Boing Boing: Sonant makes generative music you can leave on. “Unlike most generative music apps, Kjetil Golid’s Sonant isn’t obviously just a machine slapping notes on some formulaic pattern for however long you can stand to listen to it. It’s nice!” Just make sure you’ve got that “Play Chance” at least at the halfway marker or it starts sounding like windchimes.
Other Things I Think Are Cool
May not *quite* fit in the boundaries of ResearchBuzz. And yet I groove on it.
From Neal Agarwal: The Deep Sea
Big thanks to Shirl K. for this one — The Deep Sea. There’s not really a description I can quote from. It’s an illustration of the sea. You keep scrolling down and down while the page shows you some creatures who live at that depth. You keep going lower, and lower, and even when you think you’re at the end you’re not. I think it’s the physical act of scrolling that “makes it click,” when it comes to understanding just how deep the ocean is. Highly recommended.
Interesting Engineering: World’s First Tablet for the Blind Is Here
Interesting Engineering: World’s First Tablet for the Blind Is Here. “If you happen to be reading this and also blind, you might be using a Tactile Pro Braille Tablet by PCT. An Innovation Award Honoree at CES, this sleek tablet allows people with visual deficiencies to utilize technology in a way never before possible. In essence, the device is a keyboard and display for braille that interfaces through Bluetooth with smart devices.”
BBC: Teenager having seizure saved by online gamer – 5,000 miles away in Texas
BBC: Teenager having seizure saved by online gamer – 5,000 miles away in Texas. “The parents of a teenager who suffered a seizure while chatting online have thanked his friend who called emergency services from 5,000 miles away. Aidan Jackson, 17, was talking to an American gamer from his bedroom in Widnes on 2 January when he had a fit. His friend, 20-year-old Dia Lathora, from Texas, alerted police in the UK.”
Vice: You Can Play Google Stadia on an E-Book Reader
Vice: You Can Play Google Stadia on an E-Book Reader. “You may not be playing Google Stadia at the moment, but inevitably, you’ve seen the reviews and the feedback from gamers has largely revolved around the significant latency issues the service can have. But what if you were to throw another variable into the mix when you fire up Destiny 2? That’s what Sebastian Ørsted, a Danish PhD student of Aarhus University’s Department of Mathematics, recently did when he decided to test out Google Stadia on an e-ink based Android tablet, the Onyx Boox Max 3.”
The Washington Post: 4 million cards. 4,000 drawers. And a whole lot of paper cuts. A coalition of book lovers rushes to save U-Va.’s card catalogue.
The Washington Post: 4 million cards. 4,000 drawers. And a whole lot of paper cuts. A coalition of book lovers rushes to save U-Va.’s card catalogue.. “They’d just finished setting up projectors to create a replica of the planetarium Thomas Jefferson had envisioned spanning the University of Virginia’s Rotunda dome when Neal Curtis and Sam Lemley stopped. They looked at each other. And they decided they had to come up with a plan — immediately They walked into the school’s Alderman Library and promised they wouldn’t leave that night until they had found a way to save the old card catalogue.”
Kottke: A Free-to-Use Library of Very Canadian Stock Photos
Kottke: A Free-to-Use Library of Very Canadian Stock Photos. “Cira, the organization that manages the .ca top-level domain, is offering a free stock photo library featuring typically Canadian scenes, like ‘lumberjack and hockey player discuss quarterly numbers’ (above). They also have their version of the distracted boyfriend photo (‘hockey player checks out lumberjack while woman in Canadian tuxedo looks on in disbelief’).” These are adorable. I apologize to any offended Canadians.
