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Mittwoch, 22. Dezember 2004 |
Latest study shows that cellphones are dangerous/strikenot dangerous/strike. 
See? It only took only eleven days for a study to come out contradicting the one
earlier this month from researchers at Korea University
that determined that the electromagnetic radiation from cellphones has [base "]no harmful effect on the human body.[per thou] This time
around a study conducted by 12 research groups in seven European countries found that exposure to the electromagnetic
field of a cellphone caused damage to the DNA of human and animal cells (which means you probably shouldn[base ']t feel bad
about not buying your dog a cellphone), and that often
the cells weren[base ']t able to repair the damage done. As usual, the results aren[base ']t conclusive enough to prove that
cellphones are dangerous to humans (the cynic in us says that conclusiveness usually means an end to research grants),
though some the scientists involved did recommend that people use a headset whenever possible. You could try that, but
we recommend waiting a few days until another study comes along that will set your mind at ease. [Engadget]
11:03:24 AM 
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Heaven and Earth Travel Package. 
See the world on a guided tour from the comfort of a private jet. TCS Expeditions offers a journey they call Heaven
and Earth. In 24 days they travel to a variety of remote locations including the Taj Majal, Machu Pichu, Easter
Island, and Malta. The tour package includes a team of experts and local guides to give you insight into the
traditions and histories of these mystical places. Author Nicholas Sparks took this trip and turned it into a
bestselling memoir called Three Weeks With My Brother.
[Luxist]
11:00:54 AM
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More Straps. 
Following yesterday's post on Strap Ya, a website dedicated to selling mobile phone straps, Reuters has more on this market.
It seems that it's pretty massive in Japan, worth an estimated Yen 6
billion ($60 million). And big fashion names have noticed and launched
their own versions, with Hermes, Gucci and Chanel selling straps for
about $300 each. [The Mobile Technology Weblog]
10:58:34 AM
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Napster's all-you-can download monthly subscription plan. 
If you[base ']re going to DRM the crap out of music downloads, you may as well make them super-cheap, right? It looks like
Napster is going to be the first to take the plunge and use Microsoft[base ']s new digital rights management system (codenamed
Janus) that lets online music stores rent, rather than sell, downloads to people. We know what you[base ']re thinking, and
honestly, we don[base ']t like the idea of renting music either, but this time you can[base ']t mess with the price[~]for fifteen bucks
a month you can download as many songs from Napster as you want and copy them on your MP3 player as long as you keep
paying the monthly fee (or someone figures out how to hack the DRM). Have a 40GB MP3 player that can hold 10,000 songs?
It[base ']d cost $10,000 to fill it with music from the various online music stores (not that anyone would actually do that),
but for $180 a year you can fill it[~]and refill it[~]with as much music as you want (and you[base ']d basically be paying $0.0015
per song per month).
[base "]Napster to Go[per thou] won[base ']t formally launch until early next year, and it[base ']ll only work with players that are
PlaysForSure-certified (a small, but growing number), but
this[base ']ll only work if Microsoft can make sure that the process of downloading songs, transferring them to a player, and
all the other rights management garbage involved isn[base ']t a huge headache. It[base ']s at least somewhat encouraging that
they aren[base ']t trying to charge people fifty bucks a month or anything outrageous like that. Fifteen a month we can
handle. Maybe twenty or twenty five. But anything more than that and we[base ']d be back to doing things the, uh,
old-fashioned way (and we don[base ']t mean buying CDs in stores). We hate to say it, but they might actually be on to
something here.
[Engadget]
10:56:24 AM
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The virtual rocking horse. 
We[base ']ve always liked motion simulator games, where you can interact with a virtual environment using a controller like
a steering wheel or ski set. Now, an Australian design firm has brought the idea to the playroom set with Virsual, the
digital rocking horse. The proof-of-concept project includes a bright yellow rocking horse that communicates wirelessly
with a game played on a TV screen. As the rider moves, the terrain scrolls by, synced to the child[base ']s motion. We think
most young kids will probably dig it, though we[base ']re not quite so sure about the [base "]advice-dispensing chickens, friendly
fish and giant snails[per thou] included as part of the game play.
[Engadget]
10:55:23 AM
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CallABike hacked by mischievous Germans.  It started as a crunchy,
environmentally-friendly service called CallABike that
allowed Germany city-dwellers to rent bikes and leave them locked wherever when done. It ended as an IT war that
has resulted in hackers turning the rental bikes into HackABikes with backdoor access for a select few. The
hackers were so intent on gaining free access to these things that they abused several bikes to the point of paying for
them until they figured out how to re-flash the EEPROM. Now that they know how to do this, they claim they have
hacked roughly 10% of the 1700 rental bikes in the city of Berlin. The backdoor code supposedly allows them to
rent the bikes for free. As it should be. Free bikes. For hackers. Yeah.
[Via Slashdot]
[Engadget]
10:53:53 AM
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A Better Coffee Lid
Recently the local shop where I buy coffee changed to a sip type lid.
These lids are supposed to be designed to allow you to sip your coffee
without spilling any so that when you place it in your car's cup holder
it won't spill while moving. Well the local shop has resorted to
placing tape over the hole because quite frankly these lids are a
miserable failure at preventing spills and it's a toss up as to whether
they are any better than the really terrible ones you supposedly peel
back and "lock" into place (photo 2).
