I presented an encore of my VALA2012 presentation to librarians in Perth as well, at Curtin University. Here’s a recording of that particular presentation, where you can better see some of the slide effects and design choices that I talked about previously. The audio isn’t fabulous, but is serviceable and the video came out quite well.
I re-tweeted Roy Tennant to try and bring some more eyeballs to this exceptional blog post by Nicolas Morin, entitled Engineers Crashing Our Gates, but had to follow it up here. So much goodness to be mined from this post!
I was lucky enough to interview Jason Chen via email about his new ebook startup Storybundle. He had some interesting things to say about the ebook market. Unsurprisingly, as a new ebook startup, he didn’t even consider libraries at first.
As to whether or not this is good for libraries, at the current time I hadn’t even considered libraries, so I’m going to aim for personal use for the first few bundles and see where things go from there. It depends heavily on the author, because the promo is a limited time thing, and making a sale to a library becomes a forever thing.
Lumus’ OE-31 optical engine = wearable displays
And yet more from the wearable display front…the way that modern gadget production works seems to be very much a sort of punctuated equilibrium. There are ideas, then a breakthrough in sensor production and pricing causes an explosion of forms, which then settle down into a few winners (see: eReaders in 2010, Tablets in 2011, etc). I am very curious where this particular explosion is going to take us.
Autodesk 123D – Free 3D Modeling Software
Autodesk provides a free 3D modeling tool, complete with straightforward export options for most 3D printers and lasercutters. Windows only for now, although an OS X version appears to be on the way.
In a small clean room tucked into the back of San Diego–based startup Organovo, Chirag Khatiwala is building a thin layer of human skeletal muscle. He inserts a cartridge of specially prepared muscle cells into a 3-D printer, which then deposits them in uniform, closely spaced lines in a petri dish. This arrangement allows the cells to grow and interact until they form working muscle tissue that is nearly indistinguishable from something removed from a human subject.
But these little flying video and audio recorders, paired with powerful data analysis tools, make previously unthinkable levels of surveillance possible, even easy. Before the Internet, tracking someones reading and shopping activities would have been nearly impossible without a private detective.
We’re inching one step closer to Rainbows End every day. I’ll admit, even though I’m a certified Apple guy, I’d buy these in a hot minute.
Google to Sell Heads-Up Display Glasses by Year’s End
People who constantly reach into a pocket to check a smartphone for bits of information will soon have another option: a pair of Google-made glasses that will be able to stream information to the wearer’s eyeballs in real time.
According to several Google employees familiar with the project who asked not to be named, the glasses will go on sale to the public by the end of the year.
An art project right up my alley. 🙂
Here’s an idea of just how differently things are going to be produced in the future.