MetaFilter posts tagged with Technology

Bruce Sterling's 2010 State of the World

brianstorms — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:16:29 -0800

Acclaimed writer Bruce Sterling is back for his annual State of the World interview in The WELL's inkwell conference. It's a must-read. The first question comes from Cory Doctorow who asks him to help him plan for the future now that Cory has a kid, etc. Sterling's answer is hilarious, biting, and brilliant all at the same time. And that's only the beginning...

Low-Tech Magazine and No-Tech Magazine

stbalbach — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:14:44 -0800

Low-Tech Magazine and No-Tech Magazine have some fairly well written/illustrated articles about old and low technologies. The concept being, in a sustainable future due to environmental constraints, carbon taxes, Peak Oil, etc.. these old-school technologies might be used - in some places, in some form - instead of more energy intensive modern high technology. Trolly Canal Boats, Timbrel Vaulting (vs. steel and concrete), Bring Back the Horses (and the bicycle), Tile Stoves, Wind Powered Factories, Sneakernet, more.

Everything is fake.

OrangeSoda — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:50:04 -0800

Stargate Studios opened in 1989, and has been doing visual effects for some the most successful tv shows of the past few years such as Heroes, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy and 24. Green screens allow them to artificially blend and create scenes that you wouldn't expect. Their official website has more on their Virtual Backlot and other Tech Demos.

Reformat your FACE!

edbles — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:47:40 -0800

Blip Festival happened just this weekend in Brooklyn. Chiptune geek, but couldn’t make it? The YouTube videos are starting to appear. Here's an internet approximation of the festival. If you just want a quick overview, a prepared playlist. [via]. Here in order of appearance are the actual live performance videos. Interviews and pictures are substituted where concert footage was unavailable. Thursday: Interview, Silent Requiem, Performance Photo of Silent Requiem, Failotron, Photo of Leeni’s performance, Interview with Leeni, Minus Baby,Chromix, Je Deviens DJ En 3 Jours, Albino Ghost Monkey, Eat Rabbit. Friday: Interview Disasterpeace, Starscream, Fighter X, Bit Shifter, little scale, I, Cactus, Nullsleep, RainbowDragonEyes, Patric C, Condom & Hally Saturday: The J. Arthur Keenes Band, Interview, tRasH cAn maN, Bubblyfish, The Hunters, Artist's Website: Glomag, Bit Shifter, David Sugar, Interview with Psilodump There’s also some interesting stuff that came out at the open mic on Wednesday, including Luke from Anamanaguchi covering Miley Cyrus with Party in the USK, c-Trix, Fenris.

Computer Genius

Artw — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:24:35 -0800

Why it's better to pretend you know nothing about computers

Winterize your Interactive Communication Windows!

edbles — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:28:18 -0800

ITP just had their winter show here’s a random sample of the works the students produced: Scratch & Sniff Screen by Alex Kauffmann. Collaborative storytelling from Daniel Tsadok and Eun Joo Lee in the form of Exquisite Corpse Drawing. Whisper Deck a new way of interacting with search from Craig Kapp. Face Fight, a fight with faces and joysticks from Greg Borenstein. Mental Block from Arturo Vidich, Eric Mika, Sofy Yuditskaya, which is an exploration of attention, mindfulness, and communication using dust shields and polarized lenses. VJing, not that kind, from Alejandro Miguel Justino Crawford. Current is a visualization of search and reporting trends(cooler and prettier than it sounds) from Zoe Fraade Blanar.

DIY Computational Photography

chunking express — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:01:30 -0800

DIY Computational Photography [via mefi projects]

Hacking the Predator

homunculus — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:38:38 -0800

Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones. "Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations." [Via]

The Future Gets Closer, Again

StrikeTheViol — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:39:05 -0800

Interesting developments in med-tech: gene testing machines for doctors, a plan to engineer stem cells to kill HIV, a new way to repair damaged nerves, the next generation of retinal implants, and the first bionic fingers up for sale. (Bonus for those uninterested in medicine: the newest take on a Minority Report-style interface, courtesy of MIT.)

