Today's Google doodle honors Marshall McLuhan's 106th birthday. Traditionally these commemorative doodles use images and designs based on a historic event or person's life to "spell" out a version of the Google logo. This animated doodle consists of scenes depicting the successive eras of communication media as outlined by McLuhan. Beginning with oral culture in … Continue reading McLuhan birthday gets doodle
Tag: google
Guns with Google Glass, city of driverless cars, Kurzweil on hybrid thinking
Tech companies and weapons manufacturers are exploring the crossover potential for firearms and wearable technology devices like Google Glass. Brian Anderson at Motherboard reported Austin tech startup TrackingPoint's foray into this inevitable extension of augmented reality applications and posted the company's concept video: "When paired with wearable technology, PGFs can provide unprecedented benefits to shooters, such as the … Continue reading Guns with Google Glass, city of driverless cars, Kurzweil on hybrid thinking
Inside Korea’s gaming culture, virtual worlds and economic modeling, Hollywood’s Summer of Doom continues, and more
I've long been fascinated by the gaming culture in South Korea, and Tom Massey has written a great feature piece for Eurogamer titled Seoul Caliber: Inside Korea's Gaming Culture. From this westerner's perspective, having never visited Korea, the article reads almost more like cyberpunk fiction than games journalism: Not quite as ubiquitous, but still extremely common, are PC Bangs: … Continue reading Inside Korea’s gaming culture, virtual worlds and economic modeling, Hollywood’s Summer of Doom continues, and more
Hacker’s death, wearable tech, and some Cyberpunk
White hat hacker Barnaby Jack was found dead in San Francisco this week; he was 35 years old. From the Reuters article on his death: His genius was finding bugs in the tiny computers embedded in equipment, such as medical devices and cash machines. He often received standing ovations at conferences for his creativity and … Continue reading Hacker’s death, wearable tech, and some Cyberpunk
Mice memory implants, augmented reality trends, predictive policing, more
In case you haven't already heard, scientists have implanted false memories into the brains of mice. Scientists have created a false memory in mice by manipulating neurons that bear the memory of a place. The work further demonstrates just how unreliable memory can be. It also lays new ground for understanding the cell behavior and … Continue reading Mice memory implants, augmented reality trends, predictive policing, more
Google settles over privacy violations, Social media segregation, the era of big data, and more…
Google is reportedly reaching a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over an incident in which the Internet search giant violated an agreement with the FTC by tracking Safari users' data. From the Associated Press: Google is poised to pay a $22.5 million fine to resolve allegations that it broke a privacy promise by secretly … Continue reading Google settles over privacy violations, Social media segregation, the era of big data, and more…
in medias res: bridging the “time sap” gap, DIY politics, Google thinks you’re stupid, and more
When researchers started using the term "digital divide" in the 1990s they were referring to an inequality of access to the Internet and other ICTs. Over time the issue shifted from unequal access to emphasizing disparities of technological competency across socioeconomic sectors. The new manifestation of the digital divide, according to a New York Times … Continue reading in medias res: bridging the “time sap” gap, DIY politics, Google thinks you’re stupid, and more
In medias res: end-of-the-semester reading list
Due to end-of-the-semester activities posting has been slow the last couple of weeks. But my exams are finished and I've submitted grades so here's a celebratory news roundup: Wired reported on Sergey Brin of Google: China, SOPA, Facebook Threaten the ‘Open Web’ In an interview published Sunday, Google’s co-founder cited a wide range of attacks … Continue reading In medias res: end-of-the-semester reading list
Society of the spectacles: Varying views on Google’s goggles
This week Google released a video depicting what it might be like to wear their augmented reality glasses, known as Project Glass: A bloke named Tom Scott released his own vision of what the Google goggle experience might be like, envisioning technologically-enhanced ways of getting injured: Youtuber rebelliouspixels remixed the original Google video to depict … Continue reading Society of the spectacles: Varying views on Google’s goggles