Archive for September, 2008
T-Mobile G1 spotted in the wild
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
Filed under: Cellphones
Microvision’s PicoP-based pocket projector revamped for CEATEC
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment
Now that pico projectors are actually headed to end users, we’re seeing a number of companies hop in the fast lane to production. Take Microvision for instance — these guys were taking their sweet time by introducing the PicoP beamer back at CES, and now we’re looking at a freshly revamped version that has already begun shipping to OEMs for “evaluation and end-user testing.” Reportedly, the device shown at CEATEC featured a “thinner, smaller and brighter PicoP engine and several image quality enhancements” over the unit displayed at CES, and it officially boasted a WVGA resolution that could be blown up to 100-inches in size. Unfortunately, we’re still waiting to hear how long it’ll be before this one slips into consumers’ hands, but we’ve a feeling it’ll be sooner rather than later.[Via AboutProjectors]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Eclectic Methodology and their New Toy
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
Bob Marley - Eclectic Method vMIX - Imeem Exclusive -Video remix artists Eclectic Method cut and paste music videos, movies, current events, and video games into a danceable stream of sound and heady stretch of images. It’s fun to watch them “scratch” DVD’s live, and their recorded work makes for great YouTube fare.
Here’s my favorite examples of their video mashup:
BOB MARLEY - (an official video mix for the Marley
Family)
OBAMA VS. CLINTON: MEDIA HYPE OVERLOAD
ENTOURAGE HBO: Ari Gold says F*%K
ZEITGHOST #2 - Eclectic Method’s Signature Music Video Remixtape
TONY SOPRANO’s Video Remix
KILL BILL - Movie Fight Remix
But it’s even more fun to play with this stuff oneself. In true DIY fashion, they’ve created a super-easy video remixer that lets the least experienced or most stoned computer users to play mash-up with images from their last video.
(All you do is click on the image, and then use your number keys to jam.)
It may not be the most deeply creative computer experience available, but it is kinda fun - and accessible to all. Even my 3-year-old.
Douglas Rushkoff is a guest blogger.
Laptop makers and GSM Association team on Mobile Broadband branding plan
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
Filed under: Laptops, Wireless
Laptops with built-in WWAN modems aren’t anything new, but there’s a hodgepodge of hardware and services available — a situaton the GSM Association is trying to simplify with the new Mobile Broadband standardization initiative. Sure, it’s mostly an excuse to get another sticker on your gear, but companies like Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo, ASUS, Toshiba, Qualcomm and a bunch of carriers are on board to ensure that Mobile Broadband-certified machines will be ready and able to connect in some 91 countries around the world — and what’s more, they’re committed to spending a cool billion dollars in the next year promoting MB as a “compelling alternative” to WiFi and WiMAX. That should be an interesting dilemma for the carriers that also run hotspot networks, but we’ve got a feeling everyone’s happy as long as the sub fees keep rolling in.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Netflix API open to all: let the developing begin
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
No Money Down
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
Because of current events, Arthur magazine just posted the column I wrote for their upcoming issue, written a month or so ago, about what’s happening right now. I figured I’d share it with you here:
I poked my head up from writing my book a couple of months ago to engage with Arthur readers about the subject I was working on: the credit crunch and what to do about it [see “Riding Out the Credit Crisis” in Arthur No. 29/May 2008]. I got more email about that piece than anything I have written since a column threatening to defect from the Mac community back in the Quadra days.Many readers thought I was hinting at something under the surface—a conspiracy, of sorts, to take money from the poor and give it to the rich. It sounded to many like I was describing an economic system actually designed—planned—to redistribute income in the worst possible ways.
I guess I’d have to agree with that premise. Only it’s not a secret conspiracy. It’s an overt one, and playing out in full view of anyone who has time (time is money, after all) to observe it.
The mortgage and credit crisis wasn’t merely predictable; it was predicted. And not by a market bear or conspiracy theorist, but by the people and institutions responsible. The record number of foreclosures, credit defaults, and, now, institutional collapses is not the result of the churn of random market forces, but rather a series of highly lobbied changes to law, highly promoted ideologies of wealth and home ownership, and monetary policies highly biased toward corporate greed.
It all started to make sense to me when I attended Learning Annex’s Wealth Expo earlier this year—a seminar where teachers of The Secret, the hosts of Flip This House, George Foreman, Tony Robbins and former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan [pictured above in banner from Learning Annex website] purportedly taught the thousands in attendance how to take advantage of the current foreclosure boom.
more…
or if that’s overwhelmed
here
Douglas Rushkoff is a guest blogger.
Punching bag changes color when hit
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
Artist Stefan Gross says: “Love Hate Punch is a punching bag that gives light if you hit it and if you do your best it changes color from dark red to bright red to yellow to white.” Love Hate Punch
The House of Death: An Interview with DEA Whistleblower Sandy Gonzalez
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
Radley Balko, senior editor of Reason magazine, says: “Federal agents looked the other way while one of their drug informants [Guillermo Ramirez Peyro, also known as "Lalo"] participated in a series of gruesome murders. They knew about the murders, but refused to call off the drug investigation. When an outraged DEA agent [Sandy Gonzalez] blew the whistle, the DEA, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), and DOJ forced him into early retirement. The government is now trying to deport the informant they’ve paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to over the years. They want to send him to Mexico, where he’ll almost certainly be killed.”Reason: The DEA administrator at the time, Karen Tandy, has admitted in court testimony that she gave you the only poor performance review of your career because of your letter calling for an investigation into the murders. That led to your retirement. Have any of the ICE officers who handled the Lalo case been held accountable –criminally, professionally, or otherwise?An Interview with DEA Whistleblower Sandy GonzalezGonzalez: Not to my knowledge. I doubt it. I would have heard about it.
Reason: Have you had any indication that Congress might step in? Have you talked to anyone on Capitol Hill?
Gonzalez: Back in 2005 I went and briefed the senior staff of two senators.
Reason: Which ones?
Gonzalez: [Iowa Sen. Charles] Grassley and [Vermont Sen. Patrick] Leahy. I think what happened is one of the members of Leahy’s staff was a Justice Department officer who was on loan on a detail to the senator’s staff. I think she knew [U.S. Attorney] Johnny Sutton. She worked out of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys. She knew Sutton personally and throughout the whole interview she was antagonistic. My guess is that she railroaded the whole thing.
Woman Dressed as Cow Gets a Month in Jail
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
32-year-old Michele Allen received a one-month sentence for disorderly conduct after police received complaints that she was dressed in a cow costume and chasing children, blocking traffic, and urinating on a neighbor’s porch.
She wore the costume again when she appeared for sentencing. One Month in Corral for Disorderly Woman
BBtv: Galactic’s "Modern New Orleans Funk" with Xeni and Russell (music)
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
New Orleans is a lot of things to a lot of people, but to the guys in the band Galactic, it’s the motherland of funk. In today’s Boing Boing tv episode, Xeni and Russell catch Galactic’s Crescent City Soul Crewe live at the Outside Lands festival, and speak to them about the band’s homage to this birthplace of jazz and its ancestral influence on many other forms of modern music. The band’s newest release, From the Corner to the Block, is potent stuff, and pulling in rave reviews all over.
( Sponsor note: Crowdfire is sponsoring this series of music features on BBtv, and you can find crowdsourced snapshots, audio, and video about this band at crowdfire.net. )
Link to BBtv blog post with downloadable video and instructions on how to subscribe to the daily BBtv video podcast.
