When I was a teenager I had this sweet stereo in my room with an Aiwa receiver and some crazy big Yamaha speakers. All through my 20’s I lugged those big Yamaha’s to about 6 different apartments in New York until finally I decided they were just too big for a Manahattan apartment. Today, I [...]

With any luck, we’re hoping the above video is the most succint and understandable explanation of the ybox yet. It’s a project that started as a hack and finished as a workshop, and describing it along the way has been interesting. There’s a large element of whimsy in the project (it’s in a candy tin [...]

If only it really went that fast….

We here at Uncommon Projects are technology generalists. As such, our skill set is broad enough that folks can have trouble pinning down what it is we do. Our solution to this problem has been to create an ongoing portfolio of our work at Uncommon Projects and show what we do by example.
While this [...]

Last night I made my may up to Mobile Mondays NYC. The topic of last nights discussion was ‘Beyond Scores. Sports Brands & Their Mobile Game Plan’. Overall the discussion was thought provoking and focused less on sports and more on general industry tre…

National Public Radio’s Morning Edition show did a little piece on Botanicalls today. They made a genuine effort to be charming so give Steve Inskeep’s piece a nice listen. Thanks again to Josh for lending his voice to the Fiddle Leaf Fig.

I have gotten this link when I was in the middle of reading Harry Potter 7 so, it was a bit difficult to fight my urge to click on the link but, I’ve waited. Now after finishing the book, I’ve been reading this blog, Potterdammerung [Mega-Spoilers] by gibberish in neutral.
I had to crack a [...]

Our Cyborg Futures: Me or Machine? looks at the shrinking divide between us and the technology we use. From prosthetic…

Transitive MaterialsTowards an Integrated Approach to Material Technology The worlds of architecture, fashion and ubiquitous computing are rapidly converging. Shape-changing…

TOMORROW NOW - when design meets science fiction is the first exhibition devoted to the relationship between design and science…

Tuesday, July 31, marks an historic day here in Northern Ireland: The last of the British troops, sent in 40 years ago to help keep the peace, will go home. In honor of this day, someone phoned in a bomb threat today. The Shambles Market area was blockaded. This is an area on the edge of the “Catholic” part of Armagh. No one expected an actual bomb to be there, everyone thought it was mostly a symbolic action. My friend and colleague Arielle and I went to Belfast on Sunday to take a tour of the muals from the time of the Troubles. We discovered something called the Peace Wall, a giant Berlin Wall-type structure, erected in the 1970s, designed to separate the Protestant from the Catholic parts of town. Arielle is shown above, signing her name on the “Peace Wall.” I will post more photos from Belfast tomorrow.

I attended a “political panel” on Friday, featuring a discussion about the future of Northern Ireland and the integration of the different parties. From left to right, there were representatives from the Ulster Democratic Party (Protestant, or “unionist,” now defunct); Sinn Fein, the moderator, Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP - Catholic, or “nationalist”), and the Democratic Union Party (Protesant). They were all very cordial and very clear about their desire to work together for the future of Northern Ireland. However the fellow on the far right, the Minister of Arts and Culture, representing the Democratic Union Party, stated very clearly that he did not care for the people associated with Sinn Fein. “However, you don’t have to like the people you work with.” Fortunately, the two younger men on the left, representing both “unionist” and “nationalist” interests, seemed much more charismatic and progressive.

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Smaller Carlos — “Gay” Carlos — passed away this afternoon. Very unexpectedly.

I woke this morning (or, well, early afternoon) and picked him out to play a bit. He looked horrible. Neck very swollen, left eye swollen shut, low face bloated and disfigured. At first I thought Bigger Carlos may have hurt him during another one of their fights or something. I looked the little guy over — very, very bad. Barely moving. Sometimes wheezing loudly. When he walked, he kind of drug himself in circles. He definitely couldn’t eat or drink. Very bad.

