Monday, July 7, 2003

Public scorecard From the Media Lab comes an Internet Movie Database-like project to identify every individual, organization and corporation involved in government and create a public dossier on same. To empower citizens by providing a single, comprehensive, easy-to-use repository of information on individuals, organizations, and corporations related to the government of the United States of America. To allow citizens to submit intelligence about government-related issues, while maintaining their anonymity. To allow members of the government a chance to participate in the process. [BoingBoing] 4:58:45 PM    comment []; Smarter than a Segway? My friend has one of the Smart cars in London. You can almost park them nose to the sidewalk... Valley of the Geeks writes: Forget Dean Kamen's massively overblown Segue human transporter; the Smartcar is far more likely to impact the world than a $5,000 scooter. In fact, if you've been to Europe recently, you've probably seen more than a few of these pint-sized Smart Cars zipping around urban areas. They were originally designed by Swatch as the ultimate city car: low cost, small size, light weight, high mileage and extremely compact. MCC Smart Car was eventually picked up by Daimler Chrysler and together they have sold nearly 500,000 of these suckers in 24 countries. A European Car magazine drove a pair of the Smart cars across the USA last year and wrote an interesting piece about that experience. Will Americans go for this? Many people think that large is better in big country and it is true that getting across Montana could be a pain in a Smart car. For our cities it would be rather brilliant, especially for well designed cities such as Portland, Boston, New York, San Francisco...if they had a four-wheel drive option so I could make it up the hill in the snow I would buy one... 4:09:42 PM    comment []; HeckleBot - support heckling @ conferences Many conferences have wifi for the audience these days. People blog the conferences or chat during the conferences. There is definitely a back channel and a lot of people who track conferences online. At a recent conference in Helsinki, Kevin Marks, who was in California, wrote a limerick heckling Tom Coates on IRC. The difficulty is feeding some of the good stuff back to the speakers. This is where HeckleBot comes in. HeckleBot is an IRC bot that sits in the IRC channel for a conference. You give it commands like "?heckle Stop pointificating!" on IRC. The bot talks to a linux box connected to an LED display facing the speakers. The LED displays the message to the speakers. This way, the speakers can get immediate feedback from the audience as well people watching a video stream or reading people blogging the event. [Joi Ito's Web] I don't think that would work for music at all...if you already think that words get in the way of experiencing the music - then this would surely take it over he top and ruin it completely.... 3:03:08 PM    comment []; Leo Villareal Synthweb.....This looks interesting also....ah, and then there is the Cloudchamber and Megaparticle. Very interesting work...would love to see it in the flesh.... 1:38:56 PM    comment []; Call your Senator, reinstate media ownership regulations This website is calling on Americans to phone their Senators and ask them to support a bill reversing the FCC's shameful decision to allow for increased consolidation in ownership of mass media. A month ago the FCC dramatically relaxed media ownership regulations, stifling the cornerstone of American democracy: a free, fair, and open public debate. Because one million Americans raised their voices against the FCC decision, the Senate Commerce Committee recently sent a bill to the Senate floor for a vote that would roll back many of the rules. Today the challenge is to get that bill to the floor of the Senate and House for a vote. Call your Congressional representatives and demand that they support the rollback. Enter your zip code and find out if your elected officials are currently supporting rolling back the FCC. If they are supportive co-sponsors, then thank them for their support and ask that they keep the bill alive. If they are not a co-sponsor, ask them to become one. [BoingBoing] 6:31:46 AM    comment []; Printbrush Seems like something out of a Sci-Fi book, doesn't it! 6:30:50 AM    comment []; Estonia: Where the Internet is a Human Right "The Christian Science Monitor reports on technological change in Estonia, where an enlightened post-Soviet era government believes the ... [Slashdot] 6:30:07 AM    comment []; New WLAN Spectrum BenFranske writes "The World Radiocommunications Conference will allow a portion of spectrum in the 5GHz band to be used for WLANs, a decision hailed as a ... [Slashdot] 6:29:20 AM    comment []; Herman Miller ships austere Aeron Herman Miller hired a small German company called Studio 7.5 to design the chair; the group initially started developing an innovative seat back that could scale from a small woman's narrow frame to a tall man's broader shoulders. But the approach failed, three years into development. Then, in the spring of 2001, the designers hit upon the solution; the Aeron's signature mesh and aluminum construction has been replaced with a less expensive molded polypropylene back that comes in eight colors, from citron to garnet. Aesthetically, the Mirra borrows the biomorphic silhouette and the transparency of its precursor, but the materials are more commonplace. The result is a chair with less attitude; more like an iBook than a Titanium PowerBook. [BoingBoing] The original Aeron is a great chair. You can sit and mix for hours and hours and avoid back pains... 6:28:42 AM    comment [];

© Copyright 2003 Ottmar Liebert. Last update: 8/25/03; 11:57:07 AM.