i always say that americans tend to place more value on big-giant-safety-ensuring-machines than on the human aspect of security, and once again that holds true. so for all of you out there here is social engineering defense 101:

1. if you are a celebrity


2. if you flaunt your sidekick like you flaunt your...


3. if everyone knows the name of your dog because you flaunt her like you flaunt your...

it's just that simple. most of the news coverage about this has been along the lines of "hackers are everywhere! beware!" but, the o'reilly network tells it like it is. instead of attacking the technology, maybe we need to start taking a look at the users. PEBKAC!

[thanks engadget]

roxy said on 03:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

steven holl's new water treatment plant in new haven, ct is a standout piece of architecture. instead of being purely functional, it is also beautiful, evoking the tumbling, rushing power of water.

It was all that talk of pipes, he said, that helped him settle on a building whose form "articulates what is happening inside." Not merely a metaphor, the building is also a sculpture that recalls the work of Richard Serra and Anish Kapoor.

In Connecticut, Mr. Holl said that his interventions - as well as those of the landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh - may have added two or three million dollars to the cost of the $49 million plant. At first, the water company's Representative Policy Board, which approves major expenditures, was reluctant to allocate the money. But then Professor Plattus of Yale made a presentation to the board on the value of design.

At a crucial moment, Ms. Sweet said, Mr. Plattus projected a photo of a banal concrete overpass on Route 95 alongside an image of one of the W.P.A.-era overpasses on the Merritt Parkway. The board "saw the difference immediately," Ms. Sweet recalled.

[thanks new york times]

roxy said on 02:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

two dudes [lads, chaps, blokes] from england have decided to go on a quest to break as many of the silly american state laws that they can. it is both a virtue and a vice that the states have the power to create their own laws [google away for further information]. overall i think it's a virtue, but in the cases that it's not it is either scary or downright hilarious. here we have a clear case of the latter. from the guardian:

As US coast-to-coast crimewaves go, it is not in the league of Bonnie and Clyde. It lacks both violence and avarice and is further hindered by an overabundance of pre-publicity.
...
"Driving round the town square 100 times in Oxford, Mississippi, is going to take for ever because there are no roundabouts," he said. "And I'm rubbish at walking on my hands so crossing the street in Hartford, Connecticut, while walking on them is going to be very difficult."

[thanks boing boing]

roxy said on 02:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

lego and ipod? it's just all too much! from podbrix.

[thanks core77]

roxy said on 02:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

satako moroi's sound flakes recently caught my eye. a pretty toy that inpsires reflection and playfulness. also, it's pretty colored :]

Sound Flakes is interactive art for all ages. When faucets "Do, Re, Mi" are turned, sound drips into the water pool, where it floats as "flakes" of sound. Users can stir them or scoop them up with a ladle.

[thanks we make money not art]

roxy said on 02:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

i saw this project at ubicomp 2004, but we make money not art recently blogged it so i thought i might as well throw in my 2 cents. the carrousel, designed by philip ross, is a tangible interface that allows one to change the ambience of the room [specfically the lighting, music, and video projection]. something about getting to play with the interface myself really sold me on it. it's very natural feeling, a smooth combination of wood, metal and technology. also, philip really managed to nail the intuitiveness of use. the fluidity of "sculpting" the atmosphere really comes across. bravo.

[thanks we make money not art]

roxy said on 01:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

i'm sorry. what? cause you didn't just invent and market this did you? gizmodo sums it up nicely:

From Cultured Containers, this BananaBunker fruit tote serves at least one purpose: To protect your banana from asploding in your backpack or briefcase. Other uses might include an ice breaker for a picnic first date, or alternatively, an easy way to end a date that isn't going well at all. Their tagline "pamper your Banana with the BananaBunker®" pretty much says it all. Purchase one for just $5.00 or 5 for $20. Backordered right now, which is no surprise to us.

[thanks gizmodo]

roxy said on 01:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

i love this sort of visceral design that puts you on edge. from viceversa.

[thanks gizmodo]

roxy said on 04:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

it is so cool to take you love of dungeons & dragons and merge it with your stick shift. it really is.

[thanks gizmodo]

roxy said on 03:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

okay, probably not -only- in the czech republic. but who else could do it so well? a bunch of students from a technical secondary school there compiled their [apparently] traditional tableau of graduation photos but added a special twist. posing naked with bits of hardware tastefully covering there, well... bits. you can check the photos out at their original location but since they are getting hammered for bandwidth best to check them out at drunken blog instead. take note that women continue to be woefully underrepresented in the technical fields. girls, take of your knickers and throw on a hard drive ;]

oh these aren't particularly safe for work [depends where you work though eh?].

[thanks drunken blog]

roxy said on 05:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

this is no joke, richard wool [no puns please], a chemical engineering prof at the university of delaware, proposes to use chicken feathers to manufacture circuit boards.

Circuit boards are typically made of an epoxy-fiberglass composite, Wool said, which is then printed with wires and circuits. Wool envisions using soybean oil to replace the epoxy and chicken feathers to replace the fiberglass, creating a healthier composite for the environment.

