The Age of (Un)natural Inventions

Ho, luckily I'm not there yet. So, still exciting. Referring to the 'supposebly' Douglas Adams' three human reactions to new technologies (image below, got it from a tweet, here).

In the spirit of the post, here's my selection of the best inventions I recall from only the last 5 years.
Have you seen:

1. The awesome self-inflatible biking helmet, Hovding? A collection of links, info, here.
2. An all-year-round beer/drinks cooler, that also looks cool. Oh, it doesn't need any electricity, once installed. See link here.
3. A keyring that calls out for your keys, Chipolo (Slovenia) crowdfunded here.
4. A toy that talks and teaches your kid, and responds to him or her, Ubooly, here.
5. Copenhagen wheel - attachable wheel that powers up while you cycle, and helps you (up hill) faster, here. And same same but different (yet, Slovenian) version, FlyKly here.
6. Because I've tried it and it works (to reasonable physical limits of bending), Sugru with magnets!
7. Solar powered flash light: BoGo light: Buy one, Give one, a nice concept* with a useful product.
   (*Can't find it, but the idea of a pink flashlight in Africa (so that men wouldn't steal it from women) is touched upon here.)
8. One laptop (that can be winded-up) per child [empower the world's poorest children through education], here OLPC project, here: XO laptop (and tablet?). TED talk here.
9.  ? (tell me of more you know of)

 

So, I'm glad to be looking at another 7 years or so of wonder and amazement in tech world. (Though I'll strive for like, 77 years, just to be on the safe side of Wonder.)

Invisible bike helmet in a scarf

Bike helmets discourage cycling. Do they make you safer or unsafer? See extensive blog post with links, written by Howie Chong, below (4).

How about an invisible biking helmet? Or one that you can wear as a scarf, a neckie?
Enter Hövding from Sweden.

(1): Hövding: cycling helmet in a scarf | Hunter Skipworth, 14 Oct 2013
The latest innovation in bike gear? A nifty collar that inflates to become an airbag at the first sign of trauma. And you're safe from helmet hair, too.

(2): video: Invisible Bike Helmet Saves Your Hair and Your Life: link (yT).

(3): NY Times: Who needs a cycling helmet, when you’ve got an airbag? | Murad Ahmed Technology Reporter, November 13 2013. Link here.

And how to drive in tricky situations? See (5), Cycling Savvy.

"Bike helmets discourage cycling. An Australian study on mandatory helmet laws concluded that laws that required cyclists to wear head protection actually decreased the number of cyclists on the road. The implication of this study? The fewer cyclists on the road, the less likely drivers will be accustomed to sharing road space with cyclists, ultimately increasing the hazards faced by cyclists and further dissuading people from hopping on their bikes." (From: (4))

(4): "Children and toddlers on foot are far more likely to receive traumatic brain injuries than cyclists, yet parents who place protective headwear on their walking toddlers are openly ridiculed."
:: link here.

(4.2): Got it (4) via Florian Friedrich, on FB.

(5): Cool animations and explanations. Could work well for kids, learning to share the road. Here.

(6): The startup company, Hövding: http://www.hovding.com/

Got the image from: here.

Motherfcuking Website

This is a relatively funny,
but most of all, to the (sharp) point made website that explains what a site should do primarily.

Enjoy: http://motherfuckingwebsite.com/

Tc tc tc ACTA

"Očitajo mu netransparentno sprejemanje, nesprejemljive posege v svobodo interneta ter zasebnost državljanov in dajanje prevelike moči imetnikom pravic intelektualne lastnine." vir: http://www.zurnal24.si/nad-acto-se-evropska-komisija-clanek-149171

"Protestniki so sicer najbolj zaskrbljeni glede omejevanja svobode interneta in povečanega nadzora nad posameznikovo uporabo interneta, ki naj bi jo sporazum prinašal. Menijo, da je intelektualna lastnina zaščitena dovolj, glasbena in filmska industrija pa bi novo zakonodajo zgolj "izkoristila za nadaljnje bogatenje".
vir: http://www.zurnal24.si/acta-gestapo-clanek-148773

Acta: bo Slovenija ščitila svoje državljane ali ameriško industrijo?

