Lightning Electric vehicle

Electric vehicle can be as cool as petrol car!!!!

link
www.lightningcarcompany.co.uk

Who killed the electric car?

It's an awesome documentary of electric vehicles!!

link
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5871495968130273402&hl=en

Solution, or Mess? A Milk Jug for a Green Earth

The bottle is pretty square in UK, the only different is you can't stock on top of each other. I am not quite suere that they try to gain more money or be "green".

link
www.nytimes.com

We Are What We Do

Small actions + Lots of people = Big change

link
www.wearewhatwedo.org

Image Metrics

link
www.image-metrics.com

Björk's 'Wanderlust' in 3D

It seems that using 3D images is a trend now. U2 has 3D movie at imax, and you can see Björk's music video here, www.wired.com, with your 3D glasses, Cool!!

Ecotronic toys

There are 900 million batteries used each year in the UK alone and many are in toys. Only 2% of batteries are currently recycled - the rest end up in landfill sites and are poisoning our planet!

link
www.ecotronictoys.com

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The Affective Sustainability of Objects by Kristina Borjesson

How objects retain their significance over time and in a changing human context. Is the affective an important but missing link in the ongoing efforts towards improved sustainability of objects? Although being it, is affective sustainability subjective and therefore difficult to consider by design?

"My vision is to help designers look for the obvious when designing. It might be immediately hidden, but when it is found, it shows the way to simplification." - Kristina Borjesson

It's one of the most exciting workshop I attended this term.

link
www.borjesson-mk.se
The Found Object

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Paper or Plastic

click picture to read.

link
www.washingtonpost.com

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When the user makes the difference

In the report’s first part the student authors introduce the term user-driven, its relation to other types of innovation and the diversity of the definitions. The history of user-driven innovation is also presented.

The report then continues with an overview of which companies in the Nordic countries have utilised knowledge of their users in developing new products and services, including a shortlist of success stories.[via www.experientia.com]

The Story of Stuff

www.storyofstuff.com


Ch.1: Introduction


Ch.2: Extraction


Ch.3: Production


Ch.4: Distribution


Ch.5: Consumption


Ch.6: Disposal


Ch.7: Another Way

Microsoft's Vision of 2010

[via aqua]

I will hate it if I need to use this system.

link
Video: Microsoft's Vision of 2010.


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David Report 6 - Future Luxury

1 - Timeless Quality
2 - Security and safety
3 - Emotional branding
4 - Good Karma
5 - Seize the Day
6 - Supreme Regionalism
7 - Food and health
8 - Individual editions

link
www.davidreport.com


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Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote

link
youtube


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Innovation Predictions 2008

It's All About Me

"Identity" replaces "experience" as the next big concept in design and media thinking. People create their own identities interacting with products and services. The notion of a consumer experience is a more passive way of thinking. It's so 20th century. Identity gets the buzz in '08.

Hang On to the Good Stuff

"Longevity" replaces "sustainability" as a core concept for the green thing. Just hanging on to that expensive, fancy car does more to help the planet than recycling stuff again and again. Or so the marketing argument will go.

link
Slide show
www.businessweek.com


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Handmade 2.0

The declaration from something called the Handmade Consortium materialized on a Web site called buyhandmade.org in late October. “I pledge to buy handmade this holiday season, and request that others do the same for me,” it said, and you could type in your name to “sign” on; within a few weeks, more than 6,500 people had done so. “Buying handmade is better for people,” a statement on the site read in part, and “better for the environment,” because mass production is a “major cause” of global warming, among other things. There were links to an anti-sweatshop site and a Wal-Mart watchdog site.

Read more www.nytimes.com


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Gartner: 20% of Retailers in Virtual Worlds by 2010

In Gartner's predictions for what changes 2008 will bring for consumers and retail, the research group also looked a little further. It predicts that by 2010 20% of Tier I retailers will have a marketing presence in virtual worlds. It also predicts that through 2012 the number of consumers using mobile phones to shop will increase at an average of 25% per year. Put together the two could make for an interesting combination, but Gartner doesn't make any recommendations for mobile worlds. It does recommend that retailers begin to include virtual worlds as customer touchpoints, begin to test and measure virtual world initiatives before moving in, keep an eye on the space with a focus on the young demographic, and pick the right environment for the right demographic.

Read more www.virtualworldsnews.com


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Engaging User Creativity: The Playful Experience

“Satisfying the desire to play can be integral in determining the success or failure of a digital product or service.”

The Elements of Playful
-Branding
-Playful Engagement
-Social Interaction
-Sharing
-Customization

Measuring Playability
-lots of small rewards and positive feedback for taking action
-no negative consequences for experimentation
-the ability to take someone else’s work and build on it
-frivolous interaction

Read more www.uxmatters.com


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Future beauty: Hyperbreasts?

Nowadays plastic surgeons routinely sculpt breasts in any ordered size or shape. Large breasts are no longer a born feature, they can be bought. As a result, large breasts become a symbol of wealth.

Some women might want to move on to the next level in order to attract men and equip themselves with hyperbreasts; softer, bigger, better than the real thing. [via www.nextnature.net]

這跟裹小腳一樣嘛..

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Science and Design: The Next Wave

And I always thought visualization was what designers did. [read all at www.designobserver.com]

其實講的一點都沒說服力....

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10 Businesses Facing Extinction in 10 Years

Record stores
Odds of survival in 10 years: Great, if you consider Wal-Mart a record store.

Camera film manufacturing
Odds of survival in 10 years: Some entrepreneurs who specialize in making camera film for amateur photographers could possibly make a living.

Crop dusters
Odds of survival in 10 years: The type of crop dusting plane that chased after Cary Grant in North by Northwest will have almost certainly gone south. Farmers say that they'll always need crop dusters, even though new technologies have made them less important than in the past. But commercial airlines are increasingly taking business away from the small, independent crop dusters.

Gay bars
Odds of survival in 10 years: As with many industries, the very best of them will endure; the rest won't.

Newspapers
Odds of survival in 10 years: They won't disappear; they'll be on the internet. We don't recommend startups investing a lot of money into a printing press plant.

Pay phones
Odds of survival in 10 years: They'll be around, but won't be anything to call home about.

Used bookstores
Odds of survival in 10 years: Some of them will still be eking out an existence, but the handwriting is on the wall.

Piggy banks
Odds of survival in 10 years: Sure, they'll probably still be a few around--in antique shops.

Telemarketing
Odds of survival in 10 years: They'll be here. Humbled, more impotent, but probably still here.

Coin-operated arcades
Odds of survival in 10 years: Game over.


[via www.entrepreneur.com]

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Sustainable?

Sustainable was the most overused word of the week and don’t get me wrong, it’s important to look after our planet but I think we might be going about it the wrong way. We use the word almost as an excuse for excessive consumtion which is ok if it’s sustainable.

[via thorsten van elten]

The Next Generation of Online Shorthand

Check the shorthand below, see if you can understand.
These are the one I feel not too hard.
Answers are on The Next Generation of Online Shorthand

* GI —
* DYFH —
* CMOS —
* SML —
* RHB —
* NBL —
* CTTC —
* TWD —

To be honest, it's so hard to understand if you never use or read it.
These days, MSN, email, text message change our way to communicate from speaking to typing. However, there is a problem, the efficiency of exchanging information. Normally, conversations are maintained at around 200 words per minute(wpm). To type it, Barbara Blackburn, the fastest English language typist in the world, has maintained 150 words per minute for 50 minutes.
Therefore,in order to reach the speed of speaking, we need more shorthand, then actually we create new words, eg, ASAP, coz.
Maybe in the future, our conversation will like this:
A: HAY?
B: F.
A: WAYG?
B: PUMGF & SM.
A: HF.

rather than this:
A: How are you?
B: I am fine.
A: Where are you going?
B: To pick up my girl friend and see a movie.
A: Have fun.


more links
Typewriter
Words per minute

DNA science moves from crime world to art world

The New York version of the popular crime drama, CSI:NY, even used a piece of DNA 11 art in a recent episode where a suspect was caught after her DNA portrait was matched to a crime without the need for a warrant. [via reuters]

It seems harder and harder to put one thing in "one" catalogue.
Science and Art, is not total different any more.
Last month, I went to Wellcome collection with Jenny.
I saw a machine collecting people's data such as IRIS, fingerprint, which are very personal and unique, then create a "symbol" to represent people's identity.
These paintings or symbols are generated by computers, are they art?



more links
www.dna11.com
www.wellcomecollection.org