um, uh, yeah...

We all do it.  Instead of saying what we really mean, we say "um" and "uh" until our audience is pretty sure we have no idea what we are talking about.  This guy has some ideas for how to eliminate that when you are giving a talk... I don't necessarily agree with everything he says, but I think his techniques are probably worth a try.

Routine

Words mean different things to different people.  For most people, "routine" means customary or run of the mill.  My routine involves getting up, showering, eating breakfast and going to work.
For performers, "routine" means a self-contained part of a performance that is well rehearsed and ready to be shown to an audience.  Here are some fun examples.

These news anchors do a little "routine" during the comercial break.

Here are some musicians doing a really nice and well practiced "routine."

Fun Theory

At the BlackBerry developer conference I saw a talk by a person named Jane McGonigal.  She is a game developer who is trying to use the positive aspects of gaming to make the world a better place.  Her idea is basically quite simple.  If you make a goal fun, people will work harder to achieve it.  She has a TED talk here:

I recently came across a web site where VW is trying to do exactly the same thing.  They are encouraging people to use game theory to make the world a better place.  One of my favorites is the place in Sweden where they turned a speed trap into a game.  Normally, those cameras that take pictures of people who are speeding and send them a speeding ticket are a real nuisance.  In this case they made it into a lottery.  Just as before, if you speed, the camera takes you picture and sends you a ticket with a hefty fine that you need to pay.  However, if you don't speed, the camera also takes your picture.  Its just that in this case it enters you into a lottery.  If you are chosen, you get a share of the money from the people who paid the fines.  Apparently, speeding at the intersection in question was reduced significantly.

They also turned a bottle recycling bin into a game

Even a trash bin can be made fun

(notice that all these videos take place in Sweden)

I suppose even our FitBits are making exercise more fun.  Do you think you could make it fun for people to do things that help the world and each other?

Happy Palindrome Day!

Today is 11-02-2011!

Quadcopters are old hat

Sure, quadcopters are fun, but these guys built a giant hexidecicopter multi-copter and then sat on it and flew it!  That's pretty exciting and at least a little bit crazy!

I just can't wait until they are able to do some of the other multi-copter maneuvers like the ones below with a person on board.

Salman Khan Interview

Salman Khan recently spoke at the Web 2.0 summit.  His talk is included below, but in addition to that, there is an interview with him above.  I really think its interesting to hear him talk about the directions that education can go and how the learning experience can change.  He always seems to make it clear that our current system is based on assumptions that might not be appropriate anymore.  Good stuff.

Beagle Bone

Arduinos are great, but there are a lot of processors out there with much more computing power.  The BeagleBone is the latest board to try to bring a much more powerful ARM processor, Linux and Ethernet to the hobbyist market.  I still think that the Arduino has an advantage in ease of use for the developer, but these more powerful platforms are pretty compelling.  You can read about it and see a video on Engadget.

Projectors for Augmented Reality

I really like new ways to connect the real and virtual worlds.  Here, Microsoft plays with some fun new ideas for using a projector to interact with a room.

The population

NPR produced a nice video about population growth.  Why is the population growing so fast suddenly?  Will it continue?  Watch and find out.

The Arduino Story

This looks pretty interesting.  Its the story of how Arduinos came to be.  Did you ever wonder where that name came from?  Well, that and plenty of other things are revealed in this story.

The Making of Arduino