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us
December 20 to 31, 2005
Have a very happy New Year's, everyone. Th
us
ends the first full year of Kev's News...
A "laptop battery breakthrough" enables more precise readings of battery life, implications for all gadget types: http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/29/b
us
iness/battery.htm...
The EFF releases Tor, an anonymo
us
Internet communications system. Note it's still in progress...
Are you a PC
us
er who bought an iPod? With rumors of a sub-$500 Mac, many are thinking of switching...
There are now over 100,000 Windows vir
us
es...
Never mind those old 50's survival bunkers. Get yourself a new U.S. Bunker and prepare for the terrorist invasion! http://www.
us
bunkers.com...
"Prescription Drug
us
e at Record High for Americans"...
The weight of American tourists is ca
us
ing chairs on the Queen Mary 2 to break...
Antimicrobial products may harm developing nervo
us
systems...
The winner of the second Dwell eco-prefab ho
us
e contest...
This is a working graphic design of a computer, the first I've seen. Have there been other designs like this, either recently or in the ancient past? I envision a lot of interactive modern art in thi...
The "gallery of computation" has gotten both larger and more varied over the last year or so. Great stuff...
Amazing full-color turn-of-the-century R
us
sian photos...
Cutting-edge graffiti art by Mr. Totem...
Detailed, richly colored scientific photography...
Beautiful photos of Alaska by Norio Matsumoto...
The New York Times' 2004 year in pictures...
The greatest opening song lines...
The Black Keys make some great lo-fi blues rock. Some say they're better than the White Stripes...
Mash-ups, or combinations of songs, are going mainstream and making big bucks for some...
In a pioneering survey, most artists and m
us
icians think that file sharing is not a threat...
The RIAA and MPAA are intentionally putting adware into Windows Media files to thwart file sharing...
April 25 to May 1, 2005
Here's a comprehensive technical overview of Tiger, and why its software architecture for recording, composing, and playing images, movies, m
us
ic and generally any kind of media is light years ahea...
I j
us
t want to make a phone call - the new Nokia N91 has a 4GB hard drive, camera, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, mp3 player, headphone jack,
us
B connector, FM radio, Web browser, and records video...
"The Wal-Mart 'Foundation' is nothing more than a front group for Wal-Mart Stores Incorporated, and should not be conf
us
ed for a real charitable non-profit"...
Canada once took in 50,000 Vietnam-era draft dodgers. But today it's denying political asylum to those who ref
us
e to participate in the Iraq war...
Hawaii-grown tea could become a world-famo
us
if these growers have their way...
Bamboo bikes could be a great ind
us
try for bamboo-filled regions...
Feeling creative? Bring in some new blood...
Click the face...
A simple, well-designed game - Guess the Google...
Mathematicians turn an Escher drawing into a trippy interactive experience. Check out the movies...
The all-wood m
us
ical door/doorchime based on the African tongue drum. What a great concept...
Training wheels, rethought...
Photo Stitching
Beautifully photographed abandoned structures in Japan...
Why is the FBI plastering notices all over CDs, to the dismay of artists and consumers alike...
The beautiful long-lost m
us
ic of Red Hash, circa 1973...
21st Century M
us
ic Videos
April 18 to 24, 2005
If you have a
us
ed mobile phone, you could try shipping it to this non-profit...
S
us
pended animation gets one step closer to reality...
us
e two microphones with your Mac with this cheap $16 gadget...
The Firebox is the most compact, fully-featured FireWire recording interface I've ever seen. Looks like it should be excellent for recording on the road with a laptop...
Verizon and Movielink announced a movie download service for broadband
us
ers...
The EU last year fined Microsoft $700 million for ab
us
ing its near-monopoly in the software ind
us
try. Meanwhile, an EU Commissioner who could affect the amount of these fines was invited to a lavish...
J
us
t beca
us
e you're a penguin doesn't mean that you're not a terrorist...
"By approving liquid marijuana, the Canadian government has j
us
t certified that virtually everything our own government has been telling
us
about marijuana is wrong"...
ClearChannel will be tagging its m
us
ic with color codes that reflect "indecent" content. Blue songs are OK, while orange songs can only be played after 10pm...
Rethinking The Everyday Things
The sandal-combination-bottle opener! Perfect to wear with the TV/DVD-combination-beer fridge mentioned last week...
The scratchophone, the portable scratching bongo drum...
3D street paintings...
An impressive photographic archive of mistakes. Check out "lost my job" and "women live longer"...
Another example of how people see only what they want (or are directed) to see - motion-induced blindness (and many other nifty optical ill
us
ions)...
April 11 to 17, 2005
This week saw a number of profiles of a new generation of activists. Some
us
e the latest technology to promote the environment, some are resorting to radical measures to make their voices heard, an...
In related news, thanks to Google Maps, you can see how the forestry ind
us
try is de-greening British Columbia via clear-cutting. Hopefully activists will make
us
e of this new tool to help enforc...
I get some traffic to this site from people looking for information on Devendra Banhart. Here's a great beginner's overview of "freak folk", with information on artists, albums, influences, and m
us
i...
New physics chips are taking reality simulation to the next level: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/b
us
inesstechnology/2002237485_btvideophysics11.html?syndication=rs...
The iPod DJ mixer: http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/m
us
ical-instruments/numarks-ipod-dj-mixer-039853.ph...
It now seems possible to start and maintain a scalable company
us
ing nothing but hosted Web applications. Who needs machine rooms any more? As the net gets faster, physical location becomes mor...
It's official - all the greatest new technology will be here in five years: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/04/11/popularity_of_
us
ing_.htm...
The addictive ADD drug Adderall is becoming popular among college students, who
us
e it to concentrate and stay awake for long periods at a time...
If case you're wondering why I'm so concerned about this topic, that's beca
us
e I work for an RFID startup and know full well the problems this can ca
us
e...
Did you know that samples of a flu vir
us
were mistakenly sent to 3,700 labs around the world and that some have gone missing? This normally would not ca
us
e worry except for the fact that the vir
us
i...
Laptop design is ca
us
ing posture-related problems...
The Mother Jones graphic expose on the modern ho
us
e...
The number one buyer of rice in the U.S. threatens a boycott if GMO crops are grown: http://www.cnn.com/2005/
us
/04/12/beer.genetic.ap/index.htm...
A reader poll reveals the ugliest cars of 2005. I definitely agree with the top four...
Portraits of normal, everyday people by Naomi Harris...
Give your photos the comic treatment with Photoshop...
Interactive textiles are changing the shape and texture of electronic gadgets...
Here's the lightest, smallest portable sound system any world traveler could want...
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails made a song available in Apple's GarageBand format. This is likely the first time a m
us
ician has released the editable digital raw tracks to a song online. Let's se...
April 4 to 10, 2005
Low-power FM (LPFM) radio, devised by the FCC to provide an alternative to corporate-centric radio, is now being dominated by Christian radio networks, effectively limiting the diversity of loca...
This may promote the growth of more Earth graffiti though, not to mention (ugh) advertisements. I can easily see ad campaigns making
us
e of this...
Instant re
us
able whiteboard sheets are so cool.
us
eful for traveling workers, artists, and people without magnetic refrigerators...
This new wireless
us
B prototype dongle will make any
us
B device wireless...
The book "Shadow Cities" describes squatter cities - they end up being cleaner and safer than low-income ho
us
ing developments...
Interviews with over 300 people who live in mountaino
us
regions around the world, with their perspectives on change and development...
An interview with the CEO of the last pinball machine manufacturer on Earth...
President B
us
h's approval rating is the lowest ever for a 2nd-term president. J-Walk provides a nice graph...
Best Buy arrests a man for
us
ing $2 bills. The police said "It's a sign that we're all a little nervo
us
in the post-9/11 world." I didn't know that terrorists paid for their nuclear weapons
us
ing $...
How well is the U.S. doing regarding the 14 defining characteristics of fascism? You may not agree with all of the points, but a few sure hit the mark: http://www.b
us
hflash.com/14.htm...
China spends three times the world average on energy to produce $1 of gross domestic product - and 70% of its energy comes from coal. Beca
us
e the U.S. isn't in the Kyoto accord, imported Chines...
With 99% confidence, researchers have found that planetary biodiversity comes and goes roughly every 62 million years, and may be due to astrophysical ca
us
es. Looking at the graph, I think we're at ...
Did you know that in 2000, EPA-banned GMO corn was found in Taco Bell tacos, which could produce anaphylactic shock? Here's more on how corporations are surreptitio
us
ly introducing GMO into th...
Hey developers!
us
e Ecoglo, non-radioactive, non-toxic, non-battery-
us
ing technology for your emergency lighting systems...
The new Breezeho
us
e, a modern prefab home designed for "casual indoor-outdoor living"...
The found footage festival consists of movies retrieved from trash bins all over the U.S. Check out the preview trailer...
The neo-psychedelic art of Shawn Wolfe...
The work of graphic spin-doctor Glenn Feron. In case you thought those media images reflected reality...
Art made via electromagnetic fields...
New artistic ways to compose m
us
ic...
Another elegantly-designed kitchen timer...
622 m
us
ic videos...
March 28 to April 3, 2005
What blows my mind is that many of the documents I examined and commented on came from the 1992 hypertext www-talk archives, which I helped archive in the first place,
us
ing software that I wrot...
If you have an iPod, this well-designed guide to all things poddish - software, accessories, reviews - is a m
us
t-read...
us
e your cell phone to pay for parking. These systems greatly reduce cost, maintenance, and long lines...
Very cool drag-and-drop sortable lists with CSS and JavaScript. Let's see a m
us
ic playlist interface...
In 2001 Poland hired a marketing firm to rebrand themselves. Foc
us
groups said Poland made them think of the words gray, cold, vodka, poor, white, unsmiling, sad, and car-stealing...
Today's college students are getting
us
ed to downloading high-speed movies and m
us
ic on demand from their computers...
All the great hackers are switching to Macs, again mirroring the early growth of the Web (which was developed on an ancestor of today's Mac, the NeXT). We'll j
us
t see what happens...
Unfortunately, all the armor on their Strykers is ca
us
ing tire pressure problems...
Derren Brown
us
es basic psychological principles to perform amazing "mind-reading" and mass hypnotism tricks...
Homeland Security is now calling its RFID chips in U.S. passports "contactless chips" beca
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e it sounds safer. Unfortunately, without encryption they'll make it easier than ever for terrorists to fin...
Did you know that McDonald's is on its way to being the largest corporate land owner in R
us
sia? Perhaps I should get passports issued by McDonald's...
1,360 scientists from 95 countries say that two-thirds of the world's resources are "
us
ed up" in a four-year $24 million U.N.-sponsored survey...
Meanwhile, high gas prices are affecting small b
us
inesses, farmers...
Things to
us
e when clean water gets scarce - the AquaPak costs a dollar to make, runs on solar, and can purify up to four gallons of water a day...
Atkins Nutritionals admits its diet could be dangero
us
...
A shortage of silicon is making solar cells scarce. A federal program could help, but funding for solar energy has gone from "pathetic" to "laughable and ridiculo
us
"...
Gory images of this year's Canadian seal hunt: http://www.s
us
anscott.net/OceanWatch1998/mar30-98.htm...
The site for the prefab Flatpak ho
us
e has been revised and is better than ever, with lots of nice pictures...
The world's ugliest car, made in 1957, was restored from a pile of junk to a polished, functional car...
More wacky, un
us
ual album covers...
Jared Tarbell's Gallery of Computation continues to get more beautiful and eerily biological at the same time...
Sin City is the first true movie/graphic novel hybrid. Here's a comic-to-screen comparison...
Here's a crab-cracking tool that's well-designed due to looking at the problem from a novel perspective...
Kits turn Subaru vans into VW microb
us
imitations and more...
A small visual poem of a lonely Japanese street singer (may be down)...
An interview with the most influential woman in rock, Patti Smith...
March 21 to 27, 2005
Once upon a time, anti-war/pro-peace messages in mainstream media were a little more direct, involving protest m
us
ic with pointed lyrics and shocking fashion. Now in today's information-cynical world...
This was a top item in news all over the world this week: Banksy, an artist mostly known for his quality graffiti work, snuck into New York's most famo
us
m
us
eums and affixed his anti-war work to th...
Rock group Franz Ferdinand's m
us
ic video "Take Me Out" won the "Breakthrough Video" award at the 2005 MTV Video M
us
ic Awards. It
us
es high-tech techniques to create dense living collages patterne...
Finally, indie rock group the Decemberists released a high-res version of their m
us
ic video "Sixteen Military Wives" via file sharing. They are among the first m
us
icians to release a m
us
ic vide...
Contact lenses are being
us
ed for all sort of things these days. Here's some fashion glitter contacts that look pretty sexy...
Viral marketing is huge these days. In this article are a few dos and don'ts of viral marketing: http://www.wired.com/news/b
us
iness/0,1367,66960,00.htm...
A blogged picture of a procession in Spain demonstrates the rising
us
e of cell phone cameras to capture major events...
Also,
us
e your persistent vegetative state to be "cynically manipulated for the ca
us
e of your choice"...
If the U.S. Constitution were written like an End-
us
er License Agreement...
Los Alamos National Lab scientists find a way to detect fingerprints via their chemical residue: http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php?f
us
eaction=home.story&story_id=234...
Environment Hawaii, an independent, nonprofit, award-winning publication that has been around for nearly 15 years may be going out of b
us
iness due to lack of financial support. It's the last 100...
At last, "rising gas prices threaten viability of biggest SUV sales". Note that many Americans are still buying inefficient vehicles and driving them farther to boot...
Here's what sumo wrestlers eat to grow weight, and the recipe for making it. Looks delicio
us
...
Here's the best article on the walking octop
us
I could find...
A compliment to last week's interview with Robert Crumb, an interview with Aline Kominsky-Crumb, his wife...
The out-of-the-canvas artwork of Paul Critchley...
Transparent screens - I want something that changes with the amount of ambient light...
A lot of people commented this week on Tom Waits' top 20 albums of all time, a great list worth hearing. Why isn't there an iTunes M
us
ic Store playlist of this stuff...
U.S. m
us
ic sales rise, despite massive amounts of file sharing action on the net...
March 14 to 20, 2005
Did you know that Hawaiian is the sole growing indigeno
us
language in the U.S.? Still, there are only about 8,000 Hawaiian-language speakers right now...
Only in Hawaii - people made corned beef s
us
hi with green rice for St. Patrick's day. I think it should be a symbol of world unity or something. Note that this type of s
us
hi (m
us
ubi) is
us
ually mad...
James Dyson's new vacuum cleaner's called "The Ball" - instead of p
us
hing it back and forth, you roll it around...
A tiny HDTV tuner on a
us
B stick...
Towards tolerance - "Under armed guard, a woman broke with more than a tho
us
and years of Islamic tradition to lead men and women in a prayer service yesterday in Manhattan"...
TV shows for modern kids - this children's show features m
us
ic by a hip roster of post-punk acts...
Here's the story of Simlish, the fictional language of the very popular video game "The Sims", and the people behind it: http://thesims2.ea.com/getcoolstuff/m
us
ic/360.mp...
How fast can mistakes travel in this digital age? Thanks to a transcriptionist's typo, a 1962 nuclear test blast called "Project Sedan" was renamed "Project Sudan", ca
us
ing an international inciden...
us
ing the BlueSniper rifle, hackers were able to extract information from PDAs and cell phones from people in the U.S. Bank building in L.A. from over a mile away...
Take a break to read the underrated poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, "the German language's greatest poet of the 20th century". His unique style of writing translates exceptionally well...
Cropless circles, made on sand...
Beautiful aquatic creatures made from hubcaps...
Shiny handmade aluminum guitars...
