patrickumsted.com » Geekdom

A Geek’s Guide to American History

Patrick Umsted — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:06:06 +0000

What could possibly go wrong?

Patrick Umsted — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:02:00 +0000

The rocket is named HEAT1X-TYCHO BRAHE, and its first test flight will carry a crash-test dummy, rather than a human, so that the safety aspects of the design can be analyzed. It’ll launch from a floating platform that the team has also built, which will be towed into the middle of the Baltic Sea by a submarine called Nautilus that the pair built as their last project.

The creators are members of the SomethingAwful web community, and have been posting pictures and answering questions there. In response to one question asking what the chances of the person inside dying are, they replied: “Unlike Columbia we’re not moving at orbital speeds so ‘dying a gruesome death burning up on re-entry’ with our kit has a very low outcome probability.”

Secrets of LOST revealed

Patrick Umsted — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:56:52 +0000

Doctor Who

Patrick Umsted — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 20:22:07 +0000

I can’t say that the Doctor Who premiere blew my socks off. The new Doctor/Companion dynamic is good and Matt Smith had a good start as the Doctor; however, the story didn’t move much, the first 15 minutes were forgettable, and the new opening credits sequence is cringe worthy.

With all that said, I am still excited about the new season especially episode 3 with the Daleks and Winston Churchill joining forces. Should be a good time.

NEATO!!!

Patrick Umsted — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 09:09:47 +0000

Solar Eruption from our friends at NASA.

Remaking Star Wars

Patrick Umsted — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 08:45:33 +0000

Attention fellow geeks: Be part of the ultimate open source remake of the world’s greatest movie!!! Take a 15 second scene and remake it however you’d like. Hilarity ensues.

Trailer.

15 second remade clip of “The Escape”.

“Tesla was Electric Jesus”

Patrick Umsted — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:40:27 +0000

A new installment of Drunk History featuring Duncan Trussell discussing the life and times of Nikola Tesla.

For those of you uninitiated to Drunk History, take a look at my personal favorite—the story of Alexander Hamilton. The cell phones are a nice touch.

Just a few hours now…

Patrick Umsted — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 21:30:25 +0000

…until David Tennant’s final episode as the Doctor. To whet your appetite, here is preview for tonight’s episode, “End of Time:Part II”, and a trailer for next season with the new Doctor.

“Up” trailer overdubbed with “Gran Torino”

Patrick Umsted — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 20:58:35 +0000

Ultimate Geek Library

Patrick Umsted — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:17:32 +0000

Just look at this place. Jay Walker…I salute you.

Just peruse some of what this room holds:

-Sputnik–THE actual Sputnik

-A Kelmscott copy of Chaucer’s works which includes some of the most beautiful literary illustrations every produced.

-The Chandelier from Die Another Day.

-A 1665 Bills of Morality chronicle of London

-The instruction manual for the Saturn V rocket

-Andrea Cellarius’ hand-painted celestial atlas from 1660. THE 1st such maps not centering the universe around Earth.

-A Coverdale Bible. THE 1st translated from start to finish in English.

-A Nazi Enigma machine

Wow. Just Wow.

Wearing a huge can-you-believe-it grin is the collection’s impresario, the 52-year-old Internet entrepreneur and founder of Walker Digital — a think tank churning out ideas and patents, it’s best-known for its lucrative Priceline.com. “I started an R&D lab and have been an entrepreneur. So I have a big affinity for the human imagination,” he says. “About a dozen years ago, my collection got so big that I said, ‘It’s time to build a room, a library, that would be about human imagination.’”