Category: Emerging Tech

Rosa's time machine on display at the Bronx Museum

mobile video portrait of the artist

My good friend and collaborator Rosa Ruey has a new work on display as part of the show Living & Dreaming at the Bronx Museum.

Rosa’s new work, “Chrono-Particle Processor”, is both visually mesmerizing and strangely functional. You see, it is actually a distributed time machine meant for the general good of all humanity to give back time we have lost… or something like that. Portions of the work/device were realized using intricate inked pieces of wood designed using open-source app Inkscape and then rendered out of wood using a laser provided by the always-awesome NYC Resistor. Since there is a spiritual link between Nikola Tesla and NYC Resistor, then the possibility that Rosa’s work is actually a space-time device of some sort may actually be true.

The show is up until September 13th. It is very easy to get to the Bronx Museum on the D train… it took MC and I about 45 minutes from Park Slope on a Sunday! Exit at 167st and walk down Grand Concourse about two blocks. The museum itself is a beautiful space, with additional exhibits on display including a general history of the Bronx through artifacts.

More of Rosa’s drawings and sketches can be seen below and on her website…

Video: My "Open Data for Developers" session from #CapitolCamp

Last Friday, the NY Senate CIO hosted the first ever Capitol Camp in Albany.

Along with Remy DeCausemaker, I led a session on “Open Data for Developers”, discussing the Why?/What?/How?’s of releasing government data in open formats with open tools. Remy demonstrated the scrubbers and scrapers that his organization Civx.us has developed.

Here’s the video…

You can view the complete session notes here along with notes and information on the rest of the event. There are also uncut videos of the rest of the sessions on the NY Senate Uncut YouTube Channel.

Teaching @ NYU this Fall: "Social Activism Using Mobile Technology"

Social Activism Using Mobile Technology
H79.2800.1 Call#76846 Tues 6:30pm to 9:00pm Staff
ITP Course Listing

We all know how mobile phones and ubiquitous computing have changed communication and networking in our personal lives, but do you understand the affect they have had on political and social justice movements around the world? More importantly, do you know how this has been done, so that you can apply these techniques when your own moment to raise your voice comes? While Obama Vice-Presidential SMS announcement was a milestone for politics in the U.S., activists and organizations around the world have been using mobile phones for years to get their message out, organize their communities, safely communicate under authoritarian eyes and save lives in times of crisis.

Through studying historic, global uses of mobile technology and then teaching you how to use and apply these techniques, this course will give you the power 2B THE CHNG U WNT 2 C. The source will study and apply the use of SMS capture and broadcast systems (FrontlineSMS/RapidSMS), mobile crisis & event reporting tools (Ushahidi, VoteReport), Bluetooth broadcast systems, pirate Wifi mesh nodes, helmet-cam mobile phones and wearable UMPC/NetBook video broadcast systems. The course will also study about security and privacy of mobile phones and the possibility for open-source telephony. While the focus will be on the cutting edge, we’ll also review the historic importance of police scanners, HAM radio, walkie talkie radios and other “old school” tools that have played important roles in the civil rights movement, the environmental movement and more. Actual organizations, causes and activists will be invited to speak to the class (both in-person and via Skype from around the world) to offer their stories and observations. Opportunities to work on projects with these movements will be presented to students.

Some experience programming mobile devices (J2ME, iPhone, Android) will be useful, but not necessary. Experience in setting up at least one web server/application or blog system preferred. Having a cause you work or identify with or at least something you care about will be very important. Case studies to include:

  • The use of SMS message forwarding and multimedia attachments to share the Philippines version of the Nixon tapes
  • Streaming live video from Mt. Everest and the Great Wall of China (while hiding from the police)
  • Secure, Anonymous, Private Mobile Phones via open-source Cryptophone software and Google Android
  • Reporting in Crisis: Kenya, Congo and Gaza eyewitness acount tracking via SMS and Smartphones
  • Election Protection: making sure your vote counts – activism for the common citizen
  • Crowd Control: Organizing and directing mass mobilizations through Twitter and SMS
  • Virtual Telephony: Asterisk, Google Voice, Skype and more, and why making phone numbers virtual and disposalable matters
  • From Tsunami’s to Twitter: did you know the first micro-blogging via SMS that mattered happened in the aftermath of the 2005 tsunami?

Open-Source Ukulele Proto Uno Lazzzzored FTW!

Some of you might have seen the Flying V Rockin’ Ukulele Design I posted to Thingiverse a few weeks ago, after being inspired by Bre Pettis’ talk at ROFLThang.

I just realized how much of a mouthful that last sentence was so let me break it down… Bre encourages and teaches people how to make the things in their head become real. I’m not talking really about aspirations, but actual, physical things. He and the NYC Resistor crew even have an amazing workshop laboratory in Brooklyn where they let anyone come over and hang out at, to learn how to make, build and fabricate pretty much anything. They also have a laser (aka “LAAAZZZOOOR”) which you can think of as an automagic thing cutter-outer!

With that, here’s what I did:

1) I drew up plans for my dream ukulele using the free, open-source Inkscape vector drawing tool. You can see my open-source Ukulele plans here.

Ukulele plans for the laser

2) With the help from a kind friend, I got this file into the proper format for printing, stuck a sheet of 1/8″ x 24″ x 12″ plywood into the laser, and then hit the “GO” button. Just before you hit that button, you are required to shout “FIRE THE LAZZZZOR”, just so people know, well, that something magic is about to happen.

3) After about twenty minutes of laazzzoor (which costs me $20… $1 per minute of laser use), out came the piece of wood, from which I could easily pop out the various parts of my new uku. From there, some simple wood glue and human hand pressure produced the outcome seen below.

Lazzzzored UkuleleLazzzzored UkuleleLazzzzored UkuleleLazzzzored Ukulele

Now, like the title says, this is “Proto Uno”, so I’ve got a ways until this thing is playable… first of all, it needs to be about twice as big to fit my fingers. However, purely measuring from the “random idea in my head” to “actual physical thing” perspective, this was definitely a #WIN.

Stay tuned for further adventures in on-demand musicality via lazzzzors, and who knows, I might just be able to play a song for you some day soon!

Peek and Xtify sponsor "Cool Peek App" contest!

In recent months, I’ve been carrying around a Peek email device, or what I call the “One Hundred Dollar Blackberry”. It is a great piece of hardware, made by an honest-to-goodness New York City hardware company (not many of those!). I am also a big fan because I think their simple features and price point make this a great device for small business, non-profits and community/political/labor organizers…. all phenomenons of which I am a huge fan!

Peek has teamed up with Xtify to sponsor a contest, which should be a lot of fun… see the details below!

In full disclosure, I am doing some consulting for Peek right now, so I admit to a certain bias… but I’m definitely not getting paid to put this on my personal blog!

Dear Contest Entrants,

Thank you so much for your emails about signing up, there is a lot of interest in the competition!!! We have put up the official competition website here – http://contest.geekypeek.com. You can sign up directly in the contest forums.

The prizes are cool – fame, fortune and opportunity!

We tried to make things as easy as possible in terms of development. All you need is the Xtify APIs and whatever messaging/email API you want to use to send emails to the Peeks. We’ll post a lot more details on the forums to help you build your app but this should get you started.

To get your minds motivated here is a sample app built around location, www.meetmoi.com. Location-based dating!

All of us from Peek and Xtify will be available and monitoring the boards to help you guys build your apps.

Bon chance and I look forward to seeing what you all build!

Xtify & Peek