Heard this song on the radio a while ago and couldn’t track it down. But today I caught it on ABC Local Radio, would you believe.
Tag: video
Herman’s Hermits – No milk today
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Powell backs Obama
Republican Colin Powell, Secretary of State during George Bush’s first term as president, has endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States of America.
Via James.
Believe it or not, some of the best commentary I’ve found on the financial crisis sweeping the globe has been on the Essential Baby forum. Two posts by someone called LucyE, made in the week leading up to the approval of the bail out plan, are particularly good. The second post is the better of them. I just thought that this was an excellent, easy to understand high-level explanation of the current situation and what is likely to happen. LucyE’s posts were obviously appreciated by many of the members of that forum.
I also appreciated the below video explanation of collateralised debt obligations (CDOs), which are at the heart of the current problems. Worth a look. More in depth than LucyE’s analysis, but still understandable for the lay person. (Via Presentation Zen.)
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MGMT – Kids
It’s been a while in the making, but augmented reality on your mobile is just about here. And by that, I mean that these applications are available for your mobile phone, and it will only be a matter of time before they gain critical mass. So what am I talking about?
In the research space, among others I can refer you to iCam (2006) and MARA (2006) from researchers at Georgia Tech and Nokia respectively. iCam allows the placement of virtual sticky notes on objects in the physical world, through a mobile device. This is neat, since the sticky notes only appear to those whom you want to see them. A limitation of iCam is that, while placement of these sticky notes is very accurate, it only works indoors. MARA overlays information about the real world (and even the people in it if information about objects is being streamed from a central server) in real time.
The there’s this concept device from petitinvention, which takes the idea a few steps further. The user can see information about buildings and locations overlaid on the video stream from the mobile device’s camera. But the same tool can be used to select text from a piece of paper (like a newspaper). Essentially, it’s an augmented reality search tool.
In the commercial/start up realm, a couple of companies have been creating a bit of buzz. First there’s Enkin. Enkin has been developed for the Google Android mobile phone platform. It enables users to tag places and objects on Google Maps, and then to see these tags overlaid on the real world as you walk around with the phone. My favourite is Sekai Camera from Tonchidot. I’m not going to explain it. Just watch the video below. But note that even products on the shelves in shops are tagged in the virtual world and overlaid on the real world. And it’s a very social application.
There’s probably still all sorts of hurdles to overcome, but what a great presentation.
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The Get out Clause and Weezer
I’ve got some time to work on the context manager today, and I’m listening to some stuff as I code. Here’s a sample:
Also check out The Get Out Clause and this video. It was made by requesting CCTV footage through the Freedom of Information act (apparently).
Update: Here’s the “Paper” video clip inline:
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Gary Busey: bizarre
This is bizarre. Ryan Seacrest of KIIS FM and E! was doing an interview of Jennifer Garner and Laura Linney at the Oscars when Gary Busey interrupted the interview and kissed Garner on the neck. The next day, Busey calls Seacrest on his radio show and, well, I’m not going to try to explain it. Just listen to it. Watch the Oscars incident first…
… then visit this site and click the first “play” button on the right.
Credit to the Breakfast program on Triple J for bringing this to my attention a few weeks back.
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Cool projects by Johnny Lee
Johnny Lee from CMU’s HCI Institute has done some pretty cool things with the Wiimote. His Ph.D. project has also yielded some way cool stuff. Here’s just a few of the things he’s done on his own and with his colleagues.
Truly inspiring.
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Singapore’s MDA rocks on
In the wake of international criticism following its banning of the computer game Mass Effect and the subsequent lifting of the ban, Singapore’s Media Development Authority have released a hip hop video in which its executives rap about the role of the Authority. Ever wondered how to fit “service oriented architecture” into the lyrics of a hip hop song? No problem for the MDA.