For the most part my summer is going great, with the premiere of my new UStream show "Brian's Brain" every Monday night at 8:00pm (2pointhome.com/liveshow) and some frolicking at the shore, it's been great.

Ever on the lookout for my next wacky machine I have found a show called ROBOCARS. It's kinda like American Idol for Gurus.  It's a challenge where they pit anybody and everybody against each other to come up with the best design for a completely autonomous mission -- in this case a road rally race.  It is absolutely mind blowing how they make these cars react to ever changing climates.  

Anyway if its too hot outside and you have some time check this show out on the Science Channel (channel 102 on FiOS TV.) It's good for a Guru brain or Brian as the case may be. (Normally I don't advocate TV Watching but this isn't your usual TV fodder)

If you haven't been able to make it out to one of our block parties to experience FiOS TV for yourself, no worries; FiOS should be available in a neighborhood hangout near you real soon. You probably heard the news, and thought nothing of it, but as a Guru who works with FiOS, this could be an opportunity to take our technological prowess out of the home and into your local business.

If you've been following the show, you know what fiber-optic technology can do for you at home. Our team has made dreams come true, developed new and innovative projects, and helped home businesses grow. Well imagine the impact we could have on a hair salon struggling to retain customers, or a local pub that only has a 15 incher with rabbit ears (translation: a 15 inch television with an antenna). With the help of the good folks at Verizon Business, we could upgrade said businesses with FiOS TV and Internet, help them revise their business model for todays economy, and add that magic touch with a few of the cool projects us Guru's have brewing in the Lair.

Any who, I can not wait to check out the All-Star Game on FiOS TV at a local Pub. Speaking of baseball, has anyone seen the streak Ryan Howard has been on lately? He now leads the league in home runs! His batting has improved tremendously since...about May 30th or so. ;) Boy, I wonder what may have sparked this improvement....

So I've been working with Joelle Irving and family, to help her get started with her show. She and I have done some planning, and the first series of episodes will focus on three main topics:

• Dancing Basics
• Piano and Saxophone Basics
• Professional Development

For more information on each of these categories, check out http://live.joellesdance.com for more information. The promo video after the break gives you more details about whats to come. Enjoy!

With this in mind, I've put together some tidbits and cool sites that will help you preserve your working sanctuary:

1. Make a plan. If you have a lot of equipment, lay it out on the desk the way you want it beforehand and figure out many cables you have and where you want them to go.
2. The absolute cheapest way to tame your cables is with zip ties and sticky zip tie pads. Stick the pads to your wall or desk, pull the zip tie through the notches on the pads, then around the cables and voila! You can find a plethora of ties and accessories at local hardware stores.
   
3. A low cost solution is to screw a wire basket to the bottom of your desk and put all your excess wire and power adapters in it. I learned about this on Unclutterer.com.
   
4. If you want more room, get a wall mounted bracket for your monitor. Mounting your monitor will make any desk look super trendy, and when you're not working you can show off your photos by setting your screensaver to photo slide show.
   
5. For you daring types, drill a large 2” - 3" hole in the back of your desk and pull your wires down through the hole, then along the back edge, and down the legs. Keep the wires in place by with zip ties and tie holders.
6. If you've spent some money on your desk or it's an antique, you won't want to stick things to it or drill holes. Do your design a favor and invest in a wireless keyboard and mouse.

For the truly chic who don’t want the fuss of dealing with wires at all, check out these designs. They tackle clutter with style:

Pinel and Pinal I Trunk
This is a case pre-built with your office or audio studio right in. (from candy cast)

Blue Lounge takes all your accessories into account with the Space Station, a wire desk organizer.
(from coolhunting)
I also really like their CableBox


If that isn't enough, check out the Football world cup desk (from T3)


Want to learn more about wire managment? Start by checking out these sites:

http://shawnblanc.net/2007/elements-of-style/

http://www.uncrate.com/stuff/steph/

http://www.decluttered.com/

http://www.ohgizmo.com/2007/10/26/indoor-picket-fences-for-hiding-cables/

Got your own suggestions for taming that cluttered desk? Share them in the comments below.

Well personally I would like to see Teddy get some mechanical modifications that give him the ability to walk around and maybe dance; or give teddy vision with some embedded cameras.

What I really would like to see, is Teddy become a learning err uh machine. Machine Learning is a growing sub-field of Artificial Intelligence, and focuses on extracting information from data automatically. Having ubiquitous access to data makes this a possibility, and leads to thoughts of how machines, such as Teddy, can access as much data as possible without having to store data in its own memory.

For example, if I wanted Teddy to "learn" as much about me and my friends as possible, I could program a database of all the information on Teddy's internal memory, which would require me to gather all the information about my friends, enter each entry into the database, and store it on Teddy. Now say one of my friends moves or changes some information about them, then I would have to in and manually change the information. This means I have to keep up with all my friends information and make the changes, which sort of defeats the purpose of Teddy keeping the information for me.

Well instead of embedding the information inside of Teddy, I link Teddy to each of my friends' data feed from facebook, myspace, or any other social media service that dynamically changes whenever my friends have new information. Now, Teddy does not have to store information about each friend, but only a link to each friend. As long as Teddy has access to the internet he can stay up-to-date with the latest information about my friends and keep me informed as well!

