Real Snail Mail (3)
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3 weeks, 2 days
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Created by Boredom Research for the SIGGRAPH 2008 Slow Art Exhibition, the Real Snail Mail project uses live snails to deliver your email. How does it work? Well, when you send an email to the team via their website, it is delivered to one of eight "snail agents" - each of which has an RFID chip attached to its shell to store your message on. The snail then wanders around its tank and, when it ...
Tactile feedback on touchscreens - is it worth it? (2)
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Harry Brignull (2)
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90 Percent of Everything (2)
3 weeks, 2 days
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Quite a few new handsets are offering tactile feedback on their touchscreens, like the Blackberry Thunder, pictured above. I can’t help thinking that because the manufacturers can’t do multitouch properly, they are opting to enrich their feature lists in other ways. Is it really a valuable feature? In concept, tactile feedback is wonderful. It is the reason that real keyboards are way easier to use than on a touchscreen. However, the execution is quite different. ...
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Daniel said:
So true. Until touch screens are getting better in this aspect, I hold on to my opinion that touchscreens is just part of another trend that never will become truly mainstream.. :)
iPhone kicking butt on flickr (12)
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Steven Sande (55)
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The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (793)
3 weeks, 3 days
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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone Despite the complaints about the measly 2-megapixel camera built into the iPhone, it appears that ease-of-use trumps resolution. The iPhone remains the leader in camera phone usage on Flickr.Flickr monthly statistics indicate that not only has the iPhone retained its lead (which it gained after knocking the Nokia N95 from the top spot) over other phones, but the lead has begun to widen. Why? It might be due to ...
The restaurant called "Translate server error"... (1)
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3 weeks, 3 days
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AdFreak points to the best example of automated-translation-gone-wrong we have ever seen. As you can see in the image above, this Chinese restaurant appears to have used an online translation service (e.g. Babel Fish or Google Translate) to provide its customers with an English translation of its name. A noble intention. It's just a shame that the online translation service returned a "Translate server error"!
Found Footage: 'I Am Rich' walk through (23)
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Christina Warren (52)
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The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (793)
3 weeks, 5 days
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Filed under: Humor, Found Footage, iPhone, App Store [YouTube link] Apparently, eight people actually bought the famed "I Am Rich" iPhone application. If you weren't rich stupid lucky enough to buy the app, or if you are merely curious what the fuss was all about -- the above "guided tour" is for you. I'll admit, I've found this whole saga pretty unfunny thus far. Don't misunderstand me, I get the joke, the whole thing has ...
!Alerting Infrastructure! (1)
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4 weeks
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Jonah Brucker-Cohen's "!Alerting Infrastructure!" is a hit counter with a difference: It translates the number of hits on the website of a physical location into interior damage of the physical building that the website represents. According to the artist, "the focus of the piece is to amplify the concern that physical spaces are slowly losing ground to their virtual counterparts. The amount of structural damage to the building directly correlates to the amount of exposure ...
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Daniel said:
Love the amusing virtual-physical connection here! Every time you visit the site, you actually tear on the physical building a little :)
Why you would pay for a great web service (16)
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Alexander van Elsas (34)
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Alexander van Elsas's Weblog on new media & technologies and their effect on social behavior (31)
1 month
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I read a good post over the weekend of one of my favorite bloggers, Kevin Kelley. The post is entitled “People want to pay”. Kevin has written a number of posts on the FREE business model and good alternatives for it and has argued before that it takes only 1000 fans to have a good living on the web. In this post Kevin refers to a survey in the UK where music lovers have indicated ...
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Daniel said:
This guy is one of my favorite bloggers right now. Posts are long but enriching - this one is about the free business model that many adopts and the results of this. In order to become the next Facebook, Myspace etc, entrepreneurs focuses on the great advantages of the free business model without taking into considerations its disadvantages - advertising, 'walled gardens', focus on numbers rather than on providing user value, etc.
Innovation by firing people (2)
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Hacker News (891)
1 month, 2 weeks
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In these recessionary times it might seem cruel to bring this up, but if the goal is to be more creative, or to up the odds new ideas become products, the easiest move is is to get people out of the room. Either take away their power, or get them off the team, but reduce the number of people in rooms where decisions are being made. The most common bottleneck by far to progress in ...
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Daniel said:
interesting blog article about the problem with too many cooks. Some excerpts:"When I was at Microsoft (’94-’03) the biggest inhibitor to innovation was too much democracy.""Pure democracy is not the political system that will create the most change - it’s a system geared for stability, not for innovation."
The CherryPal cloud PC: $249, ready for (the new world) order (29)
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Thomas Ricker (355)
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Engadget (2054)
1 month, 2 weeks
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Filed under: Desktops There's no OS to speak of, no optical drive, just 4GB of flash storage and 256MB of RAM, and you're limited to a 400MHz Freescale 5121E processor with integrated graphics under the hood. But the CherryPal desktop PC -- just revealed with a $249 price tag -- is definitely worth making a fuss over. About the size of a plastic paperback sporting a pair of USB ports and VGA-out, the mini PC ...
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Frason said:
this could be the future.
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Daniel said:
This is the first real consumer oriented cloud computer I have seen - and it seems really interesting in terms of the future direction of computing. Less local, more server
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Shane Conder said:
Just how are they doing iTunes, anyway?
