This is a great friendly reminder of what life’s like at times when the all mighty Internet goes down!!! My whole apartment goes crazy and we act like clueless confused cavemen, not being able to talk to people, google anything, look up addresses, buy movie tickets, check the weather, buy stuff, know the news, and at times order food! If ya have 3 minutes, check out the video here! via Vandertramp.
Having read William McDonough & Michael Braungarts book Cradle to Cradle, then watching Inconvenient Truth, I’ve become more of an environmentalists to some degree. Being an Industrial Designer, I’m familiar with the tons of products, materials, and manufacturing techniques that are incredibly destructive to our environment, but I never knew how major companies ranked in this destruction. Well, Greenpeace recently issued a “Guide to Greener Electronics” report card which offers a detailed ranking of some very well known tech firms based on a criteria. Dell and Nokia ranked well(kudos to them), but tech giants Apple, Motorola , Acer, and Toshiba ranked as some of the worst! However true or untrue this chart is, it puts a definite ding into those brands the next time I buy some electronics. Read the rest of the Cnet article here, or read some comments on engadget here.
Just when I thought my math skillz could not get dumbified any comes a “tip guide” on a recent receipt of mine. I received the bill, and as usual, tried calculating what 18% was, but while calculating this mind exercise I noticed on the bottom of the bill was a “tip guide” that already did the calculations at 10, 15, and 20% of the bills cost. As much as I love this little added service, I worry that I’ll become dumb with math, much like what spell-check has done to my mad spelling skillz as I mentioned in my post about dumbifying tech.
Ever since I bought a digital camera I wanted to take a picture of myself everyday for a long period. Well, that long period lasted maybe a week before I broke my routine. If your wondering what the results would have been like, check out Ahree Lees documentation of herself everyday for the last 3 years here!!!(or the full video here) It’s pretty amazing seeing time pass by. There’s this other guy that took a picture of himself each morning for a year, and this Google employee with a photolog of every single meal he had at Google for about a year. Be interesting if you could get a ClickDensity map of some sort over those images…perhaps what parts have changed, where zits appeared and vanished, what you ate, etc. Perhaps something like MouseMiles, to track the distance you mouse travels daily.
update: a guy does it for 6 years here!
While in I was stuck in the London airport, I came across a sweet little watch by Diesel. For those of you that know me, I’m a sucker for watches, and yes, this is yet another one I’m craving to get now.(Comes in black as well, though this white one really stands out) One thing I’ve noticed is how detailed online shopping can get. You can really zoom in on this watch, down to the wrinkles next to the stitch lines. Super specs, 3D animations, a bundle of user reviews, commercials, color options, perhaps printable and wearable products… what’s next for the online shopping experience world?
I recently mentioned how my trip to London seemed very “kind” because of their proper English accent which also raised the question of what is an American accent sounds like? Well, Rocketbooms new host Joanne Colan does just this in this past episode in learning the American accent.
If you have not heard of Rocketboom, it’s a quirky daily 3 minute vLog, Video Blog (Video Web Log), of internets culture art, technology, news, web drama, and the many more odd happenings around the world. It’s probably one of the most watched vLogs with a bit of spunk.
I was reminded the other day how technologies not only improved my life, but made me just as dumb without it. I’ve been an avid user of computers and such web applications for probably the last 8+ years and I’ll admit, I’m better with it, but incredibly dumb without it.
I use to remember a good dozen phone numbers, but now that I own a mobile phone, I only know 2-3 numbers. I use to be able to hand-write long letters with a pen, but if I try this now, my hand cramps up after half a page. I use to be able to spell well, but ever since I started using spell check I trust software to fix my errors. As a regular user of Instant Messaging, I shorten many words hence can’t spell correctly. I use to be able to figure out where addresses are locally, but now that I am a super user of Google Earth or Maps, I cant go anywhere without it. Google Search is pretty much half my brain. I realized while in London, without a mobile phone, how incredibly hard it was for me to meet up with a friends or for them to contact me. I have my computer save most of my passwords and when I’m not at my computer, I forget all my passwords (though I’ve learned to fix this). My mad math skillz are not that bad yet, but my lazy butt opens up the computers calculator often. Birthdays, appointments, events, holidays at times do not exist unless it’s in my calender.
