If you put a contact microphone on a hard surface and then process the sound in realtime, you can turn that surface into a touch screen…or a programmable musical instrument. via Kottke

… Read More → "Touch interfaces…everywhere"

Professor Stephen Hawking needs help with his wheels, and he’s looking for an assistant handy with a spanner, electronics and at fending off the press. The legendary theoretical physicist is advertising for a graduate assistant to offer technical support for his computer-equipped wheelchair, though it promises to be a challenging role: one of the key responsibilities is “maintenance … Read More → "Stephen Hawking needs a wheelchair tech assistant"

The remarkable thing about Distrust That Particular Flavor, William Gibson’s debut essay collection, is that it was so long in coming, collecting two-and-a-half decades’ worth of nonfiction, opinion, travelogue, memoir, media theory, speeches, criticism, and miscellania. Because although Gibson disclaims any title to being an essayist — he says in his introduction that writing nonfiction always felt like cheating on his fiction work — … Read More → "Distrust That Particular Flavor: William Gibson’s long-overdue essay collection"

I am passionate about cars and always have been. As a child, I imagined owning a car that would do whatever I wanted it to. Of course, it could fly as well as drive. But more important, it would do much more than simply getting me from point A to point B. My future car would look out for me, … Read More → "Your connected vehicle is arriving"

Belarus: small. Proud. Kvass-drinking. A long history of dubious human rights and piddling dictatorship. And now, bound to a law that makes it illegal to browse foreign websites. ??????????!

According to the Library of Congress, the new law, which makes SOPA look like a lollipop handout, might make hitting Facebook a little tricky outside of home. Essentially, any “company” or “entrepreneur”—left to be defined broadly—has to use Belarusian internets. via Gizmodo

Read More → "Belarus is now home to the internet’s strangest law"

The mathematician and second world war codebreaker Alan Turing is to be celebrated on a special stamp as an online petition calls for a posthumous pardon to quash his conviction for gross indecency.

The computer pioneer is one of 10 prominent people chosen for the Royal Mail’s Britons of Distinction stamps, to be launched in … Read More → "Codebreaker Alan Turing gets stamp of approval"

I love this idea.

The brother filmmakers at Ramsey Bros. Pictures, John Ramsey and Richard Ramsey, have taken three of their early family home videos and added amusing deadpan DVD style director’s commentaries to each one. via Laughing Squid

See more here

… Read More → "Hilarious director’s commentaries added to family home videos"

What does it really feel like to be 75 years old? A group of researchers in MIT’s Agelab have created a suit to help people understand what it might be like to navigate the world as a senior citizen.

Called AGNES (Age Gain Now Empathy System), the suit replicates what it might be like to be in a 75-year-old body, replicating dexterity, flexibility, motor, and visual … Read More → "MIT develops a suit that makes you feel like you’re 75 years old"

At 3 PM EST, the first of the two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) probes completed its main engine burn and entered orbit 56 miles over the surface of our moon. The first probe, creatively named GRAIL-A, will not have long to wait for its twin GRAIL-B, which will enter orbit today around 3 PM EST. Once the two probes are in place over the moon, scientists will have a unique science platform which will … Read More → "First GRAIL probe enters lunar orbit, twin probe arrives today"