Category: Author: Chad Dorsey
A new Web site permits you to hurtle asteroids and comets into the Earth to see what havoc you can create. The cool thing is that it uses an impact calculator created in 2002 for use by NASA and the Department of Homeland Security. Check it out at Impact: Earth and get ready for your […]
Every great story deserves an equally great ending. In that vein, I was thrilled to read that Mikal Hart’s wedding present to his college friend has finally been opened. The story lasted a year, and involved the first instance I have encountered of reverse geocaching. Put simply, Mikal turned the notion of geocaching — in […]
I love this. Nigel Leck, a software programmer, got bored with constantly responding to climate change skeptics on Twitter. So he built a chat agent to do it for him. The agent scans every five minutes for set phrases connected with tropes about why climate change isn’t caused by man. Then it automatically chats from […]
At the NSDL Annual Meeting last week, we got to see the usual great lineup of opening and closing speakers. One of the regulars by now at this meeting is Julie Evans, from Project Tomorrow. They do the great annual Speak Up surveys of schools that really tell us how students and teachers are using […]
I just saw Objectified this weekend, and highly recommend it. It’s a great hour and 20 minutes with some of the best design minds on the planet, including superstars like Dieter Rams from Braun and Jonathan Ive from everything Apple. It’s wonderfully put together as the second part of a design trilogy from Gary Hustwit […]
It’s been a few days since our great soiree last week. We had a great time seeing everyone and much fun showing off all the projects we’re working on every day. We started by throwing open the doors for some great conversation with excellent people, and had plenty of great open exchange about projects and […]
iPhone for the blind. Stirring description by a blind person about the power of accessible media. My favorite part is his realization that, with an app called Color Identifier his iPhone can *tell* him verbally what colors he’s “seeing.” However, he mistakenly tries it for the first time in the dark: I have never experienced […]
Microsoft is moving beyond one surface onto multiple surfaces now. With their LightSpace research project, they are tracking virtual objects as they move off a surface and onto users’ hands to be carried around the room. Projectors keep the virtual objects in sync with the real-world objects. So you can write a virtual note, carry […]
They just measured relativistic effects between two atomic clocks differing by the speed of a fast bike rider and on length scales shorter than two feet. Boy, this world is amazing.
I met with Dennis Bartels and Rob Semper from the Exploratorium staff since I was nearby at the end of last week, and they shared the plans for their new building, scheduled for moving into around 2013. I’m already excited for them – they’ll be taking over two full piers of Fisherman’s Wharf in San […]