Why We Love, Need Fiction

Why We Love, Need Fiction
[Via Daily Ideafeed | Big Think]

“As psychologist and novelist Keith Oatley remarks, fiction works as a social simulator, allowing us to stretch our scope beyond the actual to the possible or the impossible. We need not be confined to the given, but can turn actuality around within the much larger space of possibility to explain how things are or to see how they could have been or might be. By building on our sociality, pretend play and fiction extend our imaginations, taking us from the here and now along tracks we can easily follow even offline because they are the fresh tracks of agents.”

[More]

We use stories to teach ourselves much about the expectations society holds for us and our behavior. Some stretch our beliefs and others reinforce them. But all can be very important.

Into space with an iPhone

Luke Geissbuhler’s Homemade Spacecraft
[Via Daring Fireball]

Impressive project, and some great footage. My favorite part of the video is the countdown, though — the boys’ excitement is palpable.

[More]

They used the GPS of an iPhone to get location and a HD camera for pictures.. They spent a lot of time researching this because the FAA will not just let you launch anything with a weather balloon. If you did, you could be in big trouble.

It was launched in NY. You can tell that they got up to about 100,000 feet because that is where you can see the curvature of the Earth.

Another slightly more complex one was also launched recently with a little more tech savvy. They had multiple cameras, smartphones and GPS devices, with what looks to be a heavier payload. This one used an iPhone for the camera. It does not appear to get as high but it is cool nonetheless. It lifted off from Wisconsin.

Some Nobel complaints

Pioneer of IVF Wins Nobel Prize; Anti-Choice Tantrums Ahead[Via Big Think]

Biologist Robert G. Edwards has won the Nobel Prize for his work on in vitro fertilization. Edwards and his late colleague, gynecologist Patrick Steptoe, helped an infertile woman give birth to the world’s first “test tube baby” in July of 1978. According to the New York Times, the initial …

[More]

When I first read this, I thought the title was unfair. Who would really be against the ability of infertile couples having a child?

Turns out an official in the Vatican does. Not too surprising as the Catholic Church is against IVF, viewing it as a gravely evil act.

We could have a very different judicial system soon

by brain_blogger

How Neuroscience Is Changing the Law
[Via Big Think]

As leading-edge neuroimaging labs use scanners to reveal more and more details about how the brain works, their findings are increasingly affecting other fields as well. The legal system, in particular, is now being forced to assess the potential implications of new information about how issues …

[More]

Just as DNA technologies have produced a lot of change in the court system, so will neuroscience. However, in some areas, such as lie detection, I expect the tentative nature of the technology may sometimes be overlooked.

It is worrisome to ponder whether the way you think may be critical in your prosecution.

Who teaches remedial creepy line awareness?

by DerrickT

Told You He Was Creepy
[Via Daring Fireball]

Google CEO Erik Schmidt, in an interview with Atlantic editor James Bennet:

“The average American doesn’t realize how much of the laws are written by lobbyists” to protect incumbent interests, Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Atlantic editor James Bennet at the Washington Ideas Forum. “It’s shocking how the system actually works.”

That’s a succinct — and non-partisan — assessment that sounds exactly right to me.

But then:

“Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it,” he said. Google implants, he added, probably crosses that line.

At the same time, Schmidt envisions a future where we embrace a larger role for machines and technology. “With your permission you give us more information about you, about your friends, and we can improve the quality of our searches,” he said. “We don’t need you to type at all. We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less now what you’re thinking about.”

Somebody needs remedial “creepy line awareness” training.

[More]

Gruber highlights the obviously schizophrenic nature of Google’s CEO – rational then moving into some weird la-la land.

It will be a good thing for Google to know where we are, where we’ve been and to know what we are thinking about? And that does not cross the creepy line that Google implants represents? Because if Google knows, so can all of its advertising partners who pay the bills. In any conflict between the incumbent interests of the advertisers and the customers, who do you think will triumph?

I guess I am just an old fogey but I do not see how putting that much information into the hands of any one company – much less one that survives on satisfying its advertising partners rather than its customers – is a good thing.

While a ‘creepy line awareness’ session might be called for, I somehow do not think the right people will attend. I wonder if the Dunning-Kruger effect could be a problem?

Kickstarter – how products will be created in the future

Glif: Kickstarter Project to Make an iPhone Stand/Tripod Mount
[Via Daring Fireball]

Count me in for this Kickstarter project: Dan “The Russians Used a Pencil” Provost and Thomas Gerhardt have designed a combination stand/tripod mount for the iPhone 4.

[More]

Manufacturing at very precise tolerances can be contracted out now for almost anything. So, when you have a great idea, instead of doing it the old fashioned way – form a corporation, hire people, marketing, sales. etc. – we can now use Kickstarter.

Kickstarter essentially allows you to set a price needed to accomplish a task and set up different levels of support. It essentially makes a PBS type pitch available to anyone. No one is charged anything unless the goal is reached. Everyone benefits. Capital does not need to be expended before revenues arrive. The creators can provide a wide range of different levels of support, providing individualized services.

Look at what they did – they raised the $10,000 in just hours, getting 382 backers. The vast majority giving at least $20, meaning they get a Glif when it is made. But 44 people are paying $50 or more for a ‘prototype’ device almost immediately in addition to the final product. And 5 people have taken them up on the free dinner in NY.

