#“IntoNow Looks Great - Pity it’s by Yahoo”
Very cool. Like Shazam for TV shows.
How long do we give this one? 12 months before they cancel it? The Bungee VP has probably been moved to something else already.
Bungee VP: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/b2B0IbbDUKnuyNgHCrvSVQM8BGZCru3fr1BX8W3...
#“The Festo Flying Mechanical Bird at TED. Jaw Dropping.”
This is one of the most amazing things I think I’ve ever seen. These guys are based in Esslingen, outside Stuttgart, where I worked for the summer of 1988 in the kitchen of an old folk’s home. The company description reminded me of one that my college buddy Oisín worked in over the same summer. It turns out that Festo bought that company! Small world, eh?
Every Engineer cell in my body is excited by this.
#“Announcing NAMA Walking Tours”
#“The Coolest Thing that OK Go Has Ever Done - Which is Really Saying Something”
#“Some Actually Useful Things You Can Do Tomorrow”
#“Nintendo’s Penny Pinching Bites Them In The Ass”
Nintendo has made a lot of money out of us over the years. All of our kids have been DS and Wii fanatics.
Sadly I knew the 3DS would be a flop when it was the first product they announced where the same kids showed zero interest. Some vague recognition that 3D might be cool but that's it.
Nintendo needed to build a competitor to cheap Android phones and iPod Touches, not a competitor to itself.
Despite our love of the DS, one thing has always driven me nuts, the goddammed hinges. They break constantly. Most of the DSes in this house are on their second case, with some even on a fourth!
Now I read that sales of the 3DS have been halted. It is believed that the crappy rubber bumps on the screen aren't big enough and the two halves of the device are scraping off each other when closed.
This made me go look for an image of the inside of the 3DS and yep, as you can see above, it has the same shitty cheap plastic guaranteed-to-break hinges they have had since the original DS.
An extra < $1 on the BOM to brace the hinges with metal would have sorted this out.
We won't be buying one.
#“The Joy of Fix \u0096 Sugru in the Movies”
Our friends at Do the Green Thing, working with animators Claire Lever and Steven Boot have made this awesome little movie starring sugru to inspire more people to get fixing and repairing.
Is it just us or does it feel a little bit magic?
More please.
Also an absolute pleasure to finally meet Jane on Sunday and fix some stuff with James down at Kinsale Arts Week.
#“Why I’m not using Google+ Very Much (Yeah, Yawwwnnnnnnn)”
I know all the G+ posts are getting boring. But this is more about my (non-)usage of it than “what Google should do, according to a nobody blogger”
Here is a screenshot from a few minutes ago of Google+. I can see 3 posts above the fold.
And here is a screenshot of Tweetdeck from the same time. I can see 35 posts above the fold.
And that’s why I’m on Twitter 99% of the time.
Maybe others like long threaded conversations like this ;-)
But 4 years of Twitter have made me love its brevity even more each day.
It’s the Anti-Windbag.
#“Put this on your phone NOW! - Organ Donor ECard”
Currently in Ireland 650 people are awaiting transplantation. This will only happen if suitable organ donors are found for them. Transplantation is entirely reliant on the publics willingness to donate organs.
Your next-of-kin are more likely to carry out your wish to donate your organs after your death, if they have had a conversation with you, or they can see evidence of your wish somewhere.
The traditional organ donor card is one such tool that conveys this message to them.
This organ donor E-Card is another, maybe more convenient method, for you to convey the message to your family and the emergency services. As part of the App we will send a free sms text message to your next-of-kin to start the conversation rolling.
When a National Organ Donor Registry (a central database) is established we will ask you to submit the details in your App so you can be included on the Registry.
Please keep this App symbol on the front page of your phone. The emergency services will be trained to look for it to identify you.
Thanks to Michel Walsh for pointing this out on Google+ yesterday.
https://plus.google.com/110244722216375421004/posts/hWdFGxE1ANH
I am strongly of the opinion that organ donation should become an opt-out process, not opt-in.
But in the meantime, I'll have this on my phone along with a traditional card in my wallet.
#“Quick Call Cost Comparison of Eircom, Skype, Blueface, Google Voice and Rebtel”
We run all of our business phone comms on Blueface (Irish number), Skype (UK number) and Google Voice (US Number). I was doing some checking on dial-out pricing on those services and others over the weekend and collected this initial pricing comparison. Thought it might be useful. Note that these are all Pay As You Go prices, except Eircom which is the home Talktime Chatter package. Most of them offer big discounts if you pay a monthly sub.