Christin called animal clinics until she found an open one. We put him in some bedding in my Treo phone box and cabbed up there (around 5pm). I tried to keep him comfortable, and as damaged as he was, he walked around and spent much of the ride trying to get out of the box. At least he had some energy… So. We were seen almost immediately. One doctor came and probed him a bit — including taking a human-sized stethoscope and using it to listen to his tiny heart. She told us she didn’t know what had caused the swelling and that it looked pretty bad. Another doctor then came to do a closer inspection. She looked him over and looked at the swelling (which seemed, actually, to be going down) and we noted how he seemed to drag two of his legs when he walked and how he kind of limped in circles. Very sad. She said that they didn’t have any exotics specialists on site (hamsters are “exotic?”), but that she would go take a closer look at him while we waited.

The prognosis was not good. She said she thought the swelling had basically sealed off his windpipe and that he had been slowly suffocating. His tongue had already turned blue and I imagine the lack of oxygen had already begun to cause brain damage, hence the locomotive problems. A surgeon could perform a tracheotomy(!) and do more tests to see exactly what was the matter, but that would cost over $1500. I really don’t have $1500 to spare. (Such a weird situation having to balance the life of a creature with mundane fiscal concerns.) Even with this surgery, though, there was no telling the outcome. The doctor suggested putting him to sleep to reduce the suffering, which we agreed with. So I filled out the paperwork and Christin and I said our goodbyes. He seemed calm at that point, curled into a ball.

And that was that.

I wondered to Christin while we got a bite to eat afterwards whether animals like hamsters were aware of their own mortality. We know that there’s some kind of endpoint to life (though what comes after is somewhat open for debate). But does a hamster know it will die? Or does it just instinctually struggle against things it thinks will hurt and towards things that will feel good? Christin didn’t know, but thought that there was a line an animal could cross, a line past which it became clear that struggle no longer had a point. Whether while being eating or being sick or whatever. Past that line, an animal would know that, yes, it was mortal and, yes, it would die.

Hamsters don’t live too long. A couple of years, usually. Small Carlos was born around August 2006, so he had about a year. We enjoyed him. He seemed to be okay with us. His hobbies included running in his wheel, running around on the bed, and fighting sporadically with Big Carlos (and usually losing). He liked his strawberry yogurt treats.

I visited Newgrange this weekend, aka “The Irish Stonehenge.” It was amazing. Basically, there are three burial mounds near each other in County Meath, sort of like Navan Fort, only much larger, and where you may actually enter the structure. Newgrange is the oldest, and has been named the oldest building in the world by the UN. It was built 5,000 years ago, although humans had been living there as long as 7,000 years ago. It has a multi-layered stone roof that has remained waterproof for more than 5,000 years. I saw it myself, and it is amazing.

The entranceway to Newgrange is marked by a oblong stone blocking the front of the door. It is covered with a circular engraving that is repeated throughout the site, and in its neighbor, Knowth. Many of the small building stones that were used to make Newgrange and Knowth were carved with the same design. Megalithic: or Stone Age stone carvings. No one knows what the symbols mean - they could represent water, life… there are often three of them together. Some scholars have speculated that they are kind of a map - representing the sites of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth. (Dowth was “not excavated using modern techniques,” the guides say, almost sadly.)

Around the mound of Knowth there are flat rocks known as kerbstones, on which the circular designs and other designs are carved. The designs are pre-Celtic. The Celts came after, around 500 BC, although Celts were influenced by the pre-Celtic cultures that existed at Newgrange, Knowth and Navan Fort. Newgrange and Knowth were abandoned around 1200 AD. They were not rediscovered until about 1700, and were not excavated until the 1960s. No legends are associated with Newgrange and Knowth. Navan Fort, on the other hand, kept on and is the center of Irish Celtic legends.

Woodhenge
A recreated configuration of tree stumps just outside of Knowth. The configuration was similar to that of Stonehenge. You can see the main structure at Knowth behind.

The entrance at Newgrange
For a few days around the Winter Solstice sunrise is perfectly aligned with the top opening, and a ray of light illuminates the inner chamber. During the rest of the year the interior of Newgrange receives no natural light.

The main mound at Knowth
You can see the decorated kerbstones around the structure. You can go into the first chamber. It was impossible to take photos, and they would not let us take photos inside of Newgrange.

