Virtual reality visionary Jaron Lanier on his Microsoft gig: Kinect is ‘beautiful, exciting’
via: GeekWire
Kinect hack turns tourists into 3D souvenirs (video) — Engadget
The iPod Impact – The way we listen and respond to Music – Slate
What has the iPod wrought? Earbudded into isolation, merrily ensconced in our own expertly curated soundtrack, who any longer has a serendipitous interaction? The future belongs to solipsism..
Via: ALDaily.com
Kinect Hack – A Real-Life Gmail Motion – Slashdot
via USC Researchers Demonstrate Real-Life Gmail Motion – Slashdot.
An anonymous reader writes "In this tongue-in-cheek video, researchers at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies take playful jabs at Google as they demonstrate their software controlling Gmail with a Microsoft Kinect sensor. The gesture controls are strikingly similar to those jokingly suggested by Google in their fictional Gmail Motion application, posted as an April Fools’ day prank. The researchers have made their software available for free on their website."
Personal Data Ecosystem & FTC’s ‘Do Not Track’ policy for consumer privacy
Dan Ryan on his blog informs about an interesting graph of "Personal Data Ecosystem." which attempts to portray a four-mode network : individuals, data collectors, data brokers, and data users.
In another post Dan informs about The Federal Trade Commission’s preliminary report, "Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change, (pdf) " from one of the many things , it suggests the "do not track" option for web surfers like “Do Not Call” registry in telecom industry which also got covered in NYT article – F.T.C. Backs Plan to Honor Privacy of Online Users
Visit Dan Ryan’s blog for more details
Nike Environmental Design Tool
EnvironmentalLeader Informs “Nike has released its Environmental Apparel Design Tool. Based on Nike’s Considered Design Index and designed and built by Nike over seven years with a $6 million investment, the company says that the tool will help designers make real time choices that decrease the environmental impacts of their work by rating how apparel designs score in reducing waste and increasing the use of environmentally preferred materials.”. More info here and on sustainablebusinessoregon.com
Here’s the short video of approach (via ViNT)
Dr. Tae — Building A New Culture Of Teaching And Learning
Dr. Tae — Building A New Culture Of Teaching And Learning from Dr. Tae on Vimeo.
Via TechDirt: What If We Gave Toddlers An ‘F’ In Walking?
theodp writes "To improve math and science education, Physics prof Dr. Yung Tae Kim thinks professors and teachers should take a page from skateboarding. ‘The persistence and the dedication needed in skateboarding — that’s what we need to be teaching,’ explains Kim. ‘No one says to a toddler, ‘You have ten weeks to walk, and if you can’t, you get an F and you’re not allowed to try to walk anymore.’ It’s absurd, right? But the same thing is true with math and science education. If you want to learn trig or calculus, it’s set at such a pace in schools that it guarantees that only the absolutely best students will learn it.’ Kim says it’s possible to ‘polish the turd’ of high school and college education, and lays out his plan for doing so in Building A New Culture Of Teaching And Learning (YouTube: parts 1-2-3), a video drawn from a farewell talk he gave to his Northwestern students. There’s more on The Way of Dr. Tae at DrTae.org and PhysicsOfSkateboarding.com."