"Obramba starih pravic, starih monopolov, to so edini zgledi ki Acto zanimajo," pa je povedal Domen Savič."Acta uveljavlja standarde industrijske družbe, ki so neprimerni za informacijsko družbo," je še navedel Savič. (ibidem)

"medtem ko je gibanje 15o ostrejše. "Kako lahko verjamemo slovenskemu političnemu razredu, ki ni imel do zdaj nobenih zadržkov do sporazuma, in kako lahko verjamemo tehnokratom Evropske komisije, da si želijo javne razprave, če je prišlo besedilo v javnost šele tri leta po začetku pogajanj, in to proti njihovi volji?" " vir: http://www.zurnal24.si/ulica-vpliva-na-politike-clanek-148699

Ej, Mopped! spletna stran

Zdravo!

Zaživela bo spletna stran Ej, Mopped! No, je že, samo je še v procesu "pimpanja"!

Tako da - dobrodošli na strani in pridite nazaj, ko bo še hujša, najhujšejša!

Re: Home computer in 2004

V moj inbox je prišel mail s spodnjo slikico ... ob čemer sem mlajše bralce liste:) spomnil na to, kdaj se je kaj, kar je danes povsem samoumevno za "razviti" (razvajeni) svet, začelo.

Ne sam hitr - expresno. A si predstavljate, da je Youtube "prišel ven" šele 2005. leta?

YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share and view videos, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005.^[3]

in Facebook, ta Veliki Brat interneta, katerega mecen je bila tudi CIA?

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc.^[1] As of January 2011^[update], Facebook has more than 600 million active users.^[5][6]

Obadva citata sta iz Wikipedije, za katero pa sama pravi:

Its 18 million articles (over 3.6 million in English) have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site.^[3] As of May 2011, there were editions of Wikipedia in 281 languages. Wikipedia was launched in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger^[4] and has become the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet,^[2][5][6][7] ranking around seventh among all websites on Alexa and having 365 million readers.^[2][8]

Staruhinja tale wikipedia, a? :)

Zeppelin xkcd

Zeppelin on Xkcd.

Stuff ... in kako določiš čas predvajanja na you-tube-u

A ste kdaj hoteli ustaviti youtube video na točno določeni točki ... in ga poslati nekomu? Ga šerati na facebooku? Here's a way how you can do this (the talk is about how you can set the youtube video to play at a certain point ... so it begins at the exactly the same point when somebody clicks your link):

Lej, tole je fora: na koncu tvojega linka (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8&feature=player_embedded#at=171), ki je očitno tole:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8

 piše: &feature=player_embedded#at=171

In ker koda deluje preprosto ... če jo vidiš razčlenit in se možgansko ne upiraš neznanim stvarem ... pol vidiš, da piše na koncu:

#at=171

Hm ... in pogledam čas - je cca. 2:49.
Hm ... 60 sec. = 1 min, 2x60=120 + 51 ... je 2:49 ... 2:51 ... Hm ...
Torej, na eni točki, če čem ... na primer, ko je govora o otrocih ... na 6-ih minutah ..
6 x 60 = 360 ... Aha, dejmo probat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8&feature=player_embedded#at=360

Ta-daaaa! ;)

In še nekaj, kar ni iz story of stuff, ... je pa upam da tale punca tudi videla kaj Georga Carlina: Stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac&feature=player_embedded#at=48

If teachers taught histroy by using Facebook...

It just might go somewhat like this:

Click to open the page, it GETS BETTER! ;)

Google translate

Vau! Noro dober prevod. Gives me the chilly-willies.

 Upam, da so sprejeli moj skromni popravek. Jao, te mašine in avtomatizem. In še bi jih radi imeli več.

