A few cool vectored shirts by illustrator Robert Dobi. More shirts available for purchase at his store!

“A singer, a dancer, a painter – take your pick, these are just some of the creatives that New York parents can hire as their child’s babysitter for the night. Eugenia Bachaleda, a musician, and Kristina Wilson, a performer, combined their talents to devise Sitters in the City for a modern twist on baby sitting. Both Bachaleda and Wilson enjoyed performing but also loved working with children, and so they found a way to use their artistic talents to inspire and entertain children.The benefits of Sitters in the City work both ways – for actors and artists, it’s a flexible job that combines well with auditions and concert rehearsals. For parents, it’s a fun and creative childcare option that aims to leave children inspired and entertained. Sitters arrive at the customer’s home armed with a ‘tote of toys’ and with an abundance of creative ideas to appeal to every child from bookworm to budding movie star.”
via Springwise

What an awesome idea and service, and at $15/hour, it’s a steal! Adding such incentives to services really make them stick out from the rest of the competition. Think about the services you use daily and how they can be enhanced with such simple changes.

“ndsvisuals is a system designed to loosen VJs from their stationary input devices, by equipping them with a wireless remote control - more precisely: a nintendoDS gaming console by using all the features the nintendoDS provides (such as two screens, a touchscreen, wireless networking, …) it enables VJs to control their visual performance from wherever they have a WLAN-connection to their notebook. ”

This project reminds me how technology has unleashed jobs from confined spaces and allowed anyone to work from almost anywhere, be it underground, out in the park, on a subway, on an airplane, at a cafe, or sitting right next to YOU. I’ve been in so many situations where the person sitting next to me turned out to be someone I read about but I never knew what they looked like…so, just as a reminder, don’t be shy in public spaces, stay curious, be nice, and next time that stranger next to you just might be someone that amazes you.

(Playing Will Wright in ping pong during PopTech at a bar was great, but I really wish I knew it was him before I played him!..fun times!)

Here are a few bands I’ve been following for the weekend:

Rocco Deluca and the Burden- Dark, aggressive, rustic, energetic, blues inspired rock!(myspace)
Imogen Heap- Great voice, very unique, layered, and eclectic. The new a Cappella tunes are awesome! (myspace)
Regina Spektor- very chill, smooth voice, and addictive.(myspace)

Ooooo Cool. TheWebList.net is another hive minded dashboard to save us humans more internet hours! Inspired by the very lovable PopURLS.com website I posted about before.

Wowzers! This is some crazy cool Non-newtonian Fluid(Cornstarch and Water)! Basically, it’s a liquid that hardens on impact and softens when idle! Run across a pool of it, or stand still and sink! A must watch video!

Reminds me of Liquid Armour(Shear Thickening Fluid), which stiffens upon impact as well. It also reminds me of Magneto-Rheological Fluid Technology, which doesn’t harden upon impact, but hardens when a magnetic field is present. They have a video on their site, and I’ve played around with this stuff which is pretty cool!

One last hardening type material is spyders soft futuristic and flexible d30 material clothing which instantly hardens like armour upon impact, protecting this years winter olympians. Check out their webiste for more! I want one!(d30, or spyder) This is such an awesome new material for kick-butt brain storms!

It’s World Usability Day, so take the day to think about everything that you use, touch, see, or hear and ask, how can I make it better? Is something broken, confusing, too complex, or just not working?

Whys: You should ask why is the VCR clock never right, why are instructions manual so dang complex to understand, why must batteries switch directions each time, why does some packaging require scissors to open, why does my phone have a ton of feature I can’t use, why are nutrition labels so small, Why is the wireless router such a pain to set up, and why don’t public bathroom doors have foot knobs.

Hows: You should ask yourself how can a grocery bag handle be better, how can cleaning be easier, how can road signs be more useful, how can parking meters be better, how can webpages be easier to navigate, how can driving directions be easily understood, how can emails be easier to sort, how can keyboards improve, or simply, how can I reduce the steps it takes to do something.

Woohoooo for usability!!

OOoo. how cool, get a bunch of them, throw them around your office!

“Jamungo’s Sqwerts feature designs by Frank Kozik, Tara McPherson, TADIO, and the Jamungo guys: Ferg and Van Beater. Only 350 of each design (250 for the pink Van Beater design, my fave) were made, so get ‘em while they’re hot. via drawn.ca”

A grid image of a bunch of them after the jump!

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