I’m sure there are many more examples of how techs improved my life but once I’m unplugged from the net or have no access to my laptop, I feel rather dumb at times. Is tech helping me, aiding me, or replacing my brain?
I’ll be in the UK for the week, but I’ll be back rockin more posts when I return. If your in that area, please let me know. (Bath, Malmesbury, London, perhaps Bristol)
Here are some mini links to make up for the week:
– Cute people jewelry!(Jade Gedeon)
– Platial: explore and map your world while using the new Sony GPS gadget!
– Animated hand drawn lights!
– Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design!
– Atlas Gloves Demo: DIY minority report interface for $8!
– The classic “Powers of Ten” video on youtube.
– For fun: Treadmill Dancing at it’s best!!!
I’m not the type to usually post on a phones, but I just wanted to say wohooo for Motorola and the first phone using e-paper(e-ink, EPD displays). Besides that, I’ve been waiting for the retro none colored screens to kick back into action. It’s simple, I can read it in the sunlight, it’s not insanely bright, doesn’t seem like a screen, easier on the eyes, and personally I think it’s cool! Also, the features on the phone are of little which just rocks, considering most applications on phones go unused.
There’s something about this motofone f3 that I really like. Then again, I lost a my kick butt colors mobie last year and had a short term replacement with a retro green lit lcd, which I have learned to like, though it does not do much. (The sucker has 1-way text messaging, meaning, you can receive, but you can’t reply, nor do you know who it is from unless they txt that in). Anyhow, this awesome phone is due out soon, and for a sweet $50 or less!!! For more pics, head on over to Mobileburn.
Did you ever want to figure out where people clicked on your GUI webpage and where people did not? Clickdensity documents a users every click on your webpage allowing you to monitor and understand your audience more in a information visualization format (heat map). What is clicked on the most, what is not, where do users come from, how long are they on, what are usability issues, etc. You can filter the clicks by browsers, screen resolution, dates, time of day, source, and a few other things. It’s the digital finger grease!
This reminds me of my post on Google Eyed and how Googles changed the way we view webpages. It’s also much like those elevator buttons that obviously show major use on certain floors. Same for cellphones, keyboards(the shiny keys..my f1-f10 buttons seem untouched), remote controls, etc. We’ve all seen the heat maps on weather channels, but why not turn your webpage into a weather channel of usage! Be a fun piece to make art out of from your website.
“Lulu is the web’s premier independent publishing marketplace for digital do-it-yourselfers. It’s the only place on the web where you can publish, sell and buy any and all things digital — books, music, comics, photographs, movies, and well, you get the idea”Lulu was founded by Bob Young, who was also the co-founder of Red Hat, the world’s leading open source company.
One of the great things about LuLu is that you can get your very own professionally printed and bound books for fairly cheap, considering that is in short print. All Lulu asks in return is 20% commission over your customized royalty rate which you set. This is waived if you decided to make your content free to download. Otherwise, you are getting 80% of the royalties which is considerably better than the 15-20% margins you’d get at most major publishers.
I wish I knew about this in college, when I ink-jeted tons of books then hand binded them which took FOREVER and cost well over $60 for a 50 page book.(Kinkos was an option, but they seriously screwed up many deadlines) On Lulu you can upload a 50 page book, have a hardcover, have it professionally printed(it won’t bleed), and you’ll save tons of time. In a matter of days, you’ll have that great book to your house for a mere 12-20$! Otherwise, you can make it available digitally and make a handsome royalty out of it even if you only get say 100 downloads.
The idea behind is Lulu is to print or buy on demand. Major publishers print thousands of books which sometimes just sit around for years. Lulu creates books when needed. No wasted prints are ever made. The cost is a bit more, but for retailers, there is no dead storage space which costs money. This is a direct connection from creator to buyer, and no one in between to ramp up the prices more. Rock on Lulu!
This was my last exhausting day walking around Siggraph2006.
Pictured above is a textile piece by Joanna Berzowska.
“The KraKow weaving is an electronic, color-changing Jacquard weaving that integrates conductive yarns, thermochromatic inks, and custom control electronics. The weaving illustrates a scene from Joannas childhood in Poland. Over time, the ink overprinted on the figures in the weaving changes color from black to transparent. Like our memories of them, the people in the textile disappear over time. As populations are displaced, the traces of their presence in place and time are similarly erased.
More pics and projects after the jump. Continue Reading