MetaFilter posts tagged with Wired

Artifacts from the Future

Rhaomi — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:42:42 -0800

For years, Wired magazine has tapped a bevy of designers and artists in the tech field to craft detailed visions of futuristic objects for a monthly showcase at the close of each issue. Now, after hinting as much in the July edition, it is clear that that the tradition of FOUND has been brought to an end. What better way to say goodbye to this whimsical feature than by taking a look back at the full archived run of the series? (Note: Although FOUND has been a regular feature of Wired for many years, the magazine's website only began including it in its online archives in November 2004. Previous editions of FOUND are not indexed on wired.com, and are virtually impossible to find elsewhere online.) MM.YY - Artifact Title (Future year) 11.04 - Election Day (2012) 12.04 - Barf Bag (2047) 01.05 - House Call (near future) 02.05 - Taste Tester (2009) 03.05 - Insurance Form (2069) 04.05 - Horoscope (2056) 05.05 - Bumper Sticker (2012) 06.05 - Antivirus (2022) 07.05 - Nightstand (2017) 08.05 - Crossword (2019) [solution] 09.05 - Space Elevator (2032) 10.05 - Sharper Image (2012) 11.05 - Diaper (2024) 12.05 - Christmas Morning (2016) 01.06 - Mood Ring (2009) 02.06 - Love Tester (2015) 03.06 - MTA Route Map (2067) 04.06 - Tax Day (2021) 05.06 - Operation (2027) 06.06 - Bookstore (2021) [side view] 07.06 - Contact Lens (2020) 08.06 - Diet Cola (2019) 09.06 - Report Card (2018) 10.06 - Bluetooth (2019) 11.06 - Organ Farming (2015) 12.06 - Christmas Shopping (2017) 01.07 - Crayons (2013) 02.07 - Speeding Ticket (2054) 03.07 - Medicine Cabinet (2013) 04.07 - Bug Spray (ca. 2050) 05.07 - Reunion (2052) 06.07 - Fido Fusion (2016) 07.07 - Comic Book (2021) 08.07 - Fruit Stand (ca. 2020) 09.07 - Birthday (2079) 10.07 - Halloween (2015) 11.07 - Waste Management (ca. 2025) 12.07 - Responsibeer (2012) 01.08 - Windshield (2013) 02.08 - Tatoo (near future) 03.08 - Home Shopping (ca. 2016) 04.08 - Risk (2027) 05.08 - Smithsonian (2096) 06.08 - Wine Spectrometer (ca. 2020) 07.08 - "The Final Found" (2018) Top FOUND contributors include: Chris Baker - senior editor, Wired Laura Moorehead - contributing editor, Wired Sean Hamilton Alexander - designer Joshua Davis - web designer Patrick Di Justo - contributing editor, Wired

Is It Wrong to Lust Over an Optimus Keyboard? Yes.

wendell — Sun, 25 May 2008 16:38:36 -0800

The best thing about WIRED Magazine's 15th Anniversary celebration is it's not all self-congratulatory. Of course, any media entity involved in the rapidly-changing but well-archived internet is going to sometimes do silly things that we all can see - forever. In one area, at least, WIRED is owning up to its bad judgment with the Lamest (their word) Gear Ever Highlighted in their 'Fetish' Feature. 1993-1995. 1996-1998. 1999-2006. It's not that there are less lame items in recent years; they're just waiting for history to confirm what smart readers saw all along. My favorites - and why some of them may not be so lame: * Mattel Power Glove You knew it was doomed to lameness - it's Mattel! * Interactor Vest With the right thrash metal song, it could be used as a defibrillator, right? * Clipper CS-1 Isolation cubicle? maybe. Plywood? no way. * Home tattoo removal? This thing is going to become SO needed in a few years. * Home car wash hi-pressure wand? When gas reaches $10/gallon, it'll be cheaper than driving to the coin-op car wash. * Have you seen those 'sex chairs'? This looks like the solo version. * The Infonium Universe Simulator, 'from the mind of Minolta', right before they carried him away in a straight jacket. * A Car-Alarm for your Laptop. From the days when your laptop cost more than your car. * GPS Reporter. Edison Carter wouldn't be caught dead wearing one of these. * MetaFilter's Own Adam Savage's "case mod". How dare they? This will NEVER become lame. * Panda Toaster! No, not toasting pandas. But if they'd done one with a picture of the Virgin Mary, they'd be zillionaires. * The Hovery... they should've marketed this to people who really need their personal space. * Mouse Bling. Nothing more to say. * Gibbs Aquada... I said FLYING car, not FLOATING car, you git. * Magic Theater. Kaleidoscope + projector + anime nightmare + Disney infringement = EPIC HUH? You know what's really lame? How WIRED clipped some of these items out of their backgrounds. Don't they have Photoshop? * And how come this is the only lame item branded Sharper Image? SI was all about lame tech! This is just proof they could've put a lot more 'Fetish' items on the list. Like maybe ALL of them?

