Posted in Computing, tagged inventory, lifehacking, personalization on January 31, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I could really use a piece of software that helped keep track of all my junk. For most stuff, it would probably be enough to record that I simply have it. For sentimental items or things of significant financial worth, additional information-tracking like approximate cost, source, where the heck I’m keeping it, and [...]
Posted in Computing, Society & Politics, tagged election, empowerment through information, free society, social justice, voting on January 30, 2008 | No Comments »
Whenever I step into the voting booth, I quickly tick off the boxes for the categories where candidates have been spending lots of money on “informing” me how to vote. Stuff like: governor, president, senator, congress-human, etc.
But then I get to the lesser-known positions, and I’m kinda stumped on how to vote responsibly.
Fire Commissioner? [...]
Posted in Devices, tagged heating, piezoelectricity, self heating shoes, shoes on January 30, 2008 | No Comments »
Self-heating shoes. Shoes with electrically-powered heating elements around the toes. Very nice for those of us with poor circulation to the extremities.
Power is the big issue, though. Plug-in cords kinda put a damper on the whole “mobility-enabling” aspect of shoes. Batteries are probably reasonable, if one doesn’t mind changing them every [...]
Posted in Art, Musing, tagged humming, Music on January 28, 2008 | No Comments »
Humming.
Just humming. Could it become a viable musical form? Not beat-boxing, not body-music, not throat singing. Just humming.
I’m guessing the temptation to verbalize is too great. Human tongues demand to be used.
Posted in Musing, Science-ish, tagged artificial language, Health, jargon, Language, linguistics, Medical, simplification, Terminology on January 27, 2008 | No Comments »
The sheer volume of medical terminology is astounding. While terms are named according to generic greco-anatomical associations, even more seem to be idiosyncratically identified by the plethora of seventeenth to twentieth century medical researchers who happened to figure out how a given body part works. Since the human body is full of interconnected system with [...]
Posted in Art, Devices, tagged Music, Visualization, theremin, modifications, feedback on January 25, 2008 | No Comments »
The theremin is a pretty neat instrument. However, it is notoriously difficult to learn. I’d blame at least part of that difficulty on the fact that playing a hands-off instrument means that you must do so without the advantage of tactile reference points.
Let’s fix this by adding an array of holes somewhere [...]
Posted in Silly, tagged cuddles, cute, Music, Sappy on January 24, 2008 | No Comments »
Each person in the couple independently makes a short playlist of songs during the course of his/her day.
When they have a chance to actually spend quality time together but are too tired/broke/sick to engage in some other energy-requiring romantic activity, they instead cuddle while listening to the combined playlists.
The playlists could be interleaved or just [...]
Posted in Computing, Devices, tagged biometric, Devices, Health, toilet on January 24, 2008 | No Comments »
Put some simple flow-measuring equipment into a typical western toilet. Add optical and mass analysis equipment into the out-stream. Auto-detect/calculate/report some of the assorted properties of human waste that may be indicative of pathology. Red blood in the stool might be worth an alert on the first detect, while something simple like overly-darkened urine might [...]
Posted in Art, Silly, Society & Politics, tagged allegory, apocalyptic, Internet, Language, obfuscation, revelations, Silly, Social on January 24, 2008 | No Comments »
How about a news site that delivers modern news… spoken with the words of a prophetic madman?
I’m thinking of apocalyptic less in the “world is ending” sense and more in the “use of vivid imagery” and “mythologization of current events” and “hilariously gnostic word-choice.”
Most of the fun would be tied up in the humor and [...]
Posted in Silly, tagged insult, Silly on January 22, 2008 | No Comments »
“Sociable as a barnacle”
Posted in Art, Science-ish, tagged allegory, Education, Literature, Science, Social on January 21, 2008 | No Comments »
Stories are a great way to teach. Whether we’re talking about engaging “real life” narratives of modern human experience, or the epic tales propagated through the various modes of our cultural education.
Preachers have taken advantage of this for quite some time; mythic stories are probably the most memorable components of any given religious [...]
Posted in Art, Computing, tagged Computing, Internet, Music, Pandora, personalization on January 20, 2008 | No Comments »
I like Pandora Radio, the customizable music multi-station web-radio service thingy from the Music Genome Project. You type in a song or artist you like, it generates a list of what it figures to be similar songs, and you can fine-tune the list by thumbs-rating songs as they show up or appending another [...]
Posted in Art, Computing, Musing, tagged Computing, haptic, i/o, interface on January 18, 2008 | No Comments »
Just a question, no answers yet.
What are the factors limiting the development of tactilely-interactive video screens?
Posted in Computing, tagged Commentary, Internet, Organization, Social, Tags on January 18, 2008 | No Comments »
Why don’t more sites that rely on tagging for information organization use some form of tag-prompting and/or tag-tying?
Tag prompting could just be a simple “suggestion for autofill” affair. For any given tagging exercise, the system could match what you’ve typed so far in the tag field with your long-term “tag history” or the [...]
Posted in Silly, tagged humor, Silly, Social, wedding on January 16, 2008 | No Comments »
Things that would make a marriage event special in the way that certain sporting events are special.
Formal exchanging of business cards between groom and bride’s father.
Mandatory pre-adulterous pinching of the groom’s brother’s bottom by the bride.
In the absence of a brother, a priest or rabbi may suffice.
Synchronized gargling of the champagne.
Wedding guests throw rice [...]
