Shareholders Slam Apple's Environmental Initiatives
“The Apple shareholder meeting on Thursday was a telling example of just how difficult it is for a public company to go green, even if it really wants to.
Apple currently has a much greener reputation than it deserves according to the recent New Scientist study. Consumers rank Apple #3 in sustainability, even though the scientists rank them at #19. Yes, they have made efforts to reduce toxicity in their products and created an e-waste recycling program, but both of these green initiatives came as a response to activist campaigns led by NGO’s like Greenpeace.”
(via Good)
Tuesday, March 2nd 2010 11:04pm
Yahoo Pact Gives Twitter Distribution, Revenue
Nice to see Twitter will finally bring in some revenue! This new partnership seems good for Yahoo, but better for Twitter,
“It’s the latest step in Yahoo’s latest strategy, which is to integrate the world’s most popular social networks into the Yahoo environment rather than try to compete with them. The pact is similar to a deal with Facebook announced in December, allowing users to import their connections and update their status through Yahoo.
The deal will give Twitter a vast new distribution to 600 million Yahoo users, and something else it has found scarce: revenue.”
(via Ad Age)
Wednesday, February 24th 2010 10:10am
“This little box has, inside it, some kind of circuitry that harvests WiFi energy out of the air and converts it into electricity. This has been done before, but the Airnergy is able to harvest electricity with a high enough efficiency to make it practically useful: on the CES floor, they were able to charge a BlackBerry from 30% to full in about 90 minutes, using nothing but ambient WiFi signals as a power source.”
(via OhGizmo!)
Monday, January 11th 2010 2:38pm
The Eyewriter
Behold the latest ocular assault weapon from the Graffiti Research Lab, openFrameworks, The Fat Lab and The Ebeling Group: The EyeWriter. It is a low-cost eye-tracking apparatus + custom software that allows graffiti writers and artists with paralysis resulting from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to draw using only their eyes.
The goal of the hardware component of the EyeWriter project is to make the most simple and inexpensive eye-tracking head-set possible to use with the “EyeWriter” software suite. Obviously, there are numerous ways to make eye-tracking hardware. Many of these designs, especially those produced for academic research projects (Open Eyes ), have already been published openly on the internet.
Our functional design specifications are as follows:
1. The EyeWriter should be as inexpensive as possible
2. The fabrication and assembly of the system should require only common hand tools
3. Whenever possible components and parts should be available for purchase locally versus online
4. The camera should produce 640 x 480 NTSC video
5. The camera should be sensitive to near-field IR light
6. The camera should not auto-iris (or auto-iris should be disabled in the camera’s driver).
7. IR LEDs should be used to illuminate the pupil
Beyond that its up to you… this instruction set details a solderless variation of the EyeWriter that uses a hacked PS3 Eye and a pair of stunnas we bought on Venice Beach and suggests other possible EyeWriter configurations.
(via Make Zine and Anne Montone)
Thursday, November 19th 2009 12:03pm
