nick gaydos > thynk

IOBR - Social Media for Toddlers

I was listening to the CBC Spark Podcast and came across an interview with Finish designer Hannu Ripatti of Passi Ripatti. He and his partner have created a prototype social media device for toddlers that allows them to communicate with each other using a pair of modified shape sorters. 

Each toddler can let the other know when they are eating, brushing their teeth or going to bed. Interestingly, Hannu says in the interview that they choose these activities because they were areas of friction in the household. By encouraging the toddler's awareness of when the other was going to bed and providing conversation around the topic, they were able to ease some of the tension that surrounded these daily activities.

 

media's echo chamber

Don't get me wrong. The internet is a fantastic place to communicate. The issue is that it is too easy to hear the things we want to hear.

Today, I was pointed at The Things People Say by Elizabeth Kolbert in the New Yorker by my friend Josh. 

The following struck a chord with me:

"...it is often argued that the Internet is a boon to democracy—if information is good, then more information must be better. But, in Sunstein’s view, the Web has a feature that is even more salient: at the same time that it makes more news available, it also makes more news avoidable."

"The most striking power provided by emerging technologies," he has written, is the "growing power of consumers to 'filter' what they see."

In essence, an Echo Chamber and everyone falls into it's trap.

Note: There is lots more to like in this article including: Rumors and How they spread, (Dis)Information Age and Cyberpolarization.

(way to late for christmas) gadget consumerism

• DealExtreme
  Super inexpensive, super cheap electronicy gadgety products, shipped free. Can't vouch for ordering or quality at this time, but may give it a try someday.
• X-Treeme Geek
  is a nifty gadget retailer. Lots of interesting stuff.

Video of Pleo Hatching

On Wednesday, our friends, Anne and Marty, came over. Anne brought her un-opened Pleo that had just arrived.

Well... I'm amazed. It's pretty darn impressive - a small machine / computer that fools you into treating it like a pet cat. We couldn't get enough petting and scratching in!

I've posted the video on youtube. Be sure to watch for our 7 month old's reactions.

Floating Wind Turbines

As the year ends, I'm overcome with the "Best of 2007" lists - music, ideas, technology, people and so on. Browsing through core77's weblog, I noticed a post on wind turbines:

"...the Magenn Air Rotor System is a helium-filled wind turbine that floats 1,000 feet above the ground, getting it up and out of the way. The device is essentially a blimp wrapped in a steamboat's sternwheel and sends power back to the ground via its tether. Another benefit of being 1,000 feet up is that they are exposed to wind more constant than the serendipitous breezes us groundlings have access to."

While everyone seems to like the idea of green energy from the wind, no one seems to want to live near them. This could solve that.

On top of that, it's certainly possible to move these around. Imagine using these wind turbines to offset energy requirements for one time events, like the Olympics.

All ears

The Future of Cell Phone Headsets:

I'm with Tim - headsets will become the 'contact lenses' of the ears. I'm certainly ready to cue the soundtrack to my life.

Google Makes Charting Easy

Google recently released a chart generator called the Google Chart API.

It is easy to use through parameters within the URL and passes back a tidy PNG graphic of the chart. [via information aesthetics]

the odd link

• Japan's melody roads play music as you drive
  An idea I've had for a while, now there is an implementation: Just as travelling over small speed bumps or road markings can emit a rumbling tone throughout a vehicle, the melody road uses the spaces between to create different notes.
• OmniFocus
  A very slick 'Getting Things Done' ready to-do list from The Omni Group.