NotesTechnology is the active human interface with the material world. ... We have been so desensitized by a hundred and fifty years of ceaselessly expanding technical prowess that we think nothing less complex and showy than a computer or a jet bomber deserves to be called “technology” at all. As if linen were the same thing as flax — as if paper, ink, wheels, knives, clocks, chairs, aspirin pills, were natural objects, born with us like our teeth and fingers — as if steel saucepans with copper bottoms and fleece vests spun from recycled glass grew on trees, and we just picked them when they were ripe...Unfurl
NotesThe Zenith Space Command, one of the first wireless television remotes ever to exist, is a monument to a time before we took the remote for granted. It also just so happened to contain one of the most influential and intriguing buttons in history. FeedUnfurl
NotesBarring a civilization-ending event, technology is not going to move backward. More and more of our world will be controlled by software. It’s already become so ubiquitous that, argues one of my colleagues, it’s now ridiculous to call some firms as “tech” companies when all companies depend on it so much.FeedUnfurl
Notes"Now there is hope that future implants might be powered not by batteries but by the fuels in our bodies that are used for energy. Scientists have shown that fuel cells implanted in rats can successfully generate electricity from sugar in the rodent's bodies. The devices kept going for months at a time."FeedUnfurl
Notes"If the mainstream of "college teaching" becomes a set of atomistic, underpaid adjuncts, we'll lose a precious academic tradition that is not easily replaced."Unfurl
Notes"This collection of library and information technology blogs have changed that, and now you’ll be able to learn about all of the trends, developments, tools and resources available to librarians in every niche."Unfurl
Notes"I've noticed that as I copy data/install programs on my Laptop, the weight of the Laptop increases. I have a bad back and am medically limited on the amount of weight I can carry so I need to be very carefull not to inflict injury upon myself."Unfurl
Notes"We all know that there's no fucking way in the world we should have microwave ovens and refrigerators and TV sets and everything else at the prices we're paying for them. There's no way we get all this stuff and everything is done fair and square and everyone gets treated right. ... everything you own, it's all done on the backs of millions of poor people whose lives are so awful you can't even begin to imagine them, people who will do anything to get a life that is a tiny bit better than the shitty one they were born into, people who get exploited and treated like shit and, in the worst of all cases, pay with their lives."Unfurl
Notes"There are some things in this world that will never be forgotten, this week’s 40th anniversary of the moon landing for one. But Moore’s Law and our ever-increasing quest for simpler, smaller, faster and better widgets and thingamabobs will always ensure that some of the technology we grew up with will not be passed down the line to the next generation of geeks."Unfurl
Notes"These facts were a currency in my social circle. We'd trade them like baseball cards. I'd show you my payphone trick and you'd show me your gag for turning the cellophane on a cigarette pack into a smoke-ring machine. Social capital accrued to everyone who could show or explain something that gave you power and insight into the mysterious workings of the world."Unfurl
NotesGood for them, I <3 my TiVo. They've been getting screwed, and cable companies obviously want them sunk. "TiVo Inc., armed with a federal court ruling backing the company’s digital-recording patent, plans to elbow its way onto every U.S. pay-television system to attract millions of new subscribers. "Unfurl
Notes"If the Obama campaign represented a sleek, new iPhone kind of future, the first day of the Obama administration looked more like the rotary-dial past."Unfurl
Notes"Obama comes into office as the first President both knowledgeable about and comfortable with the technology that runs today's world. This is actually an important and promising development and the worst thing we can do is try to force him into a technology-free cocoon in the name of security or whatever. Mr President-elect, if you want to keep that BlackBerry, please do so. Besides, we don't want a new President going through his difficult first weeks in office suffering from BlackBerry withdrawal."Unfurl
Notes"Obama comes into office as the first President both knowledgeable about and comfortable with the technology that runs today's world. This is actually an important and promising development and the worst thing we can do is try to force him into a technology-free cocoon in the name of security or whatever. Mr President-elect, if you want to keep that BlackBerry, please do so. Besides, we don't want a new President going through his difficult first weeks in office suffering from BlackBerry withdrawal."Unfurl
Notes"Science Fiction movies have been a source for speculation about the future of technology and human computer interaction. This paper presents a survey of different kinds of interaction designs in movies during the past decades and relates the techniques of the films to existing technologies and prototypes where possible. The interactions will be categorized with respect to their domain of real-life applications and also evaluated in regard to results of current research in human computer interaction."Unfurl
Notes"the core idea that should be upheld by companies like Apple should be about making things better and less often. Making things that will be able to evolve, be upgraded, be adaptable, hackable and more fun to use for longer so that as a customer I don’t think that I’m buying version 3.4 of something that will only be as good as it’s last press release. I want to buy “the” quintessential Apple product and cherish it for years, like people would cherish a vintage car."FeedEmbedUnfurl
Notes"Essentially, you shoot some crappy, low-rez video of a still scene. You then reshoot the same scene with a digital camera (with higher resolution). Software can automagically combine these images to upconvert the video AND fix problems in the image— all while compensating for 3D space."Unfurl
Notes"“You don’t actually have to use a computer to understand how it shapes the country,” said Mark Soohoo, a McCain aide for online matters, at a conference on politics and technology. “You actually do,” interrupted Tracy Russo, a former blogger for John Edwards."Unfurl
Notes"Douglas Engelbart's whirling vision of the future; it was the first public use of a mouse, as well as examples of cutting, copying, pasting, teleconferencing, video conferencing, email, and... hypertext. It's just too damn much for 1968!"Unfurl
Notes"Technology has brought us back to magickal thinking because magickal thinking has working maps of the empherial and invisible human experience that are just now being made visible to all via leaps in information technology."Unfurl
Notes"Considering that the keyboard is the primary input device for most of the PCs ever made, it's amazing how many times manufacturers have gotten it completely, laughably wrong"Unfurl
Notes"The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inFeedUnfurl
Notes"The Technological Singularity is the hypothesized creation, usually via AI or brain-computer interfaces, of smarter-than-human entities that rapidly accelerate technological progress."FeedUnfurl
Notes"I'm going to ignore the temptation to talk about a whole lot of subjects — global warming, bioengineering, the green revolution, the intellectual property wars — and explain why, sooner or later, everyone in this room is going to end up in Wikipedia.FeedUnfurl
Notes"I hope that is it clear from what I have written that technology evangelism is a whole lot of fun." This does sound like a fun job, though I wonder if I could be happy evangelizing just one technology.Unfurl
Ursula K. Le Guin — Ursula on Writing: A Rant about "Techonolgy"/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24810945/236732_BOTM_Zenith_Space_TV_remote_AKrales_0188.jpg)
The buttons on Zenith’s original ‘clicker’ TV remote were a mechanical marvel - The Verge
How the internet is making us poor – Quartz
Sugar Within Human Bodies Could Power Future Artificial Organs: Scientific American
Cherish The AIR? Just because you can doesn't mean you should
Steampunk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Technological singularity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charlie's Diary: Shaping the future