PayPal should not exist

kliuless — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:44:09 -0800

Might the consumer banking revolution be coming? "Yodlee is the engine behind the online banking operations of most banks in America — and, for that matter, of mint.com... and it's now going to open up that database to software developers around the world." With mobile internet adoption soaring, the birth of iBanking may not be that far behind. An upgrade of payment and financial information systems could be closer than you think. BONUS -now imagine if if the health insurance exchanges were like Amazon.com (and you could rank insurers by their medical loss ratio) -or there was some accountability in higher-ed: "all that's really needed is a bit of sunlight on data which is already being collected, but largely kept secret. The problem is a higher-education lobby which is secretive, powerful, and which won't let change happen"

Suborbital

Artw — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:04:13 -0800

Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceShipTwo

Basic Sounds

Babblesort — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:50:34 -0800

Basic Sounds is a blog of art and technology blending. Lots of enhanced photos, art installations, modern sculpture, and A/V performance. Modern, abstract, hi-tech, and surreal. Lots of shiny pretty things to look at while you digest. Monthly archives go back to 2003. Nothing NSFW on the main link but I did come across a smattering of NSFW images in the archives.

Detachable Penis Media

Artw — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:33:09 -0800

"Seed" - an anthology of short fiction published on a USB flash drive shaped like a penis. Sample story. More on the concept without pictures of plastic penises. (Safe for workness may vary)

Silicon Sweatshops

Joe Beese — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:10:45 -0800

Silicon Sweatshops is a five-part investigation of the supply chains that produce many of the world’s most popular technology products, from Apple iPhones, to Nokia cell phones, Dell keyboards and more. The series examines the scope of the problem, including its effects on workers from the Philippines, Taiwan and China. It also looks at a novel factory program that may be a blueprint for solving this perennial industry problem.

10 Magnificently Modern Musical Instruments

Joe Beese — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:58:14 -0800

10 Magnificently Modern Musical Instruments

The Way we Were

Miko — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:10:42 -0800

The History of the Internet in a Nutshell Discovered indirectly via fellow MeFite john.c.herman

The Economist: The World in 2010

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:09:43 -0800

In 2010, Obama will have a miserable year, NATO may lose in Afghanistan, the UK gets a regime change, China needs to chill, India's factories will overtake its farms, Europe risks becoming an irrelevant museum, the stimulus will need an exit strategy, the G20 will see a challenge from the "G2", African football will unite Korea, conflict over natural resources will grow, Sarkozy will be unloved and unrivalled, the kids will come together to solve the world's problems (because their elders are unable), technology will grow ever more ubiquitous, we'll all charge our phones via USB, MBAs will be uncool, the Space Shuttle will be put to rest, and Somalia will be the worst country in the world. And so the Tens begin.

The Economist: The World in 2010. Previously: 2009, 2008, 2007. How did we do last time around? Guest contributions: President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso lines up Europe's priorities President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev argues for dialogue and cooperation President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed wants his island nation to remain above water President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would like for Islam and the West to live in harmony President of South Africa Jacob Zuma says Africa should rise to the occasion Director-General of the World Health Organisation Margaret Chan predicts the development of the flu pandemic Managing director of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn explains how to prevent another crisis CEO of Yahoo! Carol Bartz believes business leaders should tap into the information flood Chairman of HSBC Stephen Green argues that the financial sector should welcome emerging economies CEO of Fiat Group and Chrysler Group Sergio Marchionne thinks greener cars require bolder action CEO/CTO of SpaceX Elon Musk says the private sector should handle space travel

Britain Can Make It!

Miko — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:53:28 -0800

Making the Modern World presents a set of twisty little passages through the history of science and invention, from the eighteenth century to the contemporary era, brought to you by the UK's Science Museum.

The Future Gets Closer, Part II

StrikeTheViol — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:14:51 -0800

Practical gene therapy treatment emerges. Prosthetics that feel. Circumventing paralysis with brain implants.