A satellite tomb at Knowth
There are about a dozen little mounds around the main mound at Knowth.

I have uploaded many more photos to PicasaWeb. You can see them here.

Yesterday I revisited my youth, in some sense anyway, at the Rock The Bells concert at Randall’s Island. I was specifically there to see Wu Tang, but there were many other acts, most notably Mos Def and Talib Kweli, Public Enemy with guest DJ Rakim, The Roots, Cypress Hill (who are always fun in concert but not particularly my favorite) and Rage Against the Machine, which seemed to attract 90 percent of the people who came to the festival. I hadn’t been to Randall’s Island for a show since the Tibet Freedom Concert in 1997, headlined by the Beastie Boys and (in an ironic coincidence) Rage themselves. Wu Tang was awesome, totally on point with every verse, thanks in large part to the incredible energy of Method Man. Although, they seemed slightly irritated that they weren’t receiving as much energy from the crowd as they should have. I guess no one warned them that these were not mostly hip hop fans in the audience, but Rage fans. I think it was a shame, though. They deserved a lot more of a response. Mos Def and Talib Kweli also put on an amazing show, as did the Roots, although I thought their set selection could have been better. Flavor Flav was his usual ridiculous self.

But the real surprise of the night was the unbelievably huge crowd that gathered specifically to see Rage. They’ve had a cult like following since the release of their self-titled album in 1992, but I had no idea that they could still attract such a crowd. I felt like an old fart as I looked around to see many kids who were probably still in diapers when that album was released and who had probably first heard Evil Empire ten years after it was released in 1996. I also felt old when I surrendered my front row standing spots right after Wu was finished. I could already see by the large numbers of wasted muscle bound guys that the front row was not a good idea for Rage. Plus I had bad memories of being slammed in the head by crowd surfers at more then one Rage show in the past. Our hilltop view, which we got to by sneaking under a fence, was just fine thank you, even after a swarm of teenagers saw our spot and decided to come invade it.

All in all, it was a good show. But I must say, it lacked the real old school hip-hop crowd that makes events like this so much better. As much as it was nice to reminisce about being 16 by seeing Rage, and as good as they still are..even though all of their shows since ‘96 are exactly the same, they could have been left off the bill. I would’ve rather seen NAS, who apparently was only scheduled for West Coast performances.

So I got a new studio space.

that was…wow.

I wonder when it will be safe to talk about?

I visited Navan Fort, site of one of the earliest human settlement in Ireland. Known as “Emain Macha,” it was the spiritual and political center of pre-Christian Ireland from about 700 BC. (A site nearby has been dated back 7,000 years, to about 5,000 BC.) In 95 BC, for some reason, the habitants abandoned the site with a ceremony of complete immolation. The Navan site retained its significance, however, because in the 400s Patrick chose to base himself in Armagh because of its proximity to Navan, still the center of druid/pagan culture.

The “fort” itself is now a hill with a series of ditches dug concentrically around it. The main ditch around the top of the hill would have been at least six feet deep (the passage of time has filled it in), and would have taken a huge effort by people using sticks, hands and flints to excavate it. The ditches were not used for defense, and the experts are not quite sure what their purpose was.

On the way to Navan Fort I passed a pair of murls related to the Troubles. I think that both were related to the Roman Catholic cause, but I am not sure. I am planning to go to Belfast this weekend to take the Murl Tour, featuring murls from both sides in both neighborhoods. The European Union has mandated that the murls be painted over by the end of the month as part of the peace-making process.

Another view of the top of the hill
Seat of the Ulster Kings

Another view of the ditch

View from the Top
You can just see the Church of Ireland St. Patrick’s Cathedral on the upper left

Another View from the Top
Did anyone say “Emerald Isle?”

