Archive for the ‘technology’ tag
How Did You Find Out About Osama bin Laden’s Death?
Well, I was watching Celebrity Apprentice (I know, I know, it’s bad. But I like watching them complete the tasks and then fight it out afterwards. Get over it!) on delay by about 15 minutes when I saw the message pop-up that the President would soon be addressing the country. I wasn’t really sure what it was. Were we attacked? Did we attack someone? Was the economy cured? So, instead of stopping the DVR and jumping to live TV I grabbed my phone to check Twitter. Scrolling through the previous 60 minutes of Tweets I finally arrived at the tweets saying that Osama bin Laden had been killed.
I then stopped the DVR and turned to live TV to the news coverage discussing what they had been told, the events that transpired years ago leading up to this, as well as speculation about what had happened. I then continued to check Twitter and update my status while I waited the hour before President Obama came on and made the speech. I’m glad I waited. Even though I knew what he was going to be talking about, it made it all real and he was able to put things into perspective.
But enough about that, why I’m writing the post. I was reading a CNN article titled Bin Laden’s death sets Twitter record and when I got to the end, I read a lot of stories that were similar to mine.
“While watching a show on the Tivo, my son was checking twitter on his phone and told us to put on live TV.”
“Saw a post on FB, verified it on NYT, and then yelled for my fiance to turn on the news.”
“I saw comments on Facebook, and then read about it on my NPR News App on my phone, and then turned on the TV.”
There has been a lot of news coverage about how people are getting more and more of their news from the Internet and Twitter, but it’s interesting that when a breaking news story hit, people turned to the TVs. Part of this might be explained by the fact that it was a Sunday evening and most Americans were probably at home where many of them have a television. I know when I’m at work (or as on 9/11 at school) I didn’t have access to a television where I could find the news.
What are your thoughts? Where did you first hear/see that Osama had been killed? What did you do next?
Don’t Touch That!
You’ll get your fingerprints all over my …….!
Well, George Kokkinidis at Design Language News decided that he was going to do just that! He wiped clean his iPad and started using an app (being sure to get his fingerprints on the screen) and then photographed his fingerprints on the screen.
Can you tell what apps he’s using in these two examples?
Hit the jump to see the answer and the rest of the apps.
THIS IS “JEOPARDY!”
For those of you not familiar with the game “Jeopardy!” it’s a simple game of trivia between three contestants. The host (Alex Trebek) reads a clue, and the contestants must answer with a question (e.g. “What is…”). For each correct answer, they receive money and for each incorrect answer they lose money. After two rounds, the game enters into “Final Jeopardy” where the contestants are given a topic and allowed to wager as much money as they have accumulated throughout the game. This is where the famous theme song comes into play. The contestants are given the clue and get 30 seconds to write their answer down.
Why all the facts about Jeopardy you ask? Well remember back in 1997 when a computer made by IBM dubbed “Deep Blue” defeated the world renowned chess champion Garry Kasparov? Well, IBM is back at it again. They’ve created Watson, a supercomputer built to play Jeopardy!
Wired covered the announcement that the games will air in February. A one round practice round was conducted and after 1 round Watson was beating Ken by $1,000. Wired reported that after the practice round “[n]one of the three contestants appeared rattled. Of course, Watson lacks the capacity to get rattled.”
I’ll be sure to set my TiVo to record these episodes. Am I smarter than a supercomputer?
Modern Day “Dead Drops”
“A dead drop or dead letter box, is a location used to secretly pass items between two people, without requiring them to meet.” – Wikipedia
Wondering why I’m referencing something that sounds like a 1950s spy technique on my chic and up-to-date blog? Because Aram Bartholl has created modern day “dead drops” throughout NYC.
So, if you see someone awkwardly leaning up against a wall, be aware that they might be partaking in secret file sharing. As someone mentioned in the comments section, you might want to bring a cable so you don’t break off the USB stick.
My only concern here is about viruses. What happens if someone is malicous and places something on here to infect any machine that gets attached to it? It’s great idea, but I won’t be running to NYC to plug in my computer! I’ll stick to writing my name on small pieces of paper…
via SwissMiss
How We Spend Our Time Online
Quote of the Day – May 17, 2010
-President Obama, May 9, 2010
iPhone(s) Piano
OuiCestBon has taken the time to perform for us a beautiful song on the piano. However, instead of a Baby Grand, he’s using iPhones.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZWC0kk77GI]
You’ll notice at the beginning he’s struggling with keeping all of the phones lit-up. If you watch his left hand it makes many mistakes, goes to show you a few things about the important of haptic feedback…
via SwissMiss
Real Guitar “Guitar Hero”
A new game is coming for PS3 and Xbox 360 called Power Gig: Rise of the SixString which allows the “musician” to use a 6 string full-fret guitar. You can also plug the peripheral/instrument into an amp and rock out. Don’t hold your breath, the game is slated to come out in Fall 2010.
via Gadgetell
Samsung Dual View TL220
Find a problem, and create a design to fix it. That’s exactly what the people at Samsung have done. Presenting the Dual View TL222:
I mean, I’m sure we’ve all taken a photo of ourselves and others and tried to guess or not if we’re in the frame. The only bad thing about this is that the advertisement doesn’t depict this self-photo taking…
Dual Screen Laptop
One thing that I’ve loved about my new job is my huge monitor! Which is great, considering that my laptop screen refuses to go beyond 1024 x 768. So when I saw this design of a laptop [coming by the end of this year] I couldn’t believe my eyes!
Of course I have two concerns with this design: size & weight. It weighs 12 pounds, which is double what my current laptop weighs [and almost 3 times what my cousin’s dog weighs]. It doesn’t look like they tried to make the thing very light. Look at how thick the keyboard area is! But hey, for those really strong computer geeks on the go, this is the perfect device!
via Core77