Technology Ticks

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 04:59:00 +0000

I really really really hate leaf-blowing machines.

Top geeks fave social media

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 10:09:00 +0000

"• Firefox, with occasional forays into Flock and Safari; Firebug and Zemanta plug-ins

• WordPress, the open-source platform for my Socialmedia.biz and Socialbrite.org blogs

• I just started using HootSuite 2.0, a Web-based, Ajax-smart Twitter application that I find superior (so far) to the downloadable Tweetdeck and Seesmic Desktop apps. (I’m @jdlasica on Twitter.)

• Zoho Writer and Zoho Sheets, which are superior to Google Docs (though I use the latter when forced)

• Fetch tied to BBEdit, to manage files on my blogs’ servers..."

What's your social media poison?

Source: http://tinyurl.com/oqpbng

Holography

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:39:00 +0000

Can't touch this! Click on the link to see the Avatar trailer. Kind of like Homeworld, got it?

http://ping.fm/uLkBT

Zedy’s New Toy: A Robot from Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 07:42:00 +0000

It’s not a fashionista robot. But a mini, scurrying thing that pushes a faceted ball around on its controller’s commands. Mr Roboto is a smart fella who knows how to avoid thieving robots and dock at his recharging station while looking insufferably cute at the same time.
Imagine a swarm of mini Mr Robotos as they tackle, track and steal the ball enroute to goal.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:53:00 +0000

i'm testing Ping.fm

Point and shoot tips from the old masters

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 05:56:00 +0000

Love this blog entry about photo-taking. It’s not the $3,000 camera with whirring noises and GPS, man. It’s how you maximise (or in some cases, minimise) lighting, angles and distances!

Mandatory reading for all photography newbies and wannabes, over at Ryan Brenizer's Amazon Blog: Point and shoot tips from the old masters

A Social Media “What’s Next?” for 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Arthur’s Meme Blog has a nice 10 point re-blogged posts on the ways that social media will change in 2009.

Within it are big words like: “convergence”; “create meaning and value” etc.

But what’s cool is that we’re all moving from feature-based social networks (really, who throws sheep now?) to more meaningful experiences and money-making opportunities (KA-CHING$$$ Baby!!!).

Anyways, there’s plenty of examples to ground each point, and they’re lofty enough to inspire greater niches.

10 POINTS to SOCIAL MEDIAING

1. It's About People

2. Creating Meaning and Value

3. Enabling Convergence

4. Building a Truly Cross-Platform Experience

5. Creating Relevant Social Networks

6. Innovating in the Advertising Space

7. Helping People Organize Their "Old" Social Media Ecosystem

8. Connecting with the Rest of the US and the World

9. Preparing for New Social Media Jobs

10. Making Money

Source: Arthur’s Meme Blog

Light Bulb

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:49:00 +0000

This is crazy. This light bulb floats in mid-air and glows ominously like gaudy Chinese New Year lighting.

Apparently, it “contains hidden circuitry that uses electromagnetic feedback to levitate the bulb roughly 2.5″ from the nearest object, and uses coupled resonant wireless power transfer to beam power from the housing into the bulb itself.”

Hey it’s a SF dream come true! Check out the Youtube video below…

Source: today and tomorrow

Emails From Disgruntled Google Employees Surface

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:01:00 +0000

Googlelites get perks. Lots of free massages, ice cream and other stuff. Unfortunately, it’s not all beeauuuutiful at Google as these emails by former employees show.

Major complaints include: overly moralistic attitude by bosses, bad pay, and slow hiring process. Details in the link here…Technology – redOrbit.

Odd. I’d think that Chinese companies tend to manage people like that. Love to hear from it about you.

Stick to Your New Year's Resolutions: Lifehacker’s Top 10 Tools

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Brilliant list from the Lifehacker team on how to stick to your resolutions. While I’ve reproduced the list here, you really should get over there and read them in detail.

10. Schedule your goals inside your high-energy times

9. Make them S.M.A.R.T.

8. Mint.com for all your money resolutions

7. Channel your Inner Seinfeld—Don't break the chain

6. Track them all at once with Joe's Goals

5. Keep your reminders/motivators away from your computer

4. Remember the Milk

3. Be a dweeb and write them down

2. Advanced calendar tweaking

1. Remember Ryan Adams' creed—It's just a simple task today

Source: Lifehacker

Google Ends Experiments

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:27:00 +0000

Google. Search. Giant. App Buyer. Cloud Maker. Has killed off the following products:

Google Video
Google Catalog Search
Google Notebook
Dodgeball
Jaiku
Google Mashup Editor
Grand Central
Knol
Google Base

They’ll be sorely missed. By all twelve users and developers.