Just now I noticed, and subsequently read, a response by danah boyd on her blog to the critics of her recent essay that talks about class divisions that can be viewed by observing Myspace and Facebook. I was actually looking forward to reading this for a while, as the post stirred up a lot of interest and criticism and I wanted to see what she would say. The response was rather long but I still find that some of my personal questions were left unanswered. Here is what I thought in general:

First, Boyd goes into detail about the difference between her academic research papers and her blog, describing how she writes her blog in a much looser way and that therefor the post should have not been interpreted as an actual research study. She talks about the idea of the death of the author and how “the weird thing about blogging is that the author is pretty darn present. I’m here.” Personally, I think its true that many personal blogs, and blogs in general, are meant to serve as a way to present and discuss ideas, rather then as a formal declaration of research. The problem is, when you become a well-respected voice in a particular field, people want to hear what you have to say. Perhaps that means that you are held to a higher standard, even as far as your writings on your blog. It doesn’t mean that people were correct to represent this post as anything more then ideas and thoughts, but people are morons, its just a basic fact of life. If you put it out there and people consider you an important voice in a particular field, thats what will happen.

She also seemed surprised to see that so many people took the time to respond to her post. I don’t see why this should be so surprising. There have been 1000s of blog posts in recent months concerning Facebook and the comparison’s between it and MySpace, ranging from which site is better to predictions about their directions in the future. Even though all of this attention may seem unnecessary and ridiculous to some, it is the topic of the moment. People are interested because Facebook was the first social networking site positioned to rival MySpace that decided to open their platform so dramatically. Whether you think this is revolutionary or not, it did change the game, evidenced by every site from LinkedIn to the new Pownce to MySpace itself announcing similar strategies. People wanted to write it about and discuss it, and most of the posts were stupid. Boyd’s was one of the few I have read that discusses something that is actually thought provoking, which is why it received so much attention. Plus, whenever you talk about class divisions people’s ears perk up, thats just the nature of the beast.

I did fully respect her section discussing the fact that she had been referring to teenagers and how she was surprised that people refuted her opinions by talking about themselves or their friends. Valid point. But I think what some people were referring to regarding twenty somethings etc could apply to teenagers as well. My sister, for instance, is thirteen and lived on myspace until I invited her to facebook (she is white, quite mainstream in terms of her interests, middle class, living in suburban NY and not gay…just to provide the background). Although Facebook initially stirred her interest, she is still very much on myspace. Her friends on each are the same, minus the bands of course and those friends who are just not interested in social networking enough to join another site (yes there are still some of those under 18). She’s thirteen and really only associates, as I imagine many teenagers do, particularly those who live in the suburbs, with people she goes to school with or who live in close proximity. Her picture is usually the same on each. And sure she communicates differently, on Facebook she throws sheep at people while on Myspace she sends out silly question and answer bulletins every day. If anything her Facebook is now more cluttered with stuff then her Myspace, which she had a friend redesign to eliminate the top friends, comment section and a lot of other things. In fact, where I have seen the most difference in the way people utilize their profiles is among the twenty-something crowd.

Now one person is not the whole world. But the example of my sister is relevant to me because her trend in using social networking sites is supported by recent statistics about the growth of Facebook since the developer’s platform was released. Of course non-college bound teens would have not known anything about Facebook a year ago…that is a big ‘duh’. But that has changed. And the developer’s platform has given everyone some interesting things to play with that have made it desirable to many different groups…especially those who formerly loved MySpace and found Facebook useless because there was nothing to do. On this topic, I am still very confused as to why Boyd has not addressed what the developer’s platform has done for Facebook or what the numbers concerning Facebook’s growth mean in relationship to her ideas. I think that is a BIG oversight.

In addition, I still found no evidence or discussion to support her original claims that Facebook is ’seen’ as a place for ‘good kids’ while MySpace is not. This, to me, was a point in her original essay that I wanted more clarification and proof of because the idea of perception is an interesting one. The fact that she readily admits in this essay that kids have profiles on both seems to refute this point. And the fact that certain teenagers somewhere don’t know about Facebook or don’t want to use it, to me, does not automatically mean that it is SEEN as a place for ‘the good kids’ or that teenagers anywhere are even looking at it that way. Anyone who remembers being a teenager knows that the culture leads teens (whether they claim to be against the mainstream or not) to flock to the newest coolest thing, whatever that means to their particular group of friends. If its not Facebook it will be something else. I personally believe that MySpace, between the spam, operational problems and lack of utility is losing its cool for everyone. And despite what you may believe about this silly MSNBC article that Boyd references in her response, the writer’s point concerning adults on MySpace is completely true. I have seen many a person’s mom on there. It has become a catch-all place…how does that affect an accurate assessment of class divisions? Another point that Boyd never really addressed.