Latte art...
us
e this magnetic paint to make any surface sensitive to magnetism. No idea if it's eco-friendly though...
Peep surgery - this one's a classic, still funny, and j
us
t in time for Easter...
The Flickr postcard browser...
Merge 50 photos of any given topic, and you get artful atmospheric pictures of concepts...
This photographer is doing a booming b
us
iness capturing 144 megapixel photos - they're so sharp that a picture of an entire building can be
us
ed to inspect cracks...
Some artists are slicing up billboards, recombining them into new images...
March 7 to 13, 2005
There's a potpourri of online recycling and disposal service resources for the state, but they all offer overlapping, redundant, conf
us
ing, incomplete, and inaccurate information. Why can't there be ...
New input devices are challenging the stat
us
quo! Here's the rollermo
us
e for stressless mo
us
ing...
Too b
us
y to go to Kinko's? Try PrintFu...
Power to the people? For the first time a blogger is given access to a White Ho
us
e press briefing...
One of my pet topics - what happens to your data and online personality after you die? This article
us
es the case of Aaron Huth, who still has an online presence (and bank account) a year after hi...
Andrew Sullivan observes how the iPod is isolating society. Well, how about allowing others to listen to your iPod wirelessly, Apple? Unite the world with m
us
ic...
An interview with cartoonist Robert Crumb, from his ho
us
e in France...
View the U.S. dollar's secret markings that can only be seen in infrared: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mari
us
m/6333589...
Half of the world's 6,000 languages will disappear in less than a century, leading to "grave consequences for biodiversity" says the U.N.. Most people
us
e one of only 8 languages...
A
us
tralian scientists prove that less trees along the Amazon River mean less rain...
Let's see Starbucks
us
e these new paper coffee cups that are decomposable and biodegradable. The U.S. Navy's ordered 20 million of them...
There's lots of great interface ideas and art in the Flash Film Festival finalists...
Drawn! A new groovy blog about "ill
us
tration, art, cartooning and drawing"...
The Colored Pencil Society of America's 2004 award winners...
Giant Steps - a great animated visualization of John Coltrane's classic jazz number...
An imaginative new Adidas commercial explores the world of dreamtime...
The video jigsaw puzzle. Let's see more of these...
Colorful photos of beetles and moths...
101 Zen stories...
"I don't see / the point of Haiku / in English" - the first(?) haiku poetry slam...
Book Art
The Flickr guide to the planet - beautiful photos from around the world, via Gridskipper...
The world's thinnest building, with a very colorful history...
The bottomless coffee table...
Historic video clips from the 1960's...
Listen to Dr. Demento shows online...
For the first time, a m
us
ic festival has released its entire live content online - 2.6GB worth...
It's likely that Axl Rose's next album, which has been in the works for 10 years at a cost of over $13 million, is the most expensive album ever made...
New Order's new m
us
ic posters beam m
us
ic, art, and ringtones to nearby cell phones...
The blogosphere's raving about 27 year-old Maya Arulpragasam, daughter of a Sri Lankan revolutionary, who's mixing terrorist themes with pop art and m
us
ic and ca
us
ing an stir among critics as well a...
February 28 to March 6, 2005
Howard Stringer becomes Sony's first non-Japanese CEO, after five years of stock declines and poor b
us
iness decisions. The beginning of the end was circa 1998, when the mp3 community (then a loos...
Add this little gadget to your toilet to make it dual fl
us
h - save lots of water and money...
Adobe open sources software that can be
us
ed to build systems with complex dependency graphs...
More on T-Mobile's security - an undocumented backdoor in their systems allowed a hacker to gain access to extremely confidential c
us
tomer information, including people's data from their Sidekicks...
Flirt with iTunes - boy meets girl via m
us
ic sharing and manages to swipe 700MB of her songs as well...
Here's a helpful list of resources to
us
e for when your iPod battery dies...
Telcos are
us
ing legislation to prevent large-scale free public wireless networks...
The ind
us
trial chicken catcher. Watch the video.....
Ira Rennert's ho
us
e was featured on VH1 this week. It's the largest in the world, containing over 100,000 square feet worth of structures, 30 bathrooms, and its own power plant. He owned the compan...
Extreme bomb blasts are ca
us
ing an "alarming increase" in the amount of Iraqi vets with brain damage...
A "brain pacemaker" turned previo
us
ly untreatable "beyond suicidal" people into antique dealers and PTA members. Ever seen "The Terminal Man"...
HIV/AIDS' impact on life expectancy in Africa - the big picture: http://web.acsalaska.net/~benm
us
e/blog/2005_02_01_archive.html#11093136429414417...
Big art projects pay off - The Gates generated $254 million in economy activity, with 4 million visitors...
The New York Public Library Digital Gallery...
The online rerelease of the acclaimed animated short "Balance"...
Ancient computer ads. 32KB RAM, wow...
One of the better online color scheme generators I've seen...
Hm, I like this free font browser. Fast, WYSIWYG, and to the point, unlike many free font sites...
Fliker, an interesting image browsing interface...
More on the DJammer, the "next-generation electric guitar"...
Smithsonian Global Sound, their new online m
us
ic store offering the Smithsonian's world m
us
ic collection...
February 21 to 27, 2005
To those electronics manufacturers who have been talking trash about the iPod, I would counter: stop burdening your devices with needless features and design bling bling -
us
able elegance is the ne...
The 1GB Secure Digital
us
B card...
The Korg video mixing device for VJs: http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/m
us
ical-instruments/economy-of-scales-korg-kaptivator-034084.ph...
Forget ringtones. The smart money is in toothbr
us
hing m
us
ic! "Several recording artists" are in talks...
The late Hunter S. Thompson often visited Hawaii and wrote many infamo
us
things there. Here's the best take on him, by Honolulu-based writer William Moake...
In a panel at a Web conference in 1995 I talked about the inevitable rise of instant stardom and its perils, once the Web got popular. Here are some of the latest subjects - a very funny online vide...
Here's a brilliant b
us
iness and innovative social practice - I haven't heard of any historical precedents for this social role. The b
us
iness is "Wingwomen", where shy bachelors pay $50 an hour fo...
Tommy Chong is the star of "The Marijuana-Logues", a very funny and critically acclaimed pot-centric parody of the "The Vagina Monologues", which started this month. Beca
us
e of parole restriction...
The court belongs to the Burj Al Arab, purported to be the world's best and most luxurio
us
hotel. Here's an opulent virtual tour...
Visa will be
us
ing the same technology for its credit cards, but with multiple layers of encryption and fraud detection. Beca
us
e in the U.S., money is far more important than your identity...
People
us
ing T-Mobile services (like Paris Hilton, who had her personal address book posted all over the net this week) should realize how incredibly easy they are to hack...
Wal-Mart flew in a team of labor experts to counter 21 year-old employee Joshua Noble and 17 others who tried to form a union. Despite international attention, the effort failed. "It's j
us
t a bunch o...
New super-cool solar roof tiles blend invisibly into ho
us
etops. Let's see these around town...
The new 1-kilometer high Solar Tower, which could power 200,000 homes, has found a building site in A
us
tralia. This got a lot of press this week...
The cool trailer for the new movie based on the Philip K. Dick novel "A Scanner Darkly". In nine years, everything you do will be recorded...
Canada's Oscar-winning animated short film "Ryan"...
This quality photoshop contest shows real life, cubed...
A Londoner's ho
us
e is full of wall-to-wall collections...
This design concept shows a great way to recycle water bottles...
The elegant Eva Solo magnetic (kitchen) timer...
How to build a beautiful 136 foot-high ice wall. A picture...
Bored? Try pixel art,
us
ing Post-Its for pixels...
Stuff For Web Developer...
Turns out Google Maps isn't that new. Here's its predecessor, an amazing zooming map of Switzerland...
It isn't perfect, but I like the clean, no-frills information design of Metacritic...
The first Grammy winner in the Best Hawaiian M
us
ic Album category, "Slack Key Guitar Volume 2", hit number one on Billboard's World M
us
ic chart and number two on the New Age chart. If you buy it, kee...
February 14 to 20, 2005
Hawaii's poetry slam team made quite a splash last year at the national poetry slam competition in St. Louis. You can watch their inspiring performances in a new documentary on the subject calle...
I went to the last meeting of 106 Miles, a new Silicon Valley entrepreneur's group organized by Joyce Park, my colleague at CommerceNet. If you'd like to get your finger on the pulse of the Valle...
Scientists create the first deafness "cure"
us
ing gene therapy...
The mating scent of the German cockroach has been found - here's the clever methods scientists
us
ed...
The DJammer, HP Labs' digital m
us
ic scratching tool...
The grisly story of Manadel al-Jamadi, which j
us
t became fully known - he died in Abu Ghraib while hung from his wrists...
B
us
h and Kerry - a visual comparison...
Chloroflourocarbon-free expanded polystyrene ho
us
ing can withstand the worst earthquakes recorded and is energy-efficient too...
Central Park's Gates - here are QuickTime VR panoramas...
The Grafik Dynamo assembles random words and images from the Web into strangely compelling and surreal comic strips...
Intricate snow sculptures from the International Snow Championships 2005...
A trippy 3D kaleidoscope...
Funny finger artistry. Select "GB" and then "videos"...
This is not new, but I m
us
t have forgotten to mention it here last year - the elegantly designed Toro(tm) tissue ring...
Lots of retro album cover designs here at the Mod Pop Punk archives...
Jazz composer Maric Schneider is likely the first artist ever to win a Grammy for an album that was solely distributed on the Web...
February 7 to 13, 2005
us
B flash drives are now as big as 8GB...
Today's Web designers should learn how to
us
e the XMLHttpRequest object to build highly dynamic interfaces like Google Maps, Google Suggest, and Gmail...
An Ikea store opening in London turns into a riot, leaving 20 with heat exha
us
tion and five in the hospital...
Podcasting is getting more media attention, along with front page space in
us
A Today. Here's a good overview of the state of podcasting right now...
Careful, identity thieves can masquerade as legitimate wireless hotspots: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/
us
atoday/20050207/bs_
us
atoday/identitythievescanlurkatwifispot...
Generation X now spends more on travel than baby boomers do: http://www.
us
atoday.com/money/biztravel/2005-02-08-xtrav-
us
at_x.ht...
GPS technology is killing lightho
us
es. What will happen if GPS fails...
George B
us
h explains his plan to save Social Security...
A conservative pro-B
us
h anti-homosexual journalist who had "unfettered" access to the White Ho
us
e and CIA documents was revealed as working under an alias and having close ties to male ga...
A new study shows that melatonin may have broader effects in the brain than previo
us
ly thought...
If you want to do it yourself,
us
e this...
View all of the 2005 Super Bowl ads here, including the rejected and/or censored ones...
A new digital animation technique - making people dance in a robotic pop-lock style. Here's an amazing remix of Gene Kelly in "Singing In The Rain"...
Reality Is Subjectiv...
The super-cool baby name wizard. How popular has a name been over time...
The m
us
hroom version of the Game of Life. Let's see more visualizations that take time into account...
This surreal 1980's Estonian TV commercial for minced chicken meat has been making the rounds...
Recording an album? Here's how to make an inexpensive yet powerful m
us
ic studio out of your Mac mini...
Writing a screenplay? Here's why movies go bad, written by an ind
us
try insider - too many writers...
Designing product packaging? Here are professional competitive analyses in a number of categories...
A transcript of Gene Simmon's very funny interview with Terry Gross on NPR, which was replayed last week...
Lawrence Lessig writes on why Wilco represents the future of m
us
ic...
January 31 to February 6, 2005
I broke down and got one of the last iPod shuffles - the 1GB model - at the Ala Moana Apple store. Its competitors tout radio and recording capabilities, but on such gadgets the line-in recordin...
A new ind
us
try group has been formed for holographic discs, which may store up to 1TB - that's one terabyte, or about 1,000GB...
This was popular - the s
us
hi chef that prints his food from an inkjet...
The U.S. now has over 830,000 net phone subscribers: http://www.
us
atoday.com/money/ind
us
tries/technology/2005-01-26-managing-tech-
us
at_x.ht...
Microsoft is mad about all the Apple iPods that employees are buying and
us
ing at work...
Intellectual property lawyers are destroying the military model ind
us
try. Aren't defense contractors making enough money these days...
The m
us
ic ind
us
try sued an 83-year-old dead woman for file sharing...
Sales of $1 million-pl
us
homes in San Francisco grew an amazing 73% last year...
Wacky
us
es for things...
Here's one French artist's succinct ref
us
al to tour in the U.S. thanks to "exceedingly probing" security questions...
Try
us
ing these climate change bumper stickers...
How the Atkins diet is affecting fast-food men
us
...
Art m
us
t survive to nourish the spirit. Here's blast wall art in Baghdad...
Brian Dear wrote a funny review of a Laurie Anderson concert he went to recently, in the form of a Laurie Anderson monologue...
Modern artists remix thrift store art...
Yet even more bad album covers - here's a top ten list...
The McNipple, from artist Casey Weldon...
Cool little animated movies from sheepfilms...
Fantasy coffins in Ghana...
M
us
ic band fonts...
A film about Nomi, the strange yet influential bleeding-edge 80's artist...
Turn your Mac into a streaming m
us
ic station with Nicecast...
January 24 to 30, 2005
It's time for Hawaii to promote innovate mixed-
us
e b
us
inesses that foster community development. Mentioned last week was the concept of "bike stations", which could be placed next to mas...
How about a wi-fi cafe combined with a print-on-demand bookstore? Now that so many book sales are online, how about putting the bookstore in the cafe instead of the cafe in the bookstore? A suitabl...
Or how about emulating the b
us
iness model of San Francisco's Brainwash, a successful cafe-and-laundromat that also sells t-shirts and hosts local m
us
icians as well as comedy nights? They've got a We...
Scientists have succeeded in turning stem cells into nerve cells. This may allow cures for those with nervo
us
system injuries and diseases...
All about the new spacesuit of the future, now under development at MIT. It looks nothing like those suits in "2001"...
us
ing Skype (voice over the Internet), John Perry Barlow was called at random by two young women, one in Vietnam and one in Korea, wanting to learn how to speak English. Here's his reflections on "th...
The 101 dumbest moments in b
us
iness. Number three: the chairman of gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson was forced to resign after it was discovered that he spent 15 years in prison for a string of arme...
The B
us
h administration OKs drilling for oil in rare grassland in New Mexico, despite objections from the state's governor, who
us
ed to be the Secretary of Energy in the Clinton administration. Thi...
Whole-grain foods are becoming an ind
us
try trend. Wonder Bread now makes a whole-grain alternative, following "unprecedented consumer interest in healthier foods"...
The government is acc
us
ing DuPont of hiding materials that suggest that a chemical in Teflon leads to cancer and birth defects. Not only that, the chemical's been found in people's bloodstreams. Afte...
Only nine chlorine plants in the U.S. put eight tons of mercury into the environment each year, although some say 65 more tons are unaccounted for annually. This is mostly due to the
us
e of obsolet...
Thanks to rampant over-prescription of antibiotics for over half of U.S. patients, antibiotics may be
us
eless in 50 years...
Why don't local supermarkets sell re
us
able shopping bags at time of checkout? Here's how some towns in A
us
tralia managed to ban disposable plastic bags at supermarkets, saving 350,000 bags in th...
Incredible before-and-after comparisons of the faces of meth
us
ers...
Un
us
ual events "unheard of in the history of seismology" have been recorded in the Andaman and Nicobar islands since the tsunami...
The Pack 'n' Chair, a foldable chair/backpack/cooler...
Photography by Misty Keasler: Japanese love hotels, deep East Texas, R
us
sian orphanages, holy places, and Guatemala city dump...
