January 2013
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This site and content are moving.
All former content on this site has been moved here and all futre posts on these topics will be posted on Tumblr here. I just needed to consolidate and simplify some things.
December 2012
15 posts
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How to get started with the Raspberry Pi →
I’m so excited about the Raspberry Pi. This will be one of my 2013 projects. That and a 3D printer.
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cxthecloud asked: Do you use any type of cloud storage? If so, what kind, and why?
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Predicting the Future Is Easier Than It Looks →
If you have the right data that is…
Forecasting models need reliable measures of “things that are usefully predictive,” Ulfelder notes. Well, sure. Does this mean that reliability is at issue? Or that we are using data that are not “usefully” predictive? This is a curious claim, especially in light of the controversial nature of polls.
My recommendation is to...
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Work as a Service - Is There a People Cloud? →
Yes. Yes there is and I’ve written about it a lot over the last few years. It’s one of my big 5 year trends.
US refuses to give up the internet to the UN →
Big surprise, countries like Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Sudan, don’t think the US should control the Internet. And big surprise, we don’t think we should give it up to them. What gets me is they think that just because we built it and have enabled it to grow into what it is, over the last 24 years, that doesn’t give us the right to continue to manage it. Welcome...
Arcfinity: NEXT FROM ARC: Forever alone drone →
arcfinity:
Simon Ings writes:
Before we knuckle down and write some proper promo copy for our next Arc, Forever alone drone, I thought it might be fun to give you the back-room story about how this edition came about.
Due out next week, Forever alone drone emerged out of a couple of…
This is out now. Go get it.
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3D Printed "biobot" [video] →
This. Is. Crazy.
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Chinese company prepares robots for US invasion →
Yes the blog title was a bit dramatic, but anyone that thinks that Apple’s announcement about making Macs in the US and visions this brought about the “repatriation” of American manufacturing is going to create a lot of jobs is fooling themselves. But of course, how many repetitive factory jobs do we really want?
Foxconn, for its part, insists that automation would only help...
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Europe's first biohacking network →
I’m continuously fascinated, excited and terrified by the future.
On 1 December people descended upon Paris’s Musée des Arts et Métiers for a meeting to kick-off a new European science network. But with participants that included biologists, artists, sociologists, IT consultants and even a beekeeper, this wasn’t a typical science conference. This was the launch of DIY Bio...
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Twine is like IFTTT for the physical world.
I love what Twine is doing. Not only is the design so simple and amazing, but it’s the start of real consumer connectivity to the “Internet of Things” (we really need to come up with a better name).
Twine - Listen to your world, talk to the Internet from Supermechanical on Vimeo.
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What Can Enterprise 3D Printer Manufacturers Learn... →
I’ll be the first to admit that I know absolutely nothing about either of these two companies, other than the fact that they make large 3D printers. But I do know a thing or two about large enterprise tech companies (having worked at HP on the Enterprise team and with Microsoft as a client for many years*) and mergers like this, in the face of disruptive low end competitors, is kind of a...
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November 2012
32 posts
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The future of parenting: Dad Builds Quadcopter To... →
I can see parks filled with kids being followed by drones while the nanies sit and gab on the side and parents can pull up the video feed from work of their kids playing.
We do worry about this kid’s overall safety, though mostly on a small scale — frankly, having a homemade helicopter that dad built in the garage follow your kid to the bus stop every day sounds like about the best way we’ve...
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Where are the fashion brands in wearable... →
This is an interesting article not only because it brought my attention to a new “smart glasses” player, Vuzix, but because of the perspective the author writes in.
If either of these products catch on, it looks like we’re destined to a future with droid parts on our faces, as you can see above in Vizux’s version and to the right with Google’s Project Glass...
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Robots Don't Kill People. People Kill People....
One of the arguments made in favor of self-driving cars is that they can react more quickly and accurately than humans. But what about robots used in war? Sure it’s one thing to have drones that strike a location based on human input (not saying that’s good or bad, it’s just one thing) but what about drones that could determine their own targets and execute without human...
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A Carbon-Fiber Electrode for a Better Connection... →
File under WOW! This is one for my brother, TJ Anderson, the Material Science Engineer.
Connecting a human brain to a computer is as much a materials science problem as a biology one. What kind of interface is delicate enough not to damage nerve tissue, but resilient enough to last decades?
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The new microthread electrode, designed to pick up signals from a single neuron as it fires, is...
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Personal Connected Devices and Frictionless... →
The title of this article is very misleading but it does bring up a new twist on the same conundrum we’ve been struggling with around social media and social sharing.
Connected devices are set up towards “frictionless sharing.” Meaning once you set it up, it just spews data to whoever you’ve set it up to share with. This won’t be a regular or typical problem for...
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Making Electronics More Human. →
Something struck me about this article on e-skin. I’ve been fascinated with the work being done around prosthetics because the scifi geek in me thinks this puts the future of enhanced cyborgs, closer to reality.
But there’s another part of this. It’s not just about cyborgs or even just creating better prosthetics (which is cause enough in itself). It’s about making our...
