Dec
31
Episode 60 – December 31, 2008 & January 3, 2009
Posted by Dan Misener under Episodes
For our New Year’s show, we tried something a little different. Producer Jane Farrow put together a special episode chock-full of fresh ideas to inspire your own thinking in 2009.
And yes… I know we’re posting this episode well before its airdate. We finished this episode early and couldn’t wait to get it onto the web. So listen below (or download the MP3), and follow along.
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27 Ideas in 27 Minutes
- Use the "voice memo" function of your digital camera to record bird calls
- Preserve the colours of autumn leaves by scanning them with a digital scanner
- Turn sunken ships into artificial coral reefs
- Turn minefields into bird sanctuaries
- Attach your digital camera to a telescope to digiscope wildlife
- Sterilize wine barrels with a UV light stick
- Users, not designers, are often the best at figuring out what technology is for
- Turn up the brightness setting, and use your computer screen as light source when taking photos
- No window in your office? Add a webcam widget to your desktop
- Keep copies of your travel documents on a USB stick
- Use your iPod screen as a flashlight
- When running wires through a ceiling, remove a pot light, stick your cell phone in the hole, and take a flash photo to identify obstacles
- WARNING: FIRE HAZARD! Use a server to raise the temperature of your basement for beer brewing
- WARNING: FIRE HAZARD! Roast coffee in your popcorn popper
- WARNING: FIRE HAZARD! Use your computer as a space heater
- WARNING: FIRE HAZARD! Dry wood in the microwave
- WARNING: FIRE HAZARD! Make jewelry from microwaved CDs
- Take the taboo out of "condom" with a ringtone
- Program your cell phone as a "boss alarm"
- Avoid cell phone fees by "flashing"
- Microcoordinate
- Cell phones have taken away our ability to plan anything
- Facebook friends are different than face-to-face friends
- Head lice have the power to bring people together
- Keep a list of movies and books you want to see or read on your iPod
- Use the last 10 seconds of a song on your iPod to take your pulse
- Replace your BIC lighter with a cell phone at concerts.
This episode features Creative Commons music and sound effects:
- Voice_of_Zonotrichia_albicollis.ogg
- Canon DOS D30 (single).wav by FreqMan
- Nikolai_Rimsky-Korsakov_-_Bumblebee.ogg
- “I’m Beginning To See The Light” by Harry James & His Orchestra
- “Catscratch” by Windom Earle
- “Naked (Scottz Sunday Snooze Edit)” by scottaltham
[Original image by Duy's Photo Shoots]
December 24th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Well, that was interesting. I liked the bit about facebook friends, although it seems like the sticking point is the use of the word “friend.” Just as this episode shows how technology uses can morph, so does the use of English (after all, people use Google and “text” as verbs these days).
Facebook Friend, has a nice ring to it, it has that bit of alliteration going for it, and it seems to be descriptive of how Facebook works, since you can share quite a lot of information with your “friends” if you wish.
Funnily enough, I use Facebook to keep in touch or catch up with people I haven’t seen for years, none of whom live near me. It’s handy from that perspective. I’ve caught up with people from high school, and it’s not weird or awkward – it’s handy. Weird would be tracking them down and phoning them out of the blue after twenty-some years to ask “so, married? kids?”
One other thing to consider from a sociological and cultural aspect: Hal (I think that was his name?) got out of this event about what he put into it, didn’t he? He went into Facebook and created an event and added all of his friends with a few quick clicks and that was it. Not exactly a personal invitation, is it?
I guess if one is stuck on the definition of a friend being “someone who will help you move”, then Facebook friends definitely aren’t friends.
December 31st, 2008 at 11:45 am
I have a cautionary, but funny tale about using the sound recorder on your digital camera. In 2006-2007 I lived in Strasbourg France while doing my Masters. Towards the end of my stay I hopped on my bike and I went around taking pictures, using the voice recorder to identify what each picture was. Now, visualize what I was actually doing : riding around, stopping every so often, taking a picture of major attractions, and talking into my camera….
Sure enough, after about 45 minutes of this, as I was taking a picture of one of the bridges that span the river Il, a HUGE police van pulls up next to me at the traffic light, revealing six ENORMOUS gendarmes, one of who, at the window, asked me what I was doing, exactly?
So what could I say? In a blinding flash of realization of what it could LOOK LIKE I was doing, I stammered out the only answer I could muster : «I’m Canadian». At which the gendarme laughed, and they drove away….Phew!
December 31st, 2008 at 1:19 pm
The facebook thing is definately a linguistic issue – there are more worlds for social connections beyond simply ‘friend’ … once you recognize that and start using these other words when appropriate, rather than calling everyone your ‘friend’ then this issue vanishes.
January 2nd, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I attend PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) a big gaming convention in Seattle every August. During the concerts, you don’t just see cell phones out in place of lighters, but Nintendo DS’s and PSPs, since pretty much everyone has one along with them for wireless gaming.
January 3rd, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Here are two very lo-tech alternate ways in which I use technology…
I use digital equipment to keep my coffee warm. I strategically place my mug of coffee beside the warm air vent at the side of my laptop. This helps keep my coffee warm longer.
Also, I have perpetually cold hands and sometimes partially numb fingers during my sedentary work day. Our main conference room at work is a chronically cold room. When settling down for a meeting in this room, I strategically sit directly beside the LCD projector that sits on top of the conference room table. The projector provides me with lots of warm air to bath my frigid fingers in. The fortunate thing is that I work with several menopausal women who avoid this seat like the plague since the warm air vent only exacerbates their hot flashes! Lucky me!
January 5th, 2009 at 10:02 am
I think this would be better if played (I know it’s not a game as such) whilst drunk. Might get a little out of hand but I suppose it can’t get much worse than ‘FIRE HAZARD’… or can it
January 17th, 2009 at 11:18 am
I used to “Flash” in the 70s! When I returned to university after visits home, I pre-arranged with my worrying Mom to make the long distance call – 2 rings – wait – 2 rings. My Mom knew I arrived safely and no long distance charges were incurred.
Since it was my Mom who suggested it, I suspect its been around since long distance was invented.
April 1st, 2009 at 3:28 am
A sober and disturbing idea in the category of unintended or unanticipated uses or outcomes of technology: I heard someone from Toronto Police Services speaking a while back about fighting child pornography and sex crimes against children. He said that if child pornographers and child molesters had set out to invent a technology to help them do what they do, they would have invented…the Internet: a technology that connects them globally and allows for the easy exchange of photographs and other material, and that even allows them to converse with thousands upon thousands of children through chat rooms.