Near Future Laboratory Blog
Near Future Laboratory Blog
Thoughts, Reflections, Updates & Week Notes
Nov 18, 2008 – Jan 5, 2009
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JCB_01012009__142528_4160_DRV001
Jan 05, 2009
Continuing on my strange pursuit of designing weird interfaces that disrupt conventional game interaction rituals, I put together a bit more of my “PSX” project. You probably don’t recall, but this is the project where I’ve created a little “dongle” that can fool a PS2 (or Playstation 3, as it turns out..) into thin…
3D PrintedArduinoDesign for ImplicationsDisruptionHardwareNew Interaction RitualsPeculiarPlayPropellerPSXSoftwareControllerGamesPlaystation 2TWITwo Wire Interfacevideo games
13122008_155242
Dec 31, 2008
Tending to the digital garden here, replacing a small-oldish laptop hard drive (90 GB) for a larger one (320 GB). Going through this ritual made me think about what gets old and how things begin to fail, or need to be retired, or stored for the winter, or, like the roses in our backyard, deadheaded.. In this case, I…
How ToObservationsDigital Garden TendingHardwareHowToLaptopMacBook Pro
30112008_132120
Dec 11, 2008
Improvisation enacted to overcome a secured door that is probably the most often used in the studio, sitting near to the kitchen and coffee machines (and the sadly defunct espresso machine..) A stapler used to keep a door open helps one poor sould evades the secure RFID lock. Likely, their secure card was left on th…
Book StuffImprovisationObservationsPeculiarPhotoThoughtless ActsSecurityStapler
271108_160253
Dec 02, 2008
Anticipating the less-than-lovely side of ubiquitous computing scenarios, this photo is the end point of a circuitous GPS navigation FAIL on the way to relatives for Thanksgiving dinner last week. Looks like we’re driving into the river there. After what we went through, it wouldn’t surprise me if the GPS lady sent…
MobileMotionObservationsTheoryTravelGPSNavigation
Defender
Nov 30, 2008
Curious strategy for preventing bumper dings — a bumper for the bumper, you might say. It’s the Mobile De-fender. (Get it? De Fender?) You will see material like this for preventing a lower category of bump, such as a “light tap” from negotiating a tricky parallel parking job, or even the deliberate tap to inch a ca…
ImprovisationMobileObservationsPeculiarPhotoUrbanNew YorkNew York CitySocial PracticesStreet
A Story In Fragments
Nov 29, 2008
There’s a story here. The bottle smashed on the ground is a lovely blue-green glass with a Sake label of some sort on it, probably from the pocket-sized Sake specialty store 10 meters or so back down the block. I don’t know if the smashed bottle, and the janky protective garbage bag over the driver’s side window her…
ObservationsPhotoUrbanCarNew YorkNew York City
Ubicomp is like a 5 year old wishing for a pink pony
Nov 23, 2008
Complete Ubicomp fail. I mean..they can’t even get this most simple of scenarios straightened out and they want to put my refrigerator and toaster oven on the network? WTF. Seriously. Anytime I hear the alpha futurist-y featurists get all excited about some kind of idea for how the new ubicomp networked world will b…
Design for ImplicationsInterfaceObservationssensorUndesignFailureUbicomp
Dead objects preserved
Nov 23, 2008
Observed on a walk-about San Francisco, curious antique objects and their preservation, or lack of. I stumbled across this diorama-like recreation at an unused entranceway to the San Francisco Chronicle building (at least, I think that’s what this building was.) It was Herb Caen’s office frozen in time, with his old…
Observations
What does $5 get you, anyway?
Nov 18, 2008
Slideshow from The Five Dollar Comparison on Flickr
Design for ImplicationsInnovationNokia$5DesignDesign ResearchFivedollarcomparison