"You must have a stockpile of words that you can pass along to your children for their stockpile."

beaucoupkevin — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:29:06 -0800

Steve Carrell on how to act brilliant:

I've learned to appear scintillatingly intellectual by asking people questions ("Do you like pizza?"). Then I just look at them, nodding and saying "Hmmm" and "Um hmmm" every few seconds. Try and keep one or two things in your head to regurgitate later. After all, what is knowledge, really, but high-resolution regurgitation?

Investors, dealers zapped by Zap?

M.C. Lo-Carb! — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:34:28 -0800

Wired, which famously included the Tesla Roadster in its annual roundup of vaporware, takes on another electric car firm. Over the years, ZAP has taken millions from investors and dealers eager to see the company's line of green cars hit the road. But that line has never materialized. Of nearly a dozen groundbreaking eco-vehicles ZAP has promised in public announcements and on its Web site, only the Xebra and its sibling, a truck version, have ever made it to market. Zap, and its Zap Girls!, chalk it up(PDF) to Big Oil and Big Auto. But Forbes wondered the same thing last year. Also, just like Tesla, Zap, OTC Bulletin Board, ticker ZAAP, says it has a supercar design relationship with Lotus. But, according to the Wired article, "A Lotus Engineering official confirms that Lotus made a deal with ZAP allowing the Santa Rosa firm to use Lotus' gas-powered APX prototype as a physical model for a new car, but that was all."

An alternate universe of rationality.

phyrewerx — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:58:28 -0800

In an alternate universe, the golden mean is found, moderation is possible, and everyone on MeFi will hear their counterparts point of view first.

Stop making sense of this business of music

psmealey — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:01:41 -0800

David Byrne's Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists and Megastars Where there was one, now there are six: Six possible music distribution models, ranging from one in which the artist is pretty much hands-off to one where the artist does nearly everything. 1. At one end of the scale is the 360, or equity, deal, where every aspect of the artist's career is handled by producers, promoters, marketing people, and managers. 2. Next is what I'll call the standard distribution deal. The record company bankrolls the recording and handles the manufacturing, distribution, press, and promotion. The label, in this scenario, owns the copyright to the recording. Forever. 3. The license deal is similar to the standard deal, except in this case the artist retains the copyrights and ownership of the master recording. The right to exploit that property is granted to a label for a limited period of time — usually seven years. 4. Then there's the profit-sharing deal. 5. In the manufacturing and distribution deal, the artist does everything except, well, manufacture and distribute the product. 6. Finally, at the far end of the scale, is the self-distribution model, where the music is self-produced, self-written, self-played, and self-marketed. No single model will work for everyone. There's room for all of us. Some artists are the Coke and Pepsi of music, while others are the fine wine — or the funky home-brewed moonshine. And that's fine. Sometimes a corporate soft drink is what you want — just not at the expense of the other thing. I like Rihanna's "Umbrella" and Christina Aguilera's "Ain't No Other Man". In the recent past, it often seemed like all or nothing, but maybe now we won't be forced to choose.

Inside industrial design

WPW — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 12:36:40 -0800

The birth of a gadget. [Wired]

Konichi-wa, bitches!

psmealey — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:34:42 -0800

Wu-Tang Clan's RZA Breaks Down His Kung Fu Samples by Film and Song. Kung-fu's influence on hip hop has been around since the '70s, when B-boys busted Bruce Lee moves while break-dancing. But in 1993, gritty rap supergroup the Wu-Tang Clan released Enter the Wu-Tang (36-Chambers), the first chart-topping album to kick up raw rhymes with dialog sampled from underground Hong Kong flicks. The Wu has since sold nearly 6 million albums, all featuring snippets from producer RZA's personal collection of action imports — which boasts more titles in the genre than the Library of Congress. "The people who made these movies didn't know how much one sentence could inspire," says RZA, who also scored Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill saga and other films. In December, the Clan's eight remaining members (RIP, ODB) reunite for their fifth release, The 8 Diagrams. RZA gave WIRED the dope on Wu-Tang's cinematic source material and sounded off on a selection of rare movie clips.

Milton? What's happening. We're gonna need to go ahead and move you downstairs into storage B

psmealey — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:09:04 -0800

The 'Winners' of the Wired News Saddest-Cubicle Contest The winner -- if you can call it winning -- of the Wired News saddest-cubicles contest is David Gunnells, an IT guy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His desk is penned in by heavily used filing cabinets in a windowless conference room, near a poorly ventilated bathroom and a microwave. Here are some of the runners-up