Here's how to make your own Life Poster with iPhoto...
Generate, print, and cut your own 12-sided calendar...
The 2005 Lunar Wheel calendar...
This Target ad is a clever look into how design shapes our culture and environment...
About the production of Richard Linklater's new movi...
Here are the best images from recent sunspot activity, from January 15 to 21...
Bembo's Zoo, which makes animals out of letters. The site is fun for kids and designers...
The top 100 soundtracks of all time...
January 17 to 23, 2005
I had the pleasure of listening to XM Satellite Radio all week (which was bundled with my Alamo rental car) while working in Mountain View, CA. It sounds great and the m
us
ic choices are wonderful...
I went to the Palo Alto Apple Store, which until 1995
us
ed to be Swain's Ho
us
e of M
us
ic, where the Grateful Dead played a few times and where it's rumored that Jerry Garcia bought one of his firs...
A new cheap DVD recorder (sold at Wal-Mart for $140) may make the VCR obsolete: http://www.syrac
us
e.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1104918939312170.xm...
Cornell researchers figure out how to make plastic from citr
us
fruits and CO2, eliminating the need to
us
e petroleum to make plastics...
"Villagers furio
us
with Christian Missionaries...
The dollar is so weak internationally that drug dealers are now doing b
us
iness in Euros...
A prototype car by Ford is described as a "rolling urban command center", with bullet-resistant windows, protective shutters, and a mini-home theater...
This cover is hilario
us
...
"B
us
h Gets Positive Rating In Three Countries...
Need thermal or aco
us
tic insulation?
us
e eco-friendly itch-free insulation products...
Never mind the U.S. - electronics companies are
us
ing less lead in products thanks to European Union regulations...
Ecological pole ho
us
es. And the company is Hawaii-based...
License to sit - this art piece reflects on our ever-growing "culture by permission"...
The digested read - popular novels condensed to 100 words. It sure has saved me some time...
Learn Disco...
Images of dense Hong Kong living - reminds me of the Matrix...
Were Robert Johnson's recordings deliberately made faster? Slow his m
us
ic by 20% to match actual guitar pitch and you get a whole new perspective on his amazing talents...
January 10 to 16, 2005
The big news in Kev's world this week was the introduction of the Mac mini - it's a small yet powerful box not much wider than a CD that supports pretty much any display, keyboard, and mo
us
e for $500...
The new 555-seat Airb
us
A380 is the world's biggest airliner ever built. And it's more fuel efficient than your car...
Here's a great collection of cens
us
trend charts, maps, and rankings, viewable by category and location...
A new book, "Collapse", explores the reasons behind the fall of once-great civilizations. It outlines five ca
us
es: environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, loss of trade partners, an...
"Babylon Wrecked by War:
us
-Led Forces Leave a Trail of Destruction and Contamination in Architectural Site of World Importance"...
Unfortunately, it looks like the GM power train in Hawaii's new hybrid b
us
es is not quite as fuel efficient as promised...
* Estimated average amount of textiles thrown out by each U.S. ho
us
ehold in 2001, in pounds: 6...
The "HangOut", a very cool spherical treeho
us
e for 21st-century living...
us
e eco-friendly Dr. Bronner's products instead. They're cheap, organic, effective, and smell great...
For geeks only-the makers of Mr. Potato Head have come up with "Darth Tater"...
The public domain
us
GS digital data image archives. Nice, quick stock imagery for all kinds of
us
es...
The detailed and pretty scientific art of Ernst Haeckel, 1899-1904...
A few months since its launch, allofmp3.com seems to be gaining credibility and c
us
tomers. Tracks are one-tenth the cost of those in the iTunes m
us
ic store and are offered in a variety of qualitie...
January 1 to 9, 2005
Professor Francis Boyle, an expert on international law from the U. of Illinois, recently gave an informative talk on the restoration of the independent nation state of Hawaii under international law...
Nothing lasts - Buddhist monks who have meditated on corpses find themselves well-suited to help with cremating tho
us
ands of tsunami victims. "We j
us
t sort of live in denial of the fact that we hav...
Interactive charts of the International Phonetic Alphabet. You can listen to every sound that humans
us
e to communicate...
A Marine is jailed for ref
us
ing to pick up a gun, citing religio
us
reasons...
"The B
us
h Administration has decided that it will stand by its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood"...
Here's a humongo
us
chart showing exactly where your tax dollar goes...
This series explores some nicely designed homes, including the famo
us
tree ho
us
e in Waipio Valley on the Big Island...
An architecture firm is turning the considerable amount of waste from Boston's massive Big Dig project into office buildings and groovy-looking modern ho
us
ing...
For the ultra-s
us
tainable lifestyle, refer t...
Dana Countryman's Virtual M
us
eum of Un
us
ual LP Cover Art...
Here's a selection of artful LP cover art, with thoughtful commentary...
The M
us
eum of Food Anomalies. Ick...
The results of the second holiday champagne chair contest, in which designers made chairs
us
ing only the material from one champagne bottle...
Vintage turn-of-the-century postcard images of Tokyo...
Biojewelry - grow a ring from your own bone tissue...
Pitchfork's top 50 albums of 2004...
The StroboPick, perhaps the most accurate (and smallest) guitar tuner ever...
CD sales rose by 2.3% in the U.S. in 2004, yet pirated CD sales have hit a record high. So why is the RIAA still suing m
us
ic downloaders instead of going after real pirates...
December 13 to 19, 2004
The state's B
us
Link system is the first
us
e of smart card technology in a b
us
-only mass transit system in America. How about making a smart-card based SuperFerry pass...
Researchers find a new efficient way to convert water into hydrogen by
us
ing high temperature...
Lexar's new super-mini
us
B flash drive. I hope cameras incorporate this...
Technology that helps fight "griefers", or people in online multiplayer games that do nothing but kill and loot, fr
us
trating everyone else. Implications for social systems...
A gamer buys a piece of virtual land for $26,500. I should enter the virtual holy cheese sandwich b
us
iness...
A dialect map of American English. I had a s
us
picion that "San Francisco Urban" was a dialect, but didn't know it was official...
Self-service
us
PS stamp machines have been taking people's photos without their knowledge, courtesy of the FAA...
"20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the
us
A...
A New York art exhibition is stopped after showing a B
us
h portrait made of images of monkeys...
An Alabama judge wears the Ten Commandments on his robe: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=20&u=/ap/20041215/ap_on_re_
us
/ten_commandments_rob...
Precast concrete walls that
us
e recycled material and are up to 50% more energy efficient than regular walls...
100% corn-based packaging now in
us
e...
Real Artists Speak Out Against Mediocrit...
The most hated advertising techniques on the Web - background m
us
ic ca
us
es "visceral reactions" in people...
Punk rock flyers from 1982 to 1984...
The ten most accurately rated artists in rock m
us
ic history...
A slice of life - 48 favorite (digital) photos...
Create your own mini office cubicle hell with the Cubes plastic figure set...
Clever design by necessity - prisoners' inventions...
Japanese death poems, from a classic Salon article...
Recording Academy members voting for the GRAMMY awards will now be able to listen to all nominated songs in the "Record of the Year" category via iTunes...
December 6 to 12, 2004
I really like the design sense of the architects behind it, but am continually fr
us
trated by the design of architects' Web sites. Architects typically have the least
us
able sites on the Internet ...
The sparkline PHP graphing library allows Web designers to convey large sets of information in a compact,
us
eful way...
Restaurants are installing fake phone booths for
us
e by cell phone
us
ers to minimize noise pollution...
A pioneering global study shows that U.S. kids don't rank so well in math skills: http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1207/p01s04-
us
sc.htm...
Thanks to overcrowding and stress over M
us
lim immigrants, more are leaving Holland than entering...
"Film
us
e fading like an old photo...
"Democrats on the U.S. Ho
us
e Judiciary Committee have asked Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to answer for a host of voting irregularities they say occurred in Ohio Nov. 2."...
The military's
us
ing robots with machine guns now...
"
us
Army plagued by desertion and plunging morale"...
Watching TV "rewires" infant brains, ca
us
ing behavioral disorders...
An absolutely cool higher-tech redesign of the VW b
us
. I think this would be a huge hit...
How to get your ho
us
e off the grid...
Here's a good resource for the enviro-conscio
us
- treehugger.com...
The shrinking turtle ho
us
e...
Beautiful photos of all the national parks in the U.S....
I'm intrigued by the clean design of this design magazine - it seems to be getting raves...
It's still a little early to call, but here are some pictures of the year, more worthy for their subjects than aesthetics...
The Eiffel Tower has a skating rink for the first time in 115 years...
Mark Morford details the long history of rock and roll selling out to corporate interests...
An essay on dysfunction in popular m
us
ic. What did you expect from kids who were products of the highest divorce rates in history...
November 29 to December 5, 2004
What will be the role of religion in the 21st century? Despite the fact that so many in America purport to be religio
us
, mainstream voices paint the majority of citizens as preferring war over peace...
A new MP3-based m
us
ic format supports surround sound (5.1 channels)...
The ten most persistent design bugs, from UI expert Bruce Tognazzini: http://www.asktog.com/Bugho
us
e/10MostPersistentBugs.htm...
Amazon.com is selling more electronics than books: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/b
us
inesstechnology/2002105349_amazon01.htm...
Here's an inspirational program on Kaua'i that recycles
us
ed glass into works of art...
However, "e-junk" recycling is still in its infancy. Note that old computer monitors make better
us
ed TVs than TVs...
The most influential piece of modern art. Much progress can be made when you don't take yourself serio
us
ly...
The zoom quilt - I've love to see this with lots more participants...
The anti-consumer revolution, in pictures...
This is great! The combination rug/laundry bag...
Artwork that comes with its own URL - the URL has become a work of art in itself...
The LED artwork of James Clar...
Exotic guitars...
An interactive surface with virtual squiggly worms you can "pick up". I've always wanted to open a bar where the entire floor is a virtual interactive koi pond myself...
November 22 to 28, 2004
I j
us
t finished watching "The End of Suburbia", a great and disturbing DVD I mentioned here previo
us
ly. You can watch one of the included bon
us
movies "In the Suburbs" for free at the Prelinge...
PC, which can be run from solar panels,
us
es only 10 watts...
Brilliant! Blog Torrent, written in PHP, enables one to serve large files from their servers
us
ing BitTorrent...
The chief economist at MorganStanley predicts that America has a 90% chance of an economic "armageddon", citing a number of "alarming facts"...
The worldwide effects of the sinking dollar, now at a nine-year low: http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1122/p01s01-
us
ec.htm...
How the government
us
es laser printers to track documents. Since about 1995, color laser printers have microencoded the printer's serial number on every printed document.
us
e a blue LED light to se...
"Pro-B
us
h Think-Tank Claims Climate Change May Be Good"...
Everybody reported on the dolphins that protected four New Zealand swimmers from sharks: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cidW0&ncidu3&e=1&u=/nm/20041129/sc_nm/a
us
tralia_whales_d...
Combine color and astrology - colorstrology...
The best micrographs of 2002, only nanometers wide...
Cool underground pictures of the massive G-Cans project in Tokyo...
Bill Dan, rock balancer...
Build your own gramophone with these Japanese kits - etch grooves on CDs and plastic cups and play them back...
An account of the rough security screening at movie theaters these days...
Reality Literatur...
November 15 to 21, 2004
The latest developments regarding the potential move of the Leslie A. Hicks Power Plant near Aloha Tower. Perhaps a "grand" park is not warranted, but it would at least be nice to see a greener mix o...
Why doesn't someone in Hawaii go into the LIDAR 3D mapping b
us
iness? Hollywood pays millions for LIDAR 3D models for
us
e in movies, and to date there are no models of the islands...
Pros and cons regarding the upcoming Superferry - disc
us
s them in public this week...
New hybrid b
us
es have started in Honolulu and wow the public. New smart card b
us
passes, too...
New b
us
inesses are sprouting up to meet demand for the new Firefox browser, now
us
ed by 19% of
us
ers according to some...
Timekeeping has j
us
t become more accurate, and the second is redefined for the first time in 37 years...
Some think RSS is j
us
t a fad, but I think it's a long-term enabling technology - "RSS Edges Into the Bureaucracy"...
Beautiful new holiday cards...
The coolest fractal art I've seen online...
The Man Behind the FedEx Log...
The latest design proposals for the latest high-tech Antarctica research station...
A bookstore arranged by book color...
The can octop
us
...
The band Wilco had so much success with giving away their first album online, they've done it with their second. Here's an enlightening interview...
Elvis Costello interviews Joni Mitchell...
November 8 to 14, 2004
"Spin" - then: This movie made of 100% unauthorized satellite TV footage is a fascinating look into how global communications technology was
us
ed by the image makers in the 1992 presidential election...
"The Persuaders" - now: This show aired on Frontline this week exploring advertising's latest evolution - it's all about narrowcasting and emotional advertising that speaks to your "inner lizard" an...
"The Persuaders" also featured a short clip of Bob Dylan in his Victoria's Secret commercial. The danger is that kids these days only know Bob Dylan as the "Victoria's Secret" guy. There is hope...
Ever need to do a little research yourself on the latest trends? J
us
t go to Google News and search for a few key phrases, sorted by date. Here are four: "international survey", "scientifi...
The world's smallest PC/keyboard/mo
us
e net connection combo...
Can't We All J
us
t Get Along...
"I want to tell you how much Japanese b
us
iness man is tired....
"White collar slavery" in the video game ind
us
try...
This Dutch film ca
us
ed the murder of its director on November 2. The Netherlands is now experiencing attacks on Islamic mosques, churches, and schools. Can fundamentalism ever coexist with worl...
So maybe that "who voted by IQ" article last week was a little bog
us
. But here's a verifiable list of the most charitable states vers
us
how they voted...
"sorryeverybody.com" spawns "werenotsorry.com" and "apologiesaccepted.com"...
"Living Outside Inside" - a book on design that integrates interior and exterior space. This reminds me of a story Yoko Ono told about moving to the West from Japan at age 14, where she had lived in ...
A movie about the Veggie Van, a biodiesel van that criss-crossed the U.S. for over two years. Apologies for the kitschy yet catchy pseudo-folk m
us
ic...
Wind power can ca
us
e climate change too...
Get your iBook painted - someone should do this locally...
A multimedia account of a trip to Tibet in April 2004...
An interesting interview with a man that has collected over 900,000 mp3 files online, for posterity's sake...
November 1 to 7, 2004
"Voter oversight ca
us
ing problems in Travis County...
An image of B
us
h labelled "asshole" on CNN thanks to an intern...
"Cell Phones Increasingly
us
ed to Snap the News...
One of the great mysteries of evolution - that of how the eye evolved - has been solved. This mystery has been one of the arguments for introducing creationism into schools...
Things That Return To Bite U...
"Ag-tourism becomes $35 million b
us
iness for Hawaii...
Beca
us
e of a clash with federal law, legislation protecting whales from high-speed boats in the Hawaiian Islands National Marine Sanctuary has been overturned. This may lead to the end of offshor...
Whole Foods is selling organic clothing. Could this be the start of a new retail trend - organic, s
us
tainable wearables...
A photoessay on how "The Incredibles" was created...
Interactive 360-degree panoramas from around the world...
A cool new m
us
ic video made with 1972 video synthesizer tech...
A time-lapse image of a lunar eclipse...
Interactive wallpaper is going commercial...
The sound shaker (movie)...
Brown Paper Tickets, a cheap alternative to Ticketmaster...
October 25 to 31, 2004
Eminem's "Mosh" m
us
ic video - could it be one of the "most overtly political pop videos ever produced?" Note that Eminem has sold over 25 million albums...
Yes, the same Hart eSlate voting machines
us
ed in Hawaii ca
us
ed Democratic votes to turn into Republican ones in A
us
tin, Texas...
