I ran across this program yesterday, and wonder if it’s worth trying. I’m pretty blown away by Spotlight, and am not sure I need to tag stuff on my Mac, or would really use the tags. Still, I love being able to tag stuff in other contexts, so maybe I would (particularly if there were a way to standardize vocabulary across my del.icio.us, technorati, flickr, blogs, and files on my computer).
Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, Ph.D.
I study people, technology, and the worlds they make
Month: June 2007 (page 1 of 5)
People waiting in line for the iPhone.
via flickr
Notice the TV trucks there, too. Today, the line is the point. And now that Paris Hilton is out of jail, I guess the TV people have to go cover something else.
via flickr
[To the tune of Electric Light Orchestra, “Telephone Line,” from the album “A New World Record“.]
Technorati Tags: Apple Store, Palo Alto
I’m getting a wifi connection at Cafe Barrone. It’s probably from one of the offices upstairs, but if it’s provided by the cafe, this could be a small social disaster. Within a week, they’re going to have people in tents, living around the fountain, shuttling between Keplers and Barrone.
And if I didn’t have children, I’d be one of them.
[To the tune of Amy Winehouse, “You Know I’m No Good,” from the album “Back to Black“.]
Technorati Tags: barrone, cafe, menlo park
Via the excellent RISKS list, a great example of how we misjudge dangers: more people have died from falling in sand holes than shark attacks:
More than two dozen young people have been killed over the last decade when sand holes collapsed on them, report father-and-son doctors who have made warning of the risk their personal campaign.
Since 1985, at least 20 children and young adults in the United States have died in beach or backyard sand submersions. And at least eight others died in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, according to a letter from the doctors published in this week’s issue of The New England Journal of Medicine….
[T]here were 16 sand hole or tunnel deaths in the United States from 1990 to 2006 compared with 12 fatal shark attacks for the same period, according to University of Florida statistics.
Basically, it sounds like any sand hole deeper than your waist is a problem. Some people die when the sides cave in and bury them- which can happen really quickly- while others just fall in break their necks. Yuck.
[To the tune of Sound Tribe Sector 9, “What is Love?,” from the album “2004-12-31 - Tabernacle“.]
Technorati Tags: beach, risk
The other night I came across a phenomenal review that Robert Christgau wrote of Paul Simon’s classic album Graceland in 1986.
Though it’s giving in to the album’s most suspect tendencies to begin
this way, I’m here to tell you that Paul Simon’s Graceland is a
tremendously engaging and inspired piece of work. If you like him
thorny it’s his best record since Paul Simon in 1972, if you
like him smooth you can go back to There Goes Rhymin’ Simon in
1973, and either way you may end up preferring the new
one. Simon-haters won’t be won over-his singing has lost none of its
studied wimpiness, and he still writes like an English major. But at
least Graceland gets you past these usages, because it boasts
(Artie will never believe this) a bottom. For Simon, this is
unprecedented. Graceland is the first album he’s ever recorded
rhythm tracks first, and it gives up a groove so buoyant it could
float a loan to Zimbabwe.
Alas, that last line is still all too timely….
I’ve recently been listening a lot to Amy Winehouse. I heard one of her songs- the unapologetically ribald “You Know I’m No Good”- on the flight to Singapore, and recently found a note about the song in the margins of my notebook. Some of her songs are just okay, but the best ones are jaw-dropping: like Oleta Adams or Jessica Andrews, she has a capacity to deliver astonishing performances, embedded in a sonic mix of soul, reggae, mbaqanga, and electronic (a combination that reminds me, of all unexpected things, of some of Bruce Cockburn’s work). Really something.
[To the tune of Amy Winehouse, “You Sent Me Flying,” from the album “Frank“.]
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Discovery Channel :: News - Technology :: Brain Device Moves Objects by Thought"The "brain-machine interface" developed by Hitachi Inc. analyzes slight changes in the brain's blood flow and translates brain motion into electric signals."
Discovery News reports on Hitachi's development of a simple brain-machine interface that "analyzes slight changes in the brain's blood flow and translates brain motion into electric signals." It's activated when it detects "activity in the brain's frontal cortex, which handles problem solving." In a recent demo, doing sums or singing a song activated an electric train, but researchers are working on other applications.
Underlying Hitachi's brain-machine interface is a technology called optical topography, which sends a small amount of infrared light through the brain's surface to map out changes in blood flow….
Since 2005, Hitachi has sold a device based on optical topography that monitors brain activity in paralyzed patients so they can answer simple questions — for example, by doing mental calculations to indicate "yes" or thinking of nothing in particular to indicate "no."
"We are thinking of various kinds of applications," project leader Hideaki Koizumi said. "Locked-in patients can speak to other people by using this kind of brain machine interface."
Technorati Tags: brain, end of cyberspace, interface
For Nintendo, anyway:
Nintendo Co. Ltd. zipped past Sony Corp. in market value on Monday and became one of Japan's top 10 issues for the first time, as it elbows the PlayStation maker out of its decade-long dominance of the game industry.
Nintendo has offered a slew of innovative and easy-to-use game software such as "Brain Age" and "Nintendogs" for its hardware in recent years, broadening the game-playing population beyond young males to women and the elderly.
Technorati Tags: end of cyberspace, games, interface
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Science Panel Finds Fault With Estimates of Coal Supply - New York Times"The United States may not have nearly as much coal as is popularly believed, and mining the remaining resources may be more dangerous for workers and the environment than current operations, the National Academy of Sciences said in a report Wednesday."
Add REST: WHY YOU GET MORE DONE WHEN YOU WORK LESS to your Goodreads shelf
My books on Goodreads
The Distraction Addiction: Getting the Information You Need and the Communication You Want, Without Enraging Your Family, Annoying Your Colleagues, and Destroying Your Soul
reviews: 78
ratings: 316 (avg rating 3.53)
ratings: 316 (avg rating 3.53)
