World: 'More reliable data needed on impact of alcohol on crime'. 18:03 ET - Ananova [NewsBlip.com]

"Researchers claim police themselves described the computer systems they use to track alcohol-related violence as "crap"."

10:54:08 PM    

Gamers set for sensory overload. A video game inspired by the artist Kandinsky aims to stimulate the senses with its stunning visuals and pulsating beats. [BBC News: sci/tech]

Shoot 'em up meets acid trip. Details to follow.

10:52:37 PM    

Meditation mapped in monks. Snapshots of monks' brains provide clues as to what goes on inside the head during meditation. [BBC News: sci/tech]

When meditating, blood flow in the brain changes, as different areas are used. The Attention area of the brain is used more, and the orientation area is used less. (Please do not meditate while driving, you'll be very focused, but not on where you are going.) This ties in with the idea of meditating and imagining that you are doing something perfectly, then being better at doing the actual activity.

10:51:19 PM    

Thought: Use the large scale inkjet printers that are available today for making custom wallpaper that can be pre-sized to fit an area, especially a curved or otherwise irregular wall. This could work well for creaing sets for movies, or having portable walls that are basically canvases to quickly re-set a stage.

AH! Someone is already doing it.

4:54:09 PM    

Segway: Don't call it a scooter. What travels at speeds of up to 12.5 miles an hour and could change minds about the future of human transportation? Dean Kamen explains his latest creation, as well as what it's like to be a famous inventor. [CNET News.com: Personal Technology]

Dean wants this thing to be avaialble around to world to all economic classes. That is a fine dream, but it costs $3-5000.00 US. I like Dean's body of work, but I think he's being a bit short sighted here.

1. This device costs more than many people make in a year. While it might be possible to pull this off in the US, a third world nation's population would not have the money to afford one.
2. Infrastructure. These devices need power, and can travel up to 17 miles between charges. Unless he is working on a charging station that uses solar power or wind, I don't see how an area with an unreliable grid can support it.
3. It's new-fangled. Unless the device can dramatically improve the quality of life of the people that adopt it, they are not going to bother. If local government were to subsidize these to be used like bicycles are in some areas, that would be one thing, if not, citizens are on their own.
4. (Added at 1:13 Eastern) Back on the issue of power grids; We need reliable power for this or any other technology (electric cars, et al) that is going to get us off of dependence on petroleum. I would love to see what Kamen could do with that issue. be it a safer form of Nuclear power using a modified Sterling engine to drive the generators, or something that has not yet been dreamed up.

I'd love to see this succeed, as I think that the Segway is way cool tech that I would like to have (I'll take an e Series, thanks) once the price drops to the $1000.00 US range. For now though, the dream of this being in the hands of all remains just that, a dream

12:12:59 PM    

Some time in the last couple of years I stopped talking to the music business. When they shut off Napster I stopped caring. A few days before Morpheus shut down last month I downloaded the software and installed it. I had a specific mission in mind. My MP3 collection had almost no Elvis Costello, and, having heard an NPR interview with him, I was interested. So I booted up Morpheus and went looking and found lots of hits, mostly the songs I already had, and downloaded a couple I hadn't, and the quality was so low, I threw them in the trash. My time is worth money and of course I would have happily downloaded a curated and quality-assured package of Elvis songs, with written narrative (he's an interesting guy, very smart, a good story teller) for $39. Charge it to my credit card. I thought I'd mention that, because like others, I spend $0 on music now, and no that's not a story of Napster screwing things up, it's Eisner and Case that screwed it up. While I was using Napster I was a veritable pump of money into their coffers to make the point to myself and anyone else who cared that it wasn't about money, it was about love of music and wanting it to be able to come to me easily, conveniently and with high quality. For the 18th time, we want to work with the music business. Why can't they hear that. Instead they're lobbying Congress to rape the computer industry so they can keep all the money we would supposedly send to them after they did that. Oy. We'd burn their houses, figuratively of course. No money for losers.  [Scripting News]

I wish I could have put that better myself.

11:42:09 AM    

Tryin' Hard to Get Free, Via Rap on Your Own CD. Singers with day jobs and dreams of fame and fortune can produce their own discs with affordable consumer versions of studio technology. [The New York Times: Technology]

I have worked with a few people who were into producing their own CD's, some with the goal being a recording contract, others who were doing it as a lifetime hobby. If you can soundproof a 10'x20' space, you can have a studio large enough to play in with a full band all at once. Combine that with the recent advances in recording technology, and you don't neccesarrily need a huge studio to do your work.

While the services of professional recording engineer working your soundboards is vital, you can also learn a lot by doing it with a group of like minded friends. I am reminded that the fifth member of Rollin's  Band was theo Van Rock, who was their recording engineer who set up/ran the sound boards at their shows and in studio.

As a self confessed Cribs addict, I can also point out that many pros are putting recording studios into their own homes, so that they can roll out of bed and get to work.

11:35:01 AM    

Medved QuoteTracker 2.4.1E Beta Released [BetaNews.Com]

Real time stock quote s form a variety of sources. Your own personal Bloomberg box, or at least the start of one, in the form of adware.  I imagine it could be used for other information sources as well, to see how your sports team is doing, to track rainfall in specified regions, or any set of streaming variables assigned.

• Network traffic to a website
• Number of downloads for a file in real time, to help determine when the file should be mirrored elsewhere
• Real time attendance figures by entry point
• Ticket sales by vendor

11:15:25 AM