10.29.2009

The battles rage on

This week it is Android vs. Apple. Some third party came out with this "idontcare" video in response to the iDont commercial:



The irony is pretty thick of course. Apple is probably the king of abusing other brands for the purpose of self-promotion. At the end of the day I am not sure if mud slinging sells more units but I am sure it is funny to watch. Apparently at least one other third party would like to voice their opinion on the whole subject:

iDontgivea.... Tee Shirt

10.27.2009

Technology Rules...

Today at lunch we got to talking about the current and coming advances in technology. I thought I would list a couple of the most exciting updates to our lives...

Life 2.0?

Augmented Reality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality

Think Terminator. We are literally a year or two from having mass produced retinal projection devices so we can have information pumped into our field of view at all times allowing us to gain deeper insight into the world around us. What's it good for in a practical sense? Imagine you lost your keys. No worries, just ask your augmented reality virtual assistant to show you what direction they are in and how far away they are...




Robots
Guess what...when you were not looking robots became a reality. And I'm not just talking about those giant arms that took all the jobs welding cars...I am talking about C3PO and R3D2 level technology. Walking, bipeds and artificial intelligence with the conversational ability of, well...a mentally handicapped toddler...But still! It can talk to you!

Don't believe it? You better look here: http://robots.net/ and then start making sure you say nothing but nice things about robots because when they figure out they exist you want to be their friend. Most of the advanced technology in development today is designed with one purpose in mind: exterminating people. Granted, we like to think they will only exterminate evil doers in third world countries but...

Swarm Intelligence
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0910/0910.4116.pdf

...or the the emergent collective intelligence of groups of simple autonomous agents. I'm not really qualified to comment on this very much but believe me when I tell you it matters.

10.22.2009

Can you feel it?

north shore, fall leaves, comfort, wool sweater, staring off into space, cool crisp night air, coffee, Radiohead, burning wood, timelessness, driving with the moon roof open, with you...

10.07.2009

Check it out

Stories from youth: http://www.beasleykinkade.com/

10.05.2009

Movie database...

This new site is a cool way to search for movies based on abstract criteria...don't understand what this means? Well, imagine you really like movies on, about or in your hometown...with Jinni it is now possible to find them. In my case I searched on Boston...and the results were pretty spot on. (I collect Boston based movies.) I also like Westerns...works again.

But what if I want to search for something less tangible? Say I am in the mood for something captivating? Yep, Forrest Gump was the top result. Try it out!