Archive for the 'thoughts' Category

GooTube: $1.65 Billion!

Monday, October 9th, 2006

gootubeYup! The weekend rumors were true! Google just purchased Youtube for 1.65 Billion big ones!!! Maybe now the Epic of Googlezon will happen in the near future?!

As far as I know, google is buying the internet and will own everything I do, think, spell, eat, sleep. Are they not evil? Nah, they just own my life online, offline, and everywhere else.
via gizmodo
update: the YouTube founders make a video reply(yes, they seem verryyyy happy)


South Park: War of Warcraft

Friday, October 6th, 2006

I had the Best time watching this episode of “SouthPark: WarCraft” making fun of RPG’s(role playing games) filled with very real stereotypes that all you gamers will reflect upon. If your a gamer or just someone that knows a gamer, this is a definite dose of laughter!

Sidenote: It’s amazing how you can find TV episodes online for free the next day, or even minutes after shows are out. Will PVR’s(personal video recorders) like Tivo live on…Will online sales on iTunes work? Do we really need to download shows anymore(bit torrent, kazaa, etc) or will it all be free like most of us like it(daily motion, VeoTag, youtube, google video,(rumors are google might buy Youtube)), and TV’s vanish as online content is there anytime we want with most the ads edited out already? I could go on and on about this topic, so I’ll pause here… but free content rocks!

update: The original video(probably down still) I posted was ripped down for copyright blah blah blah, hence, I spent 10 seconds, and found another one!! Don’t they get it…once it’s out, it’s out…don’t bother…yihawww internet world!


Designing Interactions

Friday, October 6th, 2006
designing interactions

Here’s a new book by Bill Moggridge who pretty much coined the term “Interaction Design” and is one of the founders of IDEO. I’ve not read this book yet, but I’ve dived into their webpage full of little insightful bits about Interaction Design, videos of interviews with several key figures in design, and am glad it’s not purely about Interface design which many industries seem to gravitate towards even though Interface can be physical spaces or objects and not just screens.

Buy it here!


Engineers Claim Machine Makes Free Energy

Wednesday, October 4th, 2006
free energy

“Engineers Sean McCarthy and Richard Walshe claim to have “found a way of producing free, clean and limitless energy out of thin air.” Videos after the jump.” (here and here)

Personally, my optimistic curious mind believes there is a solution for free energy, but then again, I think when it’s discovered, all hell will break loose. Anyhoots, check out the brief videos and form your own opinions… As far as I know, we could have had cars fueled by water many years ago, but freaking patents, politics, and oil tycoons own these great inventions, hence they will squeeze every penny they can before letting us all have it.via Techeblog


NextFest 2006

Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006
nf.revolver.jpg

Nextfest nyc ended this weekend with tons of attendees, free Wired subscriptions, and my very tired feet. My partial 2 days of browsing Wired Magazine physically was great, but also a reminder of what crowded conferences feel like.

Pictured above is my friend Vincent Leclerc’s project “Revolver” which is a very simple solution in creating a cost effective 3D display. For more on this project go to EskiStudios. If you ever meet him, try to get a video of his first mock-up, cause it rocks!
Tons of pics after the jump!

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ten things my kids will never know

Monday, October 2nd, 2006
phone old

Here’s a great little exercise I use to do when brainstorming ideas. The question is, “What will my kids never know, understand, or experience?”(in a tech-centric aspect). Here’s some quick thoughts:

1. How life was like before the life changing credit card.
2. Why we had phones tethered to the walls, or even owned a land-line.
3. What life was like before we carried cell phones around.(easy to experience though)
4. Why we used Fax machines, typewriters, VCRs, Cassette tapes, Film, and maybe CDs
5. What life was like without a computer.
6. How freakin hard it was to find apartments before Craigslist was created.(this counts for many life changing internet services, ebay, email, google, IM’s, weather, stocks, rss, dictionary.com, etc)
7. How hard it was to stay in touch with friends before the days of e-mail.
8. How people use to hang out with just you, not you and their thousands of phones calls.
9. How people could only do one of these at a time: read, watch tv, listen to music, IM, and work.
10. How phones once had something called “1-way text messaging”, where you could receive, not know from who, nor reply..(I still own this phone)
11. How we watched an hour of tv, 20 minutes of it being ads.(whoohoo for tivo)
I’d probably change some of these a bit, but it’s a quick jot. If you have some good ones, let me know.