"ïn the midst of a fabulous array of historically unprecedented and utterly mind-boggling stimuli ... Whatever."

infinite intimation — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:21:47 -0800

"They were all continually trying to figure out where we are, where we might be going, and the possible downsides and dangers of new technologies so we can use the new technologies to serve human purposes. In other words, it was my kind of crowd". Michael Wesch presents; The Machine is (Changing) Us: YouTube, and the Politics of Authenticity to the 2009 Personal Democracy Forum at Jazz at Lincoln Center (fittingly SLYT) In the talk he briefly touches on and adds some update to his An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube; previously on th'blue. The gathering may have been the highest concentration of amazingly creative and concerned global citizens I have ever been around. Hallway conversations were different than your typical conversations. Instead of lots of people saying, 'You know, somebody should ...' there were lots of people saying, 'So I did this, this, and this, and now Im working on doing this, this, and this and we should collaborate ...' In other words, it was a bunch of people blessed with what I once heard Yochai Benkler and Henry Jenkins call critical optimism. -Michael Wesch, on the experience of the Personal Democracy Forum. Marshall McLuhan said in 1967 that today's child is bewildered when he enters the 19th century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified patterns, subjects, and schedules.“ -increases in this 'information:access' gap as a trend have only increased since then... What large institutions can afford to roll out technology wise to students in a broad manner is limited; individual students are accustomed to easily adapting to high-technology gadgets, they speak digital fluently, they are digital natives. You may also find interesting this video created by digital ethnologist Michael Wesch and his 200 students enrolled in ANTH 200: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, in Spring of 2007- it speaks on this gap (in a very watchable-visual way) There seems to always be consistently a lot of input added at his Digital Ethnography @ Kansas State University blog on mediated cultures Of further note is his creative and integrated approach to using netvibes as a tool in his digital tool kit. Ps. Anyone up for consolidating all the "humanities" under the over-arch of Archaeology&Anthropology?- like triceratops encircling their young!

The virtual dice rolling has got to go.

lazaruslong — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:27:35 -0800

The Microsoft Surface was the subject of much ridicule. When Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade had the chance to sit down with one at Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center, known colloquially as the ETC, they saw potential for the Surface to become an amazing tool for Dungeons and Dragons tabletop gaming. They offered some suggestions to the team, and months later, SurfaceScapes is the result. Video. Wired Article with some more info on the ETC. The project is the work of a team of designers from the ETC. Currently, they only have a basic Game Master tool set programmed, but the researchers are working to enhance the player experience.

Reverse the Polarity

Artw — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:00:31 -0800

"Captain, the tech is overteching" - Ron Moore confirms everything you suspected about the Star Trek TNG approach to writing.

synthetic biology

kliuless — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:23:24 -0800

Our biotech century: the noocytes are coming... (previously)

The Wisdom of Salmon

Rumple — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:33:25 -0800

Functional MRI (fMRI) is a widely used technique of brain imaging in the cognitive sciences, allowing researchers to visualize what part of the brain is responding to certain stimuli, resulting in striking images of live brains. These days, fMRI is seeing more non-research use, such as forming the basis of controversial new lie detectors. Craig Bennett, a postdoctoral researcher at UCSB, submitted a whole Atlantic salmon to fMRI analysis, and found that this fish could apparently detect, and respond to, the the emotional state of human beings (poster). Remarkable science, especially considering the salmon was dead at the time. Bennett's paper is an example of voodoo correlation in brain imaging studies, wherein some false positives cannot be statistically removed without removing real data as well. Basically, low probability events will occur if enough data are generated - and fMRI generates enormous amounts of data: "your average fMRI brain scan analysis can involve 40,000 comparisons, so even if there's nothing going on, some bits of the brain are going to seem active just through falsely detecting noise and measurement error as real effect." The issue seems to be that better data filtering and better reporting of raw and corrected data are needed in this field - less sexy a conclusion than emotional dead salmon, yet an important cautionary tale that the author found surprisingly difficult to get published, or even to present at a conference. [via John Hawks]

transcendental numbers rumble in the technium

kliuless — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 08:00:48 -0800

Extropy
How did life arise? What is information? In his recent dispatches from The Technium, Kevin Kelly would say extropy (cf. negentropy & Prigogine). [previously 1|2]