Pappmaskin.no

(Via Ted.com)

See also: 5 creepy ways video games are trying to get you addicted

And:

Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world

So far, World of Warcraft players have spent 5.93 million years solving problems in the game. . Jane McGonigal

“We’re witnessing what amounts to no less than a mass-exodus to virtual worlds and online game environments” – economist Edward Castronova

Wired: Reality Is Broken. Game Designers Must Fix It

Human computation, a talk by Luis von Ahn

Over 9 billion human hours of solitaire was played in 2003.

Luis von Ahn talks about how to “constructively channel human brainpower using computer games. For example, the ESP Game, described in this talk, is an enjoyable online game — many people play over 40 hours a week — and when people play, they help label images on the Web with descriptive keywords.” Not sure that is very useful or constructive, or fun, but perhaps some other real world game can be made using the same mechanisms.

Not the most advanced mod but I liked how our “brave” cat reacted when I tested a meowing Darth Vader on him.

Conclusion: Darth Vader still has the power of the dark side! :)

Cat Communication

I later learned that only kittens meow. Adult cats only meow to communicate their needs to humans, they won’t meow when communicating with each other. Instead the rely on body language, purring and growling. So when your cat meows at you, it is basically playing kitten with you.

Toy Mashup

This is a first in a series of Mini-DIYs where I will try mashing up parts from different thrift store toys.

Posted via web from mskogly’s preposterous

19 inspirational images and videos to tickly your brain like they did mine.

#1. About a Man, a Mouse, a Gun, a Moustache, Some Gold Chains, a Pair of Glasses, and a Polkadot Bow…

More after the break
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Voddler is an eagerly awaited video-on-demand service with a business model quite like the popular Spotify. Here are some screenshots and gathered facts to tie you over until the real thing is released.

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Professor David Wessel is the director of the Center for New Music and Technologies at UC Berkeley.

He shows his multi-touch interface that uses computer technologies that allow him to experiment with fine controls to “caress” the instrument, using force sensitive touch pads from Interlink.

Now, first imagine what would have happened if princess Leia hadn’t been freed from Jabba the Hut. Then watch this video (warning, not necessarily office safe):

GiGi LaFemme performs “Star Wars” at Starshine Burlesque.

economics marketing psychology philosophy consumerism

Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central tenet of western societies: freedom of choice. In Schwartz’s estimation, choice has made us not freer but more paralyzed, not happier but more dissatisfied.

I really enjoyed this talk by Tim O’Reilly at Web 2.0 Expo in New York, it has that great mix of tech and social responsibility that is so important to achieve. I’m currently a bit sick and tired of the myriad of new social media websites that pop up all the time, all doing basicly the same things, trying to connect people that are already connected up to their eyeballs. But connected to what, and to whom?

Take Dopplr. I registered there as I do on almost all new sites, just to check it out, and hooked up with the two other people I could find in my contacts, and after that I haven’t checked in. Why should I? I have no urgent need to know where ANYONE is. As a matter of fact, I would preffer if people STOPPED travelling, and instead stayed home and planted some apple trees. And I know that they added some CO2 calculator thingy to show how much you have killed the planet, but everyone knows that this is just an attempt to be politically correct, while the underlying business idea is to get people to travel more. And perhaps buying a clean conscience while you’re at it.

So it is refreshing when Tim O’Reilly talks about focusing on making websites that does “something that matters”, like Witness or Prosper.com and many others, who are trying to use the web to connect people over something important.

I’ve noticed that I have started to be more conservative about what kind of sites I spend time on or join, not because I no longer like procrastinating, but because there is so little there to feed the soul.

I keep ending up on a few favorite sites, like TED and This American Life (or at least downloading their podcasts). TED because it gives me the whole experience of the TED conference without polluting the crap out of the earth flying there, and This American Life just for making me smile and cry and feeling human. And I’m consuming gigabytes of information on gardening!

And I keep wondering what this means. Is it just me, or is there perhaps a more general feeling of “internet fatigue” going on, or “internet flu”?

David Byrne & Brian Eno publishes their latest collaboration online. You can listen to the entire album and even embed it in your own site for free. The album “Everything that happens will happen today” is only sold though their website http://www.everythingthathappens.com/ and is available in many different digital and physical formats.

I guess David Byrne is following his own preachings, here is the blurb from a panel he participated in last year at SXSW, titled Record Companies: Who Needs Them?:

Rock renaissance man and Talking Head David Byrne explores the state of the music business from an artist’s perspective. With the rapid fall of recording costs and distribution costs, the economics of the music industry have tilted in the favor of the artist. What kinds of business models make the most sense for the artist, what are their ramifications, and most importantly, what should artists be aiming for in the long run?

David Byrne has popped up all over the place lately, but I especially liked his wonderful Playing the building-project, which you can see more from in the boing boing tv video embedded below: