Technology


12
Feb 10

Thank God for meat

Sales of CJ Corporation’s snack sausages are on the increase in South Korea because of the cold weather; they are useful as a meat stylus for those who don’t want to take off their gloves to use their iPhones. It seems that the sausages, electrostatically speaking, are close approximations of the human finger. Here’s the not-entirely-useful English translation of a Korean news article about the soaring sausage sales. (via clusterflock)

link: Meat stylus for the iPhone



5
Feb 10

Nice way to start a new OS war.

The iPad is nothing more than a large iPod Touch. It’s lacking a 16:9 screen and while the bezel has to be of a reasonable size to allow for holding the device with your hand without your thumb poking the screen all the time, it’s simply too big. Finally those few people who’ve already used it are saying that having a standard keyboard on a device that you can’t rest easily on your lap and that is intended to be used one-handed is lunacy. Just look at the curved corner keyboards Microsoft introduced with the tablet editions of Windows to see how they should have done it.

link: Why the iPad will fail and help Windows 7 to succeed | Windows 7 News

I feel like OS 10.0 just came out again after reading this article. Way to go d-bag and be completely biased, but wait, no, you’re a journalist, so this was clearly not opinion but just the facts.

I don’t remember anybody calling it ugly, but you did, so lets talk about that. You call the iPad ugly, but you would rather use a netbook? Did I miss something?

Sorry, I read the article, and then just had to write down EXACTLY what I was feeling. I don’t want an iPad because I don’t think it will ever fit any purpose I may have for it. I think it does have a purpose and I certainly don’t think this will help Windows 7 adoption, I mean really, what the hell kind of comparison is this? That isn’t a comparison, this is a comparison… http://visitmix.com/Opinions/Kindle-vs-iPad-vs-Weimaraner



4
Feb 10

An interesting point about the iPad

Well done sir, you have harped on a particular piece of the puzzle that was starring at me the entire time.

The iPad isn’t the future of computing; it’s a replacement for computing. It’s the payoff to all the work done by multiple industries over the last 20–30 years. It’s the subtraction of 20lbs of textbooks in my son’s backpack, and the device I finally feel comfortable buying my parents. That’s why I was surprised by the reaction the iPad got the day it launched. Following along on Twitter I was seeing things like ‘underwhelming’, ‘meh’ , ’it’s not open’, ‘it’s just a big iPhone’, etc. And most of this stuff was coming from people who design and build interactive experiences. As designers, and technologists we’re very much aware that the interfaces we build are for people who are “not us,’ but we still haven’t made that leap about the concept of “computing.”

link: Mule Design Studio’s Blog: The Failure of Empathy

This device isn’t for me… This device is for my parents. This device is for the person that wants nothing to do with the complications of modern computing, rather would like the damn thing to just work.

They could honestly give a shit whether it’s a closed or open system. And, let’s be really honest, they probably care as much about DRM as they do about baseball players juicing; by which I mean not very much at all. They want things to work most of the time, and be easy to fix when they don’t. And if the process by which it happens is “magic” they are totally cool with that.

I was wrong in my initial assumption about the device. I can see this really taking off under these circumstances.



2
Feb 10

Godwin’s law takes a horrible new turn

Thanks to my uncle Greg for pointing me to this one

One word… Awesome


1
Feb 10

Multi Touch GUI for Desktops

There is a problem with multi touch for desktop, pain and interference. I don’t think this is the best way to solve those problems, but does put a new twist on changing the aging user interface before it’s too late.

10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.

I believe the system will not be a singular one as presented in the video. I believe the real change is the way we use computers entirely. Right now, the computer is how we do work, communicate with others, pay bills, schedule events, entertain, along with a whole list of other things I could spend years typing out.

Smart phones have started a slow change in how we view computing. We now have certain applications or situations that are better suited for use with a smartphone. Will we have a computer that sits on our desk much like an old calendar book? Something that does nothing more than to inform and remind us by grabbing all of our dates and calendar information from the cloud? Maybe phones do that already, but maybe you get my drift on where I am taking the conversation.

How will computers evolve?


1
Feb 10

NASA and the Entrepreneur

Obama calls for End to NASA’s Moon Program

I have several issues with this plan. My first is why independent organizations have the capability to go to space for pennies compared to what it costs NASA, and to do it without all of the resources. There is a system that works with them. If I have $250,000 I can go to space too thanks to spaceship one and virgin galactic.

My other issue with the idea that NASA should not build their own spacecraft anymore. They are the National Aeronautics and Space Administration last time I checked, not the Better Space Business Bureau. They should be building the next best thing for outer space travel.

Screen shot 2010-02-01 at 3.26.08 PM.png

What do I like about the plan? Giving NASA more money for scientific discovery of new experimental rockets and craft. Making them more like the small business space organizations that can focus on the quality of the crafts rather than the economics.

In short, don’t make NASA just a customer to the independent space programs. Use your size to develop cutting edge equipment. Use your resources to design the next generation vehicle. Don’t become a money manager for private industry, also don’t become an employee to other nations.


10
Dec 09

This pretty much explains it {infographic}

Yeah, its that big!

Yeah, its that big!


22
Jul 09

Public Radio Player (Heck yeah)

Now live in the iTunes Store: The Public Radio Player! We used to call it the Public Radio Tuner, but this version is so awesomely different that we’ve given it a new name, a new logo, and even a new Facebook page.

What’s so different? The Player has the station schedules and on-demand streaming that we’ve promised for months. (Incidentally, in that big survey we recently invited you to take, 75% of Tuner users requested each of those features. Done and done.) Such significant additions required a revamped user experience design. Nor did we let new development distract from the basics: We’ve improved stream performance, too.

As with all major releases, there are some quirks. We are reading your feedback and looking into the issues.

A note to stations: Check the Guide for Stations soon for Web graphics with the new logo and some fun on-air and online promos. Thanks as always for being the force behind the app’s success!

via Public Radio Player » Blog Archive » The Tuner is now a Play-ah.


22
Jul 09

Google Code Blog: Apollo 11 mission’s 40th Anniversary: One large step for open source code…

Maybe I can run an Apollo 11 emulator on my iphone…

Apollo 11 mission’s 40th Anniversary: One large step for open source code…Monday, July 20, 2009On this day 40 years ago, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon. This was quite an achievement for mankind and a key milestone in world history.To commemorate this event the Command Module code Comanche054 and Lunar Module code Luminary099 have been transcribed from scanned images to run on yaAGC an open source AGC emulator by the Virtual AGC and AGS project.

via Google Code Blog: Apollo 11 mission’s 40th Anniversary: One large step for open source code….


16
Dec 08

Even More Reason to use Firefox

A malignant security flaw found in all versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser has yet to be fixed, and the problem is spreading. Microsoft detailed the flaw in a security update blog post six days ago. Since then, the problem has spread across the globe, hitting at least 2 million computers.

via Internet Explorer is Unsafe … Still – PC World.