Kenyan mobile phones on wheels

Wednesday, September 27th, 2006

kenya.mobile.phone

Here’s a great video of mobile phones becoming…well, a mobile phone booth on wheels, which has given these handicapped people in Kenya a service along with their wheelchairs. Reminds me of those photographers in Paris that actually carry around inkjet printers and print your pics right there.
Would be cool to see more mobile services for public use..perhaps a restroom on wheels.. maybe a net enabled laptop on wheels or on someones backpack… though in nyc, Starbucks=restrooms, and the Apple store=free Internet.


Moo MiniCards: Flickr Contact Cards!

Sunday, September 24th, 2006
moo card

If your craving some cool contact cards and have a Flickr account, head on over to Moo.com to get your very own Flickr Mini Cards! Basically, you get some cute contact cards with your Flickr pics on them, which you can custom fit.
I love the idea of turning customer created media into unique products. Perhaps they can use YouTube to make a comic book or optical contact video card. I might end up using Moo to make cards for Designverb, with selected posts on the backs of each card, then I’ll have a physical blog in a weird way spread throughout the people that I meet. They should fit perfectly into my custom pantone paint chip card holders, which I recently made for my own cards.(I’ll post after the jump)
via boingboing
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HP’s slimming feature cameras!

Tuesday, September 19th, 2006
hp slimming camera

My gosh! What’s become of our society. Of all the features to add into a camera, I never thought I’d see this. In HP’s terms, “slimming” squashes your image horizontally making you seem thinner. Now I know lots of us have extra pounds on us, but seriously, does it really make us feel better by digitally losing weight or squashing ourselves? After streaming through a slideshow of pictures from this camera, your going to look back at reality and think, damn, we all look so fat. At least the fashion worlds banned models that were too thin this past week to strut the catwalk. The only reason I’d want to use such a device is to squish back together those widescreen plasma screens that stretch images apart that don’t seem to bother some.(this seriously bugs me) Anyhow, as far as I know, every camera will be a mini photoshop on the go down the road which could be fun.via ohgizmo

I’ve squished the picture above even more after the jump. (more…)


Blogmusik.net

Tuesday, September 19th, 2006
blogmusik

Most of you have heard about this already, but if not, check out blogmusik.net for an impressive collection(network) of ad-free music! Once you try this ipod like interface you’ll enjoy the sweet music fades between songs and custom playlists. They even have a firefox plugin for quick song finds.
Many have doubts this site will stay legal, so have your go at before it shuts down! Personally, I still use Yahoo’s Launchcast which rocks since it uses Gracenote tech to suggest songs to you much like Amazon does for books.


Good music!

Wednesday, September 13th, 2006
musicians

It’s been a week since Club Passims incredible “Campfire Weekend of Music” and I’m craving for more, but, it’ll be awhile before the next Campfire, so I thought I’d share with ya’ll some vibrant tunes from some recent musicians I heard play live!

Aesthetic Evidence- Eclectic, experimental, voice sample mixes, almost video game like.
Raul Midon- Jazzy, solid, picky guitar beats. Humms out great trumpet sound!
Abigail Washburn- Banjo Folk/Bluegrass musician with a blend of asian culture, and at times singing in chinese.


Burj Al Arab: Tennis Court in the Sky!

Sunday, September 10th, 2006
Burj Al Arab Jumeirah tennis
Burj Al Arab Jumeirah tennis

I initially thought these images were clever CG images, but in fact, their photos of Andre Agassi and Roger Federer (just won his 3rd US Open) having a blast atop the worlds highest tennis court hovering 1000 feet above the ocean at the luxury hotel Jumeirah in Dubai. How freaking cool!!! I’d lose hundreds of balls this way and would probably freak out walking towards the edges (heights= shivers). I’d want to wear a parachute while playing up there. Some beach goer must of been stumped when a random tennis ball hurled down in front of him. We already have Dinners in the Sky, so why not tennis.

More incredible pictures after the jump!

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