Spyware is on 80% of PCs, vir
us
es on 20%. But 77% of people think they're safe. Is this the same 80% that think evoting is secure, despite expert evidence...
Homeland Security agents b
us
t a toy store this time...
"Technology
us
ed to track down Al-Qaeda terrorists is being offered to employers as a means of stamping out... ab
us
ive behaviour in the workplace"...
S
us
tainable flooring made with cork and bamboo...
About Clearview, the new clearer,
us
able typeface that will be
us
ed on all Federal road signage. Ask your state to adopt it...
Planning a Critical Mass bike ride? Here's strategies you can
us
e to help stop police harrassment...
New autostitching algorithms make seamless panoramas a snap. Now will someone please make a Photoshop plug-in or simple OSX GUI for this...
Some cable companies now broadcast signals that prevent you from making copies of recordings...
A series of funny, thoughtful short films about people and technology...
A smiling stingray...
The great history of Sun Studio, the most influential recording studio ever...
A new singing contest in Korea has entrants auditioning
us
ing their cell phones. I hope entries are well-received...
The RIAA issues its first gold, platinum, and multiplatinum certifications for digitally downloaded m
us
ic...
Billboard Magazine starts a new chart for top ringtones...
The rock band Marillion asked online fans to contribute money towards new albums - and has raised almost $1 million so far...
Publish your Creative Commons-licensed audio or video with this app and have it hosted automatically by the Internet Archive, which has massive amounts of bandwidth...
October 18 to 24, 2004
After decades of continuo
us
military bombing since World War II, the freed island of Kahoolawe is re-established as a native navigational center and crossroads "connecting Hawaiians to the ancestra...
us
B flash drives with a thumbprint reader...
A pro-evoting ind
us
try group blames humans for errors. Along these lines, it's your fault every time your PC crashes, too...
UK Guardian readers write to undecided voters in Clark County, Ohio to persuade them not to vote for B
us
h. A slew of hilario
us
, vile, and thoughtful letters return...
The median net worth of white ho
us
eholds: $88,651. That of African-Americans: $5,988...
Like Woody Guthrie, here's the ugly story of the exploitation of Rosa Park's image and legacy: http://www.hiphopm
us
ic.com/archives/000687.htm...
According to a survey of 81 countries, R
us
sians are the most miserable people in the world. The U.S. ranks 15th...
"Microsoft's Worst Nightmare" http://www.b
us
iness2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,714129,00.htm...
"The Man Who Could Have Been Bill Gates" http://www.b
us
inessweek.com/magazine/content/04_43/b3905109_mz063.ht...
"B
us
h's Big Joke"...
Turns out humans have less than 25,000 genes, "about the same as a m
us
tard green"...
The first 100% solar-powered winery: http://www.reactual.com/metaefficient/archives/food-and-drink/shafer-a-s
us
tainable-vineyard.htm...
A living neural network taken from a rat's brain interacts with an F-22 fighter jet flight simulator: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-10/uof-
us
102104.ph...
Contemporary Tibetan painting...
The photojournal of a modern geisha in Kyoto...
Flexible drinking straw creations...
A little animation of a drawing in progress...
"If Architects Had To Work Like Web Designers......
ASCAP seals a huge deal to "let stations legally stream their on-air content over the "Internet"...
October 11 to 17, 2004
The first waterless dishwater
us
es supercritical carbon dioxide...
The first hotel with iris identification. One day you'll j
us
t walk into your room, no check-in needed...
Is this the beginning of "jacking into cyberspace"? http://www.
us
atoday.com/news/health/2004-10-10-braingate-cover_x.ht...
"Center for the Digital Future Identifies the 10 Major Trends Emerging in the Internet’s First Decade of Public
us
e" - TV down, net up, averaging 12.5 hrs/week...
"Alarming trend in spyware could undermine IT ind
us
try...
A great interview with Steve Jobs on true innovation: http://b
us
inessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct2004/nf20041012_4018_db083.ht...
On Columb
us
Day, history professors relate Columb
us
' cruel history...
"Poll reveals world anger at B
us
h"...
The average mpg of a 40-foot Gillig Phantom b
us
,
us
ed in Honolulu: about 4. The average mpg of a hybrid-diesel b
us
us
ed in Seattle: 7.5...
An astute reader points out that hyaluronic acid, which has been touted as an "anti-aging remedy", is found in taro (
us
ed for poi, the Hawaiian food staple). Here's the connection to a long-live...
Absolutely beautiful photography at File Magazine...
"The Sad Song...
"A Cunning Stunt...
For its 150th anniversary, Timex created a design competition for future timekeeping concepts. Here are the winners...
A design analysis of Kerry and B
us
h's campaign logos. I agree, the Kerry design looks wimpy and old school...
Wal-Mart is battling the biggest labels over CD prices. This is basically a lose-lose-lose-lose situation here... Wal-Mart drives the m
us
ic ind
us
try, labels get squeezed, consumers get less choice...
A good idea - lease satellite radio feeds and bring the public back into radio...
October 4 to 10, 2004
The super-cute high-tech $13,000 Smart Fortwo, although now only offered in Europe, would be a perfect car for island tourists - it gets up to 71 miles per gallon on a 9 gallon tank and you can par...
The State of Hawaii j
us
t launched the "Hawai'i B
us
iness Express", which allows one to start a b
us
iness easily online via all the relevant departments. Unfortunately, ending a b
us
iness is still ...
Finally, a startup
us
es BitTorrent-like tech for online movies...
Podcasting puts audio content you want to hear on your iPod. One day you can podcast Howard Stern from XM Radio! http://www.idealog.
us
/2004/10/griffin_radiosh.htm...
"A senior U.S. military intelligence officer says that information obtained from prisoners at Guantanamo has proved
us
eless in the war on terror"...
"George W. B
us
h - Keeping America Scared"...
What were the candidates scribbling on during the Presidential debates? Here's B
us
h's notepad...
us
e Windows and make a name for yourself! Regarding last week's item "Microsoft server crash nearly ca
us
es 800-plan pile-up"...
September 27 to October 3, 2004
Hart Intercivic makes those evoting machines that people in Hawaii will be
us
ing in the upcoming general election. Here's a recent article about a letter written by a former Hart technician wh...
Suburbia is a health hazard - a new study has found that not only are people less healthy due to overdependence on cars, but from a community design perspective, it's a very inefficient way to live...
Inside the recently upgraded world's third-most-powerful supercomputer at Virginia Tech (it's also powered by Mac OSX): http://www.
us
atoday.com/tech/columnist/andrewkantor/2004-09-03-kantor_x.ht...
A Microsoft server crash almost ca
us
es a 800-plane pile-up...
The genuinely scary "Wacko Jacko" mask: http://www.frightcatalog.com/Halloween-Masks/Miscellaneo
us
+Masks/36057_Wacko%2DJacko%2DMask.htm...
Y
us
uf Islam (Cat Stevens) tells his side of the story...
"How B
us
h's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power...
The 2004 Ig Nobel Prize Winners - including "The Effect of Country M
us
ic on Suicide"...
Ever wanted to live on a ho
us
eboat? Here's some from Sa
us
alito, CA, one of the best and oldest ho
us
eboat communities...
A beautiful contemporary mobile home...
Ooh, cool jellyfish lights.....
Incredible photorealistic art made with Adobe Ill
us
trator, complete with how-tos...
Computer-assisted streak photography...
Pioneering electronic art from Sweden, 1960 to 1980...
The latest, greatest singer/songwriters play the Hotel Cafe. Check out the CD...
Sarah McLachlan's video "World On Fire" breaks down the cost of making a m
us
ic video vs. contributing to charities...
XM satellite radio seems to be taking off...
"Sony ditches copy-control CDs"...
September 20 to 26, 2004
The popular Kaimuki neighborhood trolley service ends. There's nothing wrong with more b
us
lines, but now there's less character, no open-air transportation with wide views, and less fun for tourist...
Hawaii's special-effects ind
us
try has some heavy hitters. Kai Bovaird, who set up a local shop, made effects for the Matrix. "There's definitely skilled people (in Hawaii) but you need serio
us
an...
The first dental chair to
us
e bone-conducting speakers, preventing patients from drill noises...
The first half of 2004 saw 5,000 new Windows vir
us
es...
Jimmy Swaggart talks about killing gays, drawing "laughter and appla
us
e" from the congregation...
us
ing animal scents - rats for disasters and dogs for cancer...
Option, a new mini enviro-friendly prefab ho
us
e...
The state-of-the-art in scientific visualization...
Art speakers...
Nifty two-story wind-powered walking sculptures...
Time-lapse road trip - LA to New York in five minutes...
"3 Myths About the Recording Ind
us
try Debunked...
A new b
us
iness model for artists! Green Day sells blank recordable CD-Rs with album designs...
September 13 to 19, 2004
A new travel survey "found Hawaii consistently fell below most competitor destinations in offering good value for the money and unspoiled beauty. Also, Japanese visitors did not view the islands a...
The Kona community p
us
hes back against out-of-control, monolithic development...
A visual history of spam and vir
us
email...
China's a new "hotbed of research" too: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/13/technology/13china.html?ex=1252728000&en=c97bdebfc8ebba94&ei=5090&partner=rss
us
erlan...
The Oprah car giveaway made a lot of money for GM. It's a sign of new types of promotions to come! http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=b
us
inessNews&storyID=623604...
One show he worked on - here you can learn about all the toxic items around your ho
us
e that leech into your bloodstream...
"While a student at Southern Methodist University in the 1960s, first lady Laura B
us
h was known 'as a go-to girl for dime bags of marijuana.'...
About the horrible pollution and cancer-ca
us
ing rivers in China...
Hurricane Ivan from above...
"What the Bleep Do We Know?!...
Over 1,000 great (jazz) album covers...
Print-on-demand c
us
tom wallpaper...
Innovative recipe designs...
XM radio offers online streaming m
us
ic...
September 5 to 12, 2004
Gex-X workers will be badly in demand in the Hawaii of tomorrow as the baby boomer generation ages. What will attract them? Mixed-
us
e "stroll districts". Live m
us
ic. Bike paths. Greenery. Sounds goo...
How can arts and culture transform a neighborhood? The documentary "Downside UP", about the largest m
us
eum of contemporary art in the U.S. and how it transformed an 80 percent vacant town into ...
"From the time that Hawai'i first became a strategic American outpost in the Pacific, the military has condemned tho
us
ands of acres of state and private land for training and military bases...
U.S. broadband triples in three years. 75%
us
e cable, only 15%
us
e DSL...
Has your PC been taken over by a spamming vir
us
? Spammers are selling your "zombie PC" to others...
Levis closes its last American factories: http://www.mcall.com/b
us
iness/local/all-levissep10,0,1729336.story?coll=all-b
us
inesslocal-he...
B
us
h vs. Jesu...
Bring out your Uzis! The assault weapon ban has expired with much debate on both sides: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/
us
/assault_weapons_ban_040908-1.htm...
"B
us
h: 'Our Long National Nightmare of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'...
The 9/11 "tower of light" tribute captures tho
us
ands of birds...
Topical picture of the week...
More nifty pictures of the printed organic furniture mentioned last week...
The story of an architect who battled breast cancer to remake a minimalist home for $50,000...
Design Web sites? These eyetracking test results can help you make a more effective site...
Hip Japanese robot t-shirts...
The cool TRON-like environments of Stephen Hendee...
Lee Bontecou is one of my favorite artists - she pioneered works that addressed the connections between technology and nature, before H.R. Giger's time. Once the talk of the art world, she dropped ou...
August 30 to September 5, 2004
Happy Labor Day...
"Despite a strong state economy, the homeless rate in Hawaii has nearly doubled over the past four years, and the majority of the new homeless are native Hawaiians and those with some Hawaiia...
Isn't it funny that the Superferry sports an array of high-tech gadgets - and two human observers - to do nothing but ensure that whales are avoided at all costs.....
Dates of public hearings on the sale of Verizon Hawaii to The Carlyle Group...
Disney creates a revolution in fireworks by creating a compressed air launching system. Air-launched fireworks are more precise, less polluting, safer, and can be launched higher. How about
us
ing thi...
Skype, the most popular Voice Over IP (VOIP) app, is now available for Mac OSX! Talk to friends around the world for free
us
ing your Internet connection...
Scientists are learning how to harness photosynthetic bacteria in solar cells...
The first room temperature plastic magnets are created...
Revolutionary lens implants for the severely nearsighted are expected to receive FDA approval soon...
The world's smallest atomic clock will lead to devices with super-accurate time everywhere (1 second is lost every 300 years), affecting cryptography, global communications, etc....
The basis for a new breed of software: "Exploring Social Networks with Pattern Discovery Algorithms"...
The world's first detailed view (and reconstruction) of an Egyptian mummy's face, without disturbing the wrappings, thanks to multidetector computed tomography...
Jewish groups are up in arms about the Christian cross-like podium at the Republican National Convention...
Outsourcing Gree...
From May to July the U.S. produced 86% of the worldwide volume of spam...
32,000 cell phone towers in the U.S. are disguised as fake trees. Here's an amazing gallery of them...
The city of Philadelphia is considering providing free or cheap wireless Internet access to everybody...
Free, unedited, translated daily TV news programs from the Middle East...
Are you an inefficient hypertasker? Workplace pressures, inadequate tools ca
us
e stress. I say this is a technology problem, not a brain problem...
This week's 12 and 16-year-olds marked as terrorists and apprehended by the Secret Service...
The average Briton is scrutinized by 300 security cameras a day...
Protesters
us
e texting, microradio, and other technologies now...
Melbourne scientists say they've developed a cure for malaria...
Ecotourism needs more experienced guides...
"What is the face of this place?...
Do you like Jim Woodring's surreal comic Frank? Here's the first animated short based on same...
Cool watermelon carvings...
Watch the fascinating evolution of 100 years of Olympic poster design...
New anime films from the masters are coming...
The popular bottle opener fridge magnet...
3D printed furniture that mimics biological structures. A sign of unique 21st century design...
Put your DNA signature on a T-shirt...
For Web developers-ten CSS tricks you may not know...
"BMI posts record year, despite m
us
ic ind
us
try doom and gloom"...
August 22 to 29, 2004
All about the Hawaii Superferry, which starts service in 2006 and will change island life as we know it...
Superferry CEO Tim Dick will be speaking at the Plaza Club on September 15th...
"RSS Attracts Really Serio
us
Money...
A new p2p network allows hospitals to share patient information...
The world's first movie recording on a preformatted holographic disc...
The world's smallest optical zoom digital camera,
us
ing the new ceramic lens technology...
Finally, Coke vending machine offers cashless purchases via cell phones...
Five photons have been linked in an milestone experiment that will lead to full-scale quantum computing...
Yet another "revolutionary spam firewall"...
New efforts in developing flying cars...
A new Windows worm has the ability to spy on
us
ers with webcams and microphones...
Microsoft's Spanish version of Windows XP translated "woman" as "bitch".
us
ers unam
us
ed...
Famo
us
tech writer John C. Dvorak calls for the death of Microsoft Word...
Even Windows' recent Service Pack 2 is insecure...
"We're Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore...
Thanks to automatic bill-paying, a man lay dead in his bed for two years before being discovered...
The plight of the minimum-wage dairy worker...
A new poll shows growing support for voter-verified paper trails in elections...
AI algorithms can take a trail of where you've been and determine regular and irregular activities...
It costs the U.S. Government $6.5 billion a year j
us
t to keep things secret. 90% of those things shouldn't be...
An experiment reviving coral reefs with low-voltage electrical current receives "remarkable results"...
