"etech" entries
A Computing Future from Microsoft: Large and Cheap Displays
Chris Pratley, the head of Microsoft’s Office Labs, gave the PICNIC audience a peek into the future they envision when planning their products. What is that future? It was encapsulated in the above video that they made a year ago. Some of the technologies (Augmented Reality and realtime language translation for example) have already come to the fruition (and they are going to need to make a new video soon before it all happens).
Tweenbots: Cute Beats Smart
If you wanted to build a robot that could go from one end of Washington Square Park to the other without your help how would you do it? How expensive in time and money would it be? Would you build or buy a navigation system? Construct a sensing system to detect obstacles? Or would you decide to take a…
It's Really Just a Series of Tubes
Molly Wright Steenson hit the Ignite jackpot at Etech this year with her explanation of the steam powered network of pneumatic tubes of the 1800s. If you’re someone that, like me, has a [somewhat obsessive relationship with Internet Infrastructure](http://conferences.oreilly.com/velocity), you must watch this talk.
ETech: Wrapup
I've been attending ETech and the P2P conference that preceded ETech and this conference, and this year I've noticed the best gender balance ever. Granted this conference's focus has changed from the very geeky P2P and Web Services focus it started with and meandered through a host of topics to arrive at a less geeky, but still thought provoking…
ETech: Mobile Phones Reveal the Behaviors of Places and People
[Quinn managed to scoop me blogging about Tony Jebara's presentation! But after I chatted with her, we both agreed that I should continue with my blog post and see if I can augment her post a little.] Tony Jebara's presentation "Mobile Phones Reveal the Behaviors of Places and People" really opened my eyes to what amazing things you can…
Uncommon Knowledge and Open Innovation: Building a Science Commons
The first session I attended today was John Wilbanks' "Uncommon Knowledge and Open Innovation: Building a Science Commons" presentation. John talked about the process of establishing the Science Commons and how creating a science oriented commons presented unique challenges. John first pointed out that Metcalfe's Law works for both networked computers and documents. But, he went on to extend…
Two Thousand People Singing Daisy Bell Together via Mech Turk
Bicycle Built for Two Thousand from Aaron on Vimeo. Have you ever heard two thousand people sing and harmonize together? Bicycle Built For Two Thousand splices together over two thousand audio samples to sing the public domain song Daisy Bell, the song sung by HAL at the end of 2001. It is being launched today at ETech. You can…
Ignite Show: Andrew Schneider, Experimental Performance Devices
This week’s Ignite Show features Andrew Schneider, a performance artist, and his DIY experimental performance devices, but first a cupcake decorating contest. If you’re at ETech this is a preview for his performance tonight with Zoë Keating before the ETech Fest. The cupcake decorating contest and Andrew’s talk were filmed at Ignite NYC II.
ETech: Priorities for a Greener World: If You Could Design Anything, What Should You Do?
The second ETech session today I’d like to share with you was presented by a personal friend of mine, Jeremy Faludi. Jer started his session entitled “Priorities for a Greener World: If You Could Design Anything, What Should You Do?” by pointing out that if we want to change the world, we ought to know what the most important issues are, right?
ETech: I Just Don't Trust You: How the Tech Community Can Reinvent Risk Ratings
The “I Just Don’t Trust You: How the Tech Community Can Reinvent Risk Ratings” presentation posited that the system for rating credit instruments is horribly broken. Right before Lehman Brothers crashed, Moody’s credit rating agency gave Lehman Brothers a AAA credit rating. Moodys immediately down-rated Lehman Brothers after they crashed — a little too late!