A couple weeks ago I was ecstatic to discover
what seems to be the best design solution to this everyday problem at
another coffee shop. Solo's patented "traveler" disposable lid is a
delight to use and simply ingenious. It's essentially a recyclable
plastic version of the more expensive lids you find on items like those
stainless steel travel lids you find at Target or Starbucks. The beauty
is in the simplicity, there's a little hole to sip from and then an
elevated nub that you can slide one-handed back and forth to open and
close/lock into place.
Simple pleasures are so delightful. Coffee,
sliding lid sip cup, winning the lottery... oh well at least I got the
coffee and sip cup (originally in coDecode
).
- morry [Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women]
10:51:23 AM
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Club at Hammock Beach Florida Fantasy Football Weekend. 
This may well be one of the most ultimate luxury football vacation trips ever thought of. For $50,000, the
Club at Hammock Beach will fly two people from anywhere
within the continental U.S. to Palm Coast, Florida from February 4-7, 2005. Participants of the [base "]Florida Fantasy
Football Weekend[per thou] package will be shuttled via private limo to the club[base ']s luxury resort for a stay in a 2,000 square
foot, three bedroom oceanfront suite. Amenities available will include, among other things, 24 hour butler service,
dinner for two aboard a luxury yacht, daily 80 minute massages, daily champagne breakfast in bed and two tickets to the
2005 Super Bowl in nearby Jacksonville with included limo service and an in car lobster and Cristal luncheon.
[Luxist]
10:49:52 AM
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SMS BOOK PUBLISHED FREELY ONLINE | A book compiled....
SMS BOOK PUBLISHED FREELY ONLINE
| A book compiled from the comments people sent in SMS in
Antwerp and Leeds has been freely published online. The
STADSchromosomen (CITYchromosomes) project invited people in Antwerp
(Belgium) to write a biography of the City through SMS. In September, a
book collecting these SMS was released under Creative Commons license.
Author of CITYchromosomes Eric Antonis sees the book as an important
contribution to the debate about cultural participation. "The sms
messages present an interesting insight into how residents and visitors
feel about Antwerp" he says. | Textually|
[Eyebeam reBlog]
10:48:39 AM
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Germany Builds Solar Energy Power Plant. A
California company, PowerLight Corp., has built a 30-acre solar power
generating facility in Bavaria, in southern Germany. If successful, the
plant would serve as a model for generating renewable energy.
The plant went online just this month,
and is capable of generating 10 megawatts of electricity, or enough to
power 9,000 German homes. All while creating zero pollution.
Germany is the world's leading producer of wind power, and the
second-largest producer of solar energy (after Japan). German law
allows producers of renewable energy to sell that power back to the
electricity grid at premium rates, leading to a boom in solar farms and
windmills among landowners. These, however, are proving to be
controversial, as many see them as eyesores. All these elements provide
lessons for the resto of the world to learn about the pros and cons of
renewable energy.
10:47:34 AM
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The last resting place of C90 Cassettes
I'm quite shocked at the violent force of nostalgia I experienced looking at Project C-90,
a huge Russian library of pictures of old cassette tapes. I must have
spent weeks of my young life worrying about Metal vs Chrome, and which
brand was best (I remember a good batch of That's
tapes that Richer Sounds were selling cheap). I also remember hearing
tell of a fantastically expensive cassette that either a) Had an
aluminium shell or b) Had little reel-to-reel spools that went round
when you played the tape (depending on which of my friends I listened
to). Anyone remember them? (Thanks to Tommy Walker III for the tip. Why
don't you download his mixtape and tape it onto one side of a C90?)
UPDATE: Well, the tape with the little reel-to-reel spools was the Teac Cobalt
(top left), which was presumably such a bad design for a cassette that
they could only make them 52 minutes long. It's is now so rare and
fondly remembered that one single tape recently sold for o75 on German Ebay. Imagine what you might get for the truly bizarre Teac Open Cassette System (top right). - Tom [Music thing]
10:46:44 AM
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Hoovering the carpet away. Petra Trefzger 's Flying carpet is
decorated with geometric patterns that swirl around your feet as you
walk or dance on it. An ultrasound sensor monitors your position as you
walk on the carpet: the patttern runs away from you and bounces back
when you're gone.
She also made a vacuum cleaner version, called Vorwerk.
When the real vacuum cleaner is turned on, the position and movement of
the cleaning nozzle is tracked using an infrared-sensitive camera. The
areas of the carpet that the cleaning nozzle covers are erased from the
projected carpet image (have a look at the video and you'll see better what I mean.)
 
Oter carpets: Pacman carpet, digital quilt. [we make money not art]
10:44:55 AM
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Tropical paradise in a zeppelin hangar. Near
Berlin, a former zeppelin hangar has been transformed into Europe's
largest covered leisure resort (five million cubic metres).
Tropical Islands offers
850 sun-loungers on its two beaches, waterfalls tumbling into tranquil
lagoons, a rainforest, sunrise projected on to a 450ft long screen,
speakers disguised as boulders broadcasting bird song and insect noises
appropriate to the time of year and day ... and best of all, workers
trained to "use smiles to enthuse stressed and winter-wearied
Europeans".
Price is o20 for four hours, plus o1 for every hour over that. It is
hoped that Tropical Islands will boost the local economy in the former
communist east, where unemployment is around 20 per cent.
Could this sun-kissed leisure at home be the future of tourism?
Via Archinect < The Telegraph and The Guardian. [we make money not art]
10:43:34 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Joerg Rheinboldt.
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