Robot Arms of Peace

Dean Kamen inventor of the Segway, water purity devices for third world countries,etc. has done it again, after being asked to do something about the civil war era hooks we are giving our wounded soldiers in Iraq, his team developed something incredible. Read about here. See the grainy bootleg video here. Some veiwers found themselves led to tears. Maybe one of them was me.

Real time weather on your STREET

Google Earth phonom has grown into invisable or transparent part of daily life so much so that the eye in ths sky view has started a craze in branding your roof top. See Wired story here.

But that is so yesterday. Today you can check the weather on your street. Via Microsoft's Virtual Earth- That is right go to weather.com interactive satalite fed page and see real time doppler radar overlaying your location. This could be real handy for wirless enabled outdoors activities and travelers. Be sure next trip I go on I will check the weather first.

via download squad

Overclocked MP3

A free MP3 of a song created for Cory Doctorow's book "Overclocked" is available for download here. Created by Midnight.Haulkerton an Australian"grok band" the production is a little weak, home studio-ish, but it is a pretty good song.

I love the notion of ad-hoc community development. (thus this blog) Mr.Doctorow will someday be acknowledged for his contribution to freedom of expression.

I must confess I have yet to read the book. For that matter I have never read any of Cory's other books. Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom was a good sci-fi read. Worth reading if you have not yet.

link via boingx2

Email you a book

Those of you who stop by my blog, but never have read sci-fi novell Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom can get it mailed via email segments of your own time choosing. Very cool. I will have to read it again. Go here to sign up.

Print you a fighter jet or something

As the mem rolls on about proliferation of home printers becoming fab machines you might check this article about defensetech.

Internet Phone Whuffie

TBP from Those Dark Trees sent me this link for Bichun.org
Bichun Society appears to be distributing a software plugin which tracks Whuffie on your Skype. Can't say I am nuts about the term "Bichun Butler". But 270 others don't seem to mind.

For those of you who aren't familiar with terms:

Bichun Societey: mythical social group from Cory Doctorows book de sci-fi "Down and Out in The Magic Kingdom. (Inspiration for this blog.)

Whuffie: Metric for social approval also from Cory's Book.

Skype: Kinda free Vonage style internet phone.

Great direction since we all know it is just a matter of time until they install phones in our skulls.

Try these equations:

Joseph Petviashvili+Skype=Bichun Society/Whuffie

Social Engineer+T-Mobile=Rapidly Deployable Social Metric.

Now consider how the nazi's used social status to further thier cause, and imagine if they only had this technology.

As Einstien, Turing, and Oppenhiemer all faced, we ask, just because people have the potential to misuse power, should that stop us from making something really cool? A resounding "NO!". Good show Mr.Petviashvili. When I get my computer working again I will try this "Butler" device.

Persian Retro Video Game Rug?

While the whole "mash" concept is really big with me, what I like most is the execution of this hipster rug from Bucharest's Janek Simon featuring "space invaders" gui, such a classy subtle work of art. Even better yet is the copy that goes with it "...the Oriental rug for your portable arcade mosque. Follow the voice of the Joystick prophet."

via Zblog

Collective News

I got a ping from Calder from NowPublic about some Napolean Dynamite photos I took at last years festival. While NP is a little replete of news thast interests me. (Not largr Italian or Canadian Soccor Fan) I love the concept. There has been a buzz about peer sharing public news content and I think this site is in the right direction.

BTW, I have been away involved in a new endevour. It is pretty big, and off the beaten track. I will tell you more when I can.

Gangster Tree Hugger? Snhnizzle Garret?

RapLeaf a new reputation software for buyers and sellers seems to have a very open trust based model. It will be interesting to see how they do despite Ebay appearing to block them.


via techcrunch

#17

Well since since our inception here at Whuffie Blog in 2003, we have been at the top of the Google search string until we went down in June 04' Since then we had virtually been disappeared. However, I was happy to see we are now placing number 17 (page 2) in the Google search string. Not that it matters that much. But it is truly a novelty. Ooh our obscure blog named after an obscure term from a semi-popular sci-fi book is number 1 on Google. Ka-ching.

Virtual Screen

Samsung speaks of easier text input on your cell phone with a table top display projected from your phone. Hmnnn, glad to know they are thinking of the millions of troubled button pushers and all. But why not just a plam interface on the screen?

Life Expectancy Watch

Father Kircher might find it cool. I like the idea of valuing this short experience of life. Of course a watch like this would maybe not be healthy for those 1) in jail 2) depressed 3) working very mundane jobs.

This brought to mind another concept I had that I call "Google Live". Whereby the powers of Google are at your behest verbally. Voice controlled computer search seems pretty powerful. But what if you could Google poeple's life expectancy?

Imagine waking up in the morning, your computer says "Good morning Dave." It is Day 14,630 of your life you have 12,798 days more to enjoy." and then you Google your boss's LE.



via boingx2

Nasa goes "open source"?

NY times reports NASA takes a new approach to devlopment with "Centennial Challenges" offering prizes of $200,000 to $5 million, for solar sails, lunar excavators and the tiny elevators.

via Kelso

micro - phone

While this is came out some time ago I still thought it neat. A small microphone on a chip board. The question may not be how can it get smaller but who's listening?

Goop

CEO Peter Gibbons (previously at Initech, a TPS automation company) came up with a new startup for social software as reported by TechCrunch The startup taughts fully interactive 3D social tagging environments, first rate cut and paste bookmarklets, and with an Ajax/Flash rich interface with rounded corners and easy-on-the-eyes pastels.

We here at Whuffie are ecstatic about this new API.

Sign up for Beta testing here.

Re-Imagined

Cool Blog for Disney and Pixar imagineers.

via Blogger

Clear displays

Must see the latest in OLED (Organic Light Emmiting Diode) from the folks at Fraunhofer
I just want to wave my arms around and wear a cool glove like 'Cruise. That and have a cool glass display.

United Arab Emirates Space Port

US company "Space Adventures" in Virginia will be building a commercial space fleet and a space port in UAE. Prospects for more ports in Singapore and North America. STORY HERE

I guess I don't feel so bad about debocle about the ports the UAE has here in the US.

And, yes, riding any craft from a company called "Space Adventures" in kahoots with the old Russian space program does sound questionable in my small mind. Item 1 for marketing division: come up with a new less hillbilly name like Skynet or Cosmorp. Item 2 make russian and space synonomous with quality and safety.

whuffietracker

New software from WhuffieTracker? It appears that idea is all of your social software is aggregated in one trackable spot, blogs, flick photos, delicious tags. However the home page just points to Niall Kennedy. But maybe I am missing something obvious or the site is still under development.
images here (not sure what the thumb drive is for.)

Digital Concrete

Very cool LED display in concrete concept from
Chris Glaister at the Royal College Of Art.