LEGO Felt Tip Printer
This is definitely the coolest thing I’ve seen today.
Thanks for the link, Darren!
The iPhone 12GV
Foxtrot nails it again.
This reminds me of the awesome Palm IX.
via Fox Trot
via Fool.com
Two Reasons for Me (Not You) To Get an iPad
Prior to marriage and children, I was an undisciplined gadget guy. I thought nothing of investing in bleeding-edge technology or the latest shiny thing. Now that I’m married with two kids, I’m a somewhat disciplined gadget guy. I have to come up with actual reasons to buy something.
Of course I’m excited about Apple’s iPad. In particular, here are two reasons for me to get an iPad (and I almost have my wife sold on these reasons):
1) Sheet Music – My wife and I are both musicians. We usually end up dragging (literally) a trunk of music books to parties. Having everything in a single device excites me. Observe this video and ponder the possibilities:
2) Interactive Books – My son adores the educational apps I bought for him on my iPhone. The iPad is a natural evolution of that. After reading Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age, the thought of having an interactive book for my kids to read amounts to nothing less than liquid awesome:
Of course, there are cons to consolidating these items into an electronic device. First off, when the battery runs down, its purpose ceases. Secondly, our wonderful airlines will no doubt classify the iPad as a terrorist, plane-crashing electronic device that must be shut-off during take off and landing–the traumatic book-ends to flying the friendly skies, and ironically, the time when you probably want to be most distracted.
Are we going to get an iPad? Not right now. The price is high and I’ve been burned too many times by 1st-gen releases. I’m watching, though… and waiting for my moment. When that moment comes, the heavens shall open and angels will be singing (reading their sheet music from their own iPads).
How Gaming can Save the World
The cynics out there might chuckle at the title of this post, but there’s truth behind it. Don’t take my word for it: (via Powered by the Tubes)
A TED talk I found truly amazing.
The speaker Jane McGonigal is a game designer who recently spoke on TED. Her big idea is that the average person is going to spend about the same time playing video games by the age of 21 as they will spend in every hour of school from 5th grade to high school graduation. That means that people are spending a second education’s worth of time getting good at something. Harnessing that something could be the key to saving the world.
She goes on to lists games that she has piloted to achieve this goal and all in all it is a very inspiring talk. Everyone knows making things a game works to make them a lot less tedious and bearable. Many of us are also driven by a competitive nature. If that could be channeled into doing good for the world or even your local area that would be awesome.
My parents were anti-gaming, so I had to sneak my gaming time at friends’ houses. My wife is anti-gaming, so I have to get my gaming time in during off hours. Despite the different vectors of negative connotation for gaming in my life, I still strongly believe that gaming teaches and reinforces useful and applicable skills in real life including problem-solving (think Zelda), group collaboration (think about taking a boss down in World of Warcraft), project management (that boss in World of Warcraft might take upwards of 30+ people to work together), hand-eye coordination (there’s a correlation that surgeons who gamed more had fewer errors) and hard work (sometimes you need to grind levels to make a character more powerful, think Final Fantasy).
As Jane McGonigal mentioned in her talk, gaming avatars can represent the most ideal person we can possibly be. I think that putting hours into practicing that will benefit the entire world.
Thanks for the link Brian!
via Powered by the Tubes via Kotaku via TED: Ideas worth spreading
Power Outlet With Built in USB Ports
With the ubiquity of USB-powered devices in the world today, this power outlet makes perfect sense.
LEGO Mindstorms Rubik’s Cube Solver
All of this was built and programmed using the Lego Mindstorms NXT Retail-kit. Awesome!
From Tilted Twister:
Tilted Twister solves Rubik’s cube fully automatically.
Just place the scrambled cube on Tilted Twister’s turntable. An ultrasonic sensor detects its presence and starts to read the colors of the cube faces using a light sensor. The robot turns and tilts the cube in order to read all the faces. It then calculates a solution and executes the moves by turning, tilting and twisting the cube.
Here’s a video:
Robot Coolness
This is pretty amazing. I can’t help but view this as yet another weapon in the arsenal of our future robot overlords, though.
Thanks for the link, Darren!
Hybrid2 Bike Turns Human Energy Into Bus Energy
![Hybrid2 Public Bike [Image from Engadget.com]](http://cupojoe.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/hybrid2.png?w=404&h=271)
Now here’s an idea that just makes complete and total sense to me: hybrid bicycles usable by city dwellers that store energy via regenerative braking which is then redistributed back into the city’s power grid via special bike stands to be used by a fleet of electric buses. Bikes are unlocked and tracked by commuters with an RFID card. Each cyclist then builds credits based on how much energy they produce. These credit can then be traded in for free bus rides.
How awesome is that?
via Engadget
Battlestar Galactica, Simpsons Style
Here’s a great gallery of Battlestar Galactica characters drawn Simpsons-style. If you liked that, you might enjoy other sci-fi characters drawn Simpsons-style.
Two great tastes that taste great together.
via io9.com
WolframAlpha – Computational Knowledge Engine
I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about WolframAlpha in the twitterverse, but I didn’t check it out until now. First off, it isn’t a search engine like Google or Yahoo (though Google has Wolfram-like qualities like being able to do basic math). It’s an engine that does something with the data in question.
I can’t do any justice with words. It’s best if you just go experiment with the site for yourself. Try the following to get an idea of its capabilities:
- Calculate a mortgage
- Compare stocks
- Do your math homework
- Get name popularity rankings
- Get molecular structure diagrams
- Study music theory
- Measure your caloric intake
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, folks. What are you waiting for? Check it out!
UPDATE:
Here’s a great (experimental) Firefox Add-On that embeds Wolfram Alpha search results whenever you do a Google search. Also, be sure to check out the video tour by Wolfram Alpha’s creator–totally worth it!
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