Let the April Fools Hijinx begin

Its that time of year, and the internet is full of people with a sense of humor.  This year, we start with some 8-bit maps from Google.  Enjoy!

Thanks to Glenn for the link.

Indoor Skydiving!!

Today we went to a birthday for one of Bix's friends.  It was held at a place called I Fly SF Bay where we went indoor sky diving.  Yes, you read that right.  We went indoor sky diving.  They have a special building with a giant fan in the floor that is capable of blowing air directly up at speeds that can actually suspend you in the air.  The four 250 hp motors use 500 kilowatts to create 100 - 180 mph winds to keep you aloft.  It was a pretty incredible experience.  You actually get feel free fall without the need to have the earth rushing at you at scary speeds.  If you ever get the opportunity, we recommend that you give it a try.

Bix says:

"Indoor Sky Diving.  That's something I never thought I could say I did.  It was scary at first but once I knew what I was doing it felt like I could fly forever, glide in the wind over to England and back."

Widdakay says:

"It felt as if I were superman, once I got the hang of how to stay in control of my speed."

Thanks for an awesome birthday party Holly!

April Fools

Dont believe everything you hear tomorrow.  It is April 1st, the day that it is OK to play pranks on your friends, family and co-workers.  Did you ever wonder where this tradition came from?   This video gives you the history.

Let us know if you come across some great April Fools gags.

Guy Kawasaki on Steve Jobs

I remember Guy Kawasaki from the early days of Macintosh and his book, "The Macintosh Way."  He worked with Steve Jobs twice (one of the few who managed to do that).  In this video, he has some insights that he learned from Steve Jobs.  There are some great ideas in there, like, in a presentation, the point size of your smallest font should be approximately half the age of the oldest person in your audience.  Definitely inspirational and worth 20 minutes of your time, but if you prefer, you can read essentially the same thing here.

Frame of Mind

Frame of Mind from Steven Alan on Vimeo.

This is a fun little video about two guys and a picture frame.  Take a look and enjoy.

Wind Map

Things get hairy in the US?  No, actually this is a map of the winds across the country.  It is strangely beautiful, but somehow it does kind of look as if we are growing fur.  The live moving map is quite compelling.  See the live map here.

Thanks Mercy

Making Books

With all the digital gizmos that we are surrounded by, we sometimes forget the simple beauty of a physical book.  Here at Digital Diner, we love our tablet computers, but still Bix surrounds herself with physical books, and Monika recently because the proud owner of the world's most impressive cook book (which I hope she will discuss in a future post).  The short video above, does a beautiful job of showing you the care that goes into the production of real, limited edition books.  Take a look and see if you agree.

New Ways of Programming

Bret Victor - Inventing on Principle from CUSEC on Vimeo.

Bret Victor gave a really interesting talk about how programming should really work, and that invention can be based on/motivated by a principle.  He has a very interesting view of what is static and what is dynamic and how it can affect how we create things.  Right now, programmers spend their time typing in complex code that is then compiled or interpreted by the computer.  These worlds of editing and runtime are very related, but not really directly connected in a two way sense.  In his world programming is part definition and part performance.  It is a long talk, but around 24:00 he talks about how his ideas apply to designing circuits as well as software.  If you are at all interested in this topic, it is worth your while.
He isn't the only one who is interested in this type of idea.  The video below is much shorter and shows a system called Gliimpse that connects code to result via simple animation.

Bald Eagles are Moving In!

This is just local news, but it's rather exciting.  According to the San Jose Mercury News, two bald eagles have returned to San Mateo County after nearly a century of absence.  The last time they were seen around here was in 1915.  Now a pair have set up residence near the north end of Crystal Springs Reservoir, right off of I-280.  I hoping that from time to time they make an appearance here in our nearby Edgewood Park.  We'll keep an eye out for them.

Read about it here.

View Bald eagle viewpoint in a larger map

Synthetic Biology Competition

This is really cool.  iGem is a competition to build biomachines.  It has categories for high school, college and entrepreneurs.  The idea is to build interesting things using some standard biological building blocks.  I think this is an exciting way to promote interest and innovation in new field of synthetic biology.  In the high school division, these are some of the topics:

• An alarm clock that helps you fall asleep and wake up with scents
• An olfactory test for the detection of carbon monoxide
• Using E Coli to create a tyrian purple dye
• Create a BioBrick which can produce a protein that can aid in glucose digestion for those whole are intolerant
• A system to detect mercury in water and give off a red glow
• A BioBrick to detect water contaminants

Below is an interesting/quirky little video on the difference between between genetic engineering and synthetic biology.

Looks like fun to me.  Anybody want to form a team?  What do you want to build?