David Lidsky's Blog, page 3370
December 24, 2013
The Top 16 Design Stories Of 2013
Condoms that actually feel good. Cardboard furniture. Micro apartments. No wait--pico apartments. Here is the best we saw in design for social good this year.
Editor's NoteWant more of our best stories of 2013? Read all of our end-of-the-year round-ups, in all of these categories:
• Top Stories Of The Year
• Infographics
• Photography
• Maps
• Buildings
• Design
• Cities
• Food
• Transportation
• Innovative Workplaces
• Bikes
• Collaborative Consumption
• Energy
• Crowdfunding
• Robots
• Environment
• Health
• Education
The Best Advice For Working Smarter From Creative And Daring Minds
We've talked to an interesting cast of characters this past year--from a professional slack liner to a bike messenger turned spinning instructor. Proving that inspiration comes in unexpected places, here are our favorite lessons.
At Fast Company we love eccentric, exciting characters and helping you work smarter.
December 23, 2013
This Photo Booth Only Snaps Pics When You Smooch
Grab the Mistletoe and head into The Thermobooth, where the camera only snaps a photo when you get grabby.
For decades now, the photo booth has been a potent dating wunderkabinet: both the perfect place to steal a kiss, and the best way to capture it. The Thermobooth is a new spin on the photo booth concept that takes it to the next level, only firing off the camera when two people press their lips together or put their arms around one another. If they don't touch, it never takes a photo.
The Top 13 Education Stories Of 2013
What's the best way to teach our kids (or, for that matter, our adults)? Read about the year in MOOCs, coding for kids, and the college dorm of the future.
Editor's NoteWant more of our best stories of 2014? Read all of our end-of-the-year round-ups, in all of these categories:
• Top Stories Of The Year
• Infographics
• Photography
• Maps
• Buildings
• Design
• Cities
• Food
• Transportation
• Innovative Workplaces
• Bikes
• Collaborative Consumption
• Energy
• Crowdfunding
• Robots
• Environment
• Health
• Education
Most Daring Outlaw Hackers of 2013
Spanning a host of political ideologies, motivations, and geographic locations and using a range of tactics, these are the hackers who changed things this year.
Google has released a map of distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) that took place around the world this year, and there were a lot (especially from China) in 2013. Since this has been such a busy year for hackers, we've put together the list below of the most notorious e-criminals of the year. Some got caught up in the law while others continue to evade it; some had political reasons, others just wanted to chase that paper. What unites them is their disregard--for better or worse--of laws and regulations and their unimpeachable skills at getting computers to bend to their will.
Haute Fashion Developed From NASA Photographs
What happens when you print Hubble images onto fine silk? We remember that we're all made of star stuff.
"All of the rocky and metallic material we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago in the interior of a red giant star. We are made of star-stuff."
How Privacy Software Improved In 2013 Following The NSA Revelations
Since Edward Snowden's whistleblowing about NSA mass surveillance this summer, there has been a flurry of improvements in privacy software. Here are some of the year's most notable.
Given concerns about NSA mass surveillance, the general public has taken an interest in privacy as never before. In response, developers have worked on beefing up the security of their privacy tools as well as making them more user-friendly. The list below is by no means exhaustive, but it provides a glimpse into some of the most impressive and impactful privacy software of the year. When discussing privacy tools, it's always important to remember that none of these is a magic bullet--but they do provide significant improvements over the technologies we would normally use and that they replace or augment.
This Smart Workout Gear Will Replace Your Trainer
From counting your reps to critiquing your form, these exercise clothes prove that wearable tech is getting smarter.
What happens when electrical engineers join forces with a neuroscientist and a clothing designer? You get wearable tech that sends smartwatches and mood-broadcasting sweaters to the back of the class. Athos is the valedictorian of wearables; it looks just like regular workout wear, but collects and analyzes data about your movement--from heart rate to balance to the number of reps you completed--and uses it to suggest adjustments that will lead to maximum benefits in your exercise regimen.
13 Designers On The Best And Worst Gifts They Ever Received
Stefan Sagmeister, Abbott Miller, Mark Rolston, and more top designers dish on gifts they've loved and gifts that befuddled, plus what they really want for Christmas this year.
When I was about 12, my father bought me a Commodore 64 computer. That machine changed my life.
Can These Toys Teach Kids Empathy?
How a learning exercise for the visually impaired evolved into a new toolkit that could help children unlock compassion.
Empathy--when you inhabit a feeling with someone--is considered one of the most important traits to teach a child. But empathy isn't something you can dial up on demand. It's challenging because, as Dr. Brene Brown points out in her 2010 TED Talk, it requires vulnerability and some work on the part of the empathizer.
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