back from our trip to Boston, we return with a brand-spanking-new episode. Nate was gone working on Everything2, but that didn't stop us from discussing the new Slash code release, efm, web crawlers, GNOME 1.2, and more.
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Nuke The Moon 68

We're back after the server move with a brand-new episode. This week we talk about the Cold War plot to nuke the moon, DVD recorders, the new Motif release and its license, as well as plenty of conspiracy theories.
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Product Placement 83

In this week's show we talk about mp3.com's legal losses, Metallica vs. Napster, bad games, and, and more. If you think you can stand it, give it a listen.
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Live From Inside A Colon? 22

Well, we weren't really sure where we were this week, but Chris DiBona stopped by anyway, and we talked about AOL's filtering, Nvidia's new X servers, and not much else, but we managed to talk for awhile. Make sure to give it a listen if you've got the time.
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Live From Rob's Basement 30

This week's episode is our longest yet, and we devote the extra time to talking about EverQuest GM's, Jennicam's 4 year anniversary, and more. Listen as we try to evade Rob's cat and still manage to do a show.
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Mellow Trancey Version 24

Yet another show is up at the usual spot, with us talking about the new Red Hat release, reviewing the Oscars, and listening to Jeff's cellphone calls. It's as crazy as usual.
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Mail Order Bride 21

In our latest episode, we discuss Nate's whereabouts, the new release of Perl, Microsoft's X-Box, Netpliance's i-opener and more.
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Without Rob 15

With Rob out of town, we still managed to carry off a brand spankin' new episode where we talk about domain squatting, our gaming addictions, software patents, and more.
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Library Filtering Update 179

Following the Internet filter vote in our hometown this week, Jamie McCarthy stopped by the geek compound to rap with us for a bit, and so we recorded a special update to this week's show and have posted it at TheSync.
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Free Love 11

Fellow Slashdot Author and geek Emmett Plant stopped by the Geek Compound and therefore warranted another episode. We talk about Red Hat teaming with Real Networks, the new offerings from Palm Computing, and more.
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Outside Total Request Live 37

After another hiatus, we've returned with a new installment of news and craziness. We talk about the Mars Polar Lander, Doubleclick, EverQuest, and more. You can find it in the usual place.

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