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Has that classic Bristol sound and vibe (Massive Attack / Portishead etc). From Gil Scott-Heron’s new album.
Personal Informatics Cheap, Fun and Fashiony
Neat review of a fitbit-style pedometer with a new approach. The price, the fashion angle, and the activity based rewards program is really interesting. Looking at their site it is clearly going for a much more mainstream audience than fitbit etc.
"An obsession with innovation leads executives down the wrong path. Just trying to be good would be a smarter focus…From my studies of the history of business innovation, I’m convinced you can beat competitors and even dominate markets without fancy tricks. All you need is the ability to make things that are good consistently, since few companies do."
I had a fantastic cocktail last weekend at a restaurant in Brooklyn called Dressler. The cocktail was called The Red Baron (WWI ace pictured above). If you google “The Red Baron cocktail” you get quite a range of recipes but nothing that resembles what the Dressler had on their menu…
Bourbon
Poire Williams (pear liqueur)
Lemon
Brown sugar
Angostura bitters
Once I get my hands on the Poire Williams Im going to attempt to make it. It was really tasty and fell somewhere in the Old Fashioned zone (served on the rocks).
The work of Conor Klein (via hyperradiant)
“this power-saving device, inspired by the behaviour of a leech, physically disconnects consumer electronics from the outlet. once full of blood, a leech will simply fall of its host to digest. this product mimics the leeches inelegant yet efficient solution for over-consumption. it is hard to tell when electronics are or are not taking energy and many never stop taking energy if they are plugged in (e.g. cellphone chargers). this product solves that problem by using a timer circuit and electromechanics to eject its plug which disconnects your device from the wall outlet. once the plug falls out, all energy consumption stops and only resumes once the plug is inserted again.”
Personal Informatics Quiver
Some people asked so here it is.
Currently running…
FitBit - Nicely designed pedometer with bluetooth proximity syncing. Paired web service shows you how active you are etc. Also tracks sleep and nutrition (I don’t use those parts though).
Nike+ Tracks runs & walks. Crappy web service but has an API.
Withings WiFi Scale - Slick scale that tracks lean mass, fat mass, and weight. Decent iPhone app and web service for visualizing data.
RescueTime - Tracks how much time I spend on specific sites, applications and documents. Had it since Sept08. Awesome data set.
Mint.com - I spend how much on food?!?!
Last.fm - Listening habits, you know the drill. Oldest source of PI data I have.
Daytum - For random private stuff I would never share with anyone in a million years (Voice in my head: “Then maybe you shouldnt put it on the internet”).
Google Latitude - For always on location tracking, not check-ins.
DailyBurn - Great iPhone app that scans barcodes of the foods you eat to gather nutritional information. Plays nice with the Withings scale above.
Looking forward to…
Pedalbrain - Nike+ (and more) for cycling. Awaiting pre-order.
WakeMate Similar to the FitBit’s sleep tracking but goes a little deeper and is dedicated (pre-ordered).
Something to track household electricity use - Maybe Wattson/Holmes or Wattsvision. Although it would be nice if the utility companies played nice with Google Power Meter and I didn’t need any hardware.
"The Bridge gives you the ultimate mixtape creation tool. Perform your mix in Scratch Live or ITCH and save it as an automated Ableton Live Set. Play your mix rather than cut and paste in a DAW. Forget about having to start a mixtape from scratch because of a mistake at minute fifty-nine. Each song is recorded and laid out on a track in Live separately, and any moves you’ve made with your hardware are recorded along with the track."
THE BRIDGE
Part one of the Serato / Ableton Partnership.
"My personal 35-year long software odyssey has made abundantly clear to me that the task of satisfying the user can only be achieved by fully integrating both the development and the interaction design practitioners into a single, self-organizing, self-directed team."
An Insurgency of Quality -Alan Cooper
Great concept video on the future of digital magazines by BERG London. I loved the “rub the content to heat it up” interaction. Radial menus seem to be popping up quite a bit. The other video by BERG about visualizing RFID is also well worth checking out. (via Kicker)
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Amazing kinetic, object, and installation artworks. www.dwbowen.com
Diagram from a wonderful book called back of the napkin and mentioned in a wonderful series of posts called the social life of visualization
