Hi, a real human interface

Hello, friends! As you may know, I am working on a multi-touch table in my copious spare time (heh). If you haven't seen this already, it's definitely worth a look and a laugh. A true multi-touch "human" interface!

Hi from Multitouch Barcelona on Vimeo.

Jobs Lost / Gained Visualization

Here are some interesting interactive figures regarding recent unemployment trends in the US:

The Geography of Jobs
When Did Your County's Jobs Disappear?

To Be

Just a little lighthearted fun concerning the continuity of existence.



Some more reading on consciousness and cyborgs here... (Thanks, Reddit)!

Spanning Sync Discount Code RES399 for $5 off

I've been using Spanning Sync to synchronize my iCal calendars on my Macs with my Google Calendar for over a year, and it's great. It also syncs your Mac Address Book with your Google address book. It runs in the background and I've never had a problem with it. They've released frequent updates and their support is helpful. Whenever I plug in my iPhone, everything propagates to and from there as well. It's money well spent!

After a 15-day free trial period, Spanning Sync usually costs $25/year, but you can save $5 by using my discount code if you decide to buy it: just enter Spanning Sync discount code RES399 and we'll both get five bucks!

Magnetic Fields are All Around Us

Magnetic Movie from Semiconductor on Vimeo.

Quote:

The secret lives of invisible magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic ever-changing geometries . All action takes place around NASA's Space Sciences Laboratories, UC Berkeley, to recordings of space scientists describing their discoveries . Actual VLF audio recordings control the evolution of the fields as they delve into our inaudible surroundings, revealing recurrent ‘whistlers' produced by fleeting electrons . Are we observing a series of scientific experiments, the universe in flux, or a documentary of a fictional world?

More info on their website.

Organ and Cell Regeneration

Check it out, engineered organs.

2008 Books in Review

Books read in 2008:

Stephen King - Dark Tower Book I: The Gunslinger
This series has been around for a while so I decided to sink my teeth into it. It's sort of a post-apocalyptic / western / sci-fi / adventure / fantasy. It somehow reminds me of the Trigun anime. It's not like most of King's other novels. I enjoyed it well enough to read the next in the series. (4/5)

Stephen King - Dark Tower Book II: The Drawing of the Three
Book two isn't quite as exciting to read, but it definitely takes another big step into the weird with some time travel thrown in. Still a fun read. (3.5/5)

William Gibson - Pattern Recognition
This was a fun book about a person who is attuned to memes and is tasked with tracking down an Anonymous who is posting videos online. A fun and interesting read tracking the main character around the globe, but I wasn't very satisfied with the ending. (4/5)

Brandon Sanderson - Elantris
How often can you find a fantasy that is good AND fits in one reasonable sized novel? Not too often, but here is a great example of an interesting story woven and completed in six hundred and some odd pages. Check it out while you're waiting for the end to Wheel of Time. (4.5/5)

Nick Sagan - Idlewild
Carl Sagan's son wrote this novel about kids living in a virtual reality training school and their struggles against the system and the machine. It was fun to read, but do yourself a favor and read Ender's Game instead. :) (3.5/5)

China Mieville - Iron Council
I really like China Mieville's world and people. They're so interesting and colorful you can't help but want to turn the page. The plot of this one is a bit odd (a group of vagabonds hijack a train and build and remove the tracks as they go to escape civilization... and then return) and the ending is a bit depressing, but that's par for the course. If you liked Perdido Street Station (a better book, and one you should read first), then check this out.