Enterprise ho
us
ing - creating affordable, s
us
tainable ho
us
ing in urban, mixed-
us
e environments...
New ventures try to generate electricity from sea power with wave turbines...
A car engine that runs off air...
"Breakthrough reached in fight against fruit fly"...
The first interior commercial space in Hawaii to get gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council...
A Handbook of Rhetorical Device...
The groovy Web sites and photography of Sacha Dean Bryan...
Yay! "This Land Is Your Land" is actually in the public domain...
A Rolling Stone report on Clear Channel, which owns 70% of live events in the U.S....
Apple now offers songs in bulk via their volume discount program...
The hauntingly beautiful songwriting and sounds of Jolie Holland, ex-Be Good Tanyas member. Her demo album was lauded as among the best of 2003...
The White Stripes' guitarist Jack White teamed up with Loretta Lynn to launch what some are calling the best album of her career - and it may change the sound of modern country towards alternative an...
August 15 to 22, 2004
Idea of the Week: Nature Cemeteries What a great concept: there's less cost and waste for the ind
us
try, there's a pent-up demand, land is conserved (and preserved), and it's cheaper for consumers...
Save Kaimana Beach...
I was in line at the Kalihi DMV for two hours getting a replacement license. Three of six clerks are working, and those working spend about 30 seconds each transaction j
us
t retrieving paper-base...
Movie Studios Lose In Case Against File-Sharing App...
The first invisible barcode system,
us
ing spray-on DNA-encapsulated inorganic nanomaterial (whew)...
Coming soon - wireless cable TV anywhere...
Coming Soon: Trillion-Color T...
New technologies ease the pain of (hospital) needles...
Nanotech funding grows to $8.6 billion. Hype, or not...
FedEx Kinko's debuts Web-based job uploads. I didn't test it too much, but it seems to work with Safari...
A new wave of digital disposable cameras...
Me and my friends recently switched from T-Mobile due to lo
us
y service. Here's another sad c
us
tomer...
Bruce Sterling gives another great, funny speech about the future of products - Blobjects! Are you a Gizmo
us
er, or a Spime Wrangler...
Unpatched PCs are compromised in 20 minutes. Someone should make a tiny
us
B-powered firewall device for upgrading PCs...
"Broadband
us
ers a majority in U.S....
People are buying more plasma TVs...
Cell phone
us
ers are
us
ing their cameras in store to copy textbooks...
The Olympics is selling a lot less tickets than desired...
Got an underperforming theater in your town? Make big bucks by
us
ing it for video gaming...
The search for the el
us
ive blue rose...
"If the
us
Wants to Restore Confidence in Its Voting System It M
us
t Learn Lessons from the Recent Elections in Venezuela"...
$8.8 billion of U.S. taxpayer dollars gone missing in Iraq - *poof* j
us
t like that...
One tho
us
ands words on our era's war crime image. Insightful...
It's a shame when the people that live in paradise end up polluting it. 45% of beach trash comes from Hawai'i...
Hawaii lumber should be s
us
tainable, especially these days when ho
us
ing materials are in such demand! The HI Lumber Products Association launches a site...
More on Hawaii's ethanol plans...
From a Southern California architectural tour...
An update on the MD280 modular dwelling. Put two together, and it's not a bad place for a small family...
More population shifts. The world's changing...
A new b
us
iness model for healthcare: "same-day" doctors...
Doctors disc
us
s the link between birth month and illness. February babies have a higher risk of schizophrenia...
Cool monkey photos and great Web site design...
Art from 1920's Japanese children's books. Nice Web design here, too, despite tiny text...
Make your own mathematical fidget-toy from paper...
Forget Doom 3: Here's the state-of-the-art of video game graphics...
The smallest guitar amplifier...
Got a Mac, guitar, and a microphone? Here's the cables...
RIAA lawsuits ca
us
ing agony, "unexpected twists"...
August 8 to 14, 2004
Topic of the Week: Changing Hawai...
Revitalize the Waterfront and Downtow...
Save Mau...
Vot...
Spray-on microdots reduce car theft...
A new material - "Metal Rubber"...
The first(?) chip to
us
e ultrawideband technology...
The LED balloon lamp...
"MIT study may hold key to boosting brainpower"...
Dopamine blockers turn slackers into workaholics...
New algorithms allow projectors to project clearly on any surface, such as wallpaper and curtains...
Why dynamic languages (still) represent the future of computing (warning: tech-heavy)...
A great b
us
iness model for online publishing - "fast turnaround e-books"...
"Modern-Day Slavery...
Facing competition from Wal-Mart, the #1 toy seller, Toys 'R'
us
may go out of b
us
iness...
Fans at the Olympics will be escorted off the premises if they eat or drink non-sponsored food...
"Fewer college students choose computer majors...
Fearful of vir
us
es, hospitals running Windows-based medical systems are applying security patches, which themselves may lead to life-threatening situations...
The first mobile phone vir
us
...
E-commerce turns 10. Don't believe the hype-the first secure online Web-based shopping transaction was done via Randy Adams' Internet Shopping Network, which I developed the interface for in 1994...
About the new online TV-show swapping culture...
Are b
us
inesses starting to get the clue about global warming...
A core problem: religions take themselves too serio
us
ly! They end up emphasizing symbols over ideas...
An analysis of files taken from a hard drive
us
ed in Al-Qaeda's operations. Insightful...
Abu Ghraib: "...private-sector employees actively took part in horrifying prisoner ab
us
e". Examines the growing trend of the government to sidestep laws by hiring corporations to do the dirty work...
3D hologram technology becomes a "powerful tool" to detect forgeries...
Our wonderful Presidential candidates...
Retro modern-day ads...
Some of the most untranslatable words in the world...
Lots of nifty rare retro watches...
The detailed pixel art of eboy...
This was popular last week - beautiful aerial photography...
In what may be a first, Warner Brothers encourages the distribution of online album tracks as part of a marketing campaign. Are they starting to get a clue...
The daily adventures of Mixerman are back, the true diaries of a top audio producer in LA. Get the inside story of how the ind
us
try works...
August 2 to 8, 2004
Topic of the Week: Supporting Local Arts and Designs Hawaii is one of the toughest states for those involved in the arts to make a living. The word on the street is that Studio One, a popular galler...
Here's a few suggestions...
"Quest for logo a fruitless pursuit...
Casio develops the world's first transparent ceramic lens, enabling smaller, thinner cameras...
New foot pontoons actually allow you to walk on water. Great for fishing, water testing, workouts, and tourism...
The new, groovy world of open-source b
us
iness models...
Portable tooth wipes...
All manner of new stamps have been appearing! The first stamps to
us
e lenticular printing (which gives an interlaced 3D effect)...
A new building system is making polystyrene homes for the rebuilding effort in Afghanistan...
Although over 80% of the public feels that e-voting is safe (or have no opinion), over 80% of security experts feel that current e-voting systems are much less secure than traditional paper-base...
A 11.7 foot high-resolution screen is displayed at a homeland security conference...
"Onion routing" may help make anonymo
us
communications over the net more secure...
"Stealth wallpaper" can prevent insecure wireless networks from being hijacked...
Some amazing bluetooth hacking - address book contents can be stolen from up to a mile away! Or run a sneaky bluetooth content-grabbing program from your PDA and walk around unnoticed...
The Kensington computer cable lock can be opened in 30 seconds with $1 worth of material...
B
us
h's approval poll data, mapped against terror alerts...
Students in India and China commit suicide (and spark riots in the process) due to their inability to pay tuition/testing fees...
About 22 year-old Ryan Pitlak, a marketing student who may have made hundreds of tho
us
ands from spam, coming from hundreds of shell companies he set up...
"...the information superhighway... will collapse...
The FCC, by the way, would like to prohibit you from recording anything from the Internet...
The story behind the Internet Movie Database, one of the most popular,
us
eful Web sites ever made...
Amsterdam needs cheap temporary ho
us
ing for 7,000 college students quickly! A developer is building a temporary, modular, and easily moveable student city made of 1,000 40-foot cargo containers...
The Hooch: the bamboo tree ho
us
e...
As seen in recent floods in Hawaii, storm drainage systems can clog up due to improper
us
e. Could the
us
e of permeable pavement systems help alleviate flooding in areas such as Manpunapuna? It'...
Semi-transparent solar panels can be
us
ed as a new building material and video projection surface, and they generate 3.8 watts per square foot...
The Green Hummer Project...
Rockwell's Retro-Confabulator...
The Terror Advisory Map...
The Everyman Photo Contest - great amateur photography...
See how a family changes, via similar photos taken every year for 28 years...
Clubbo M
us
ic, a fabulo
us
ly detailed and funny site about a nonexistant record label...
The African can guitar, made of old oil cans...
July 26 to August 1, 2004
After a year in operation, Kev's News goes online! Since everyone seems to have a blog these days, I decided to go ahead and j
us
t do it. I see the rise of blogs as a symptom of people learning how t...
"Crowded communities demand change...
"Support scarce for latest UH logo ideas...
Cheap projection technology is giving rise to "guerilla drive-ins". This is a symptom of this generation's need for commerce-free, authentic culture and socializing...
The first debut of an entire TV show episode over the Internet...
The first magazine for technology projects, "Make"...
The first true city-wide wireless network...
Woohoo! The first digital accordion...
Water molecules can now be moved with light, allowing the rapid testing of blood and other liquids...
IBM introduces "chip morphing" technology, which enables self-repairing, evolvable computer chips...
A $230 million acquisition of an RFID reader company. This technology is hot, hot, hot, people...
How to turn your iPod into a universal remote...
How to fully remove Internet Explorer from your PC...
What the U.S. can learn from South Korea, where broadband is cheap, over 10 times faster, and is transforming government and society with telemedicine to the ho
us
e, video on demand, and a lucrativ...
About Singapore's new world-class bioscience empire, including "Biopolis", a $300 million center for molecular biology, bioinformatics, genomics, and nanotech...
Kona Brewing Co. in Hawaii Kai is now a free wireless network hotspot! I'm spending more time there...
A great idea - putting city maps on traffic control boxes. Let's see these around town...
"How government protects big media - and shuts out upstarts like me." By Ted Turner...
28% of the time, people fall for fake email scams...
This is a picture of a hard drive from circa 1975. It only held "a few megabytes"...
SecuritySpy - This Mac-based software allows one to install a cheap multi-cam security system for many tho
us
ands less than traditional systems...
New U.S. passports out this fall will be embedded with biometric computer chips...
Prodded by the MPAA, the FBI pursues criminal charges against a Stargate SG1 fan Web site, despite endorsement by the show's executive producer...
About the first truly effective shark repellent, A-2...
There's a "50% chance" of a major accident while cleaning up the U.S.'s dirtiest nuclear site. And there's not enough room for the waste at the large Yucca Mountain site...
Where do whales go when they die? A newly discovered worm lacks a mouth, stomach, legs, and eyes and lives on deep-sea whale bones...
The plumber's truck...
A pilot creates a folding electric guitar...
An in-demand violin maker in Berkeley creates quality violins with 200-year old wood from Lake Superior. Also an acupuncturist, he sees the vibrational connections between his vocations...
This Land Is Apparently Not Your Lan...
How the RIAA shut down a respected, thriving m
us
ic store due to the sale of popular DJ-made mixtapes...
July 19 to 25, 2004
Topic of the week: compulsory Web site registrations! Lots of people hate 'em, and they can lead to identify theft. But how are sites to make money? J
us
t go to BugMeNot to get around sit...
Quantum computing breakthrough - a single electron's spin is controlled
us
ing ordinary transistors...
A fuel cell breakthrough leads to cooler, smaller cells - one the size of two soda cans could power your entire ho
us
ehold...
The latest thinking in dualmode transports - a truck that runs on wheels and rails. Why not
us
e one to transport people from Honolulu to Kapolei instead of building a second level...
What happened here? http://chat.kla
us
.dk/picexchange/pics/sol01.jp...
A reflection on the Walkman, which turned 25 last month: http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/entertainment/m
us
ic/9144361.ht...
An inside look at the birth of the iPod. Its manager quit beca
us
e he had no confidence it would be popular. He works for Microsoft now...
A photo tour of the N521DB, the luxury liner
us
ed to transport the Bin Ladens out of the U.S. after 9/11. It was also
us
ed by Fleetwood Mac and the Rolling Stones...
A modern, self-s
us
taining off-the-grid ho
us
e in Toronto...
The two-story Glideho
us
e 2, now in production...
Photo/video folks! Build your own bottlecap tripod...
Interesting comparisons between the latest digital SLRs and film scans...
Universities are giving in and paying an RIAA "tax" to avoid prosecution...
Canada's m
us
ic ind
us
try is trying to bill dentists who play m
us
ic in waiting rooms...
July 12 to 18, 2004
Cool Concept of the Week: Seed Balls Take 100 to 200 properly chosen seeds of plants, trees, fruits, and vegetables, and pack them in a hardened sphere of mineral-rich red clay. Scatter one abou...
eMachineShop - design and machine c
us
tom mechanical parts online...
One of my favorite sci-fi authors, Bruce Sterling, gives a hilario
us
, philosophical, and insightful talk about the "singularity", the point at which the pace of technology becomes too fast t...
The Flatpak Ho
us
e - cheap, modular, and evolvable over time...
"Dwell magazine leads the rebirth of a modernist movement in ho
us
ing"...
Saddam's trial really is j
us
t a game, isn't it...
Are you glad your h
us
band's an engineer? This 1956 ad made me laugh...
The popularity of the iPod is forcing makers of CD copyright-protection technology to switch formats...
What globetrotting Laurie Anderson is up to these days, NASA's first artist in residence...
Golden Apples of the Su...
Devendra Barnhart is a good example of this m
us
ical category...
The First Vienna Vegetable Orchestr...
According to European copyright law, Elvis' first big hit will enter the public domain in 2005, along with a lot of other still-selling m
us
ic...
July 5 to 11, 2004
Not a product yet, but a concept: this Bluetooth wireless device attaches to your luggage and blinks when you are near it at the baggage caro
us
el. Other neat ideas here...
Here's Doug Englebart's infamo
us
1968 demo, which originated the concept and also introduced the world to the mo
us
e, word processing, hyperlinks, outline editing, graphics editing, and more...
Un
us
ual Japanese ice cream flavors - horse flesh ice cream is only the beginning...
Ghulam Sediq Wardak, Afghanistan's most famo
us
inventor. He's made a solar-powered VW and over 300 other inventions...
The Maui Xaphoo...
Spider-Man 2, done with legos...
Abit...
Sumo - a huge bed-sized pillow...
The incredible All M
us
ic Guide is getting a complete overhaul, really, really soon...
With this Mac application you can view the current top ten most purchased tracks from the iTunes M
us
ic Store in your menubar...
A new club in the UK invites people to play their iPod playlist for 15 minutes...
Steve Winwood's label "has seen a noticeable increase in record sales" thanks to putting a free track on file sharing networks...
June 28 to July 4, 2004
"
us
Government warns against Internet Explorer...
Instead,
us
e the faster, better Firefox browser...
All about the latest Rainbow Gathering, which attracted 10,000 and ca
us
ed the Forest Service to allocate nearly $1 million for management...
"Tho
us
ands of truckers, b
us
drivers and rest-stop workers are being enlisted to spot terrorists"...
An Antarctic scientific research vessel gets equipped with two heavy-caliber machine guns to fight fish poaching off of A
us
tralia...
The evolution of fractal art. This is the next generation of fractal and mathematics- based design, folks...
This device allows you to swap out your car CD changer for an iPod and
us
e it like a huge CD changer, with your existing controls...
The heartwarming story of independent, garage-based SomaFM, which broadcasts worldwide to 8,000 listeners a day...
A celebration of the 20th anniversary of H
us
ker Du's revolutionary album "Zen Arcade"...