Ubiquitous computing vision flaws (1)
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1 month, 2 weeks
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Thinking about ubiquitous computing and the so-called “internet of things” lately, I have started to recognize the underlying process and how it is engineered. It’s as if the starting point was the “social” which is then cut in different chunks and “places”: home, work, etc… and then a second differentiation in “objects” or “things” that engineers try to “augment” or “make intelligent”: smart fridge, augmented maps, intelligent car, house 2.0 and so on. It’s as ...
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Daniel said:
Some good thoughts around the flaws of ubicomp visions. It might be wrong to assume ubiquitous computing following both an incremental innovation path, and the assumption that objects should stay the same with an augmented smartness.
Mobile Firefox and Designing Without Modal Overlays (16)
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Aza Raskin (81)
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Planet Mozilla (64)
1 month, 2 weeks
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In the concept video I recently did for laying out the interface paradigms for Firefox Mobile, I listed five guiding principals. Touch it with your finger Large targets are good Visual Momentum and Physics are compelling Typing is difficult Content is king It’s these principals that inform the design of new features long after the original design as been coded, released, and iterated on. In discussions with the perspicacious Mike Beltzner, another design principal emerged. ...
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Daniel said:
Death to the modal dialog
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Aleksas said:
1. Touch it with your finger
2. Large targets are good
3. Visual Momentum and Physics are compelling
4. Typing is difficult
5. Content is king
California Uses More Gasoline and Diesel than China (15)
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TreeHugger (276)
1 month, 2 weeks
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37 Million vs. 1.3 Billion Truly an amazing statistic, via Wired. According to the California Energy Commission, the state with its 37 million people uses more gasoline and diesel than any other country on Earth except the US as a whole. That's more than India with its 1.1 billion people. More than China with its 1.3 billion. So while demand has been increasing in China and everybody's talking about that, they forget to look at ...
Neural network sculpture made from sticks and fishing weights (8)
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Jonah Brucker-Cohen (27)
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MAKE Magazine (423)
1 month, 2 weeks
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The "Rechnender Raum / Calculating Space" is a light-weight kinetic sculpture by Ralf Baecker that is constructed from sticks, strings, and fishing weights. The sculpture also functions a fully functional neural network. Really impressive piece and the video at the link below is pretty amazing to see it in action. Also, the piece will be showing at Arbots 2008 this coming Sept, in Dublin, Ireland. Rechnender Raum / Calculating Space Read more | Permalink | ...
Hanker-'tude: Twitter your mood (8)
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Marc de Vinck (38)
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MAKE Magazine (423)
1 month, 2 weeks
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Hanker-'tude allows the wearer to update their Twitter feed just by tying the bandanna around their neck. It uses an Arduino Lillypad, blueSMiRF, and a Nokia phone to get the job done. Hanker-'tude is a very simple, and a very unique way to twitter. Having to interface continuously with a gadget to update your online presence is a drag on your real-life presence. Using a bandana/hankerchief instead is at least briefly amusing and requires only ...
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JayCrossler said:
Would be even cooler if it functioned like a mood ring and periodically sent your "feelings"
Can the iPhone hit crucial network density for noticable cluster effects? (40)
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zephoria (38)
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apophenia (36)
1 month, 3 weeks
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On Friday morning, I was shocked to find my always-empty neighborhood AT&T store host to a long line of iPhone cravers. What shocked me even more was that the diverse group didn't look like typical Apple consumers. They sold out quickly and are still sold out. I remarked on this to the cab driver and he smiled and raised his Gen 1 iPhone, telling me that his cousin wanted him to borrow it for a ...
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Neil said:
If I'm reading boyd right, the fact that the iphone here isn't linked to a single carrier (the way it is in the US) makes the Australian situation quite different, but this is interesting nonetheless
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art said:
Nice commentary about the value of "cluster effects"
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Hadyn said:
"cluster effects are the cool things that people do when all of their friends can do the same things"
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burninator said:
Thanks to Haydn
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Zhasper said:
I think the fact that everyone has a restrictive data plan here (heck, anything is restrictive compared to the unlimited plans in the U[SK]) is going to be more of a bottleneck than the multi-carrier factor.
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Brett L. said:
This is an exciting possibility. SMS is one example of a cell phone "app" that reached critical mass in the uS (once all the carriers agreed to interoperate). "I strongly encourage that you watch the network density of iPhone adoption. (Note: raw numbers don't matter... you want density of adoption amongst pre-existing friend groups.)"
Robot spider! (8)
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HTML Color Name Generator (3)
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Collin Cunningham (77)
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MAKE Magazine (423)
1 month, 3 weeks
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From the MAKE Flickr photo pool Funax built an HTML Color Name Generator to derive RGB hex code from a physical objects - I can decide the HTML color name without looking at color charts. […] PC side software was built with Processing. This stapler's color is Cadet Blue. Ok? Ok! - HTML Color Name Generator on Flickr Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arduino | Digg this!
Bridge: By Michael Cross (6)
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Marc de Vinck (38)
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MAKE Magazine (423)
1 month, 3 weeks
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Bridge, by Michael Cross, is a really interesting interactive artwork. As you start walking across the water a series of steps that appear. The problem is, the steps also disappear behind you, leaving you with no choice but to move ahead. I would love to try it out. More about Bridge: By Michael Cross Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arts | Digg this!
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Zach said:
Would have been better if it just left you stranded in the middle
NOTCOT.ORG (63) permalink
Using colorful media such as twisting balloons, party streamers, and artist tape, D. Billy adds visual representations of sound effects to public spaces as a sort of dimensional graffiti. (Want more? See NOTCOT.org and NOTCOT.com)Shared by Daniel (2) darkeye11547 (245)Contribute comment
