The long-awaited robot cat is available, albeit in an early and rather basic form. It needs to have programmable gestures, by the look of it, to expand the range of actions. Also the different purr types and meows. Though doubtless various toy-hacking nerds are working on that… Not quite as cool as…
Archive for the ‘Nerds’ Category
Amateur Creativity
14 Jun 2015 at 16:12
David Haden
Artist(s), Creative industries, Nerds, Zeitgeist
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A two-day free symposium on Amateur Creativity is to be held at the School of Theatre, University of Warwick (on the outskirts of Coventry) on 17th – 18th September 2015. It… “aims to challenge perceptions of amateur creativity and contribute to debates about the cultural significance of the amateur”.
Geek or nerd
A pretty good attempt at nailing the obvious differences between geeks and nerds. Nerds also tend to be a lot more productive, making genuinely new stuff, while geeks tend toward a more passive fanboy-ish consumption and a little tinkering at the edges (mild gadget hacking, graphic design tweaks). Geeks, for instance, would never consider creating […]
El Reg on voice recorders
In a back-to-the-lecture-room special, The Register‘s hardware boffins get all up-close and slobbery with a group review of ten in-pocket voice recorders.
Tinkering with innovation
A new academic paper finds that tinkering by British nerds effectively triples the nation’s private-sector R&D budget in consumer products. The time we… “spent making and improving products was more than twice as large as the amount spent by all British firms combined on product research and development over a three-year period. … The types […]
USB typewriter conversion kit
23 Jul 2010 at 05:49
David Haden
Nerds, Steampunk, Techie, Zeitgeist
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USB old typewriter conversion kit, on Etsy.
Geeksworld
Geeksworld looks like an interesting one-day event in Birmingham in September 2010… [ Hat-tip: Nikki Pugh ]
Second Skin on DVD
A couple of years ago on D’log I mentioned a feature-length documentary about players of online multiplayer fantasy games, Second Skin. It’s was finished over a year ago, and has had tantalisingly excellent reviews while doing the rounds of the seemingly interminably DVD-delaying U.S. film festival circuit — and is now finally released on DVD […]
Shatter soundtrack
Mmm, fresh listening for the monsoon season. Yes, it’s more retro electro-tastic space-pop / 8-bit game music. Just released and free online, although not via Spotify… Shatter : Official Videogame Soundtrack (2009) by Jeramiah Ross aka Module. (Full streaming album, no ads) I’m now on my third play-through. Excellent. Outstanding track: “Amethyst Caverns”.
8-Bit Operators
8-Bit Operators : The Music Of Kraftwerk Performed On 8-Bit Video Game Systems (Spotify playlist) Outstanding track: “Tanzmuzik” interpreted by Herbert Wiexelbaum.
Grass-eating boys
The latest update on the Japanese nerd class. They seems to have left the bedroom, and given up spending on collectables — instead they’re going on cost-free photography walks and growing radishes. Still not much interest in real girls, though.
Fisking MacWhirter
Alex Massie fisks Iain MacWhirter’s recent attacks on bloggers.
Sim life
Gregg Segal photographs cos-play fans, notably those who dress up as 17th century pirates and 20th century superheroes, in-costume and at home…
THES on eccentric academics
13 Mar 2009 at 17:48
David Haden
Artist(s), Nerds, Teaching, Zeitgeist
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The Times Higher Educational Supplement on the decline of obsessive eccentricity in UK higher education …. … a stress on “perseverance and sociability at the expense of intelligence and creativity” has had the effect of excluding the “brilliant, impulsive, inspired, antisocial oddballs”. […] creativity of genius level usually needs high IQ and moderately high […] […]
Imaginary Landscapes
Imaginary Landscapes: a film about Brian Eno (Flash video, 40 minutes). Directed by Duncan Ward, and made in 1989. Now online for free.
10 wearable gadgets
19 Oct 2008 at 07:04
David Haden
Cool sites, Nerds, Techie, Zeitgeist
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A Gizmondo survey of ten wearable gadgets for mobile media makers. Such as the Wi-Fi Detecting Shirt; Wi-Fi Detecting Shoes; Wi-Fi Watch; 16:9 eye visor; trousers with embedded keyboard, mouse and knee-speakers; sound hats; and the awesome “Body-Laptop Wooly Jumper”…
10th Birmingham Tolkien Fest
Dates for the 10th Tolkien ‘Middle Earth Weekend’ festival in Birmingham; 16th to 17th May 09. Photographers who want to document fan cultures may be especially interested, since much of it is outdoors in good light. Radio students could also find it makes for a good documentary.
This charming man
05 Oct 2008 at 19:47
David Haden
Artist(s), Birmingham, Nerds, Photographers
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Birmingham/Leamington photographer Ben Sutton spots a charming nerd…
Transformative Works and Cultures #1
05 Oct 2008 at 07:26
David Haden
Comic art, Entertainment, Nerds, Reading, Teaching
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The first issue of the academic open ejournal Transformative Works and Cultures is now online, featuring full-text peer-reviewed papers on fannish cultures.
X-Prize podcast
You may have heard that Google is helping fund the $30m Lunar X Prize to land on the moon, and has today launched its own $10m innovation ideas prize. So what’s going on here? Well, if you’re interested there’s an excellent new podcast (.mp3, 34Mb) that explains. It’s an hour-long Long Now talk by Peter […]