Radio 1 in the UK will now be broadcasting a chart of the top (legally) downloaded tracks...
June 21 to 27, 2004
This week's theme: the Fahrenheit 9/11 effect Why should you move away from DSL to cable? First, there's the new Supplier Federal Universal Service Fund (F
us
F) Recovery Fee, which only applies to DS...
The (relatively new) RoadRunner b
us
iness-class services are not only competitive with b
us
iness-class DSL now, but are actually cheaper as the bandwidth gets bigger (Hawaii prices) - you get bette...
Second, the Carlyle Group is looking to buy Verizon Hawaii - this is j
us
t part of their recent massive purchases of telecoms in the Pacific region. The deal is "complex", as it involves a number o...
If you've seen Fahrenheit 9/11, you know who the Carlyle Group is - the largest private defense contractor in the world and one of the most powerful companies that most people have never heard of...
...while the Verizon deal will likely go through, people in Hawaii should see the film and take the opportunity to reflect how the war will soon be affecting their lives in a very direct way...
Spyware is evolving - new strains have been detected that are self-updating, persistent, and really malicio
us
. And
us
ers are paying up the nose (and suffering) for Microsoft's security lapses. Dum...
Better than wallpaper - Blik...
Real-time file sharing m
us
ic popularity results reside at BigChampagne - this blows SoundScan out of the water, or could if the RIAA doesn't sue everybody...
Now here's a secondary BigChampagne report that indicates that "artists receiving little or no radio play are still gaining very significant activity on file sharing networks". Meaning...
June 14 to 20, 2004
Theme of the week: Humanity I j
us
t finished watching "The Corporation", an amazing film that traces the roots, rights, and wrongs of the corporate entity. It ties together politics, global issues...
A breakthrough way to compress 3D models has been invented, meaning better video games, movies, CAD applications, and more...
Wal-Mart's RFID-
us
ing suppliers exceed 100...
B
us
inessWeek reports that privacy battles are being won over RFID...
Alien species have ca
us
ed the ecological collapse of the Great Lakes...
"Genetically-modified vir
us
explodes cancer cells"...
A pre-wired, pre-plumbed, cheap 280 square- foot modern modular ho
us
ing unit that looks decent...
CD Origam...
"Copy-blocked CD tops U.S. charts...
Independent m
us
ic labels in Europe break negotiations with Apple over disagreements due to the length of their contract...
June 7 to 13, 2004
Crystalens is a new laser-based technique for treating cataracts. The implanted lens moves
us
ing the power of existing eye m
us
cles...
Following in the footsteps of AT&T, telephone giant BT is transforming its entire phone network to
us
ing IP (Internet) protocol...
A tutorial on how to make your Windows PC look j
us
t like a modern Mac...
Most email spam (80%) is now ca
us
ed by Windows PCs hijacked by virii...
"Declining respect for American cultural values exacerbated by the crisis in Iraq is having a potentially disastro
us
effect on the image of
us
brands such as McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Nike an...
The box ho
us
e - off-the-grid modern architecture for $70,000...
Groovy pictures of the transit of Ven
us
...
A really nice page of digital photography composition tips...
Have you seen the live m
us
ic archives at archive.org...
Where are the guitar heros of today? "Still searching for the next guitar hero"...
#8 - "Rock Lobster! Down! Down!...
The newest way in which labels pay to get songs played on radio - paid ads...
May 31 to June 6, 2004
This week: unconscio
us
passwords, isolation epidemics, and video grid time-shifting! "Future of Visual Gadgets Rolled Out" A nice summary of the Society for Information Display's internationa...
"Unconscio
us
passwords...
"Facing critical shortage of m
us
icians for military funerals, the Pentagon has approved the
us
e of a p
us
h-button bugle that plays taps by itself as the player holds it to his lips....
Never mind the news you've read last week about the lack of sex in Japan. I'm curio
us
about "hikikomori", a contributing condition affecting one million teen boys - they never leave their rooms...
"Childhood obesity in the United States looks significantly worse than previo
us
ly believed, suggests the largest assessment ever of public school students....
Personal photos by the master R
us
sian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky...
I recently saw Tarkovsky's 1983 movie "Nostalgia" - it is a masterpiece, but only for lovers of poetry, atmosphere, ideals, madness, and the sacred...
An article on Kyle Cooper, who's made the art-intensive opening and closing credits of such movies as Spiderman, Se7en, Sphere, Twister, and Mission: Impossible...
"L.A. To Oregon at Mach 9...
"Bad Hair Year...
"Breaking...
May 24 to 30, 2004
Remember the photo diary of that R
us
sian motorcyclist touring around Chernobyl? It turns out that it was a fake...
Curio
us
locals dig up Area 51 wireless perimeter sensors on public land and get b
us
ted by the FBI and Air Force agents...
An S.F. gallery closes after its owner is assaulted for displaying a painting depicting the ab
us
e of Iraqi soldiers by American troops. And this in the typically "counterculture" North Beach area too...
A how-to booklet from the 1940's. Remember, "how-to" books on today's technology will seem j
us
t as quaint in 2070...
The (first?) roll-up electronic keyboard: http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=ja_en&url=http://www.yamano-m
us
ic.com/docs/hard/handroll_piano.htm...
Beautiful photos from the Harbin Snow and Ice Festival, where it's below freezing over half the year...
I forget if I posted this before - the worst album covers, volume 2! My favorite is "HAPPINESS"...
The latest advances in animation as developed by the makers of Shrek 2...
"300 images from 1800 sites...
This site was down for a week or two due to popularity - it's better than the last "infinite spiral" picture I mentioned a month or so ago...
A unique habitat for your cat - the "scratching swirl"...
A new company helps traditional radio stations migrate to digital radio. A great idea, but receivers need to get cheaper...
The way the m
us
ic died "What will it take for an artist to make it in the m
us
ic b
us
iness these days?" A Frontline special, view it online...
Computerless single mom gets b
us
ted by the RIAA, can't afford to settle...
Some of the hippest mp3 blogs out there. Mash-ups are really popular these days. The mp3 format actually got popular beca
us
e of blogs like "Blex's Page of Good Mp3", seven years ago. I
us
ed to visi...
May 17 to 23, 2004
Need a good, free antivir
us
app for Windows? Here's the 46 best freeware utilities for PCs...
Artificial m
us
cle technology is coming along...
Here's how Apple's nifty spam filter makes
us
e of latent semantic analysis to successfully mark 98% of spam mail...
Two teen poetry students give a public anti-Iraq/B
us
h reading. Their teacher is fired and the poetry club shut down...
LANL researchers have figured out how to
us
e nanotechnology to boost solar cell efficiency as much as 37%...
The new Deck Ho
us
e (I want a Porch Ho
us
e)...
More pictures of the eco-prefab Glideho
us
e...
Seattle's new public library looks quirky outside but is astounding inside. May make you rethink the role of (public) architecture. And check out the great VR movies...
One of my favorite movies, THX-1138 (George Lucas' first film) is being rereleased on DVD. Hope he doesn't screw it up like he did Star Wars...
The beautiful abandoned island of Gukanjima...
Will the RIAA create artificial scarcity in the $3 billion cellphone ringtone market...
The New World Symphony
us
es Internet2 videoconferencing for orchestra training...
How iTunes sharing is creating m
us
ic- based social networks in colleges...
Bought m
us
ic from the iTunes M
us
ic Store? Here's the easiest tutorial I've found on how to remove the copy protection...
The entire Grateful Dead live m
us
ic vaults are now online at the Internet Archive...
May 10 to 16, 2004
Topic of the week: More architecture! Architect Michelle Kaufmann is an American hero. She's the first person to finally begin to fulfill Frank Lloyd Wright's dream of cheap quality homes, a goa...
"Tho
us
ands tour first Glideho
us
e at Sunset - Interest in affordable, 'green,' modern prefab runs high:...
A little bit about the
us
onian homes (1936-1959)...
Better than the Pringles can!
us
e $3 Chinese cooking vat scoops to create wireless connections spanning about 7 miles...
More on aco
us
tic cryptanalysis - studying keystroke sounds. From a cellular phone, it's possible to tell what you're typing...
More about the RIAA fudging numbers to claim sales lost to file sharing: http://www.kensei-news.com/bizdev/publish/factoids_
us
/article_23374.shtm...
How about trying environmentally friendly anti-foul compounds
us
ed on ships? The six-year test is impressive...
More groovy green efforts from San Francisco: an ink jet cartridge recycler and an ind
us
trial composting company. This is a great model for cities to follow to get small b
us
inesses recycling compos...
One of the coolest painting programs I've seen in years: Cosmic Painter! It's free and better than a Spirograph. (Sorry, for Mac OSX only)...
A nice aerial photo of a New York cab in winter. Also see Vincent LaForet's other aerial photos...
A wrought-iron covered VW bug...
Read the 2004 Hugo nominees online. My favorites - Vernor Vinge, Michael Swanwick, and Catherine Asara...
May 3 to 9, 2004
The Sasser worm, developed by an 18 year-old in Germany who also made the ubiquito
us
"Netsky" email vir
us
, infected an estimated million computers last week, 80% of which belonged to home
us
ers an...
Your computer's security may be compromised j
us
t by listening to it (aco
us
tic cryptanalysis)...
Current chip design is overkill, often applying more precision to tasks when needed. By making chips that guess results when needed, one may be able to reduce power
us
age by a factor of 1,000...
This new high-speed ind
us
trial hand dryer dries your hands in 5 to 6 seconds...
"You surf j
us
t like a woman...
The "eBay economy" is growing. This is a great b
us
iness idea - sell things on eBay for others. Mailbox places should take this up as an additional service...
Laser spectroscopy is now being
us
ed to detect suicide bombers in Israel. Why don't the lidar folks at UH get into this...
The Star Trek apartment...
The Volkswagen ball, from the Berkshire Botanical Garden. Sculpture by Lars-Erik Fisk...
Psychedelic Buddhistic art from Chalermchai Kositpipat, one of Thailand's most famo
us
painters...
Funny lists from a publisher on sci-fi and horror plots that are submitted too often...
50 moments that helped shaped m
us
ic history...
April 26 to May 2, 2004
The Bose L1 is a revolutionary new PA system that points the way to new amplification technology - it eliminates poles, monitors, and bulky equipment, and is ca
us
ing a stir in the m
us
ic ind
us
try...
Laser-based retinal imaging technology is finally maturing, with over 100 such displays now in
us
e by the Army's Stryker Brigade...
When the island of Tuvalu sinks, it will be the only country to exist solely on the Internet: http://www.
us
atoday.com/tech/columnist/kevinmaney/2004-04-27-tuvalu_x.ht...
In class a 15-year old art student draws B
us
h's head on a stick. The Secret Service visits the school...
A mix of simple chemicals produces a fung
us
-like structure...
"Green tea provides a more effective and environmentally-friendly method of preparing computer hard disks, say
us
scientists." In certain applications it's better than diamond for polishing...
Before you laugh, try a little thinking outside of the box: Hawaii needs low-cost ho
us
ing solutions - how about
us
ing
us
ed shipping containers? Many well-designed structures have been made worldwide...
Some are raising babies without diapers j
us
t fine...
"Study Blames Corn Syrup for Rise of Diabetes in
us
"...
Pictures of wacky Japanese vending machines...
Here's a cool (Mac and Windows) screensaver - an airplane window, with a moving aerial background...
A company records shows live and sells
us
B devices holding the recording after the concert...
An analysis of John Lennon's private jukebox provides a fascinating glimpse into his influences and m
us
ical rip-offs...
April 19 to 25, 2004
This week's theme: helping Hawaii be more eco-tech-friendly. 1) Keep Act 221 to high-tech, and make a new act specifically for television and movie production. The two ind
us
tries have different needs...
3) How about this for a cleanup-inducing pilot project? But
us
e the voices of well-known locals: Berlin's pilot program of talking trash cans that congratulate you when
us
ed have proven to be a hug...
4) Endorse the
us
e of lead-free computer systems, at least by government: The world's first lead-free motherboard (the main component in personal computers) has been developed...
And Intel plans to cut the lead content of computer chips by 95%: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/b
us
iness/20040407-1355-ca-intel-lead.htm...
5) Support s
us
tainable architecture and treat architecture as part of the environment: "The McMansion Next Door - Why the American ho
us
e needs a makeover" (10/2003)...
The first fully-s
us
tainable ho
us
e has been developed - it's powered by solar and runs entirely on hydrogen...
A new technology
us
ing nanowires promises storage capacities of 40GB per square centimeter...
The winners of the 2004 "Lyttle Lytton" contest, for the worst opening line...
Some of the best entries in a Photoshop contest. Theme: merge two animals...
Here's two of the grooviest Flash-based movies I've seen in a while...
A new take on an old art form? Nifty homemade "lava light" movies...
Dissatisfied with the mainland, a lot of people are moving to New Zealand these days, leading to a ho
us
ing boom and sketchy developments...
Like the razor and the toothbr
us
h, the yo-yo is getting more and more serio
us
ly high-tech...
A fellow dot-com veteran invents a new "Clip-n-Seal" product in hopes that it will finally get him out of Web design: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/b
us
iness/138143_clipnseal05.htm...
Study: "less soft drinks reduces obesity": http://www.
us
atoday.com/news/health/2004-04-22-soft-drinks_x.ht...
If you listen to a CD I give you, will you be b
us
ted? As part of a nationwide crackdown, the FBI raided Deer Valley High School...
RIAA Radar has been around for a while now, but their tools are getting better - support non-RIAA labels and check out their top 100 lists - there's some great m
us
ic here...
Technology has been developed that takes images of old, damaged vinyl records and produces restored m
us
ic. Many ramifications for the historical preservation of recordings...
April 12 to 18, 2004
It's the 10th anniversary of unsolicited commercial email, aka spam. Yay, not. On my servers I got about 1,500 spams daily until I installed a c
us
tom filtering system. Now it's down to about 20, bu...
An undercover report of sororities found plenty of the
us
ual s
us
pects - drinking, drugs, puking contests, racism, and rapes...
The youngest writer ever to win an Agatha Award for a mystery novel collaborated with his uncle
us
ing Apple's new videoconferencing technology - this may be the first award-winning book ever mad...
I've seen a lot of Web sites. This could be the worst-designed site ever made...
There's a lot of participatory art going on around the net these days. Here's the surreal result at the midpoint of one photoshop-fest...
A study shows that the most dangero
us
m
us
ic to play while driving is "Ride of the Valkyries". Also, go light on the techno...
AT&T's new m
us
ic identification service seems to work pretty well...
A scientist has been studying the sound of cells - they make noises and sound different when healthy or diseased...
The Pixies played together in public for the first time in about 12 years...
Some guy hooked up a m
us
ic-generating apparat
us
controlled by six live hampsters. It's actually pleasant m
us
ic...
J
us
t by
us
ing a white-colored roof on your home, you can save up to 40% in air conditioning costs...
Ben & Jerry's is installing new freezers in their stores that
us
e sound waves instead of chemicals refrigerants for cooling. Commercial (domestic)
us
e of such technology is still 5 to 10 years away...
A new firefighting chemical looks and acts j
us
t like water, but it doesn't get things wet...
April 5 to 11, 2004
Here's Wing (sorry, not Wings). For your own protection, limit yourself to one of any of the following songs: http://www.wingm
us
ic.co.nz/listen.htm...
The Tao Te Ching - an updated translation for the 21st century. "If you can talk about it, it ain't Tao. If it has a name, it's j
us
t another thing....
"The share of the economic pie going to wages and salaries has plummeted to j
us
t over 50%, its lowest level in at least the past 50 years, and perhaps longer....
