It's all fun and games until...
Posted: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 12:10 AM by Will Femia
Alternate title for today's entry: Hold your Wii
It blows my mind that so many people are accidentally throwing their Wii controllers that there's an actual Web site devoted to the results. Very gross that the stories often involve "hands so sweaty that..." Ick.
Speaking of cutting edge controllers, "SpaceNavigator puts the fun back into 3D navigation." This makes tons of intuitive sense. It's like a little steering wheel.
Speaking of giving computers directions, BoingBoing relays news of a sensor system that allows a computer to recognize small vibrations. The pitch is that it can turn anything into a touch-tablet, but the quote at the end is what caught my eye: "We have made a system that can give any object, even a 3D one, a sense of touch." Recognizing small vibrations = sense of touch. Find Sarah Connor.
CIA seeks "Web generation"
Bees Trained to Sniff Out Bombs
I couldn't claim to report on the buzz online without mentioning the rash of pantiless Britney photos spreading around the Web. Basically, she gets out of a low car with a short skirt and I can't link to the result here. ABCNews has an article on the "accidental" flash as publicity tactic. I don't know if it's really a trend. Surely there have always been women who seek attention through inappropriate means.
"MTV’s Music and Logo Group is now developing at least 20 'hyper-programmed experiences,' which translate into narrow online channels, set to debut during the first half of next year." In this context, Mtv's television programming actually makes more sense. All those reality shows and pimp shows and crib shows... they're really Web sites shoe-horned into TV format.
Why Isn’t Internet Access Free For Travelers? I have to think that the real reason is that historically, the people who use wifi while traveling are business people who are able to expense the cost. That's the only time I've ever paid for it.
Presto: Because Computers Scare Old People - It's a printer that automatically prints what's sent to it, which I guess makes it a fax machine.
We'll know the Web 2.0 bubble has burst when Google stock crashes.
Measuring The Speed of Meme - I'm not sure this is going to work but I'll play along. He wants to see how long it takes for the link to spread around the Web. "A script I've written will track this meme (via Technorati) across the internet in 10 minute intervals."
Reinventing the nail - Part of Popular Science's Best of What's New 2006 series.
Warbloggers have picked up on the unusually frequent citations of "Capt. Jamil Hussein" in news reports from Iraq.
"It’s a gun that shoots law rather than bullets." The law he's talking about is a takedown notice when someone steals your creations in the Second Life video game. It's only the idea stage, and might seem a little specific to the game, but consider how much people get away with online because it's to tedious to go after every little offender of a law. An automation system could change the online environment pretty quickly.
I like to think of how the Internet will change the social sensibilities of future generations. Usually I consider the question in terms of how privacy will be defined. Michael Kinsley argues that the Web has fostered a new immodesty and solipsism.
It feels like there are a few video loops or neat edits in this video. Could anyone really spin on their head this many times?
Om Malik describes the essential philosophy behind Clicked and gives it a name: "Fat Belly." With so much online, aggregators that show "most linked," "most shared," "most viewed," etc., pages are the only way for the average person to keep a handle on what's happening online. Note the Bear Stearns report he mentions. "We believe value in the entertainment supply chain will shift from the creators of content to the aggregators/packagers of content."
Overlaid images of an airport runway
Aston Martin Evangelism - This post is a little hard to read because it's such a sales pitch, but then, that's probably why the company was so responsive and gave him a car to drive for a day. For the record, anyone at Confederate who wants to make this blogger really happy can reach me through the address on the left.
You might be a geek if... Face-mounted Lucid Dreaming Mask - I think the idea is that when it senses you're in REM sleep it flashes lights to make you aware of your state without actually waking you up.
