Technology
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Taking Some Wind From The Sails Of Peak Oil Doomsayers
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 13, 2008 by admin in Clean & Green, Technology
Thursday, November 13th, 2008Or is that taking some sales from the wind
It’s nice to know that while the big three beg for bailouts and utility executives try to raise alarm about the dangers of switching from coal, innovative thinking and a desire to make money are showing some tangible results in the clean tech movement. Apparently electric car innovator Fisker Automotive (Warning: melodramatic string music) is setting up shop – although only a couple hundred actual jobs – in Michigan. On the energy production front, even Texas is ramping it up; with its current growth in windpower generation, the state could be able to generate all of its energy from wind in the near future, with a surplus to put back into the grid. Maybe some of these survival-product pushers masked as loony prophets of oil doom will be put out of business.
Lose Your Keys? Big Brother Knows Where They Are
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on November 3, 2008 by admin in Technology
Monday, November 3rd, 2008And soon Google will have a service to make replacement keys for you!
I’m the kind of person who gets annoyed when Google takes my picture without asking. So the implications of these two technologies has staggering possibilities to me. First, UC San Diego researchers managed to use a photo taken with a telephoto lens to make a functional set of duplicate keys. Combine that with the incredible new image recognition technology in the presentation at left, and the possibilities are amazing. The clip is nine minutes long, but worth a watch (and probably much better full size). The software being discussed is called Photosynth, and what it does is analyze photos for similarities to others, then uses that data to build a model of where the photos were taken. This can theoretically be done with photos from all over the web, the info being gathered much like text is gathered by Google. Now that image recognition is becoming so sophisticated, is it possible that soon those automated help voices on the phone will understand what we’re saying?
Sometimes You Just Have To (inter) Face The Music
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on November 1, 2008 by admin in Music, Technology
Saturday, November 1st, 2008Two Tune Tables and No Microphone
Years ago I had a dream in which I was playing an amazing instrument that responded to my hand gestures and thoughts, creating sublime, transcendent music that moved the soul. Then I woke up. The best that I had at my disposal at the time was still my electric guitar, because a velocity sensitive keyboard, although it’s pretty cool, had been around for awhile. The evolution of the musical instrument interface has amazing possibilities these days, as evident in the reactable project created by students at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. As is so often the case though, the same technology seems to be more immediately applicable to practical needs, like selling cocktails. The clip at left is the brick, a “Tangible & Multi Touch Sonification Instrument”. Which is one of the more creative and purposeful interfaces I’ve seen. Many of these concepts are clever, but end up being rather non-musical or like the reacTogon, just a a clever redesign of existing ideas. Coming at things from the other direction, Japanese artist Daito Manabe lets the music play him (YouTube clip). If you watch that video, you’ll get a feel for what it means to “surrender to your art”. That can’t feel good. Daito Manabe’s YouTube page is here; he also seems to do interesting public performance art projects like whitebase + Daito Manabe and disturbing video experiments like Milk. Yucky.
Short Sites Worth A Long Look
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on October 26, 2008 by admin in Popular Media, Technology
Sunday, October 26th, 2008Another reason to cancel your cable service
I’ve mentioned before why my goldfish-like attention span is a perfect fit for the YouTube era of short media. That’s why I was especially excited recently to discover two new HD-quality sites that focus specifically on short films and music videos. The clip at left is the first episode of Emily Time, a weekly show delivered only via the web at historyandtheuniverse.com, along with another show called Big Book of Lies. Both programs were created by David Lampson, a 29-year-old television writer from Boston who produces the shows in Buenos Aires. Both shows are quirky, cinematically slick, and intelligent. Big Book of Lies, for instance, features a dryly absurd, on-going subplot about Noam Chomsky’s sons Buck (a struggling beatbox artist) and John (a cop). On a grander scale, Australia-based PortableFilmFestival.com has a broad selection of seriously high-quality shorts that are “curated” by independent film professionals, guaranteeing a certain level of quality of content. After a painless (takes about 10 seconds and they don’t make you jump through any hoops) account signup, you’re able to view AND download some of the best indy film out there.
Any Way The Benz Blows
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 24, 2008 by admin in Technology
Friday, October 24th, 2008Sure, I’ll race you. Soon as the wind picks up a bit.
Sure. Just when I start bellyaching about how great minds are wasting their resources on trivial concerns like radio-controlled golf balls, Wired magazine comes along with an eye-candy laden piece about alt-fuel race cars from the future. Who knew that all the major automakers occasionally turned their design people loose on radical vehicle design and actually made the results public? For more than just the pretty pictures in that Wired piece, check out the site for the Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge. I’m not even a “car guy”, but I’m getting a little reaction just looking at the Mazda Kaan, which uses an “electronic tire system powered by a sub-level electro-conductive polymer built into the roadway”. Also blowing my skirt up a bit is the Mercedes Benz Formula Zero Racer (pictured), which is propelled by electric hub motors, a solar skin and a high-tech rigid sail. Mommy, why can’t I just live in the future?