What happened to the Robot Age?

BBC NEWS | Magazine | What happened to the Robot Age?
RIP Aibo. I am sad but not altogether surprised at Sony's decision to send its Aibo robotic dogs (and Qrio) to the kennel in the sky.

The likes of Robosapien and its ever-expanding family of bots show that the price and appeal of robot pets has to be right.

We still love our doggy though. Even though he has not really walked around for about two years. He is happy having robodog dreams.

Cat herding

I have been having a go on Google Video and was pleased to re-find the EDS cat herding ad. It has to be my all-time fave ad.

I am impressed with the Google Video offering, but am rather concerned in my "i am getting older" kind of way about the lack of restrictions on access to content which might not be suitable for younger audiences. I think Google should be leading the way here in showing some sense of duty through self-regulation. Just a couple of safeguards, you know.

BBC Your pictures: Table Mountain fire

BBC NEWS | In Pictures | Your pictures: Table Mountain fire

I love this. These photos sent into the BBC showing the blazes in Cape Town, South Africa are the perfect example of why citizen journalists rock. The quality of these snaps is incredible. I would be intrigued to know how many of them were are actually by Brits or Brit tourists, who know to send in photos to the BBC and how many were sent in by South Africans.

Nice.

Them aliens

The aliens are back. Oh yes indeedy.

I love the web

Hehehhe. I love the internet. I was thinkng about Gia who I mentioned in my post below. So I Googled her nd found this video of when she was on BBC World's Click Online. Great stuff - she should be back on there. I knew I knew her name. But I have never beeen able to place her.

Check it out though. For all you Web 2.0 gurues - just take a step back and watch how bloody far we have come in such a short space of time.Fantastic. It makes me giggle. But it also makes me think why don't we have segments like this that talk us through OPML or something?

Lady geeks

I have just had the best night talking with women who are finally on my wavelength. Don't get me wrong. I have plenty of fun nights out with women who I totally connect with. But I can't remember a night where we all shared very similar visions about technology in a social and cultural sense for a long time. Perhaps I don't meet enough women in my life anyway.

I have met great women at the London Geek Dinners, like Nicole Simon and Rachel Clarke (more recently Gia Milinovich too). But Mynci Gorkyand Cystaltips are rare gems in a potential revolutionnary goldmine.

Fantabulous.

Good luck Podbat btw. xx

Toshiba and bar code blogs

If this actually happens, it would be fantastic. Toshiba is said to be coming up with a way of letting you snap a barcode of a product with your phone and get info about it sent back to you from blogs. Via TechCrunch

Sony e-book reader at CES

Sony e-book reader,
originally uploaded by louder.

Well, CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Vegas has wrapped up for another year. It happens to be the biggest consumer electronics show in the world. I was there last year. It was great but very hard work.

I watched the webcast of Gates' keynote, but I have being keeping an eye on Engadget which undoubtedly has the best coverage of everything there.

I am loving this Sony e-book reader. I has a real etcher sketch quality to it. Very Japanese. Check out Louder's photos from there.

Richard MacManus on Read/WriteWeb has a good summary of the main themes that came out of CES.

Blinklist

I have just tried out Blinklist, a Web 2.0 (hate that term) tool that is like del.icio.us in its bookmarking/tagging function but has a much nicer interface. In fact, it is exactly the kind of bookmark management tool that I was thinking I needed but did not realise existed. it makes it a lot easier to search and file your bookmarks. Try it out. I stumbled across this when I was perusing and signing up to Newsvine. I was sent an invitation by our Seattle friend Bre Pettis from imakethinks.com. The blurb says:

At Newsvine you can read breaking news from around the world, write
your own articles, and publish links from across the web directly to your
column. 
Looks intriguing....

Something Very Wrong in the Sky

Something Very Wrong in the Sky,
originally uploaded by whooz_queen.

Indeed there is. How come I only ever see boring stuff? When I saw this and stopped chuckling, I wondered about how many UFO groups there might be on Flickr. Might just go off and find out.

10,000 and counting

Woohoo! Passed the 10,000 mark* on my Flickr stream. Weird.

*My photostream has been viewed 10,009 times, to be precise.

Second Life goes mainstream on UK TV

Still on the Second Life theme, I noticed that the BBC's current affairs and news analysis programme Newsnight is having a "geek week". The show's no-nonsense main host, the frighteningly sharp and sometimes acerbic Jeremy Paxman (for the American readers out there) and reporter Paul Mason get themselves and their set recreated inside SL for the show's broadcast. Read about it here and see the show online too.

On the trail

Snapshot_010_001,
originally uploaded by gilliganxl.

See I really should be in bed by now, but now I am on the Flickr trail getting totally immersed in the Second Life Flickr group pool. There are a couple there. So many creations too little time!

SL events

If you are interested in other second life events - SL is a virtual Sims-like world - then check out this RSS enabled list of current events inside from Eventful. Quite a lot of nude events. Via Clickable Culture.

I want one

As the old dog said to his master when confronted with warm sausages: "I want one".

It is TV fireplace. The plasma slips down into the fireplace at the touch of the button. Santa? Where'd he go? Via Gizmodo

New Year in Second Life

New Year in Second Life,
originally uploaded by The Kitten's Toe.

So talking about New Year, Blugg and I decided to stay in and drink fizzy while checking in on Eric Rice's New Year virtual party at his Palulop estate in Second Life.

He was doing streaming audio at the same time as dancing the night away inside. People were calling in to talk on the stream, while a whole other world of fun was going on at the same time. We were joined by Dotben too who managed to do a splendid job of representing his hair.

I skulked around the ballroom or whatever it was for a while like I usually do and was in awe of the sophisticated gowns some of the lady-looking avatars were wearing. You earn money in Second Life which lets you buy avatar clothes.

I had to construct my own hence the lampshade.

If you double clicked on Eric's head you could dance like him too. I couldn't stop however.

It may sound sad, but it was somewhere near the virtual worlds I could not wait for 10 years ago. Millions of people spend a large part of their lives in virtual worlds, exploring themselves and others or just having fun flying.

Real money is made, love, hate, death, politics and disease happens. I can't wait to see how they will have evolved in another 10 years.

New Year Spotbottom

new-year-spotbottom,
originally uploaded by sharonspotbottom.

Happy New Year everybody.

Yes indeed. And I feel this one is going to FLY by. All our friends are either married and/or with babies. Jobs are getting serious. And with that comes more responsibilities and things to lie awake at night fretting about.

Ach well. Happy New Year.