The problem is you have to look away from the screen in order to do anything.

From the earliest days of desktop computers there has been a tradition of tinkering with computers, people taking them apart, modifying them, and building their own. But cell phones seem to have not gotten the same kind of attention, even though they may be the most ubiquitous computing devices there are.

CNet has a story about home-brewed cell phone makers that show that it isn't all that difficult to get into cell phone hacking, especially now that there are tiny Linux-powered brains available.

"Patel says he has lost patience with even the slimmest Motorolas and most advanced Nokias. He has been trying to build new features for cell phones for years, and he--like a growing number of other impatient developers--has concluded that phones have to be as flexible as ordinary computers if he's going to make progress."

I don't tinker anywhere near as often as I used to, but this gives me ideas...

from Mike C.

The Fun Theory is a Volkswagen-supported contest that ends December 15, 2009. Come up with an idea that uses fun to encourage positive behavior. Their examples include wiring a public staircase like a piano keyboard to encourage walking instead of riding the escalator; each stair triggers a different note to play.

This is a charming and brilliant idea: public art + social consciousness + gaming as something more than just gaming.

Below is a video showing how to encourage non-littering behavior: have the trash sound like it's falling down a deep well.

From CraftZine (the online descendant of the now-defunct Craft magazine), an MIT student project that uses conductive paint and thread inside a pop-up book. Opening and closing the pages not only slides tabs of paper around, but also activates switches that can then activate lights.

Nitinol - Muscle Wire: The Mauling




(sort of like muscle cars, except long and very skinny)

- the plan
- the implementation
- history and information about nitinol
- links

Project: Operation Boris II

Blogma

 
Intro to Physical Computing
Fall, 2003
Jeff Feddersen

Week 5

Blogma

 
Intro to Physical Computing
Fall, 2003
Jeff Feddersen

Week 4

No funny business this time. Just work. All sentences. In fragment form.

Dan got eggs and bacon at deli Friday morning.

I coveted his breakfast.

But why were the eggs so yellow?

I mean: Yellow.

Blogma

 
Intro to Physical Computing
Fall, 2003
Jeff Feddersen

Week 3

I had been invited to the beach where friends have a cottage this weekend, but said no because I had planned to go upstate to see other friends - but now they're all sick, and the beach friends are already gone.


So I'll spend Saturday haging out with some wires.

Blogma

 
Intro to Physical Computing
Fall, 2003
Jeff Feddersen

Week 2