Between Core77 linking to one of my “design thinking” rants (reLink) and some of the “virtual Coke” traffic to my post late last week (reLink), this one came from out of left field: a bunch of traffic coming from vCrib (Link), a “virtual” home automation effort about which I blogged some time back (reLink) and which has a couple of links to this blog.

Watching this vid, one thing comes to mind: Robocop’s standard line “… there’s going to be… trouble.”

Next up: a gun mounted on a Lego robot that patrols the perimeter.

I’ve been watching “Darwin”, one of the RepRap projects, develop since its inception; and though I’ve not mentioned it (at least I don’t think I have), it’s the one I found especially intriguing.

The above video is an excellent and fun timelapse showing the construction of a “Darwin” RepRap device. For more about this one, head over to the wiki page that has the details (Link).

I like the fact that this 3D printer, the project of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories (Link), isn’t going down the precision path of RepRap or fab@home as that takes it a bit closer to the larger-scale termite-building ideas I had (reLink).

I look forward to seeing a video of this thing in action; probably in May after they (hopefully) show it off at the Maker Faire.

Now I’m wondering what’s been going on with Behrokh Khoshnevis’ effort. Time to surf around for an update.

via Core77

{Image Copyright © 2007 Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories}

Caught this over on Mashable last week; “Google Acquires Marratech, WebEx Killer Coming?” (Link). Recall my earlier thoughts surrounding some WebEx news (reLink).

Increasingly I get the feeling Google is heading down a path toward something much, much larger. They seem to be acquiring pieces of a puzzle and fitting them together in the same fashion as I believed Microsoft was doing (reLink).

I’m not interested in making a second official prediction (because I’m uncomfortable with them, as some of you are probably aware), but I have a feeling something pretty interesting is on the horizon. Something along the lines of what I discussed in a recent comment (reLink).

I recently used the scientific term “free radical” to describe a blogger whose writing I enjoy. I used that descriptor to mean someone who doesn’t think about issues and problems the way others studying them might. It is, in my opinion, a very designer thing; and I don’t mean that in the applied arts context.

It’s easy to say that because even among professional “designers”, it’s not necessarily the case that someone developing products will maintain their objectivity. One of the things I never wanted for myself was to be pigeon-holed as a particular type of designer. It’s relatively common for designers to fall into categories: car designer, toy designer, shoe designer, aso. In my way of thinking, it seems contrary to what we should be doing. The moment I become too comfortable designing something, I want to move out of that comfort zone because I fear that remaining inside it is detrimental to how I might think about a product; detrimental to innovation. Sometimes not knowing how things are done is a good thing, imo.
Continue reading →