A couple of recent posts from Hack-A-Day, one’s totally pointless the other damn useful.
Useful first: a link out to Rfidiot.org where Adam has been spreading his knowledge of RFID tagging, reading, setting etc… He also provides some Python scripts to help you do the same.
It’s not the easiest to get your head round, but seems to be a pretty comprehensive guide to plugging into that info. If you are looking for similar open source style info on RFID tags you should also check out www.radioactivehq.org.
And now for the stupid, heating your coffee using a big f**k off laser. Boys with toys eh?
The guys at I-Dat, this time with Kurator, continue to educate and entertain, this time with their Social Hacking event.
A number of international artists invaded the public spaces of Plymouth. These artist included The Institute for Applied Autonomy, Mikro Orchestra Project. Ludic Society and c6. They were also joined by Saul and keynote speaker McKenzie Wark (writer of A Hacker Manifesto, an inspirating read during Uni) for the seminar on Saturday.
Personally, The Institute for Applied Autonomy guys seemed the most interesting of the artists, with both their content and techniques. They seem to be somewhere between activists and tool makers. Terminal Air, which can still be seen at the Plymotuth Art Centre (be quick, ends 31st March), is an ‘installation to document the American CIA’s practice of ‘extraordinary rendition’ flights’. I had no idea what extraordinary rendition flights were, and the reality was scary and enlightening. If you can’t make it down to Plymouth be sure to check out the work’s description at a minimum.
The Ludic Society made street gaming a little darker, by tagging 25 individuals with RFID tags, under their skin! The game allowed them to adjust, tag (well un-tag) and react to the city.
The event was wrapped up with a Mikroparty, with both live and DJ performances from Tetine… who rocked in their very special way.
The guy’s who’s have been making the world a better place with their boards, have now come out with a bluetooth version.
In case you haven’t had a chance to play with one yet, Arduino is an open source physical computing platform allowing you quick and easy prototyping using a simple I/O board and a programming language build on top of Processing.
The new BlueTooth version opens up a whole load of possibilities, particularly as it has a Class 1 Bluetooth transmitter/receiver (read that as bigger/better or 100 meters not 10). Not only will the BT allow easily update-able hardware (no more climbing up ladders to update the brain of your hanging robotic monkeys), but they can also transmit and receive vie the programming interface.
The guys have now opened up something a little more official with tinker.it and are offering this and a whole lot more on their site.
I’ve been watching the progress of the TED conference (over the last 6 years or so. Unfortunately always from a far, having never had the finances to pull off a ticket (About £2000). I’ve always been impressed in the way it translates it’s ideals into real practices, something we tried with Submerge, and even though accomplished, never seemed to complete with the same grace. In fact the TED awards went on to inspire our own Industry Awards, and will continue to inspire any other awards to come.
They’ve been publishing online some of their output over the last 3 years, and now have a collection of some very inspirational talks. Most people will have seen the ‘Multi Touch’ display video, shot at TED festival last year, but this is just one of many great performances, talks and demonstrations.
The full collection can be seen either on their site or on YouTube. Below are a few of my favorites. (Each one’s 20 minutes, so you may want to bookmark this and come back, you won’t be disappointed)
Sir Ken Robinson making a greatly entertaining and moving speech about the importance of education, and how we need to start rethinking its application and purpose.
The former Director of MIT Media Lab (and writer of Being Digital, great book), Nicholas Negroponte talking about his One Laptop Per Child campaign.
Malcom Gladwell the author of ‘The Tipping Point’ and ‘Blink’ discusses an interesting turn by companies in understanding human needs. Interesting both philosophically and business wise.