In closing, I am sure that many people were careless in reading Boyd’s essay and simply honed in on certain points for their own self-interest, I read some of them. But I don’t think it is ever acceptable to refute criticism by saying that you hope readers will be less careless in the future simply because they discuss and/or refute your ideas or findings. Without concrete numbers, clearly articulated studies and research that is verifiable, thats what people are going to do, based on their own, however inaccurate, observations. People will actually do it anyway, but casual thoughts or ideas encourage that kind of analysis more so. Bottom line is, this topic is interesting and something that should be looked into further, which is why its important that Boyd raised the topic. But she shouldn’t have been so quick to discredit her opponents and her overall response didn’t change my mind at all about what I was thinking in the first place. Which is often the way it is. Its hard enough to change people’s minds when you have verifiable evidence. When its just ideas…good luck!

Armagh is home to Saint Patrick’s original Cathedral. Ironically, there are two in town - the Church of Ireland/Anglican Episcopal St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and the Roman Catholic St. Patrick’s Cathedral. They are on opposite ends of the town, and are roughly centered in the middle of their respective communities. The Church of Ireland cathedral is on the original spot where Patrick built his first church. It’s on top of a hill that overlooks the city center. This church has been rebuilt 17 times since it was first erected in the 400s. It was originally a Roman Catholic church, but when Henry VIII “nationalized” all of the Catholic churches in 1533, it became a protestant church.

On the other side of town is the Roman Catholic St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Because Catholocism was suppressed in the UK, the Roman Catholic church was not built until the mid-1800s, when the prohibition against Catholic churches was lifted. However, construction was halted in the 1840s during the Great Irish Famine. The Cathedral was completed in the 1860s. Funnily enough, the site of the Catholic Cathedral is also associated with Saint Patrick, who apparently preferred the site to the site of his original church, but for some reason was not allowed to build there.

FYI, St. Patrick was sent from Rome to convert the pagan (druid) Irish to Christianity. His early followers were known as “Celtic Christians.” The Celtic Cross is claimed by both Cathedrals. An old Celtic Cross is on display at the Church of Ireland, and the Book of Kells (above) is on display at the Roman Catholic Cathedral. But the druids and pagan culture that Patrick drove out has a much longer history - one that pre-dates Rome and was contemporary to ancient Egypt and Chinese cultures. The nearby Navan Fort is said to be the oldest settlement in Ireland. I am planning a trip there, and to Newgrange, which is said to be about 5,000 years old.

Inside the Church of Ireland

Inside the Church of Ireland

St. Patrick looks toward the Anglican Cathedral
On the steps of the Roman Catholic Cathedral

Inside the Roman Catholic Church

Inside the Roman Catholic Church
I’m not one for crucifixes, but I thought this one was kind of cool.

Inside the Roman Catholic Church

The past few weeks, in between traveling to Vermont and Maine, I did some work for Area/Code helping out on SharkRunners. The game, designed and produced by Area/Code for Discovery Channel uses real shark GPS data as the basis for game play. Users ar…

Spent the weekend with friends in San Francisco who are building an art car out of an Chevrolet El Camino. I helped design circuits for nighttime running lights and spent several laborious hours tweezing tiny beads onto the adhesive-slathered hood. The front of the car will be such varied designs of tiny colorful glass beads [...]

I have arrived in Armagh, Northern Ireland. It’s an interesting place - I will post some photos a little later, after I have had more time to get acclimated. Until then, some more Paris photos.

They say that Paris has an unusual kind of light, and I think it’s true. I think it comes from the reflection off the white stone buildings, and off of the white gravel pathways that cut through all of the parks.

Arc de Triomphe du Carousel
A Mini-Me version of the Arc de Triomphe at the Tuileries.

