technology

The folks at Blimp TV posted this snarky phony commercial for Vista, Make sure to stick with it to the very end!

• Quiet Please: Architectural Representations of City in Science Fiction Cinema - It is exactly what it says it is, a wonderful collection of science fiction cinematic analysis pertaining to representations of cities.
• This Dilbert Blog post discusses the possibility that economists are immune to cognitive dissonance and explores a particular issue on the Bill Maher show, “Real Time” where economist Bjorn Lumberg spoke about global warming. I too watched that interview but I thought Bjorn Lumberg laid out his case clearly and beautifully. Bill Maher and the panel didn’t come to the same conclusion. Rob Thomas said the interview “…confused the shit out of me” and they all took turns taking pot shots at a guy who had just agreed that global warming was occurring but had a different, non-histrionic approach to prioritizing the issues that the others could not hear.
  

  The primary skill of an economist is identifying all of the explanations for various phenomena. Cognitive dissonance is, at its core, the inability to recognize and accept other explanations. I’m oversimplifying, but you get the point. The more your brain is trained for economics, the less it is susceptible to cognitive dissonance, or so it seems.

• Wired has a great interview with Ridley Scott where they speak about the evolution of Blade Runner and the forthcoming 5-disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition (which is on my Wish List btw!). [Tip to Bookninja]
  

  When you see an explosion that no one could have survived and the person is still running, then it’s bullshit. And that’s frequently why digital effects are not as good. Whereas when you do it physically, you’ve got to be careful — like, really careful. With digital, the painting book is unlimited; the world in, say, Lord of the Rings would not have been nearly as impressive 30 years ago as it is today.

The article is here:

In October, the online retailer Amazon.com will unveil the Kindle, an electronic book reader that has been the subject of industry speculation for a year, according to several people who have tried the device and are familiar with Amazon’s plans. The Kindle will be priced at $400 to $500 and will wirelessly connect to an e-book store on Amazon’s site.

Update: Apparently, this is a hot Amazon story today. Another blogger is reviewing the product before it even comes out.

I love this. Some guy (by the name of lonelysandwich) made a spoof iPhone concept video on how to invoke a non-existent copy and paste function. It’s especially eery as he used a mashup of the iPhone tutorial guy and spliced in his own sound and altered visuals (anyone remember Max Headroom? Yeah, kind of disjointed like that). It looks like a pretty good idea though, and makes good use of multi-touch and screen real estate. Precise selection of a block of text looks like it would take some getting used to.

iPhone Copy and Paste from lonelysandwich and Vimeo.

One thing I really appreciate about Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google - he seems to have an ability to slow down his delivery, pick his words very precisely, and make it applicable to the environment he is operating in, even when the question is one he hasn’t heard before. I think his take on Web 2.0 and 3.0 is illuminating, although I wouldn’t refer to Web 2.0 being just about Ajax.

If you don’t know who Will Wright is, you should. He’s one of the most visionary game developers alive today. Here he previews his newest game, “Spore,” wherein players develop life forms from single-cell, all the way to complex human beings who conquer the galaxies. Will speaks a lot about developing games as if they’re educational toys, ways of understanding both time and space, as well as the complex systems governing the world.

Photo from the New York Times Article

Adobe has placed an engaging interactive wall advertisement for their Creative Suite 3 in New York’s Union Square. The ad wall is 7 feet tall, 15 feet long, and tracks human movement, animating a sequence of visual effects based on where the passerby happens to be located. You can see a photo and read more about the ad on the TED Blog here. You can also view a video of people interacting with the display on Gizmodo’s AdWatch here.

While the movement recognition appears like it could take a bit more work, what this ad points to is either amazing or downright chilling.

How long will it be before ads are able to recognize biometric information in the targeting of their ads? At one personalization extreme, you get something like the “Minority Report,” where you are individually recognized and marketed to. “Hello, Eric Franklin. Have you thought about using the Adobe Creative Suite as a means of designing your monthly newsletter?”

There are a whole host of in-between options, however, that privacy advocates may not be able to fend off as directly as the full-on personalization (which I expect a significant number of people will resist). What if an ad could merely answer the question of whether it is targeting a male or female? I have to assume that that could be done with a some degree of accuracy based on facial structure, build, etc. What if an ad could target your demographic by looking at social cues such as clothing and jewelry? Is the only way to market more effectively to delve further and further into stereotyping (er, I mean “demographics”)?