This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on August 11, 2010). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.
Sometime between August 3rd and August 11th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!
- Massive Censorship of Digg Uncovered: "A group of influential conservative members of the behemoth social media site Digg.com have just been caught red-handed in a widespread campaign of censorship, having multiple accounts, upvote padding, and deliberately trying to ban progressives. An undercover investigation has exposed this effort, which has been in action for more than one year."
- New Ball Prototype: "So basically how HTC/Android/Apple make smart phones, we make smart toys. Our first smart toy is a robotic ball that you can move by tilting your phone in the direction you want the ball to roll. We are then leveraging the connectivity and computing power of the phone to create a fully interactive experience for the user. Our first app for the ball is Sumo. I throw my ball on a table, you throws yours on the table and then we can try and sumo each others ball off the table."
- Racer: "Bad english and even worse staring at the camera, but here are some impressions from the demo setup of Racer 0.2…" This is awesome: a physical creation of an arcade racing game (apparently modeled after the 'Wipeout' series, which I loved). The player drives from an arcade racing console, which controls an RC car with a wireless camera driving on a cardboard track; the camera feeds back to the arcade console. Sweet!
- How Star Trek Artists Imagined the iPad… 23 Years Ago: "To understand the thinking that lead to the design of the Star Trek PADD, we spoke to some of the people involved in production of ST:TNG (as well as other Star Trek TV series and films), including Michael Okuda, Denise Okuda, and Doug Drexler. All three were involved in various aspects of production art for Star Trek properties, including graphic design, set design, prop design, visual effects, art direction, and more. We also discussed their impressions of the iPad and how eerily similar it is to their vision of 24th century technology, how science fiction often influences technology, and what they believe is the future of human-machine interaction."
- Clever overhead garage storage hack: Something to keep in mind when we finally get out of apartmentland and into our own house: "Great storage idea from user tluwelyn of survivalist community Alpha Disaster Contingencies. Dimensional lumber is bolted together to make Ts and Ls that, in turn, are bolted to the ceiling joists. Heavy-duty storage totes are then slid in and suspended by their molded-in rims. Looks like there's still plenty of room to park cars underneath."
- F.B.I. Challenges Wikipedia Over Use of Its Seal: "Wikipedia sent back a politely feisty response, stating that the bureau's lawyers had misquoted the law. 'While we appreciate your desire to revise the statute to reflect your expansive vision of it, the fact is that we must work with the actual language of the statute, not the aspirational version' that the F.B.I. had provided."