Tags: hardware
A fascinating analysis of a super-cheap phone from another world.
Welcome to the Galapagos of Chinese “open” source. I call it “gongkai” (公开). Gongkai is the transliteration of “open” as applied to “open source”. I feel it deserves a term of its own, as the phenomenon has grown beyond the so-called “shanzhai” (山寨) and is becoming a self-sustaining innovation ecosystem of its own.
Just as the Galapagos Islands is a unique biological ecosystem evolved in the absence of continental species, gongkai is a unique innovation ecosystem evolved with little western influence, thanks to political, language, and cultural isolation.
Scott points out a really big problem with the current state of the “internet of things”: everyone is inventing their own proprietary walled-garden infrastructure instead of getting together to collaborate on standards.
The single biggest fallacy I want to blow up is this utopian idea that there is this SINGLE thing called ‘The Cloud’. Each company today reinvents their own cloud. The Cloud as a concept is dead and has been for years: we are living within a stormy sky of cranky clouds, all trying to pretend the others don’t exist.
These device holders/stands look really nice, and they’d be a real help keeping my spaghetti cables in check.
A look at the depiction of computer hardware and peripherals in sci-fi movies over time.
A great piece by Jason analysing the ever-blurring lines between device classes.
Mind you, there is one question he doesn’t answer which would help clear up his framing of the situation. That question is:
What’s a web app?
This echoes Scott Jenson’s call for more open standards when it comes to networked devices. We’ll need it if we want “If This, Then That” for an internet of things.
Wondering whether that network-enabled device of yours is worthy of being considered part of the “internet of things?” Just answer these few short questions.
Man, I just love Scott Jenson.
Our brains have collectively gone startup-crazy, seeing the world through stock option colored glasses, assuming that if there is no money, there is clearly no value. This is madness. I’m so desperately worried that the internet will turn out to be a happy accident.
Turning his focus on “the internet of things” he makes the very good point that what we need isn’t one company or one proprietary service; we need an ecosystem of open standards that will enable companies to build services.
We all have to appreciate how we need a deep, open solution to solve this problem. If we don’t understand, demand even, that hardware devices need to be just as discoverable an open as web servers are today, we’ll never see the internet of things come to pass.
Pictures and plans for building a plywood stand for your device lab. I definitely want one of these for the Clearleft office.
Interaction dissolving into the environment.
My last shipment from the Quaterly contained everything I need to get a sourdough starter going (thanks to Alexis Madrigal). I think I might have to get me one of these cute sourdough globes: “It’s like a Tamagotchi, but actually alive.”
Be sure to check out the the blog documenting the design and development.
Dan writes about how data saved his life. That is not an exaggeration.
He describes how, after receiving some very bad news from his doctor, he dived into the whole “quantified self” thing with his health data. Looking back on it, he concludes:
If I were still in the startup game, I have a pretty good idea of which industry I’d want to disrupt.
See now, this is why liquid layouts are the way to go.
Oh, this is just wonderful: a camera that outputs a text description instead of an image (complete with instructions on how to build one yourself). I love it!
The Kiwi Foo Space Program (a weather balloon with an Android device attached) captured some beautiful images.
You think that Digital Rights Management is bad? What about Physible Rights Management?
A cute little internet-enabled sweet dispenser, powered by your retweets.
Matt is offering up his space in central Brighton every Wednesday afternoon for free-for-all Arduino tinkering. I should try to get over there.
Bill Buxton’s collection of input devices going back thirty years.
Anil shares his thoughts on where there’s room for improvement in 3D printing, or as he calls it, teleporting.
This looks truly wonderful: like a hardware version of “if this, then that.”
In a single post, Russell Davies manages to rehabilitate the term “post digital.” And he paints a vivid picture of where our “Geocities of things” is heading.
A thorough hypertext report from those good folks at the Institute For The Future on our fabrication overlords.
Hardware hackers, you’ve got until June 30th to submit something for Maker Faire in Brighton this September (the day after dConstruct).
The difference between software and hardware; the digital and the instantiated.
A versatile material to help you fix things.
Charles Stross peers into his dilithium crystal ball and tells tales of the future as decided by Apple.
A cute hardware hack: send a tweet with the word TwitweeClock, the hashtag #TwitweeClock, or the username @TwitweeClock, and this cuckoo clock will, well, cuckoo.
Superb product design.
The details of Tom's hardware hack at PaperCamp: an old-school printer receipt printer hooked up via arduino.
Schadenfreude by software. Every singe Zune on the face of the planet froze at exactly the same moment.
Reading through some of the things that peope have made with these RFID tags is making me itchy to hack something tangible.
Check out this cool arduino project: input from the moisture level of a plant sends an SMS to Twitter so you know it needs to be watered.
There's a page on the Apple website devoted to Mac mini mods, including one in a Millennium Falcon casing.