Če je veljalo, da je hedonizem gibalo razvoja, potem pravim jaz (in verjetno tudi mnogi drugi), da bosta istočasno hedonizem in lenoba (ter izguba zdrave, kmečke pameti) vodila človeštvo v propad in pogibel.

Sherlock

A NEW series, launched by the BBC One Programmes, Sherlock has aired this year - July, to be exact. Novelty is that this is contemporary, so it has all hi-tech stuff it needs to have - like the captions for stuff that Holmes writes down or enters in search engines (yes!) on his mobile (yesyes;). Really cool, that. Oh, Dr. Watson has a blog, apparently (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

Here's a description that can be found on Wikipedia:

Filming took place at various locations, including London and Cardiff. The three-part series was transmitted on BBC One and BBC HD, in July and August 2010. The critical reception was mostly very positive. These episodes, along with the unaired pilot, will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on 30 August 2010.

The series, though I just watched one, the third, is really enigmatic and keeps you locked to the screen - 'specially if you really like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work and the previous TV/movies ... for a want of a better word, editions.

You can watch the first three parts, it's available online, just ... surf t h e  web and its channels, if you catch my drift.

Oh, and you may want to check out that blog/site Holmes is using in the show: just google it.

Ime mi je oranžna ... in "view source code"

A ste brali knjigo? No jaz je še nisem, ampak je baje noro, noro dobra.
  Me pa preseneča, kaj se da vse narediti z Mozillovim ukazom (desni klik in-) "view source code". V bistvu, če sem iskren, mi sploh ni jasno, zakaj bi to nekdo sploh dal notri v browser, ker lahko s tem pokradeš miljon enih stvari. Je pa res, da lahko po drugi strani vse te stvari in ukaze dobiš na drug način (odvod Googla po času, dG/dt) in enostavno ni fore, zakaj jih ne bi omogočili in olajšali življenje navadnim smrtnikom, ki nismo IT-jevci. (I walk a thin line.)
  Jaz sem si na ta način sposodil ogromno stvari, skopiral ful enih slik (in poskušal vsakič navesti vir - če ga nisem, se tule opravičujem in posipam s pepelom. Povejte mi in odpravil bom krivico, magari z delitiranjem!) (Rajši ne.)) Kakorkoli - zato lahko gledate recimo vremensko napoved na mojem blogu že par let. (sem povedal prijatelju, s čigar strani sem to sunil, pa je samo skomignil z rameni (in nato sva se pogovarjala naprej ... o kaki dobri hrani, verjetno).
  No, tukaj še ena fora, na vprašanje v zvezi s katero, torej, od kje in zakaj zna ta punca pisati vse v barvah, jaz pa ne, še čakam.
Ime mi je Oranžna.

Karte ... kokice ... in ... 300-€-ska očala ... in HARIBO:)

Važn, da je HARIBO
  No, zadnjič (beri: ta petek) smo šli z mojimi tamalimi od tabornikov v kino - gledat nič drugega kot AVATARJA. Vse lepo in prav, ampak: 

Najprej je treba it po kokice (CHECK)

Nato greš v še eno fakin vrsto, za fakin 3-D očala.

"Ok," si rečeš, "sej grem vendar gledat film v 3D ... 3D očala so 'sort of a prerequisite'." Ampak za ta očala morš dat en evro. E N   E V R O. En. Cel. (Un kovanček, no, k piše "1" gor.)

  Pol greš not, se usedeš, ampak NEEEE! Zakaj bi si lahko dal gor očala, za katera si plaču (in jih boš mogu na koncu vrnit), če pa jih morš najpri pucat, ker

so totalno zapacana.

  Ok, ok, DON'T PANIC je pisalo že na Štoparju. No, pol, ko imaš do konca spucane šipice. ("Pismu, še neki je levo zgori. Pa desno... better .. ne, še tole ... tole ... aja - to je praska. Ok. Kaaaj?)

Gledaš film (in ker si ga, kot pravi freak na filme, seveda že šel gledat pred 14 dnevi, v normalni tehniki, obnemiš.. Wait, this is wrong:

Čist pretemno je vse skupaj.

