Your Phone Says You Need Milk

Check to see if you're out of butter by looking in your fridge with your cell phone. According to the ElectricNews that is the plan.

Thought 1: An entire "life network" of cameras, from your work cubicle to your garage. Obsesive Compulsives would have a hay day. Or possibly a whole new generation of young people would be transformed by this technology into obsessives?

Thought 2: If we think distracted drivers are bad now, wait until they are looking at their phones as they meander down the road.

Thought 3: VC folk, invest in any company who is developing video camera detection equipment. "Camera Free" will be the new marketing phrase.

Thought 4: A new never ending paradox/ reality entertainment venue: web pages that shows video feeds of people looking at their "life networks" on cell cameras. Or web pages that show video feeds of people online looking at video feeds of people looking at their "life networks" on cell cameras. Or...well you get the point.

Thought 5: Must stop thinking about camera phones. (Also hoping that people who smoke weed aren't reading this blog.)

Terraforming Mars Marching On?

This story from Scienceagogo on high test earth micro-organisms that could potentially thrive on Mars is just a little jolting. What could the implications of seeding life on an other planet be? What if some freakish mutation proliferates and eats our kids a thousand years from now? Okay, so I am paranoid. It just seems like a big step to be spreading bacteria and small organisms about on various planets Johnny Appleseed style. Hey why not use it to store our trash and nuclear waste too? (a joke) But I guess if we were able to make Mars inhabitable it would be a worthwhile endevour. Speaking of which I must plug one of my fav sci-fi flicks: Red Planet with Val Kilmer. The freaking robot dog is the same creepy that the machines gave me in T3 (another under valued sci-fi movie) Okay another less techy and more situational sci-fi fav is Enemy Mine with Dennis Quaid and Ben Vareen.

(10 shot' claims that T3 is not her kind of movie, and I have to agree it is a "guy movie" but I don't think it is a total chick flop.)

Home Decor goes Wi-Fi

Although Jakob Dylan may want some royalties, Wallflower is a wireless picture frame that slideshows photos served from your computer.
While it seems to be developmental and the $500+ price tag is not exactly a bargain. I love the idea. They need to be REAL big and cheap and use OLED technology.
Via Blogdex

Blogroll Update

While Blogger has been updating and fixing it's API, it has reaped havoc on the Whuffie template. Disappearing post titles last week, and upload files in the wrong directories, and the loss of some of those on the blogroll and link section. If you were one of them lemme know. We will put you back. (To blogger's credit Blog Control was fast, prompt, & courteous.)

Be sure to check out some of the newly 'rolled:

• Jean Chu | Hiving
ABerkeleyy area blogger who has a nice clean site and is a keen photographer.
(Not to mention here 'bitchun blog name)

• Phillip M. Tarrone | flashenabled
A great techno gadget blog. Clean and informative.

•
Josh Wolfe | Forbes & Wolfe

"...An insider's blog on the science, markets, and undiscovered trends of nanotech.
A must-read companion to the Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report." (I guess forbes doesn't post at least I have not seen anything from him yet.)

• neuroprosthesis blog

"Science news related to biomorphic robots, android and humanoid robot helpers, cyborgs, brain mapping, neural implants, bionic organs, prosthetic limbs, spinal cord regeneration with a goal to alleviate movement disorders and related disabilities. "
Great nicely done news blog with a great bunch of links. (The home site needs work though, white lettering on black background is so hard to read.)

• Roland Piquepaille | Technology Trends

"How new technologies are modifying our way of life." Nicely done, well written, often politically left blog.

• Erik & Mark Baard | The Baard
"Reporting on Science and Society"

Again, nicely done, well written, often politically left blog. (But what do you expect from Boston author's who have published with Village Voice and plastic.com?)

Favorite Blog quote

"I don't think people who own birds should be allowed to shop at donut stores"

Pirates of the Caribbean Review (No spoliers)

While I went to the movie with low expectations based on a few of the reviews I had heard, I was confident that Johnny Dep would at least be entertaining as he has in most of the movies I have seen him in. I was not disappointed. I had thought that maybe Dep would not be in the whole movie or something lame like that (Okay I am still smarting from Jody Foster in Return From Witch Mountain) But it was defiantly a Dep movie. All the hub-ub about his eye make up and dark portrayal of a pirate was trumped though. Maybe if he would have taken a hit of a bong or something. While there was that magical feel of classic Disney movies it was very light and brief in a bedknobs and broomsticksy way, and I did find myself thinking the movie to be a bit a long a few times. Dep did a great job as a Pirate Captain and injected needed levity in a movie about a ship piloted by hundreds of undead skeleton pirates. They would have done well to add a Bob Hope type of character for more levity. (But that is just me missing Bob Hope and his Pirate'capades) The special affects were outstanding, moonlight revealing skeletal bones as characters dashed about it's beams. The plot line was intelligent, there were some good laughs, and the adventure was emmersive. Worth seeing on the big screen. Don't take kids that are younger than 8. Would I buy the DVD? Sure.

Overall I give it a B+. Had they lowered the death count and made it more accessible for children and added a funny character or two, (say Will Farrel or Chris Rock) It could have been an A list made for the whole family Disney epic.

Disney In Trouble?

Okay Euro Disney, who has not been doing well even after a second park opened recently in Paris. The double tanking venture is now looking to "Big Mama in USA" to bail them out. Perhaps it is time for an ad-hoc comittee to come in and re-imagineer the place? | More from the Evening Standard

Wireless liquid level sensing

While I wouldn't exactly qualify this as "what the world needs next is.." material, it is an interesting use of RFID technology. (ultimately a deadbeat waiter will just ignore the sensor indicator to talk to the hostess anyway.) Iglassware from Mitsubishi Electronics
Via DueDiligence Via Ole Eichhorn

DNA in Your Fingerprints

Something PreCrime might use? A new patented way of extracting 10 "nanograms" of DNA from a print in 15 minutes positively identifying anyone. This article explains in more detail and goes on to mention privacy issues and genetic profiling. | Read UPI story here

Neurotypists - Secretaries of the future?

The keyboard is one more level of abstraction between us and our computers... why not just skip the keyboard and enter commands directly from your brain? Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are the subject of research at a number of different universities, including the University of Rochester, Colorado State University, Helsinki University of Technology and Brown University. Most human research has been done using skullcaps or electrodes on the scalp. However, Cyberkinetics, a Massachusetts-based company, plans to retrofit a few brains with internal electrodes if FDA approval goes through. They plan to start their neural-electrode implant research next year.

via Wired News

Hamburglar among tomorrows technology leaders?

Nick Douglas comments below and submitted this link about fast food giant McDonald's using handheld PDA's to take orders. (Thanks for the link.) While I commented on his blog "Broken Hammock" about the futuristic notion of flash baking the memory of a junkfood binge via wireless internet I less hypothetically see this as a possible test marketing for cell phone orders. I also think the article he posted is worthy of note for the description of how much software, databasing and investment Micky D's has. I never realized how high tech my burgers were (Yes '10 shot, cow meat). While it would seem if McDonalds is suffering financially, maybe they are over thinking and part of the pain is IT over-investment.
But then again maybe they are setting a new paradigm for food consumption? Without question if McDonalds is experimenting with Wi-Fi, it makes everyone else stand up and notice.