Read why Google’s shutting them down over at CNET, and don’t burst a vein.

A Red Dot Design Winner?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:08:00 +0000

The Safe Balloon by Baek Uyeol won the Red Dot award for 2008. It’s an innovative way of telling the cars behind you that you’re stuck and absolutely FUBARed until the mechanic turns up.

Hopefully the balloon doesn’t do a Mary Poppins and float away into the sky.

Source: Crooked Brains

WHOPPER® Sacrifice

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:12:00 +0000

This fiery ad’s been making the rounds in Facebook. You get to sacrifice 10 friends for a Burger King Whopper. Personally, it’s not too big a loss considering that we have hundreds of loyal peons!!!

It’s a damn shame that the Facebook people – whom I thought were cool beer guzzling college types; guess not – killed off the application. What a waste of friendships and advertising opportunity. (To see how it’s done right, go to Dream Job in Australia. No cost. Just well targeted PR and good content.)

And I love the BK guys’ parting shot at Facebook (reproduced below). Fucking A!

Source: WHOPPER® SACRIFICE - Sacrifice 10 friends from Facebook for a free WHOPPER®

Metamaterial = Invisible Cloth

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:06:00 +0000

Of all the Fantastic Four’s powers, the Invisible Woman’s ability to disappear and project force shapes comes out tops. Although, Mr Fantastic’s rubbery, bendy and stretchy powers rank a close second (best explained by this joke about Martians swinging with Humans).

And the invisible cloth, made from meta materials which supposedly do not exist, is the very embodiment of my disappearing act dream.

(Cue Arty-Farty Disappearing Act Video)

Disappearing Act Video (Shameless Self-Promotion)

The only problem is that the cloak’s really a giant metal can.

It’s kind of hard to move around in it. But maybe we’ll see some kind of commercial use soon, perhaps an invisible panic room?

Source: LiveScience

It’s Been a Hectic Week

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Apologies for missing on yesterday’s post! I’ve been busy, busy, bee-sy…

Alright, enough bad puns.

I’m going to leave you with writings that bitch-slap our Beta Culture, a great story on life in prison (Charles Platt), and a video interview with Neil Gaiman (Henry Jenkins).

I’ll be back with more stuff in a couple of days.

Until then – peace out, stay cool and don’t let the bed bugs bite.

“How should something work when the user is not looking at the screen?” - Technologist for the Blind

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:00:00 +0000

T.V Raman works as a computer engineer for Google. He is blind. And he modifies technology as deftly as Swiss watchmakers putting together artisan clocks.

According to the NY Times article, he’s working on a touch-screen phone to make it more accessible for blind people. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Read it for yourself about how a blind man mods technology to include all.

Source: NYTimes.com

6 “Green” Start-Ups to Watch (& maybe buy stocks in…) for 2009 + Cars that Run on Air

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:00:00 +0000

“Green” is the most-despised, hated and over-used word for 2008 (I agree; a lamp made from broken CDs was “Green”. Rubbish!!!…), but it was the cornerstone for last year’s Clean Tech companies.

Of course, there are many candidates to single out, praise and dissect. But since this is my blog and I’m grabbing info off the net, I’ll point you to Treehugger’s top 6 Clean Tech startups for 2009.

What I like about the list is that half of them have something to do with solar power.

As you might know, sunshine is Singapore’s most abundant resource – along with Orchard Towers, fines and F1 Night Races. We can certainly enlist the sun to help power our homes, laptops, and air-cons that turn our offices in winter-wonderlands.

Another possible Clean Tech product that we can use – given our love for jams and automobiles – are cars that run on air.

These toaster-lookalikes are built for city-dwellers and start-stop traffic.

Perfect.

Singaporeans live, work, eat, travel and play within a city that’s 40km across and beset by many, many traffic lights.

In fact, the price tag – a mere €13,000 (about SGD$26,000) [New car prices here] – should also send motorheads into a frenzy of auto-fixated orgasms.

However, the government levies a fairly complicated road tax that makes it more expensive for electric/hybrid car owners; even though they were reduced in July 2008.

To whit, the 6-month road tax for:
1. 3311cc Petrol Car = $1,435.75
2. 268bhp (200kW) Hybrid Car = $1,724.31

So Mr Hybrid pays $288.56 more than Petrol dude!