"Dodgy Patents Rile Tech Ind
us
try...
A good review of a new book that ref
us
es to take sides - it's about David Chain, the first casualty in the war between environmentalists and the timber ind
us
try in Northern California...
"Easy-to-
us
e unit converts scrap wood to electricity...
March 31, 2004
Let's face it folks - taken as a whole, Hawaii architecture sucks. And the urban planning leaves a lot to be desired. http://starbulletin.com/2003/09/17/b
us
iness/engle.htm...
Hawaii Kai is one of the most garish neighborhoods I've seen. Hawaii is not Greece, Italy, or Hollywood. So why build faux (stucco, fenced-in, highly paved) structures which are neither here no...
In the Bay Area, multiple offers over 10 are not uncommon. Ho
us
es have gone for $300,000 over the asking price. Median home prices in San Francisco are $200,000 over that of Oahu and $100,000 ove...
The last two years have seen a rise in co-ho
us
ing and prefabricated architecture projects in Europe and the U.S.. Thanks to the support of cutting-edge shelter magazines such as Dwel...
The Porch Ho
us
...
The Glide Ho
us
...
These projects are perfect for Hawaii - they are low-cost, replaceable, expandible/evolveable, tough, and designed beautifully with a sense of environment. A number of them incorporat...
"Co-ho
us
ing brings neighbors closer...
Hawaii construction and typical apartment developments
us
e a lot of concrete, a material that John Lautner considered "most desireable" for his needs. But these developments often end up being block...
Looking at the other side of the world, here's an overview of China's recent massive architectural works: "...the building boom sweeping over China has no precedent in human history." They're
us
in...
March 29 to April 5, 2004
"Nude women have been on the menu at The Sutler for years, but the Nashville pub covered up the 19th-century Victorian photos after being warned they might be too racy for state law....
A brawl involving 750 students that resulted in two arrests and eleven s
us
pensions broke out during an anger management assembly at a suburban high school...
A nice summary of four up-and-coming wireless technologies - WiMax, 802.16e, 802.11n, and Ultrawideband: http://www.
us
atoday.com/tech/wireless/data/2004-03-28-coming-tech_x.ht...
The first key ring gadget that's also a camcorder,
us
B storage device, and 2-megapixel digital camera...
United Airlines announced that more than 2 million c
us
tomers
us
ed their self-serving kiosks in a single month. No modern airline can survive without them. Actually, that could be a great b
us
iness ...
Ever wonder why so many b
us
iness majors think Microsoft invented computing? A study of eight textbooks reveals total ignorance of the role of Unix in b
us
iness...
Robert Cringely argues that in the end anti-tr
us
t laws are ineffective when in comes to Microsoft, since they actually end up saving money by being non-compliant with government regulations...
Microsoft reports that 16 million PCs were affected by the recent MSBlast vir
us
, ten times more than previo
us
ly thought...
Drug company GlaxoSmithKline
us
ed orphans as guinea pigs in potentially dangero
us
medical experiments...
A material widely
us
ed in nanotechnology research has been found to trigger organ damage in fish...
Kids are growing up drinking more soda and th
us
getting more broken bones...
A great article explains how 25 years of poor spreadsheet technology (read: Excel) has encouraged faulty decision-making, scandalo
us
b
us
iness practices, and small-mindedness in general. Where are th...
Here's a story by a woman who
us
ed a spreadsheet to tally all the things about her ex-lover...
Newsmap, an interesting way to visually show news. Not sure if it's
us
eful, but it is kind of pretty...
"Study: File-Sharing No Threat to M
us
ic Sales...
Some bands find their fans are donating tho
us
ands to charities to make up for their file sharing...
March 22 to 28, 2004
Lawrence Lessig released his latest book, and you can download and read it for free. If living in an open, free culture is important to you, or if you take photos, draw, write, make m
us
ic, or i...
"Ghost Town" - notes from the dead zone This was actually popular a month or two ago, but it was so popular the site was taken down. A beautiful, epic pictorial essay from a R
us
sian woman who report...
Is your identity safe? The story of how American medical records and credit histories are being exposed outside the U.S. with no privacy guarantees. One reporter's fascinating detective work throug...
Thanks to a new bill j
us
t drafted. Read the book "Free Culture" first and then see if this makes sense to you...
Check out the videos,
us
ing hot dogs as replacement fingers...
All about the Minato Motor, which leverages magnetic effects to produce more electricity than it consumes. Sound wacky? They've j
us
t sold 40,000 motors to a major convenience store chain...
The pros and cons of Quorn, the "fung
us
-based meat substitute" that was introduced to the U.S. in 2002...
"Citizen Kubrick...
M
us
ician Kevin Shields created one of the most expensive, influential and highly praised albums of the last two decades - "Loveless". Here's his first interview in 12 years...
Banksy, who puts the "grr" back into graffiti - here's how to mix revolution with art...
"M
us
ic ind
us
try way off track with song and dance about falling sales...
Less is more A 3D art contest, made with code no bigger than 256 characters...
What you've always wanted to know: What happens to a gummi bear when soaked in water overnight...
March 15 to 21, 2004
Well, this is really late but I've been b
us
y developing the Web site for Soullenz Gallery - check it out...
It's emerging as a serio
us
childhood health threat in A
us
tralia, likely with other European and Western societies to follow...
Due to biological and technological constraints, there is an optimum number to group sizes. Some fascinating disc
us
sion about group dynamics, community building, bureaucracy, and organizations...
Search local b
us
inesses and services with Google...
There is NO exc
us
e not to buy a PC (non-laptop) larger than a shoebox any more. Anything larger is wasteful, ugly, energy and noise polluting. Here's the Nanode, the first Nano-ITX-based PC...
Dasani bottled water pulled from all shelves in the UK after large amounts of a carcinogen is found in it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/b
us
iness/story/0,3604,1174127,00.htm...
"Shocking" videos of closed-door meetings show Diebold (electronic voting machines manufacturer) representatives mention that data gets lost, machines are not certified, and that things generally j
us
...
Beautiful, free, colored 19th-century artwork of biological forms...
Incredible pencil carvings...
Apple sells 50 million songs over the Internet...
Some independent m
us
ic stores are finding that "file sharing can help create a buzz online that can lead to more sales"...
March 8 to 14, 2004
And remember one of the core facts of human nature (now scientifically proved) - when people are presented with more, they will take more, conscio
us
ly or not...
Those who do not learn from history... The amazing Lawrence Lessig wrote a nice piece on how Hollywood, radio, cable TV, and the m
us
ic ind
us
tries were all born from content piracy...
Attached to your iPod, it will take any of six different digital film media types and store the photos on your iPod so you can re
us
e the card. Now you can
us
e your iPod as a bootable backup drive, ...
Writing a screenplay? Here's a catalog of "narrative tropes and idioms". Learn about character archtypes such as the Anti Hero, the Evil Twin, and the Green Skinned Space Babe...
These fake tattoo sleeves look pretty cool - would be great for Halloween, parties, or fitting in at the local biker bar...
Topps' "Wacky Packages" (satirical stickers from the 1970s) are making a comeback, and will be updated for the 21st century...
The most comprehensive picture even taken from the Hubble Telescope was unveiled. It shows nearly 10,000 galaxies. They offer super-high resolution pictures, suitable for printing on large canvas a...
Hit Song Science (HSS) analyses m
us
ic for its "hit" potential, comparing a song's qualities to millions of others...
HSS claims to have already scored a hit on the charts with the single "Left Outside Alone" by Anastacia. I admit it's catchy...
Check out this video clip on HSS from NBC - it shows how m
us
ical desirableness is analyzed visually in a 2D graph of 2.5 million songs...
Elcodrive's debut album "Somewhere Between Now and Then" was enhanced with HSS technology. One critic says "Elcodrive has not put forth any newfangled ideas in their release, which translates int...
A new sonic "construction set" has been released freely online which contains clips art and samples and breaks from the hip-hop artist Jay-Z. This allows people to create their own albums based o...
George Michael will offer his songs freely online from now on, a m
us
ic ind
us
try first for an established artist. Actually this is a great strategy for someone with an already popular back catalog...
There's an interesting architectural trend towards "green roofs" - creating mini-ecologies in un
us
ed urban areas, mainly, roofs...
March 1 to 7, 2004
Cinergy becomes the first electric utility in the U.S. to offer high-speed Internet service via its power lines. The benefits of
us
ing such as service in Hawaii are obvio
us
(reach rural areas, les...
Philips developed a "fluid lens" - a variable-foc
us
lens system with no mechanical moving parts that mimics the human eye's foc
us
ing mechanism...
The first car designed by women for women was launched at the Geneva Auto Show, with emphasis on comfort, storage, and low maintenance: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/b
us
iness/3528757.st...
Heard of SCO, that company that's suing Linux
us
ers? According to an acknowledged memo, Microsoft may be funding them to the tune of $86 million... but it is clear that Microsoft wishes to fund SC...
An influential Washington policy group released a report stating that the entertainment ind
us
try's pursuit of anti-piracy laws is bad for b
us
iness and for the economy...
Someone's collecting all the election-related wire service stories on Yahoo that
us
e the phrase "The American People". See how politicians are
us
ing your name in vain...
The first m
us
ic video ever to be entirely shot
us
ing a cell phone. Reminds me of the first movies made for the Web ten years ago - in another ten directors may be viewing dailies on their phones...
1.8 tons of raw material are
us
ed to make your average desktop computer and monitor. Upgrading rather than replacing your computer saves more energy than recycling it...
"For the first time, a microbial fuel cell has generated electricity while cleaning wastewater, a development that could make sewage treatment more affordable for both ind
us
trialized and developin...
Remember that photojournal on shipbreaking, one of the most toxic and dangero
us
jobs on earth? Here's a short summary of some new technologies (including a wash that neutralizes PCBs) being
us
ed i...
A network map of political books based on purchase patterns from major Web-based book retailers. It shows a great division in thinking... you could
us
e this same sort of analysis to visually stud...
Nifty animations of typography set to m
us
ic...
February 23 to 29, 2004
Congratulations! You may be a content provider! "Nearly half of U.S. Internet
us
ers have built Web pages, posted photos, written comments or otherwise added to the enormo
us
variety of materia...
This has been pretty popular, but for those who don't know... DJ Danger Mo
us
e released the critically acclaimed "The Grey Album", a remix of rap vocals and the Beatles' White Album. EMI demands a hal...
An HP study of the transmission of ideas via blogs (online journals), with visuals. For future research: How is the spreading of ideas like the transmission of virii? Can one reliably predict the mos...
A nice overview from Popular Science on current brain-machine interface research. "If you think about
us
ing superconducting magnets, maybe you could figure out how to make a helmet," says [forme...
At a French cartoon festival kids draw pictures of obese Americans and B
us
h next to Hitler...
We don't support that "Ted, and those like him, have only one solution to their c
us
tomers' problems. Erase everything on the computer's hard drive and start over from scratch." The latest in Salon'...
February 16 to 22, 2004
Hoo boy, lots of news this week. You heard it here first, folks! Leaked Pentagon report warns climate change may bring famine, war "LONDON (AFP) - A secret report prepared by the Pentagon warns tha...
Exposure To Low-level Magnetic Fields Ca
us
es DNA Damag...
According to two new surveys, Apple leads the c
us
tomer service satisfaction pack over Dell, HP, and Compaq...
Killing the M
us
ic: by Don Henle...
Polaroid Warns Film
us
ers Not to 'Shake It...
Some of the funniest, most creative
us
es of Photoshop I've seen in a long time.....
The Pentagon researches ways for GIs to fight for up to five days without a break. Have they not heard of crack? "The question is: 'Are there temporary biochemical approaches we can
us
e to squeeze th...
Add wireless to your b
us
iness! At Schlotzsky's in Texas, a survey finds that more than 40 percent of c
us
tomers say that free wireless access is a factor in choosing the restaurant to dine at...
Ibogaine (illegal in the U.S.) and its miraculo
us
effect on long-term hard-core drug addicts... "Our first round in St. Kitts, we treated six individuals, and I will go to my grave with the memory o...
February 9 to 15, 2004
(from Jan 3) Now that Oahu only has two art-ho
us
e movie venues (with one whose fate is uncertain), will people be able to see movies like the ones below in the future? Or will we have to downloa...
Pictures and information about Destino, the lost 50 year-old animated collaboration between Disney and Salvador Dali. It's been nominated for an Oscar...
Robot Storie...
20% of this beer's profits go to the non-profit World Turtle Tr
us
t, which is currently financing four international projects. I tried it recently and it's very good (and I am a beer snob)...
Can technology save
us
from the future oil crash? "Researchers say they have produced hydrogen from ethanol in a prototype reactor small enough and efficient enough to heat small homes and powe...
February 2 to 8, 2004
Let's start with some fun stuff this week! This French performer attaches dozens of horns to his jumpsuit and proceeds to play classical m
us
ic...
Advertisers are now
us
ing MRIs to correlate image affinity to brain activity: "Big government and big companies have been trying to manipulate
us
since the start of time," [says a study volunteer]...
"So the prices, which seem ridiculo
us
to 99 percent of the population, are not....
The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) has a nice article on this year's dream engineering jobs. They interview the guy who made Sony's jumping robots, but the real story i...
The latest in modernist prefabricated ho
us
ing, where you can purchase a beautiful, open wooden contemporary ho
us
e kit for $100,000...
January 26 to February 1, 2004
Yet another serio
us
flaw in Microsoft software that may not even be fixable...
January 19 to 25, 2004
Beautiful photographs of polluted ind
us
trial sites...
"Republican staff members of the
us
Senate Judiciary Commitee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media"...
January 12 to 18, 2004
I
us
ed to get about 500 to 1000 spams a day. Now it's down to about 100 now that I put tough anti-spam filters in.....
Cuba cracks down on Internet
us
e...
Controversy over Wal-Mart's practice of locking in workers at night, despite medical emergencies and hurricanes. In some cases workers end their shifts early and m
us
t wait it out for hours before th...
January 5 to 11, 2004
Should we move high-tech jobs overseas? "Economists back tech ind
us
try's overseas hiring"...
"Please j
us
t tell the Americans to send the garbage closer to my home," pleaded Dishar Jaber, 56, squinting through the one eye he was left with after the Iran-Iraq war. "Then I will be happy....
Here on Oahu, Wallace Theatres (at Restaurant Row) is abandoning its art ho
us
e movies (sigh)...
The New York Times ref
us
ed to run this article - the journalist posted it himself online instead. Here's a good idea to help offset online "sharing" - a $60 per year charge for broadband
us
ers...
Burger King c
us
tomers told: 'You are too fat to have a Whopper...
A great two-piece story on a man trapped in a dead-end job at a c
us
tomer service call center. "The Phones Don't Stop...
The U.S. asks A
us
tralia's Qantas to ban bathroom lines on flights...
"You say you want a revolution? Iran bands rock on...
December 29 to January 4, 2004
Cool photos of Osaka, Japan. Seems a little crowded to me...
Is the American Dream over? B
us
iness Week said so, and so does this article. More proof that the rich are richer and poor are poorer. "The Death of Horatio Alger"...
Will a new high-tech fund in Hawaii work? Local VC Barry Weinman may not like it, but I think the state needs to provide a starter foundation for b
us
iness before VCs can step in. Local VCs have neve...
December 22 to 28, 2003
Hope everyone had a happy 2003! Kev's News is now six months old. (Obligatory holiday picture link below): http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/images/snowglobemo
us
e.jp...
Favorite antipop CDs of 2003 Tired of mainstream m
us
ic? How about great jazz/world/folk/aco
us
tic f
us
ion? Highly recommended are David Tanenbaum, Tord G
us
tavsen, and the Be Good Tanyas. Of course...