Very nice way for creative guys to get some money without having to deal with all those extraneous things that. And smart guys they are, they put a press kit in their page that provides pictures to use. One is above and here is another.

They have more than enough money to get the project started, with increasing interest that will sustain making more Glifs.

In fact, in the time I wrote this, they went from 382 backers to 416 and now have over $11,500 in pledges. Check back tomorrow and see what they have.

Maybe iPad has longer than 18 months

by laihiu

Delays Android Tablet, Waiting for Android 3.0
[Via Daring Fireball]

Reuters:

LG Electronics Inc said on Monday that it had scrapped a plan to launch a tablet computer based on Google Inc’s Android 2.2 operation system known as “Froyo,” a decision that may delay the rollout of its first tablet PC slated for next quarter.

That’s a different tune than the song LG vice president Chang Ma was singing a little over a month ago:

The South Korean company also plans to launch a tablet computer globally by the fourth quarter under its Optimus line, said Chang Ma, vice president of marketing for LG’s mobile-devices unit.

The first LG tablet, which will run on Google Inc.’s Android software, will set itself apart from Apple Inc.’s iPad by focusing on the ability to create content, rather than simply display it, Mr. Ma said in an interview.

Mr. Ma said that the iPad is a great device, but he doesn’t do much work on it. “Our tablet will be better than the iPad.”

[More]

Kind of hard to show us your better tablet if you delay it. I think this may come not only from difficulty getting parts, as I have mentioned before, but also from the fact that even Goggle has said Android 2.2 is not a good operating system for a tablet. Google has really let its partners down by not having a tablet-ready operating system anywhere near completion on Apple’s timeline.

I wonder if MS Windows Phone 7 or whatever it is called will be a better tablet OS? Since Ballmer stated over the summer that they were focussed on the phone not on tablets, the answer seems to be no. And any attempt to put it on tablets with the OS being optimized – the same problem Android has – creates a horrid user experience.

Apple’s competitors are just now bringing to market devices that Apple was selling almost 2 years ago. Their timeframe for competing in the tablet space is also about 2 years behind.

I wonder what the streaming media space will be like in two years? I wonder what the smartphone space will be like when we will be using White-fi to carry on FaceTime conversations? Is any other company even looking at these possibilities right now?

Perhaps Google. But google does not make its own hardware, being dependent on other companies. And the other companies will be 2 years behind Apple. Will they be able to catch up?

Apple has a huge storage facility that it has built that is right in line with the needs for streaming both of these types of data. Google might also have the storage facilities but its business model is quite different than Apple’s, so It had a good chance.

But what about any others? It could well be a Google-Apple world 2 years from now.

Apple is showing just what happens with a creative, adaptive company gets going.

Maybe Christmas 2012 the iPad will have real competition?

iPad lead seen as ‘overwhelming’

[Via Brainstorm Tech]

Competitors may “fall flat” in terms of user experience and struggle to uncut Apple’s prices

Click to enlarge. Source: Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore has surveyed the tablet computer scene and concluded that things do not look good for the iPad’s competitors.

“We believe Apple’s lead in the tablet market will prove difficult to close by the onslaught of competing products coming over the next several quarters,” he writes in a note to clients issued early Monday. “Ultimately, we expect the slew of upcoming competition to fall flat from a user experience standpoint while struggl[ing] to materially undercut the iPad on price.”

How far ahead is Apple (AAPL)? According to Whitmore:

• 12-18 months in content (see chart)
• 2 or more years in terms of other media acquisition and integration via iTunes
• Untold dollars in terms of component pricing

“What’s troubling for competitors,” writes Whitmore, “is Apple’s growing scale advantages and leverage with the supply chain.” Not only is Apple the largest buyer of FLASH by a wide margin, he says, accounting for 20%-25% of the world’s supply, but it has locked down much of the world’s touch screen manufacturing capacity.

[More]

The ability of competitors to even get the parts they need in the short term is terribly constrained, as Apple has soaked up most of the contracts. As I wrote earlier, I wonder if the reason we are seeing so many 7 inch tablets is because they can not get any of the larger sizes, as Apple has them.

So Christmas 2011 may see some good tablets but not good app integration. And by the time 2012 rolls around, Apple will have a two year head start and be working on the next leap forward.

They will have the same, scalable operating system underpinning everything from desktop computers to smartphones to tablets, making development of apps across all of them much, much simpler. They seem to be working on a strategy for mobile devices that will work around cell phone companies in ways that Android and other competitors will not have.

And their ads are so great that even South Park is using them:

Selling iPads through a wide river

by markg6

Apple begins selling iPad direct through Amazon, Target
[Via AppleInsider]

Just as the iPad went on sale at U.S. retailer Target, the device is also now available at the standard price for purchase direct through online storefront Amazon.com — no longer just through the site’s third-party resellers.

[More]

Increasing the number of sales points for the iPad heralds a big shift. Sales should go way up with so many places to buy the iPad.

Where are any competitors? Where will they be selling their tablets? I’d be willing to be not many through Target.

And with apps like Flipboard making reading Twitter and Facebook feeds an incredible experience, competitors will be far behind with useful apps.

At least for this Christmas.