David Lidsky's Blog, page 3338
February 10, 2014
This Electric Scooter Folds Up So Tiny, You Can Take It Anywhere
The URB-E scooter is so compact, it can go anywhere--including on a train, bus, or rail. The idea is to eliminate one of the major excuses for city dwellers who don't use public transit. Now you can scoot right to the bus stop.
Last year, while teaching a class on mobility at the Art Center College of Design, Grant Delgatty gave his students the challenge of solving the "last mile" problem in transportation: How could they make it easier for commuters to get from their homes to the subway or the bus, so public transit finally seemed as convenient as driving?
From MIT, An Interactive Book That Makes You Feel Characters' Pain
Sensory Fiction, designed by students at MIT, lets you feel what's happening to characters in a book.
Have you ever felt your pulse quicken when you read a book, or your skin go clammy during a horror story? A new student project out of MIT wants to deepen those sensations. They have created a wearable book that uses inexpensive technology and neuroscientific hacking to create a sort of cyberpunk Neverending Story that blurs the line between the bodies of a reader and protagonist.
February 7, 2014
What Every Company Can Learn From The "Pre-order" Kickstarter Model
One seasoned tech insider is determined to give smaller companies a competitive edge by redefining "the product launch."
Big-name brands usually knock the small fish right out of the water when it comes to the product launch. After watching thousands of product launches, Donald Brewer noticed that if companies could assess their products contextually within the marketplace and gauge consumer desire early on, they would have more of a fighting chance to survive in the vast sea of e-commerce.
That Was Fast: LinkedIn Shutters Intro App Less Than Four Months After Launch
LinkedIn Intro had been criticized as posing a security risk for sending and receiving emails through a proxy server. But the social company said the move was part of cleaning house.
Less than four months after debuting LinkedIn Intro, the social network announced Friday that it was shutting down the mobile product March 7. Acting as a proxy for users' emails, Intro integrated with Apple's Mail app to surface contextual information of contacts from their LinkedIn profiles. Soon after its launch, it was criticized as posing a security risk, which the Mountain View, Calif. company swiftly dismissed.
California Could Require Mobile Devices To Have "Kill Switches"
The state could be the first in the nation to mandate a way for consumers to disable stolen or lost smartphones.
California legislators are expected to outline a proposal requiring mobile devices sold in the state to come equipped with "kill switches" that would disable them if stolen or lost, beginning Jan. 1, 2015.
Seven Ways Technology Is Transforming Your Bike Commute
The newest in navigation, bolt-on accessories, protective gear, lights, and other goodies for your two-wheeled commute.
With each passing auto show, we keep hearing about how cars are the new smartphones. Sure, cars have been becoming more and more like our computers for years and pretty soon they'll even drive themselves. But what about the car's leaner and greener cousin, the bicycle?
This Twitter Account Will Translate Your Tweets During The Olympics--For Free
To celebrate the Sochi Games, One Hour Translation (@OHT) will use its professional translators to tackle whatever you tweet at it.
If history is any indication, plenty of companies will be rolling out special promotions on Twitter to coincide with the 2014 Winter Olympics. But I can't imagine many of them being as useful as the special promotion being rolled out by One Hour Translation, which plans to offer near-instantaneous translation services over Twitter--for free.
This Guy Wants To Turn Part Of The Old Bay Bridge Into A House
When the new section of Oakland's Bay Bridge went up, the historic section of the Northern California icon was slated for the scrapyard. David Grieshaber wants to turn it into a building, complete with an Airbnb space for guests.
Last September, a brand new eastern span of the Bay Bridge stretching between Oakland and San Francisco opened to traffic, a multi-billion dollar, earthquake-safe project that arose right next to the old Bay Bridge, a historic piece of infrastructure erected in the 1930s that partially collapsed during a 1989 earthquake. Bay Area resident David Grieshaber, for one, was sad to hear that the structure would be dismantled and sold for scrap. "It's been a part of our Bay Area for the past 78 years, and now it's going to be gone forever," he says.
Marie Antoinette As A Hog-Chewing Harpy And More Freaky Pics From The French Revolution
The newly launched French Revolution Digital Archive has over 14,000 images available to the public. Get ready for a truly bizarre ride.
Our high school history classes taught us that during the French Revolution, oppressed citizens stormed the Bastille, marched on Versailles, and were slaughtered by the thousands at the guillotine during the Reign of Terror. But did your history teacher ever tell you about the farting angels, glowing illuminati triangles, monstrous harpies, and other truly bizarre images that filled Revolution-inspired art?
Inside The Mind Of Art Spiegelman, The Creator Of "Maus"
A new exhibition offers a rare glimpse into the creative process behind this masterful comic artist.
In 1972, artist Art Spiegelman spent four days interviewing his father, Vladek, about his experiences in Nazi-occupied Poland and then at Auschwitz. Over the course of thirteen years, Spiegelman illustrated these recorded interviews and created Maus, which in 1991 would become the first-ever graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize.
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