Still, it’s much better than in 2007 when Mr Hybrid had to cough up more than $2,000 for road taxes. Maybe we’re actually moving towards being “Green” instead of just talking about it…

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Source: TreeHugger

Kiva: Peer-to-Peer Microfinance

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Every so often comes a idea or an implementation that simply takes my breath away. Think iPhone, Google or Michael Jordan (alright, so he’s not an idea or implementation, but you get it).

And that’s how I see KIVA.

It’s described as a “person-to-person micro-lending website”. It simply means that you choose an entrepreneur or project, lend money, and get repaid within 11 months.

What I like about it is that you loan money to the people or projects that you really sympathise with; instead of getting guilt-tripped by 3 hour-long charity shows ala NKF, President’s Star Charity.

Also if you loan out $25 to say, a woman weaver in Laos, she’ll get all $25. And that’s a lot more than what most charity organisations can claim to do.

On the flip side, KIVA’s field partners –microfinance institutions with social missions (from FAQ) – charge the people or projects interest (up to 21%).

Source: Cool Tools

Biohacking: Home-brewed Genetic Engineering

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:00:00 +0000

The cure for cancer developed in a garage lab?

Not just yet…

But it might be soon if Biohackers – amateurs who splice genes in homemade labs and Wikipedia’s help – get their way.

These Biohackers are usually tech professionals such as computer geeks, engineers etc but they do not have advanced degrees common to Biotech R&D folk.

Still, if you think about it, they’re the logical product of scientific knowledge easily available online, and the ease of obtaining materials and equipment – a set of DIY lab equipment and materials can cost less than US$125.

I really like the fact that they’re unfettered by scientific dogma and could potentially create some amazing things. For example, Meredith L. Patterson (see source) is trying to “develop yogurt bacteria that will glow green to signal the presence of melamine.”

She’s not successful yet, but it certainly has not deterred her from trying and tinkering.

And that’s what science should be, isn’t it?

Source: Yahoo! News

RjDj – Trip, Song & Mash

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:00:00 +0000

RjDj Strike by Amaury Hazan

RjDj – the iPhone app that takes in real world sounds and mixes it with music tracks – has a new mod called the “Shake”. Essentially you shake your iPhone/iTouch in weird, seemingly uncoordinated ways to get specific musical reactions.

The app’s available from Apple’s iTunes store for a measly $2.99.

Time to get trippy, man.

Just ignore people’s funny stares at you while you’re shaking it out… :D

RjDj - Original

Source: TechCrunch; RjDj

Wanna Be a Mafia Fan? Head to Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:07:00 +0000

A Mafia boss serving 12 life sentences has 2,900 fans on Facebook. Go figure… or be fan.

Source: NYTimes.com

Bra Powered iPod

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Adrienne So asks the all important question: “Could someone design an iPod-powering bra* for me?”

Read about the answer at The Independent.

* Talk about alternative energy!!!

LG's 3G watch-phone

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:00:00 +0000

A phone in a watch is like playing at James Bond. It has a touch-screen dialling system, camera, built-in speaker, 3G capabilities, Bluetooth, MP3, yadda yadda.

But what's cool -- and think about it -- is that it's probably the first practical manifestation of wearable computing/gadgets. Hopefully, I'll be seeing more of it like how Spider Jerusalem's spectacles work. :D

My Grouse: it isn't going to be sold in Asia until much much later. Bleh bleh bleh... :P

Source: LGWatch; Gizmodo

Kamikaze Cookery

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Fucking brilliant and funny folks who take their cooking very seriously and in the only humanly possible way – with science. Think of them as the culinary version of Mythbusters.

They’ve mounted cooking challenges against celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsey; deconstruct strange cooking like molecular gastronomy; and cook steaks with vacuum cleaners, thermometer and a blowtorch. (I’ve reproduced the video from Youtube below.) Now they’re on a Fife Diet (something to do with getting to a place, eating wrongly and dealing with train conductors).

Without further ado, on to their show lassies and laddies!

Source: Kamikaze Cookery

Cooking the Perfect Steak- with a vacuum cleaner and blowtorch

Multicolr: I want photos of ocean hues…

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 16:00:00 +0000

…And that’s exactly what Multicolr does for you.

The web application searches through Flickr for photos based on a colour palette you choose. In the screenshot above, I chose blue… and got everything related to it.

Great fun for folks who choose things by warm, cool or neutral colours. :D

A more useful application would be their Visual Search Lab where you search for pictures by picking images and entering tags.

Like so…

The guys at Idee aren’t just resting on these image searching techniques.

The feather in their cap would be TinEye (in Beta stage) which takes an uploaded image, compares it to images on the web and tells you where it’s from and been to. Think of it as a visual Google.