[thanks we make money not art]

roxy said on 03:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

check out google's new video search. it's gonna kill something alright. hopefully all of those crazy bills that people keep trying to pass. if you can search it with google it must be in the public domain. right? right? ;]

roxy said on 02:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

oh oh the places we will go. now guided by google maps. what a map interface should be. it has the pretty aesthetic of the wizeguides work my old roomate craig did, but with all the manpower and engineering of google. i must note though, that craigs work which integrates the subway system of boston with the surrounding streets still needs to happen for every city in the world. needs to.

another really cool concept is the interactive yellow pages of a9 which allow you to see actual photos of the place you are looking for. you can check out the tanning salon next to my old apartment, which you can "walk down the block" from and see in the photo above.

am i getting nostalgic or what?

roxy said on 01:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

although this is not breaking news, it's news to me. not so white walls is the thesis project of dario buzzini of ivrea. this project differs from the informative art project in that not so white walls provide an interactive display. more like an abstract monitor that is actually a wall; text [think email or sms] as well as photos can be displayed. i wouldn't call this ambient, but we all know i just need to rethink my buzzwords ;]

[thanks we make money not art]

roxy said on 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

check these bad boys out. hugms by mark argo. basically these little devices connect via bluetooth to your phone. when you squeeze them, they light up and send a text message to your friend or loved one saying "hhhhhuuuuuggggg" [number of letters depending on the strength of the squeeze]. if they happen to have their own hugm, it'll light up as well.

a great combo of the awesome properties of sms with fun impulsive desires. and with enough wiggle room to let people to develop their own unique uses.

p.s. none of you can complain about my silicone design aesthetic ever again. just look at those.

[thanks popgadget]

roxy said on 12:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

how do we augment everday objects that are already integral parts of our lives? just like this. not only is the tablecloth beautiful, it opens up new, subtle, ways for us to communicate with each other. mindlessly dumping more computation into our world isn't the answer, and sometimes [often] lack of technology is just as important as its prescence. however, designs like this seem to be right on target to me. as it is put by rachel wingfield on loop.ph:

The table cloth draws attention to the flow of objects over a surface in the home by signalling how long things have been left upon it. If an object is left on the table for a while, a glowing halo forms beneath it that grows slowly over time, until the object is moved. This object raises issues about the desirability of using technology to emphasise existing behaviour.

[thanks core77]

roxy said on 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

the forward [or rather, current] thinking simpsons just aired an episode about gay marriage. hilarious and spot on, the episode chronicles springfield's decision to support gay marriage purely for the purpose of generating tourism. like all good satire, nothing is sacred on the simpsons. but still as the new york times reports, not everyone can accept gay marriage even when it's the punchline to a joke.

L. Brent Bozell III, president of the Parents Television Council, criticized "The Simpsons" for addressing the issue of gay marriage, though he cautioned that he had not seen the episode. A parental advisory preceded the broadcast.

"At a time when the public mood is overwhelmingly against gay marriage, any show that promotes gay marriage is deliberately bucking the public mood," he said.

"I'd rather them not do it at all," he added. "You've got a show watched by millions of children. Do children need to have gay marriage thrust in their faces as an issue? Why can't we just entertain them?"

p.s. there's a url flashed across the screen during a fake commercial in the show: www.springfieldisforloversofgaymarriage.com. it's actually real. hilarious.

roxy said on 03:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

i should post a link to larry summers' apology which just goes to show that crow is still on the harvard menu. ;]

roxy said on 12:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

how did i miss out on these naughty frescos in pompeii? apparently they've been on view since 2000, but i just saw a story about it today which is summed up nicely as:

This Der Spiegel story about erotic frescoes from Pompeii reveals that prior to being buried in heaps of ash, Pompeiians were totally whoring it up.

[thanks boing boing]

roxy said on 03:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

all you leet haxxors back home take note: e-walking into south station's wireless network is easy as pie. think computer has a great little white paper on just how wide open the network of the largest transportation hub in boston is. not only can you access the network itself, but you can get yourself onto 25+ other networks around the city without paying a dime! act now, because i'm sure this is a limited time offer ;]

[thanks /.]

roxy said on 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

vlad asked me to submit something to his chi 2005 workshop ubisoc on social implications of ubiquitous computing. i did just that, and my paper was accepted. i will be off to portland then at the beginning of april along with pretty much everyone else from my department. we will bring the funk.

roxy said on 12:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

so i was in trader joe's a few days ago buying myself some food and a bottle of wine. of course i got carded, and i hand over my connecticut driver's license to the guy behind the register. he was nice, american [or rather, californian], about my age. he takes alook at it and says, "hmm, connecticut. massachusetts is in connecticut right? my parents are thinking of moving there."

the last time i checked, we had 50 non-intersecting states. i leave it as an exercise to the reader to imagine how i fielded that one.

roxy said on 12:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)