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A Robotic, Prosthetic Hand That Actually Works. →
This is really cool. I’ve known many people over the years with all kinds of prosthetics (must come from growing up with people who worked on farm machinery) but most prosthetics aren’t much use. Very little at all movement and that’s if you’re lucky enough to get one of those scary looking hook-hands (assuming you have enough left to attach it to). Otherwise you go without...
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Autodesk Embraces the Makers Movement....
Autodesk has done a great job of avoiding the The Innovator’s Dilemma with 3D printing. The traditional story in this situation is that the entrenched player misses the new opportunity or just barely makes some over priced acquisition of an upstart competitor and kind of stays relevant.
Instead we have the makings of a great case study where Autodesk obviously identified a huge shift in...
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To Understand the Impact of 3D Printing We Need...
Much is being made about the Makers Revolution and the ability to put back the means of production in the hands of the people:
When Karl Marx predicted a revolution putting the means of production in the hands of the workers, he probably didn’t imagine it to be fought by an army of DIYers.
But increasingly tinkerers and hobbyists are proving they are more than equal to the corporate...
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Make your own rat-cell robot with a 3D printer! →
My head just exploded. Pardon me while I go print another.
If you take a 3D printer, fill it with hydrogel, add a few cardiac rat cells and a novel design, you’d get this University of Illinois bio-bot, a self-propelled robot that is about a quarter of an inch long and may be the future of engineering.
The uses for a 3D printer are truly astounding. Take for example researchers at the...
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A Taste of Armageddon on Social Media
If anyone had told me five years ago that armies waging war on each other would use Twitter to trash talk, I might not have completely believed them. But it happens. Actually, it happens a lot. Israel and Hamas love to fight it out on Twitter.
You have to admit, that a war waged with drone strikes, rocket launches and the “Iron Dome” all sound pretty sci-fi. Reading the article...
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Crowds + Gamification + Big Data = Things We Never...
I haven’t talked about gamification much lately, a lot of the hype seems to have died down some but I still think it is very powerful and the best way to manage a crowdsourced group of contributors like in this case.
How does a company get the world’s smartest data scientists to moonlight for free? By turning problems into contests
William Cukierski, a PhD candidate in biomechanical...
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Nasa uses interplanetary internet to control Lego... →
Nasa and the European Space Agency have successfully used their experimental interplanetary internet system to control a Lego robot on Earth from the International Space Station.
“The experimental DTN we’ve tested from the space station may one day be used by humans on a spacecraft in orbit around Mars to operate robots on the surface, or from Earth using orbiting satellites as...
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3-D Printing Today is Not What 3-D Printing Will... →
Gary Stix, writes a great counterpoint to the hype over the 3D revolution. But there’s a problem with it and I’m going to sum it up this way:
3D printers don’t make sense in my current view of the world.
See what I did there, with the italics? I completely agree with Mr Stix. In the current reality that we operate under, formed plastic doesn’t make much more than toys....
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The Future of Quantum Computing. Exciting and... →
I dont pretend much about quantum physics (and from what I understand, even Quantum Scientists don’t understand much of it) but I find it very interesting. The fact that we can imagine so much potential for something we barely understand is both fascinating and terrifying.
Classical computers use “bits” of information that can be either 0 or 1. But quantum-information technologies let...
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Your Smartphone Will Read Your Mind? (Or be... →
This is really cool (obviously) and/or really freaky (again obviously, depending on your view of tech). But where I think this really takes off is when you combine the cloud, mobile and sensors everywhere. Imagine a network of computers and sensors that use your phone as the contextual hub. Of course if that contextual hub could read your mind wel…
“We want to deploy a 100%...
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Chris Anderson is Leaving Wired to Focus on 3D... →
This is a pretty big deal. I’ve been watching both of these markets mature. I find it interesting that he’s combining 3D printing and Robotics, two industries which could each be their own area of focus.
This says a lot about the industry.
Man Sentenced to 17 Years in Terror Plot Using... →
This was just using toy planes. Wait until drones become more accesible. Which they will be.
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UW Students Create 3-D printer That Turns Trash... →
Now this is how you recycle. 3D printing is getting better and better:
And they also built a large-scale, inexpensive 3-D printer they nicknamed “Big Red” using a salvaged piece of machinery from the UW’s machine shop, the motor from a drill and a plasma cutter originally intended to make precise cuts in metal. The machine can be fed shredded plastic directly, through a hopper,...
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October 2012
13 posts
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How a Supreme Court ruling may stop you from... →
This is a real problem and this will just be the beginning and it will dovetail into the coming war on 3D printing.
The copyright battle for physical stuff, used or printed will make the music wars of the RIAA look like nothing.
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Personal 3-D Printer Sales Jump 35,000% Since 2007
The money quote:
“To me, this change is similar to the supercomputers of the 1970s that were only affordable to the major corporations, and now we’re in a period analogous to the 1980s, where the personal computer came about; now we have personal printing,” said Jeff Moe, founder of Aleph Objects Inc., a Loveland, Colorado-based maker of the less-expensive machines. “Not only does that mean...
