UPDATE: There’s already a lot of good discussion going on around this post in my public twine.
I’ve been writing about a new trend that I call “interest networking” for a while now. But I wanted to take the opportunity before the public launch of Twine on Tuesday (tomorrow) to reflect on the state of this new category of applications, which I think is quickly reaching its tipping point.… Read More “Interest Networks are at a Tipping Point”
Slideshare is a site where people post and share their Powerpoints. You can watch the powerpoints quickly with a little viewer widget that let’s you click through them in your browser. There are some really interesting, creative, and informative presentations there.… Read More “Favorite Site of the Week: Slideshare.net”
What a week it has been for Radar Networks. We have worked so hard these last few days to get ready to unveil Twine, and it has been a real thrill to show our work and get such positive feedback and support from the industry, bloggers, the media and potential users.… Read More “What a Week!”
Steorn, the Irish company that claims to have invented a mechanical device that generates unlimited free energy with no fuel, is scheduled to demonstrate their device publicly for the first time in London tomorrow. A panel of 22 independent world experts has been recruited to study the device.… Read More “Steorn Set to Demo "Free Energy" Device Tomorrow”
If you are interested on what computer user-interfaces are going to feel like in the future — you must see this video of a demo of a new multi-touch computer monitor. This is amazing technology — and the various demos themselves are interactive artworks in their own right.… Read More “Wow! Watch this Multi-Touch UI Demo Video”
Check out this very impressive user-interface prototype for a desktop that works more like a real desk — a messy desk in fact. Very delightful design work that makes want to use it now!
An invetor in Japan has created the world’s first glass CD. Because of glass’s exceptional clarity and durability it not only provides better sound quality than plastic, it lasts "forever." The catch: it costs a hefty amount yen to buy one since they are presently made by hand.
I know, I know. I’m several years late to the party on this one, but I have become quite obsessed with the television show, Lost. It’s possibly the most addictive show on TV. Ever. You have to start from the beginning though.… Read More “LOST: My Newest Obsession”
I got the TiVo Series 3 box today and installed it. It takes 2 cable cards and can record simultaneously on two channels at once, in HDTV. It also connects to my wireless network instead of using regular phone lines. Nice.… Read More “My New Tivo Series 3”
I’ve been listening to a lot of music today. Two other albums that I have that I highly recommend are the Magnolia soundtrack by Aimee Mann, and Colour the Small One by Sia. While we’re on the subject, if you like these, you’ll probably also like Dummy by Portishead, even though it’s quite different from them.
This online video preview of the upcoming Web-based organizer, Scrybe. The app has an unusually elegant and innovative AJAX interface. It’s beautifully designed. Watch the video.
This is a nice, VERY dated commercial for the C-64 computer starring none other than William Shatner!
The online music recommendation service Pandora is really cool in all ways but one. Due to what they report as a requirement of their music license the user is only allowed to skip a small number of songs per hour. This can be a problem since the whole point of Pandora is that you give it feedback as it plays songs for you and it learns what you like.… Read More “Pandora is Great But…”
My Treo 650 has been an endless source of frustration. It’s probably one of the most annoyingly bad devices I’ve ever owned. First of all, the form factor is such that it’s almost impossible to grab it when it rings without dropping it or flinging it across the room.… Read More “Help Me Destroy My Treo 650”
This is cool — the next generation of touch screens will touch back —
… Read More “Touch Screens that Touch Back”Immersion’s new TouchSense Technology for Touch Screens combines vibro
feedback with finger-position recognition and interpolation to deliver
tactile feedback on standard touch screens. This feedback can register
as bumps, low vibrations, ticks, clicks, slides, you name it.
Japanese cell phone company KDDI is offering a new GPS-enabled 3D navigational tool to their 17 million subscribers (see article and picture). Their system helps consumers navigate city streets and even within buildings, using an innovative 3D map and audio directions.… Read More “Location Awareness — The Next Big Thing”
Check out the Scoobadoo — a new underwater scooter that lets anyone scuba dive, without wearing a mask, tank or weights… Cool.
Check out the photo and video of this cool new display right out of Minority Report. It detects multiple fingers at once, enabling a wide range of new gestural interactions.
After 11 years of painstaking research and inventor has finally achieved the "holy grail" — colored soap bubbles that don’t stain anything. But that’s just the beginning — his invention is based on a completely new kind of dye chemistry that could open the door to a wide range of new products.… Read More “Colored Bubbles”
This article just came in (via Kurzweil)
… Read More “New Low Power Broadband Wireless Networking Technology May Spark Revolutionary Advance”A little-known start-up has demonstrated wireless broadband 1000
times more efficient than WiMax – and claims the technique could also
make wireless LANs that will run for years on watch batteries.xG
Technology, based in Sarasota, Florida, used a transmitter not unlike a
cordless phone base station, operating in the unlicensed – and crowded
– 900MHz band, to send a 3.7Mbit/s data signal to a radius of 18 miles
across the suburbs of Miami, using 50mW and an omnidirectional antenna.
Following in the footsteps of Douglas Engelbart’s pioneering work, SRI has announced the upcoming open-source (LGPL) release of Open IRIS — an experimental Semantic Web personal information manager that runs on the desktop. IRIS was developed for the DARPA CALO project and makes use of code libraries and ontology components developed at SRI, and my own startup, Radar Networks, as well as other participating research organizations.… Read More “The Semantic Web on Your Desktop — Open IRIS Announced”
D-Wave, a Canadian startup, claims it will have a working quantum computer within 3 years. Unlike other quantum computer designs which are based on the principle of quantum entanglement, the D-Wave design is based on quantum tunneling. While this makes it less powerful, it is still ideal for complex calculations such as the "traveling salesman problem" and simulations of physical systems.
NASA’s research on subvocalization technology is moving forward. Their system intercepts nerve signals to the vocal cords before the speaker makes a sound and then figures out what words they signify. This technology will enable people to speak silently on the phone or to their computers, without moving their lips or making a sound.… Read More “Silent Speech Technology”
Years ago I read about Persinger’s work on the induction of unusual states of consciousness using magnetic stimulation of the temporal lobe and always wanted to try it — unfortunately the only way to do that was to go to his lab (assuming you could get invited).… Read More “Brain Stimulation Helmet for your PC”
Sony has released its new Creation Box in Japan — it processes regular TV signals to make images clearer, flicker free, and more vivid — and it enables zoom functions. Pretty interesting idea — but why bother? Aren’t we all going digital anyway?… Read More “New Sony Creation Box Makes TV's Better”
Here are some more features that I wish the iPod offered:
Side-Trips From Current Playlist
When I’m playing through one of my playlists and I get to a song I really like, I wish I had the ability to take sidetrips to other related subjects, accessible from the trackwheel or menu button:
Think outside your cable box! My long-time friend, the legendary Ken Schaffer, has finally come out of stealth with his new project, TV2ME. In a nutshell, it enables you to watch your own cable subscription channels live from anywhere via broadband over the Net.… Read More “TV2ME Unveiled”