Does anyone in Oahu need a free b
us
iness-class RICOH FT7870 copy machine? I'm not sure if it's been sold yet...
Spamming and phishing The PayPal email scam - and other fake corporate email scams - are getting more insidio
us
lately. Beware! The term for this is "phishing", and attacks increased by 400% in th...
Yet another victim of the Nigerian Email Scam. It's become or 4th or 5th largest ind
us
try there! This article has interesting details on how it's done these days, involving dozens of actors, props...
A new electric "in-wheel" engine can make vehicles up to 50 percent more efficient and is being tested on a city b
us
in the Netherlands...
"Fax - the technology that ref
us
es to die...
The National Park Service is altering footage of demonstrations at the Lincoln Memorial, removing anti-war protests and replacing them with pro-war and religio
us
rallies that didn't even occur there...
An article about Apple's Jonathan Ives, who designed the iPod, iMac, PowerBook, and lots of other stuff. He j
us
t received one of the most prestigio
us
awards for ind
us
trial design...
December 15 to 21, 2003
A Texas ho
us
ewife is b
us
ted for selling a vibrator... she faces up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine...
A good interview with the somewhat recently b
us
ted Tommy Chong, from Taft Correctional Institution...
Spammers can do what terrorists can't - military hardware turned into spamming machine: Thanks to the
us
Navy choosing Microsoft as their official operating system for vessels, a hacked Microsof...
Sony has developed the first autonomo
us
running robot...
* Aug
us
t 12: First reported at an international symposium at Fermilab...
December 8 to 14, 2003
Whoo boy, lots of new stuff in the world lately. Guess I'll j
us
t jump in...
1) It makes you more s
us
ceptible to identity theft and spa...
Why don't we j
us
t do what Canada does...
This Chinese video has been wildly popular this week: A great "new" way to fold your shirts (it's true, I learned too) the way professionals do in retail stores. You may be able to download it her...
The Second Coming of Nick Drak...
A good interview showing his thoughts on the m
us
ic ind
us
try: "The response I've been getting from real people is so much more enth
us
iastic than those people who j
us
t wanted to manage my career......
Alexi has become popular on the strength of his self-made year-old 4-song album on cdbaby, two songs off which have already been featured on national TV shows. Many college/independent DJs and majo...
I've mentioned cdbaby before, but it's becoming a force in the m
us
ic ind
us
try to be reckoned with, thanks to the power of the Internet...
The String Cheese Incident is taking on ticketmaster...
Details behind the first National Geographic cover story ever to be completely shot digitally...
B
us
iness Week on "The Rise of The Indian" There are more IT engineers in Bangalore than Silicon Valley now. Startups seeking funds are now asked what their "India strategy" is...
A new way to filter out toxins from the blood has been invented. It
us
es magnetized nanoaparticles, and may revolutionize current dialysis techniques as well as eliminate certain classes of diseases...
A man gets out of a ticket
us
ing a cell phone and a friend with a computer...
The J
us
tice Department wants to brand Greenpeace as a criminal operation...
A Pattern Language for S
us
tainabilit...
And now, in complete contrast to the above... the M
us
hroom Ho
us
e, a beautiful handcrafted wooden ho
us
e in Canada that took 22 years to make...
The worst holiday religio
us
gifts ever...
December 1 to 7, 2003
Are you a "pack rat"? "Facing jail beca
us
e his ho
us
e is filled to the brim, a hoarder finds hope in a woman with a talent for organizing...
The woman who claimed to be trampled at Wal-Mart after Thanksgiving has been found to have filed 16 previo
us
claims from vario
us
b
us
inesses...
A
us
tralia to Boost Great Reef Protectio...
Have you ever seen a gigpixel image...
A great gallery of digital photography from Max Lyons...
The ab
us
e of period typography in the movies...
CNN Art Suck...
A nice 24-hour time-lapse movie of Toronto (5MB)...
Why frivolo
us
software patents suck - here's all the patents you're violating now by setting up an online store...
"Public Libraries
us
e Internet to Sell Old Books, Help Budgets...
In an effort to thwart modern spam filters, spammers are now
us
ing excerpts of classic novels and poetry in their emails...
November 24 to 30, 2003
Some Thanksgiving sale goodness-this one made all the papers: "Woman knocked unconscio
us
by trampling shoppers" ...and this happened at a Wal-Mart Supercenter.....
A nonviolent protester is "hogtied and ab
us
ed" at Fort Benning...
I didn't think Michael Jackson could look worse... (picture) http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/LAW/11/24/jackson.acc
us
er/vert.mugshot.jp...
Did you know they also sold thongs for kids? (from May 2002): "Parents say kid's thong is j
us
t plain wrong...
November 17 to 23, 2003
Kev's news is now
us
ing a mailing list program, which means that people can subscribe and unsubscribe automatically, all from...
Those in Hawaii can now
us
e the Forward Foundation's calendar to publicize events related to the arts, culture, technology, and environment at...
Craigslist Honolulu is up and running! Tell everybody to
us
e it...
We now return you to our weekly broadcast. Lots of new science/tech this week for some reason... Things got a little heated in London...
A
us
tism, its role in geni
us
, and the latest theories about the disorder...
A working nano-transistor has been self-assembled
us
ing biology for the first time. A first step to building self-assembling molecular computers...
In Rolling Stone, Robert F. Kennedy wrote a nice article on B
us
h and his attack on the environment...
November 10 to 16, 2003
People will do anything to get into the U.S.... (From September 2001) http://www.c
us
toms.
us
treas.gov/xp/C
us
tomsToday/2001/September/other/c
us
today_bent.xm...
"Terror Is A Triple Meat Pizza: Who needs war and evildoers and a big nuclear holoca
us
t? We've got a national obesity epidemic...
An interview with Gore Vidal about his latest book on the Founding Fathers and what they would have done to B
us
h...
A British reporter finds B
us
h protesters are a diverse crowd...
Now that people are sharing their iTunes playlists, a new form of bigotry is emerging: discrimination based on a person's terrible taste in m
us
ic (at least among networked college students). It "tell...
Some popular news stories: Scientists have created the first artificial vir
us
(and it reproduces)...
November 3 to 9, 2003
A very promising cancer-fighting vir
us
(the Reovir
us
) has received funding for studies...
Unlike the U.S., A
us
tralians "do e-voting right" by opening up the software running their voting systems to public scrutiny...
"M
us
ic fans in the
us
are buying almost twice as many singles in digital form over the internet as they are on CDs from stores, according to a report"...
This is absolutely hilario
us
! Updates are coming as well.....
The home of New Society publishers, a great publisher of books on s
us
tainable living...
The world's first disposable cellular phone j
us
t hit the market. It comes with 60 minutes of prepaid time, its own phone number, and you can add more minutes as needed...
But some of these healers are ref
us
ing to divulge information, saying they are not fairly compensated for their information - which could make some biotech firms millions of dollars...
October 27 to November 2, 2003
Quote of the week: "If voting could really change things, it would be illegal." -- Revolution Books, New York, NY Feel safe? Last week was "Protection From Pornography Week"...
"Why Those Young Men Aren’t Watching TV Anymore" http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/B
us
iness/SiliconInsider/SiliconInsider-1.htm...
The Day the M
us
ic Die...
October 27, 2003
Morgan has provided this link to Reverend Billy and his hilario
us
nonviolent protest against Wal-Mart (and a good idea too)...
A trial j
us
t started that could pave the way for holding U.S. companies accountable for pollution overseas - it involves toxic oil dumps in total 50 percent larger than the Exxon Valdez spill sprea...
The fires in Southern California as seen from space (picture): http://
us
.news2.yimg.com/
us
.yimg.com/p/ap/20031026/capt.ny11310262336.california_wildfires_ny113.jp...
October 20, 2003
This week was Marriage Protection Week! In honor, here's an article about how only 50.7% of America is actually married: "Unmarried America...
I should get into this b
us
iness... "Execs who are tech dummies seek secret training...
Some interesting facts about Wal-Mart, which is making a p
us
h to open hundreds of new "supercenters"...
* The iTunes m
us
ic store now represents 70% of all m
us
ic downloads...
Today's modern kids comment on vintage video games - Pong, Donkey Kong, Handheld Football, Tetris, Space Invaders, and more... Niko: Hey—Pong. My parents played this game. Brian: It takes this whol...
October 14, 2003
The world's first motorized surfboard This is quite a revolutionary device - it's to surfing what snowboards are to skiing. This Aug
us
t it won approval for U.S. distribution after a 16-yea...
"Answers Please, Mr B
us
h...
The main point of this is that now a single computer can replace an entire cellular tower's worth of expensive equipment. This means smaller installations and better coverage to rural areas. Pl
us
i...
Like
us
ed CDs? "The Top 50 Most Common
us
ed CDs" Also, if you like to stay on the cutting edge of m
us
ic, Pitchfork Media is a good place to check out from time to time...
A great, great explanation of how this nation's electrical grid works, why more large-scale blackouts are predicted, the effects of deregulation, and yet another example of capitalism ignorin...
Finally, on a lighter note, a partial Latin translation of Sir Mix-a-lot's "Baby Got Back": "Large buttocks are pleasing to me, nor am I able to lie concerning this matter....
October 6, 2003
The death of the laser show: birth of the new psychedelics? The American M
us
eum of Natural History started a new sound and light show
us
ing computer graphics called SonicVision. It's a 35-minute movi...
"3G Mobile Signals Can Ca
us
e Na
us
ea, Headache...
"Mergers, acquisitions, takeover bids... that's the vocabulary as would-be wives take a b
us
iness approach to relationships...
"Working on the go has become standard operating procedure in the m
us
ic ind
us
try...
September 30, 2003
TV so real that it provokes na
us
ea and "gasps of astonishment"...
You heard it here first folks. Windows is indeed a threat to national security: http://b
us
iness.bostonherald.com/b
us
inessNews/b
us
iness.bg?articleid=36...
The RIAA withdrew one of their suits due to mistaken identity - This Mac-
us
ing grandma was liable for $300 million for stealing songs by artists such as the rapper "Trick Daddy"...
September 22, 2003
All about the best slot machine cheater ever: http://www.
us
atoday.com/tech/news/2003-08-11-slot-cheats_x.ht...
This has been popular this week: Al Franken's Supply-Side Jes
us
...
About Stefanie Nagorka, who makes spontaneo
us
sculptures in Home Depot aisles wihout permission...
Evidence that large groups of people learned to live in a s
us
tainable fashion in the past...
September 15, 2003
The iTunes m
us
ic store j
us
t sold its 10 millionth song! Yay...
"12-Year-Old Sued for M
us
ic Downloading (by RIAA)...
Of all people, the Chief Technical Officer of InfoWorld (long a Windows/UNIX-oriented publication) has moved to a Mac and wrote two articles about the experience... "It j
us
t works... an option that'...
The optical ill
us
ions page from Japan has been greatly expanded. WARNING: may ca
us
e headaches or discomfort...
September 8, 2003
"Not J
us
t Warmer: It's the Hottest for 2,000 Years...
According to "youth marketing experts", Apple is one of the coolest, popular brands among teenagers (even though they're probably
us
ing Windows at school)...
Diamond-cutting robots are on the rise! Contrast with the recent progress made in synthetic diamond tech (see the recent Wired) and you'll see how the entire ind
us
try could be completely automated i...
A great story about Disney's biggest fans, and an interesting comparison to Talmudic scholarship. Is God really in the details, and are details necessary for organizational and religio
us
longevity...
California candidates are given the Voight-Kampff test from Blade Runner, to see which ones are replicants. This is hilario
us
...
The best article so far on the Aquada, the first amphibio
us
sports car that actually looks sporty...
India's struggles with genetically modified crops... http://www.wired.com/news/b
us
iness/0,1367,57615,00.htm...
Visionary architect Eugene Tsui Why generic "modernism" is a plague, and how to design a humane future: "Look at a box-shaped ho
us
e - it wastes so much space and so much material, it is structurall...
September 2, 2003
LEDs and the future of the light bulb: "If the world switches over to LEDs rapidly enough, it could obviate the need to build more than 100 power plants between now and 2020...
An award-winning British journalist leaves the
us
after six years but finds it again at a Patti Smith concert. Lots of nice little facts in this article.....
August 25, 2003
Promising biomass-based power generation technology "Fueled by sawd
us
t pellets, corncobs or coconut shells, BioMax generates electricity for rural towns, b
us
inesses...
Ocean Sponge May Be Best for Fiber Optic...
Disney is laying off its traditional 2D animators, opting instead to only do 3D (computer generated) animated films from now on. A passing of an era.....
Rockin' on without Microsoft This is the best, no-nonsense, pragmatic, pro-b
us
iness view of one CEO who removed every bit of Microsoft software from his company. If you're still
us
ing Windows in you...
The winners in nerve.com's pickup line contest, successfully
us
ed lines, and miserable failures...
2003 Ozone Hole May Be Record Size, A
us
tralia Say...
EPA to ease air pollution rules for maintaining coal-burning power plant...
Affected by the recent computer vir
us
es? The solution: 1) Don't
us
e Outlook. 2) Don't
us
e Windows. I j
us
t spent a couple hours cleaning up a friend's infected Windows machine this week. In over 1...
Here's exactly why Windows systems are insecure (and why Apple's and other systems are secure) by default: "Microsoft Windows: Insecure by Design...
By the way: If you are
us
ing Apple's Mail application, the vir
us
emails will be automatically marked as junk and sent to your junk mail folder. Apple Mail has the best spam detection/removal of an...
August 12, 2003
Slow news week. Most of the new good stuff popped up today. This week's theme: trends on the edge of culture...
FOX News apparently owns the trademark to the phrase "Fair and Balanced". We'll see if it holds up in court...
This has been making the rounds... you know you want one...
Octop
us
Camouflag...
Bastard Po...
Flash Mob...
Potential Date Alert...
Documented Lif...
August 4, 2003
This week's theme: techniques for separating the wheat from the chaff and the signal from the noise. Much conf
us
ion arises from people not being able to see the difference between the theory o...
Why information design is important...
Why graphic design (and choosing the right font) is important:...
This is a great article which points out...
We'll be seeing more good and bad
us
es of cell phone cams in the future...
It is official U.S. policy to encourage people to buy larger, less efficient cars: "The Senate rejected a proposal to require a sharp increase in automobile fuel economy Tuesday after concerns wer...
July 28, 2003
Finally, technology has brought
us
virtual bubble wrap...
July 21, 2003
"Discontented Americans Consider Canada" http://www.cnn.com/2003/
us
/Northeast/07/19/considering.canada.ap/index.htm...
J
us
t released last month, Second Life is perhaps the closest thing to wide-scale cyberspace today. A journalist is covering its own culture as it evolves...
Stat
us
report: there have been almost 7 million hits on the Star Wars Kid page, 38 cloned videos, and 3 more currently in the making. Hopefully people will scrape up enough to buy him an iBook (up t...
I'm sure you've seen this satire already: http://www.quatloos.com/cm-niger/nigerian_scam_letter_m
us
eum.ht...
July 16, 2003
"Why," you may wonder, "are you sending me email like this, Kev?" you may ask. I say: beca
us
e you have a committed interest in keeping the world from being absolutely mediocre. Therefore an...
The A
us
tin Chronicle has a funny review here.....
July 10, 2003
With iChat, Who Needs a Phone? Apple's latest tech wizardry makes voice calling over the Net a snap. That could be a p
us
h off a cliff for today's telecom giant...
July 8, 2003
If you don't know what RFID is, read here first: http://securityfoc
us
.com/columnists/16...
I personally believe that RFID will happen in some form whether consumers like it or not - it's j
us
t a matter of when and how it is implemented. As with any revolutionary technology, there are grea...