Month: August 2008

Categories
The Next Good Idea

We Need A Privacy Czar

The EU has a whole team of privacy guys.  Where’s someone like that in the US?  We do have someone there to monitor privacy breaches that occur as a result of the Homeland Protection Act, but that is just the tip of the iceberg, and well, if he’s appointed by this administration, how are we supposed to trust him?

With congress finally asking all the Internet companies what they do with the all the info they gather secretly from the consumer, now’s the time to take this further. Ars has a good write-up about it here.
As consumers, we should have to “opt-in” and not “opt-out” regarding what data of ourselves gets automatically collected.  We could this trend of info-grab earlier here.
Categories
Bowl Of Noses

Recent Robot Roundup

Let’s face it, the world needs more robots.  We certainly need more in our house and we have three or four.  We thought we’d have our own equivalent of cattle drive and run our favorites right into your home.  Which ones would win in the battle of the bots?

Of course, it’s probably more useful just to have a bunch of robo pals to hang out and dance with, like these guys…
On the smaller scale there is the infamous Bristle-bot.  He is pretty cute. I dreamt that instead of cockroaches, our apartment was infested with them.
And what are you going to do when you just GOTTA have a new bot?  Our little creature runs here.
Although RadioShack now stocks these little guys and they are pretty cool.  And now the robo firm has come up with this shopper robot so the grown up can stay home and operate remotely via a phone and video hook up.

We just got a subscription to ROBOT magazine too, and find it full of things to spark the imagination.
Categories
Bowl Of Noses

A Transporter All Of Your Own!

What’s the matter with those darn scientists anyway?  How long is it going to take before we can all have a transporter to get us to and fro, eh?

I can’t think of many reasons why I would ever want to leave NYC, or for that matter be filthy rich, but I guess if I had to do either one of those things, I could then have a really big house.  I know big houses are a bit tacky and I don’t want one, but if I had to have one at least then I could fit one of these in each and every room and get ready for some serious time travel.
C’mon, how cool is Doctor Who?!!!   If you want one of these for your bedroom or you have super cool parents who want one for their living room, you can get it right here.
Categories
Issues and Actions

Dancing Baby Expands Fair Use

Mark Hefflinger at Digital Media Wire reports:

A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that copyright holders must consider the potential “fair use” of their works before sending copyright takedown notices to online video sites. “In order for a copyright owner to proceed under the DMCA with ‘a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law,’ the owner must evaluate whether the material makes fair use of the copyright,” U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel wrote, in his ruling.

This is a great mandate and clearer definition.  As you listen to “Let’s Go Crazy” on the clip, it is clearly in the background and not added later.  It’s documenting a moment. This is that baby and his dance that we can all thank for it:

Categories
Bowl Of Noses

The Rube Goldberg variations

As I said,  Rube Goldberg was one of my first favorite cartoonists. He drew these wild machines that were soooo complicated but did simple things.

And his cartoons have inspired one of our favorite short films of all time: THE WAY THINGS GO. Definitely Recommended Viewing.

The Way Things Work have in turn inspired a series of commercials which are pretty darn fun. Here’s one:

And Rube, The Way, and these commercials have inspired a whole slew of wonderful homemade contraptions that all over the internet. But we will look at those later.

Categories
Issues and Actions

We Own The Spectrum, But…

Broadcasters fight hard against public use of the blank spectrum, popularly know as “white spaces”.  It could be made useful, and it’s the public’s, so what gives?  Tech companies and Digital Rights organizations have been fighting hard to make the blank spectrum available for broadband use.  Me, believing that Television’s days are numbered, see no reason not to adopt the future right now and make those white spaces available to everyone.  Info wants to travel where it can travel, every where.

You can read more about it on BoingBoing here.  And go even more in depth with Ars here.
Categories
These Are Those Things

Complicated Is Better: Rube Goldberg


Over at BOWL OF NOSES, I am posting a series of Rube Goldberg “inventions” and the various things he has inspired.  I think Rube’s collection “INVENTIONS!” needs to be Required Reading at every grade level.

With our economy in collapse, and the U.S. becoming a country of debtors and indentured servants, Rube points out why we should all start visiting the tailor.
His contraption for avoiding bill collectors is pure genius:  

As Tailor (A) fits customer (B) and calls out measurements, college boy (C) mistakes them for football signals and makes a flying tackle at clothing dummy (D). Dummy bumps head against paddle (E) causing it to pull hook (F) and throw bottle (G) on end of folding hat rack (H) which spreads and pushes head of cabbage (I) into net (J). Weight of cabbage pulls cord (K) causing shears (L) to cut string (M). Bag of sand (N) drops on scale (O) and pushes broom (P) against pail of whitewash (Q) which upsets all over you causing you to look like a marble statue and making it impossible for you to be recognized by bill collectors. Don’t worry about posing as any particular historical statue because bill collectors don’t know much about art.

Whenever I am in a “story” or edit meeting on a movie and the executive is demanding we remove “layers” or subtly, I know we need more Rube in the world.  And whenever anyone breaks the world down to good vs. evil or some other simple black and white equation, I think of all the invisible Goldberg layers that I know are the truth.
The official Rube Goldberg site has many other great solutions in their art gallery.