Technology

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Better Living Through Blender Defenders?

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on October 20, 2008 by admin in Technology

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Confession: I just wanted to post the funny cat video.

I was just saying to a friend the other day that if all the technologically creative minds in the world focused specifically on ideas that really mattered – like cleantech or election monitoring* – we could probably wipe out some of the world’s biggest basic problems. Sure, we might suffer slightly in personal ways if we had to go without radio-controlled golf balls, swimming pool snack caddies, or motion sensor blenders that keep our cat off the counter, but mightn’t it be worth it? By the way. Is it just me, or does that seem like a slightly cruel way to go about keeping your cat in line? Or is it just the fact that the guy seems obsessed with videotaping it?

* Ironically, that International Election monitoring link excludes North America

More Uncanny Valley: Bobblehead Einstein Robot

[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 16, 2008 by admin in Technology

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

Relatively peculiar

One of the newest residents of the Uncanny Valley is the almost-macabre Einstein-headed robot in the video, left. There’s a strange set of ironies going on here: the uncanny realism of the face (it’s made of “Frubber”) ; the eerie motion of the robot body; the weird bobbling of the head…all combined with the idea that one of the greatest minds of the 20th century is reduced to a mumbling marionette pitching a product. The Albert HUBO, as it is called, is a product of the Korea-based Humanoid Robot Research Center, a research group that seems to be playing a little bit of catch-up with Honda’s Asimo. The welcome video on the HuboLab site is unintentionally hilarious; an Einsten-headed robot speaks with a carefully suppressed, but obvious Korean accent.

Beware The Russian Flirt Bots

[ 4 Comments ]Posted on October 16, 2008 by admin in Technology

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

The high cost of flunking the Turing Test

As I’ve mentioned before, seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey at the age of seven warped my mind in several ways. One effect was that I refused to learn how to use a PC until 1999, when it was rapidly becoming evident that they weren’t becoming more conversational any time soon. Although researchers are trying hard to create convincing artificial intelligence, the best they’ve accomplished recently is 25% on the Turing Test . And I’m assuming, after exchanging a few words with Elbot, the AI in question, that the test subjects were a bit dim-witted. Which makes it especially amusing that there’s a Russian Flirtbot that’s extracting personal information from chatroom users by establishing up to 10 relationships in 30 minutes. Sadly, knowing what I know about men, it probably is some pretty easily-generated dialog, like: “Ooh baby, you’re making me so hot! What’s that username and password again?” As an example of how stupid you’d have to be to give your information to a chatbot, try talking to Alice, with whom I had the following exchange:

ME: Hi Alice. ALICE: Hello there. ME: Are you a Russian flirt bot? ALICE: Am I a Russian flirt bot? Yes.
ME: How would you go about securing my usernames and passwords? Read the rest of this entry »

iLong For The Ultimate iThingy

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on October 4, 2008 by admin in Technology

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

What’s the opposite of a Luddite?

For years I’ve endured Microsoft Windows for business reasons, claiming I’d buy a Mac when the price was right. Well, the price finally became right – thanks to my friend Eric – who hooked me up with a lightly-used black MacBook. My new gizmo then led me to fantasize about the perfect laptop. I’ve always dreamed of an “all screen” device that blends a multi-touch user interface, scanner, and projection device in one lightweight package. Things are getting closer. The device pictured at left is a One Laptop Per Child concept, but Mac addicts are claiming that Apple is about to announce something very much like it. Combine the flexibilty of that interface with this inspired, “holographic shadow” interface (vimeo clip) and a digital pen, and all that’s missing is the scanner.

Seeking Solar Where The Sun Don’t Shine

[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 29, 2008 by admin in Technology

Monday, September 29th, 2008

Can we just talk for a minute about the solar-powered bra?

There are plenty of clean & green concept vehicles around, like the frankly rather absurd solar bicycle, pictured left. Much cooler, in my opinion, is when people just dig in and do it. Want to start your own solar project? Although you could always steal the solar panels you need, there’s a more ethical way to get going cheaply. Mike Davis is a tinkerer from Arizona who builds inexpensive home-made solar panels from parts he buys on eBay.  Total cost per panel? $104.85, not including labor and eBay page-load waits. Mike has a few other projects on his vintage, 1999-style web site, which appears to have also been home-made. Rock on Mike. Maybe you should give 12-Year-Old William Yuan a call. William just won $25,000 for his science project , which may lead to a 500-fold increase in energy captured, compared to a traditional solar cell. Pretty impressive. When I was twelve, my idea of a science project was trying to reverse-engineer my girlfriend Jeanne’s bra. And on that note, yes, there is indeed such a thing as a solar-powered bra.

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