Here's Why

Highlights from the 100 minutes of Douglas Englebert's "Mother of all demos" from 1968 where he demonstrated the windowing and mouse graphical user interface, word processing, databases, computer networking, email, video phone calls and other modern marvels, 45 years ago. Why did take so long? How can we speed the process? download MP4

Download video At the Open Source Developer's Conference 2012, Gavin Smith gave a talk "How to make anything. Or: Robots, Paint, and Lasers". Gavin is from Robots and Dinosaurs, the Sydney Hackerspace http://robodino.org, where he can make anything using 3D printing, laser CNC and electronics. This video was shot on my Looxcie Point Of View camera, mounted on my left ear. The advantage is that my head moves the camera. The disadvantage is that my head moves the camera. I tried the camera stabilisation on youtube, and it seemed wrong. Let me know if you can think of ways to improve the quality. The link up the top is to an OGV 100megabyte video file. The original MP4 is available on the Internet Archive but its over 400 Megabytes. Email me or leave a comment if you'd like the link. I need that Arduino inventor kit, along with a 3D Printer, and to be able to make those amazing laser cut wooden boxes. Below is the video Gavin showed of "My little piece of privacy"

Download MP4At the MooresCloud product launch, inventor Mark Pesce spared 10 minutes in the stairwell to talk about his networked lamp platform.  MooresCloud, is a playful lamp with a LAMP stack, which means it runs Linux, Apache web server, MySQL database and Python or Perl programming language -L.A.M.P. - it can talk to other networked things. You can find out more at www.moorescloud.com, and support the project on Kickstarter This is my first interview using my POV wearable Looxcie camera, and my apologies, but it wobbled a lot. I'm also new to video editing on linux, so I used Openshot until it failed, and then exported video to avidemux to edit the final version. Unfortunately I lost quality in the process. I'll put up a better edited version later. For future videos I'm looking at mounting the camera on my glasses instead of on my ear. It should wobble much less. Youtube is taking longer to upload so this is hosted on the Internet Archive.

download MP3 Inventor Mark Pesce has launched MooresCloud, a lamp with a LAMP stack, which means it runs Linux, Apache web server, MySQL database and Python or Perl programming language -L.A.M.P. Mark spoke to me in the stairwell of the Fishburner's building in Sydney at his product launch, about playful smart devices that talk with you. My apologies for the squeaking stairwell door on the end of Mark Pesce's parting words: "You can have the smartest dishwasher in the world, but if it can't talk with anything, who cares?"  You can find out more at www.moorescloud.com, and support the project on Kickstarter I'll be posting the Point-Of-View Looxcie version of this interview soon. Related articlesLinux-based Lamp offers 'illumination as a service' (zdnet.com)Singing mice, Ig Nobles and MooresCloud (diffusionradio.com)MooresCloud Light runs Linux, puts LAMP on your lamp (video) (engadget.com)Linux Light By MoorseCloud Launches On Kickstarter Tomorrow (video) (geeky-gadgets.com)VR pioneer invents 'illumination-as-a-service' (go.theregister.com)

download MP3 Professor Gabriella Weaver from Purdue University gave the keynote speech at the Enhancing Learning in Science Through Inquiry and Technology Forum held last week at the University of Technology Sydney. She's designed and run a curriculum that engages first and second year science students in contributing to authentic scientific research. I spoke with her in the tea break. You can find out more about the Center for Authentic Science Practice in Education CASPiE that allows first and second year science students to engage in ongoing, authentic scientific research at www.caspie.org. Grabriella Weaver, Professor of Chemical Education and Physical Chemistry

download MP3 Phillip Rhoades, is one of the directors of the Neural Archives Foundation. He collects brains, and freezes them, in hopes that future historians will be able to read their frozen memories. I spoke to him at the Sydney Futurist meetup.

download mp4 Zara Choy spoke at Philorum about non-exclusivity in relationships and the appeals of an alternative to our conventional monogamous relationship model. This video was taken on my wearable point-of-view Looxcie bluetooth camera. Its my first attempt at capturing a talk while seated, and because I didn't want the view-finder in shot, I didn't calibrate enough to notice that the top half of Zara's head is cut off for most of her talk. I know her face is up there, but I didn't know my camera needed to be angled up a bit more. She forgives me. ;-) Next time I'll have to practice with the speaker while checking the view-finder, and then allow the view-finder in shot to check whether I need to move the camera upwards a little, until I've got the hang of it. You can also download an audio version of Zara's talk if that suits you better: Related articlesSexual promiscuity among deer mice rewrites DNA and boosts the immune system [Genetics] (io9.com)

download MP3 The universe is expanding at an ever faster rate! Professor Robert Kirshner from the Harvard Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics spoke to me about supernovas and their use in measuring the acceleration in the expansion of the Universe, at the fourth annual Southern Cross Astrophysics conference at the Sydney Maritime Museum.

download mp4 Customs House at Circular Quay was animated for the Vivid Sydney festival 2012, May 25th -June 11th.

download mp4 My Looxcie wearable camera just arrived, so this is my first test video. I've muted the sound because I had the TV news on. I think the point of view of juggling will look more interesting when you can see my hands, and when you can hear the balls. What do you think?

download mp4 Leigh Russell at Dorkbot Sydney demonstrated the behaviour of non-Newtonian liquids by putting a potato starch solution on a speaker and playing tones from his synthesizer through it, producing shoggoth-like effects. The stuff looks like its alive and trying to escape! This one is safe for the kids to try. This video was broadcast (with my permission) on "Tokudane," which is a weekly morning show on the Fuji Television Network on Japanese TV.

download MP3 From Mission: Impossible and Doctor Who, to Accelerando and Rainbow's End, we've been teased with gadgets just out of reach. The age of glasses with cameras and microphones and computers is upon us at last! I give an overview from $20 spy sunglasses on ebay to Project Glass from Google.

download MP3 Energy too cheap to meter! So claims Italian inventer and entrepreneur Andrea Rossi for his invention of the E-Cat Energy Catalyser power generator, which he claims combines hydrogen and nickel with a secret catalyst to make heat and copper. Ian Bryce is an aerospace engineer, and Chief Investigator for the Australian Skeptics. I spoke with him about his experiences with the Australian investment agent for Rossi's "cold fusion power generator". This is the full version of the interview broadcast on Diffusion Science Radio

download MP4 I'm researching live video streaming, so I tried out http://bambuser.com which has an app for my Nokia N95 phone as well as iPhones and Androids. I streamed my garden using my 3G phone connection, to test the quality. Streaming by 3G is slower than streaming by WiFI, so the quality has to be reduced. One and a half minutes of video streamed over 3G was 6 megabytes of blocky video, not too bad. In my garden, I have venus flytraps, sundews, trumpet pitcher plants, and lots of nepenthes tropical pitcher plants.

download MP3 Imagine designing molecules on paper and then making them in the lab. Dr Andrew McDonagh of the School of Chemistry and Forensic Sciences and the Institute of Nanoscale Technologies at the University of Technology, Sydney. He's been working on dye sensitised solar cells. I asked him what he's been synthesizing.