Los Grumildos, the low-tech mechanical puppets by Ety Fefer, are coming to the US for the first time. July 28 – August 2 in New York City.
Antivirus Software Sucks
And:
“It’s not just AV software. The entire software industry operates this way.
1. Shovel feature-rich bug-ware onto unsuspecting schlubs to build “brand”
(especially in the enterprise/IT market where the person purchasing the
software is often not the person who has to use it, so they make
decisions based on feature list and brand name rather than quality)
2. Wait for hobbyists, researchers, or smaller companies to figure out how to do it right
3. Buy their companies
4. Repeat”
Quoted from the discussion at Slashdot.
A Low-tech Trick to Eliminate Standby Power Consumption
June 21, 2009 by Filed Under: Energy, Gadgets, Low-tech solutions, Random, Standby power
Standby power use is the electricity consumed by appliances and other equipment when they are switched off or not performing their primary purpose. It is responsible for 3 to 12 percent of residential electricity use worldwide (source, pdf). Freelance journalist Robert Buzink has a low-tech solution for this – all you need is a pair of scissors and a screwdriver. The text is in Dutch but the pictures speak for themselves.
Seasteading: Floating Utopias
June 21, 2009 by Filed Under: Utopias
“As the earth’s population steadily increases, so does the pressure to open new frontiers. While the oceans have long been used for transportation, this book is an extended thought experiment about how they could support permanent settlements. Considering these issues will be invaluable no matter which way humanity next expands. In particular, the ocean bears some definite similarities to space: the final frontier, which will surely be an important part of our near future.”
Intro page / Book / Contest / Wired article. Related: the Venus Project.
One Day We Will All Be Writing and Revising Code
June 21, 2009 by Filed Under: Computers, Technology productivity paradox
“Computers tend to replace one category of worker with another. There are two ways to get something done. You can find one group trained to accomplish things the old-fashioned way. Or you can pay another group to set up and maintain machines and systems that will do the same work with fewer employees – of the older category of worker. You are not really replacing people with machines; you are replacing one kind of person-plus-machine with another kind of machine-plus-person.
When IBM persuaded corporations to modernize their bookkeeping in the 1950s, businesses were able to get along with far fewer accountants, as they expected, but they had to hire more programmers than they had anticipated. Automatic teller systems also require programmers and technicians paid four times as much as bank tellers.
If things go well, banks need less than a quarter of the staff, and they come out ahead. But it is notoriously difficult to predict all problems, or their levels of difficulty, in advance. And one mark of newer technology is that while it is cheap in routine operation, it is expensive to correct and modify.”
Quoted from: “Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences
Make a Cardboard Surfboard
June 20, 2009 by Filed Under: DIY, Surfboards
Mike Sheldrake makes surfboards out of interlocked ribs of cardboard, coated in fiberglass sheet. Many pictures and full instructions online. Via Makezine.
