This is Tech

the uno: motorcyle meets segway

Think the Segway is just too geeky for your Born to Be Wild bad boy lifestyle? Then check out this cool new motorcycle born at the intersection of Geek Street and Hog Heaven Avenue.

The Uno is a self-balancing motorcycle that uses a pair of gyroscopes to constantly keep its rider upright.

(Via technabob.)

Last week Wired magazine published an in-depth article profiling the creator of a learning software application called SuperMemo. The concept for this software is that memorization and learning is achieved through repetition, but that the ideal time to refresh your memory about something is as close as possible to when you about to forget it. Apparently, research has shown that reviewing material at the right time significantly increases retention. This is referred to as the Spacing Effect.

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For those of you that have been waiting for the Amazon to start shipping Kindles again, now is the time. I have to admit, I haven’t been using mine much lately, but it is still a pretty slick piece of technology and a sign of things to come.

Link to Kindle page at Amazon here.

At this year’s Web 2.0 Expo, Clay Shirky gave an entertaining talk on how the ‘Cognitive Surplus’, or the collective spare brain power of everyone, is shifting from passive to more active engagement.

…We watched Gilligan’s Island. We watch Malcolm in the Middle. We watch Desperate Housewives. Desperate Housewives essentially functioned as a kind of cognitive heat sink, dissipating thinking that might otherwise have built up and caused society to overheat.

And it’s only now, as we’re waking up from that collective bender, that we’re starting to see the cognitive surplus as an asset rather than as a crisis. We’re seeing things being designed to take advantage of that surplus, to deploy it in ways more engaging than just having a TV in everybody’s basement.

(Via Tim Lauer.)

More creative commons content for your Kindle or Sony Reader.

Maureen F. McHugh’s speculative fiction collection MOTHERS & OTHER MONSTERS has been released online by Small Beer Press as a free Creative Commons download.

Small Beer is knocking them out of the park with CC releases by some of science fiction’s most talented, most brilliant short fiction writers. An entire Maureen McHugh collection online gratis is a watershed event.

Link

See also:
Kelly Link’s gorgeous short story collection now a CC download
John Kessel’s wonderful short story collection ‘The Baum Plan’ free CC download

(Via Boing Boing.)

As an update to my post about the difference between the customer service at Shure and Sensaphonics, I finally received by custom sleeves for my Shure E3 earphones, and thought I would share my impressions of the final product. By way of background, Shure makes high end in-ear earphones. Shure earphones are expensive but isolate the sound and block out outside noise. They are fantastic. Sensaphonics is a company that makes custom in-ear monitors for musicians and high end personal use. They offer custom fit silicon sleeves for the Shure E3 earphones. These sleeves are custom molded to fit your ear canal and intended to provide even better sound quality and comfort.

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(Via BoingBoing Gadgets.)

Image via Wikipedia

I am writing this quick post from Virgin flight 373 to San Francisco. This plane is tailor made for the tech set. First up, a power plug for my laptop. This means I am working at full brightness instead of scrimping to make my battery last through the flight. This has been a pet peeve of mine about other airlines for a while. If I can add AC power to my car, I don’t see what has taken airlines so long to make this upgrade.

Virgin has live satellite television in every seat. I am watching some MTV reality show called Parental Control, where a kids parents hate his girlfriend, so he gets set up on two blind dates with a girl that each of his parents pick for him. I am getting off track here, but it is hilarious.

The individualized touch screen entertainment system they have lets you rent movies, listen to albums, radio stations, and play games. This is the most enjoyable flight I have been on in a while. Oh, and did I mention it was only $185 round trip from Seattle.

Wired.com is running an interesting set of articles on hacking your brain for maximum effect. One of the topics they cover is a list of potential brain enhancing drugs, some legal, some not. This topic has been getting some attention lately as the tech corollary to doping in sports. Check out an excerpt from the grid below, or the full grid at link # 5 below.

Here is a quick list of the twelve articles and links. Enjoy:

1) Max Your Mind’s Performance by Distracting Yourself;

2) Caffeinate With Care: Small Shots Do a Brain Better Than Big Blasts;

3) Feed Your Mind With Impressive Information;

4) Think Positive, and You Will Get Smarter;

5) Give Your Intellect a Boost - Just Say Yes to Doing the Right Drugs!;

6) How to Juice Your IQ Score;

7 ) Thalamus, Cortex, Amygdala … Pick Apart the Brain;

8 ) Don’t Panic. It Makes You Stupid;

9) Embracing Chaos Could Bring Order to Your Money;

10) Take on Any Map by Getting Visual;

11) Up Your Intelligence by Choosing Your Exercise Wisely;

12) Comprehension Climbs When You Sloooow Dooown.

Disclaimer: I don’t recommend faking an illness to get drugs.

Last night Seattle artisan software developers Jackson Fish Market launched their latest web application, Carbon Grove. Sponsored by Microsoft as a demonstration of Silverlight, the web app allows you to sign up to receive periodic tips on how to become more carbon neutral, and every time you respond to the reminders you cause virtual trees to grow on your page at the Carbon Grove site. The only downside is that it only runs on IE, so firefox users will need to launch Internet Explorer to give it a try.

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