Author Archives: DigiDave

Found City is one of a growing number of Folksonomies. But don’t tell them that, they like to say they are in the Folkmapping business. A Folksonomy can be thought of, more or less, as a new brand of site that focuses on tagging. Graffiti is back, except now it has nothing to do with spray paint and everything to do with how we organize (tag) our digital information. Flickr is one of the most popular Folksonomies.

With Found City (currently only available in Manhattan), you can take a picture of an interesting city object, like an abandoned building, and tag the photo registering it at Found City. The result is a Craiglist, Mapquest montage that lets you see where other people have come across, tagged and registered other abandoned buildings.

This site is super-beta, but it could be kinda cool once it takes off. I hope they start a version of it in SF. I would like to find out where the rest of the gnarly Civic Center trees are planted.

The Xbox, that little bundle of wires and joy, is at it again. First off, we should note that Showtime, the cable movie giant second only to HBO, is going to be giving away Xbox games as part of a promotion to new subscribers. But contest announcements aside, lets get down to the real news.

Bill Gates is a big talker lately. Just the other day he went on record saying cars should eventually get smart enough to prevent themselves from crashing. He said it standing next to Henry Ford Jr. no less. So today, it’s no surprise that the king of all dorks mentioned some big plans for the next Xbox design.

It will be an entertainmnet hub akin to a PC according to Gates. Microsoft really wants to focus on the multi role playing games that let you network up while you play. The new Xbox might have a very Windows like interface that lets you play games, listen to music and chat with other gamers in a manner that could only be called PC-like. Put some Microsoft Word document capability there and you might have the next big college campus computer.

Snowboarding, the ancient art of gliding over the snow on a large piece of wood, has met the 21st century. Now you can equip your snowboarding jacket with bluetooth mp3 players, headphones, even cell phones.

Rebecca Anema has taken it one step further.

She has equipped several jackets with social GPS devices, so you can keep track of your friends the whole time you are on the mountain. Let’s face it, you always want to go to snowboarding with your friends, but it’s inevitable that you all end up separated. I know I get left behind because I straight suck at snowboarding. But this way my friends can ditch me guilt free, cause they will know where I am the whole time.

I have a story up today at Wired on what I can only call Blogger drama. Basically one guy, Nick Lewis, is accusing CNN of conducting a viral marketing attack on all spam posts about CNN, to make sure criticism of the network doesn’t get ranked high on Google searches. Quite a claim indeed.

It’s tough to report on blogger drama, because you can’t give too much credence to claims made my individuals with no real evidence, especially when the claim is against one of the oldest and trusted news networks in the nation.

But what I think this story goes to show is that everyone really does have a voice. You can blog your accusations and if there is enough speculation to raise an eyebrow, you’ll get instant notification.

Podcasts are the thing. So why not take an FM radio station and just make it pure Podcasts, that way you don’t need to pay the DJ? I’ll tell you why, cause it wasn’t your idea, it’s already in the making. KYOU Radio is going to launch in San Francisco and will be completely supported by Podcasts.

DJ’s could be out of a job. Then again, somebody has to sit around at the station to make sure it all runs smoothly. I for one applaud the idea, technology makes for an exciting time in music.

Some games never do go out of style. Then again, after a quick revival, they get boring real fast. Atari, the first home video game maker is re-releasing a classic. Forty classics really. The refurbished game console will come with 40 of your favorite early 80’s crappy video games. It’s only $30 and in many ways its worth the nostalgia.

Personally, I want a new original Nintendo. You can still find people with them, but most are very moody, like cranky old retired men. The old blowing in the game cartridge trick doesn’t work like it used to. Please Nintendo, take a lesson from Atari and make some new classic units.

Where would we be without Post-its? I know it isn’t exactly high-tech, but I bet within 10 feet of most PC’s there lies a post-it. And it’s important to remember that sometimes it’s the additions to our technical lifestyle that makes it seem so natural. So, here at LiveDigitally, on your 25th birthday, we salute you Post-it. Thanks for always sticking around when we need you the most.

When I get sick, my roommate tells me to eat raw garlic. She must be a witchdoctor of sorts, cause it works, except that I smell like garlic all night.

But apparently smells can say a lot about your health. At a university in Scotland scientists are building an artificial nose that can diagnose you by smelling your breathe.

The “Spectral Nose” would use advanced chemistry to detect different odors, and then a computer screen would give the patient an all-clear or indicate which disease they could have.

Apparently our breathe says more than just how kissable we are. Scientists in the U.S. have been working on this same project too.

I didn’t believe this when I read it on FutureFeeder, but after tracing it back to the Molecular Media Project and other related sites I have to take it as truth.

Apparently they are using nanotechnology to alter CD’s ever so slightly, changing the sound and giving it more, lets call it richness. Your first thought is: I can grow mold on my CD and do the same thing, right.

Well yes, you can grow mold on your CD (I suggest spilling milk on them), but that would ruin the CD’s. What the Molecular Media Project is doing alters the CD’s at such a small scale the music itself stays in tack, with only slight changes that alter the sound in such a way that you might think you are on drugs. Check out a whole list of MP3’s or images that have been modified at the micro level with fungus spores and other nonmaterial to give them that extra hint of flavor.

Video games aren’t just for kids anymore. They are a serious moneymaker, and they know how to shake it. The gaming industry has pretty much caught up with the box-office and while the two will probably battle for entertainment money the next year or so, I suspect the gaming industry will knock out Hollywood like so many Mike Tyson’s Punch Out battles. Sorry movies, you just aren’t digital enough. This quarter alone the gaming industry’s revenue shot up 23 percent.

Scientists have made the world’s smallest motor. In fact, the motor is so small a few hundred of them could fit in the period at the end of this sentence. This means you won’t want to install it in your humvee, but maybe you’ll fancy it in future nanotechnology that needs to swim around your body killing viruses and such. You can watch the motor run here.

As for the explanation. I never got past high school physics, so I’ll just have to quote a LiveScience article.

The motor works by shuffling atoms between two molten metal droplets in a carbon nanotube.

One droplet is even smaller than the other. When a small electric current is applied to the droplets, atoms slowly eek off the larger droplet and join the smaller one. The small droplet grows – but never gets as big as the other droplet – and eventually bumps into the large droplet. As they touch, the large droplet rapidly sops up the atoms it had previously sloughed off. This quick shift in energy produces a power stroke.

The technique exploits the fact that surface tension — the tendency of atoms or molecules to resist separating — becomes more important at small scales. Surface tension is the same thing that allows some insects to walk on water.

Most people will tell you that technology creates a social distance between people. We are stuck in our digital worlds so much we ignore all the people around us. Well this is perhaps true. But technology also allows people to stay in touch through ways they never could before. F+ R Hugs is a good example. Through a mobile network this shirt receives the input of heart beat, touch and body temperature from a long distanced loved one, sending it back to recreate the sensation of a hug.

How crazy is this? Hugs, from a shirt that is supposed to mimic someone else’s hugs. Sensors in the shirt find the vital spots that are touched in hugs and make it feel as if the person you love is right there, embracing you. How often does technology break the physical boudnary like this? I’d be interested in seeing more examples.