Now lets take that a step further and lets have Teddy perform a task for us based on our friends' information. For example, say we want Teddy to send a message to each of our friends when it is their birthday. We simply program Teddy to check for birthdays occurring on the current date, and have him automatically send a message to the person on our behalf. When Teddy sends the message, we will have him alert us of the persons birthday so we can follow-up and know who's birthday it was. We have thus transformed Teddy into a toy that not only helps us remember birthdays, but also performs a useful task for us.

As more web 2.0 applications become available and open, the possibilities continue to grow for machine learning and artificial intelligence. Even automobiles will benefit from advances in machine learning. Chrysler just announced that they plan to have in-car wifi in their 2009 lineup. Many find this to be a dangerous move by the Automotive giant, but I see this as a well overdue upgrade. The concerns are that drivers may get distracted by this feature (as if cell phones aren't enough). But from a technological perspective, this opens the door for automobiles to send and recieve real-time information about its performance, location, speed, route, etc. Automobiles could receive information about nearby cars, and make better routing decisions, or alert the driver of potential hazards ahead of time.

Going from a Teddy bear that speaks Twitter feeds, to one that provides a human-like emotional response or cars that let us know where the car in front of it is heading will not be an easy task. But as we continue to make our wireless and wire line networks more and more ubiquitous, only time will tell what great project is up next on the horizon.

Twitterin' Teddy isn't your ordinary bear. We've brought him to life through a 2.0 implant...web 2.0 that is.

Teddy speaks via a web 2.0 application that converts his twitters and his friend's twitters to speech and saves them as an audio file. The flow chart below gives an overview of how the system works.

As users update their twitter feeds, the application scans for the updates, and converts the text to speech, and saves it as an audio file. This audio file is placed on a public server where anyone and the world with internet connection can access the file.

Aside from making a bear come to life, this application may provide viewing-impaired web users a way to stay connected to friends and loved ones. Twitterin' Teddy is just an example of what you can do when you combine Technology, Entertainment and Social Interaction.

About the Drexel MET-Lab

The Music and Entertainment Technology Laboratory (MET-lab) is devoted to research in digital media technologies that will shape the future of entertainment, especially in the areas of sound and music. The MET-lab's primary research focuses on the following music and entertainment applications:

• Music production and playback technology: The iPod and digital downloads have changed when and where we experience music. In the near future, the impact of digital technology on how music is produced ated and performed will be even more dramatic.
• Machine listening and music information retrieval: Computers are great at recording, editing, and playing audio, but they can’t tell you much about the sound itself. How can we teach machines to really listen? Can they help organize our ever growing personal music collections?
• New music interfaces: It generally takes years to learn to play a musical instrument. This research looks at creating simpler and more intuitive interfaces that enable people to start making music without prior experience.

The MET-lab is also heavily involved in outreach programs for K-12 students and hosts the Summer Music Technology program, a one-week learning experience for high school students. Learn more about the lab at http://schubert.ece.drexel.edu.

My Other Cool Project

Before working on Teddy and My Home 2.0, I co-developed a Mood Classification Game. Its called MoodSwings, and when you play it you are helping teach our computers how to understand mood. Confused? Try it out for yourself! http://schubert.ece.drexel.edu/moodswings

There's a lot of hard work, sweat and yes, sometimes even tears that go into each makeover, but it's all worth it when we see that joy on the family's faces during the reveal.  

Mary and Joe loved their upgraded kitchen! It's got all the digital, FiOS-powered tools they'll need to expand their catering business, and potential clients can even sample their delicious wares in their elegantly redesigned basement. (When the family's not enjoying sports on their state-of-the-art home theater, of course.)  

Happy cooking, Wurtz family, can't wait to see what the future holds for you!

What do YOU think this is? Post your guess in the comments below!

Then find out tomorrow at the block party reveal!

Man, I'm getting too old for these "grand entrances" each episode! This one today at the Wurtz shoot was even tougher than the pedicabs at the Buckleys' last season!

Black jumpsuits aren't really the best workout wear in the summer time, people. Can't we get a stunt double for these segments and just put my head on their body in the editing room???

The field where we shot the DIY video was right across the street from where the Wurtz family lives (and where their tech makeover will be revealed a week from tomorrow!), so the kids brought their teammates along to get in on the action, too.

"Remember! Stay out of the pit of doom," Ryan shouted. He gave each Little Leaguer a 2 minute breakdown on how to hold and swing the bat like an MVP. Soon the kids were hitting the balls like pros! Ryan Howard was such a down to earth person, and he and I had a great conversation about technology, baseball, and keeping a positive attitude.  

I can't wait to meet him again, and I wish him, the Phillies, and my fellow Guru Brian -- who's throwing out tonight's first pitch -- lots of luck!  

Today also happens to be Literacy Day, so if you go to tonight's game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, be sure to check out the concourse for a great project Guru Alison created just for the occasion -- a stylin' book cover with a built-in reading light! (You can even make one yourself -- just check out the DIY page.)