Bruce Sterling's Blog, page 628

Reykjavik taken over by anarchist punk rocker

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/26/world/europe/26iceland.html

Icelander's Campaign Is a Joke, Until He's Elected

by SALLY McGRANE

Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 6:30 a.m.

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — A polar bear display for the zoo. Free towels at

public swimming pools. A "drug-free Parliament by 2020." Iceland's Best

Party, founded in December by a comedian, Jon Gnarr, to satirize his

country's political system, ran a campaign that was one big joke. Or was it?

Last month, in the depressed aftermath of...

Augmented Reality: augmented computing design fiction

*Not sure I believe in those magic goggles… but doing conventional computer work on plain, featureless surfaces? That's not so much of a stretch.

*Nice soundtrack.

Augmented Computing from fiedorow on Vimeo.

*The ideal thing to design with an Augmented Reality system would be some augmented reality.

Augmented Reality: geeking out on the new Layar API

*I would like you to know that I actually watch stuff like this. So that you don't have to.

"Layar is now taking the API one step further to fulfill this request and many other feature requests. We are adding 5 big features to the API:

* Call REST webservices directly from an object in AR. This allows the user to interact with what they're seeing in AR without the need for a web page obscuring the AR view.

* Flexible refresh rate. This enables an AR experience with frequently moving objects...

Augmented Reality: Lego AR

*Nice one.

Žižek in the garbage

*Y'know what? The guy's kinda growing on me.

*They say the temptations of philosophy steal up on writers if they live long enough.

*Why don't we do anything about global warming? Because of "disavowal."

Adam Greenfield, device critic

*Too many skeuomorphs!

*There must be something to this complaint. I'm using a MacBook right now, and my email glyph is a little paper postage stamp. My cut and paste is metal scissors, and my music glyph is a plastic CD.

http://speedbird.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/what-apple-needs-to-do-now/

(…)

"The worrisome signs that first cropped up in the iPhone 3G Compass app, and clouded the otherwise lovely iPad interaction experience, are here in spades. What's going on here is an unusual, unusually...

The Chinese online 'Water Army'

*Maybe it's a good sign for the rest of us that there are huge gangs of private competitive-intelligence guys screwing each other over in the Chinese private sector. Presumably these guys aren't goldfarming, or combing through some foreigner's zombie hard-disk.

*Wait a minute… have I become I hopelessly cynical now? How could that possibly be a "good sign?"

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/20...

"Posting negative comments on the Web about products and services is...

Disruptive Cellphone Optometry

For Immediate Release

WEDNESDAY, JUN. 23, 2010

Contact: Jen Hirsch, MIT News Office
E: jfhirsch@mit.edu, T: 617-253-1682


Simple, cheap, portable device could provide quick eye tests for the developing world

Cellphone-based eye-test system could help millions (((so, quick, get a restraining order)))

** Download photos and video here: http://www.media.mit.edu/press/netra



CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — There are two standard systems for determining a prescription for eyeglasses.

One is to have the patient...

Augmented Reality: Ambush marketing

*Presumably there are ambush marketing experts who sit around all day scheming to ambush-market people.

http://www.augmentedplanet.com/2010/06/ambush-marketing-in-the-virtual-space/

"I'm still scratching my head over the fact that 2 people were arrested and one person lost their job over an ambush marketing stunt at the World Cup in South Africa last week.

"This is what happened.

"38 women dressed as Danish fans went to the game and then at half time stripped off and revealed orange mini dresses ...

Spime Watch: Interconnecting Smart Objects with IP

*In case you want to create an Internet of Things using actual no-kidding Vinton Cerf-approved Internet protocol.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:  Bob Dodd
r.dodd@elsevier.com
 
 
 
First Comprehensive Book on the IP-based Internet of Things Just Published!
 
"The authors of this book offer a rich and thoughtful exploration of this new Internet canvas on which the 21st Century will unfold. Prediction will be hard; we are all just going to have to live through it to find out what happens!"
- Vinton...