David Lidsky's Blog, page 4567

Zachery Lieberman on DIY Gadgets, Making Fonts With Cars, and the Holy F**k Moment

Eye-trackers, devices that use small cameras to measure the motion of eyes, are often used to assist the disabled in digitally highlighting and spelling text. The technology is extremely expensive, with costs ranging anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000 for each pair. Yet Zachery Lieberman, the co-creator of OpenFrameworks and an assistant professor at Parsons, developed an eye-tracker for only $50.

Speaking at our recent Most Creative People event, Lieberman (featured as #36 on our list) told...

Plausible Rumor: Refreshed iPod Touch and Skinnier, Lighter MacBook Air En Route

The MacBook Air could soon get a radical makeover with new tech thinking that'll spread throughout the Mac lineup. It's happened before, and the latest set of rumors are plausible. 

The latest comes from Digitimes, a site that seems to have several sources inside Apple's Asian manufacturer base who from time to time leak it accurate information. It notes that both a new MacBook Air and next-gen iPod Touch are due to arrive in the "second half" of this year, which we can imagine is in the...

Amazon's Former Chief Scientist on Influence, Twitter's Fake Audience, and iPad Sex Appeal

Andreas Weigend knows how to influence people. As the former chief scientist at Amazon, Weigend helped implement a series of ingenious tools to help customers "make better decisions," from recommended purchases and one-click checkouts, to wish lists and book-interest sharing. With our recent launch of the Influence Project, we spoke with Weigend about what "influence" means on the Web. Weigend, a professor at Stanford, approached the subject philosophically, picking apart the complicated...

First Peek: Brammo's Faster, Longer-Riding Electric Empulse Goes 100 Miles

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When we test drove the Brammo Enertia and the Zero S last year, we learned three valuable lessons about electric motorcycles: 1. They don't go very fast (50 - 60 mph was top speed) 2. They can't travel very far on one charge (35 - 50 miles was the distance) and 3. They're terribly expensive!

They're still somewhat expensive, but at least they're getting faster and proving their ethonomical muscle at the same time.

Today, Brammo demonstrated a pre-production prototype of a new electric...

Anti-Tourism Campaign Tars Alberta, Canada, Draws Parallels to Gulf Spill

The next region to lose tourists to the Gulf oil disaster might be... Alberta, Canada--not because of any direct connection to what's going on in the Gulf states, but as the result of an "anti-tourism" campaign from Corporate Ethics International.

The Rethink Alberta advertisements, launched this week, feature billboards in Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland and Denver declaring Alberta to be "the other oil disaster." The signage makes parallels to the Gulf disaster by featuring both an...

China Set to Grant Nokia Digital Mapping Rights, Google Nowhere in Sight

Nokia's is on track to get an official license to offer online digital map services in China, according to some reports. It would become the first foreign company to win the right. Will this give Ovi maps a new lease on life? It just might--since Google won't be competing. 

China's been dropping the ban-hammer on many online operations this year, in an attempt to control how the Web influences its culture and government control over the society. And back in May the government placed an...

Facebook, British Government Fall Out Over Fan Page for Murderer

Last week, we were amused by a pally face-to-face webcam chat between the British Prime Minister and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. But this week the two have probably fallen out over a Facebook Fan group for a murderer. 

British PM David Cameron was enthusiastic when he spoke with Zuckerberg about the opportunities offered by social networking--and Facebook in particular--as a tool for letting the British people communicate upwards into the government in ways that have never been possible...

Some Job Advice for Twitter CEO Ev Williams

Twitter, the darling of social networks, finally announced plans this month to make money on its 130 million (and growing) users. With the vision mapped, it's now about execution. That humdrum blocking and tackling required to grow a small enterprise to big boy proportions.
It's about creating processes. It's about building infrastructure. It's about hitting milestones. And it's not what CEO and co-founder Evan Williams is used to.

Williams, 38, likes to start companies. Born on a...

iFive: BP's On-Off Woes, CIA's $5 Million to Amiri, i-dosing, Twitter's Next moves , Old Spice Throws in Towel

While you were sleeping, innovation was, apparently, announcing its engagement to more innovation. All this took place without Mom finding out, which surely means a job at Apple can't be far behind, such are the secrecy levels of Bristol Palin and Levi Spresley, or whatever his name is.

1. Following a postponement due to safety fears, BP has begun re-testing the oil cap. Or not. In fact, it's hard to tell whether it's stop or go in the Gulf at the moment, but it sounds like an oil leak in the...

Twitter Offers First @earlybird Exclusive Deal

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The third phase of Twitter's moneymaking schemes launched this week, with the introduction of @earlybird in addition to Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends. @earlybird is a Twitter account in which advertisers can offer deals exclusive to Twitter.

The very first @earlybird special, so to speak, is a buy-one-get-one deal on a film called The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which presumably needs all the deals it can get because it is not Inception. (Seriously, is anybody else just getting more excited...