Pilier Sud
There are always hundreds of people at Tour Eiffel

Paris Skyline
From Tour Eiffel

Paris Skyline
From the Centre Georges Pompidou

Obelisk and Arc de Triomphe
At the other end of the Tuileries

Ah the Octopoda. I had another run in with this delightful life form at a restaurant in seoul. My first experience was here. In this second experience, we went to a restaurant that was famous for this octopus dish. I only believe this because there were photos of the owner’s numerous tv appearances over the years all over the walls. So we sit down with rami, my korean translator, and michael,

In conjunction with seeking a first round of funding, freeFormed.net will begin migration to Amazon Web Services in the next month. After battling with dreamhost, our current hosting service, for a while, we made the decision that Amazon can better serve our needs, particularly considering our expected growth within the next six months as we unleash our new marketing strategies. I have to say that dreamhost has been pretty good recently but this just makes more sense for the company in the long run.

(Although I am excited about the change, I am not personally looking forward to the migration work-wise, but its a necessary step and it is better that it is completed now rather then later)

can i just take a brief moment to draw your attention to this fascinating video of inmates at Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, Cebu, Philippines as they do michael jackson’s thriller.

this is crazy nutty. the fact that they are prisoners just makes it all that much more insane. watching it is like witnessing a pile of post-modern theory implode in on itself and go up in

I will not be reading lj until I’ve finished Deathly Hallows. This is not a test. See you later.

I have been officially offered the position of Web Developer at Industrial Press. The company is a leading publisher of technical and reference books relating to engineering and manufacturing. This is a new position for the company, as they are just beginning to develop their website with many new and innovative ideas in order to make it a destination point for individuals and companies that already utilize the materials they publish. My position will include coordinating the development effort and instituting new ideas both in technology and marketing. I’m quite excited, especially since its part-time and I can still do my other projects!

Reuters did a lovely piece on Botanicalls this week. I was out of town so you won’t see me in it. Kate and Rebecca made agile and articulate appearances. Kati’s description of being drunk-dialed by the Cuban Oregano deserves many more public airings. I seem to recall that the following morning, all the other Botanicalls [...]

This was so hysterical I just had to blog about it. Thanks to Alex for sending over the link last night as I was wrestling with some Perl code for one of my many (unpaid) projects. What is so fantastic about this is that everything this guy says is pretty much right! The hysteria over the iPhone baffles me a little bit. But it just goes to show what a lot of marketing and hype can do. Also, he makes a good point: where is the Nokia marketing strategy??? They have this great phone called the N95 that no one but the geekiest of tech-geeks know anything about. Maybe Nokia is really to busy tossing salad….

(I promptly sent this to my father who was looking into buying the iPhone. Personally, I don’ t think he will. But its like in the male DNA to always want the latest most hyped-up electronic device.)

The proposition that water and electricity should be anywhere near each other is counterintuitive to say the least. That’s what makes the Wet Lamp so appealing and intriguing. We learn from day one to keep toasters away from the bathtub. However, when …

Big news in Dan Kantor-land. I’ve started a new job - at AOL! My official title is “Sr. Web Technologist” which loosely translates into front-end web developer. It was a tough decision to leave working on Streampad full-time, but one I had to make. When I left Yahoo in May of 2006, I gave myself [...]

Exhibit A: on the left is the window of a bbq joint in Seoul called “Sexy Pig”. We chose to eat there based on the name alone and were not disappointed. We ate nice fatty pork, some very tasty beef, a crab soup, great side dishes and spicy salads among the post-industrial surroundings of a wall of cinder blocks and a nearby empty lot (or at least that’s how i remember it). I have finally

I am finally almost done with the re-design of my website. I still need to make digital copies of some of my old pictures (as they were all film) and compress my videos etc….but its almost finished so check it out.

We have lift-off for airport-related puns!
Terminally bored? You won’t be, with digital art by Nadja Sayej, The Globe and Mail.
Airport art: Multi-screen, interactive digital art exhibition connects travellers with a disconnected world at Terminal One by Peter Goddard, Toronto Star
Terminal Zero One Touches Down at Pearson by Adam Schwabe, blogTO