Tako temno, da za moje pojme pretehta 3D tehniko. In šaltaš - med 3-D in blurr-D ... pretemno ... pre 3-D-jasto (ker so tri slike skupi dane in zamaknjene v barvah).   Res škoda, ker je bilo tako temno. Ker Pandora je res huda in so se maksimalno potrudili. Škoda. Dobra stran je, da sem

lahko šel brez problema ven po ene "HARIBO-je" in dal še tazadn dnar:)
Čisto pri koncu filma pa je clo

en prizor, vreden 3D očal:

ko letijo semena 'of the home tree' naokoli in dejansko misliš, da so pred teboj (ali pa vsaj znatno bližje od ekrana).

  Hehe. Na koncu smo stali v vrsti pri izhodu (en portir in en varnostnik G7 (dejansko) čekirata, ali folk daje špegle nazaj. And since I was feeling a bit 'off', sem šel pobarat, "Ej, um ... kaj pa, če nočeš dat špeglov nazaj?"
- "Morš jih dat. Ker so 300 €."
- "Aja, aha. Ja pol pa OK ane. Hvala."
- "Mphm!"

  Pa smo šli. Novim dogodivščinam na proti. (V bistvu se je takoj začela naslednja, ker smo morali it stat v vrsto (ta petek sta se res cela Ljubljana in okolica odločili, da bosta prišli (kaj, pač dvojino uporabljam!) v kino) - tokrat za McDonald's. Jao. In pol kao, da se gremo ven usest, ker je not prevroče (fantje vsi v bundah "Slečte jih." "Ne, gremo raj ven, ker je vroče tle." "Ooookeej..") ... ampak itak zuni ni blo placa in smo hitr skipnl nazaj do naše prejšnje, stoječe mize.
  No, avantura je bila ta, da se je ena mama od tamauga, 'a designated driver' ponesreč napila v službi (en 'surprise party' ob odhodu sodelavca so imeli) in ni hotla pelat.
"Jah, super - sej je Krištof (avto, op. a.) res car, ampak tak car pa spet ni! Kaj pa zdej?" (Blo nas je 7.)
  Pa smo klicali Blaža. Pa je pršu, model. Iz Viča. Car.
Hvala, Blaž.

RGB modra?

MOram nekaj probat: namreč, če med < in > napišeš rgb in še span, pol lahko določiš barvo teksta (mislim, itak, da se vse da, v html oz. xml-ju, ampak) in če je 204 "DA" in 0 pa nič ne, potem bi moral napisati za r g b, torej blue takole:
AVATAR. See if it works;) Aja - možn, da mam sam ta problem, da imam itak definirano barvo pisanja kot modro, pa baš ne bo efekta. Hm ..
"And BACK TO YOU, BOB!" -

Not the end of the world? Well, It's the NEW Large Hadron Collider, LHC

Available in stores NOW!
(Just kidding.)
(/What?! You think it's inappropriate to joke of these things? Watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre or any of the 'horror' and thriller movies they're playing right now, like for exaple esta pelicula, and tell me: the murders in Australia, one year ago, Austria, year and a half, Magdaline, ... McCauli Caulkin was just a petty begining, people. So don't tell me of jokes in the modern, "civilised" world, OK?!)
Some info:
7 terra ... something,
14 terra other; near-the-speed-of-light-travel-of-protons, 7 000 something other and 14 000 other ... It's sounds very educated. I dig it. Can you?;)
Oh yeah, and you should see Dan Brown's video on "The end of the world .. tomorrow?!!!"
Tchüss!

NGC 6543

 

Aaaamaaaziing. NGC as in NGC and as in NGC ;) Get it? Probably not, thus a need to explain has become apparent:
NGC usually stands for National Geographic Channel. It also is a nickname we, biology students have devised for our microbiology professor, Nina G Cimerman. And now we see it is also a nebula ... And quite a lovely one, come to that.
Almost in the ranks of the Horsehead nebula and the M42 in Orion. (see links)
So long and thanks for all the fish;)