Physical Computing's Greatest Hits

http://www.tigoe.net/blog/category/physicalcomputing/176/
This reading is based on Tom Igoe's blog post about Physical Computing's Greatest Hits. While reading this, I noticed a bunch of new cool gadgets and inventions that were very intriguing to me, specifically the gloves and the multi-touch interfaces.  For my stupid pet trick, I attempted to create a wearable project, and to my dismay, it was a bit out of my league in terms of creation, implementation, and actually making  it work was a pain in it self.  But I learned a good amount of stuff from trying new things and I was especially excited to read through this.  The multi-touch interfaces have also been something that I have always wanted to see and try out, but never had the chance to.  I know that Microsoft released a prototype sometime last year with an outrageous estimate, so I know that mass market production won't happen for some time, but it's still something to look forward to.  All in all, this was a good read with many very cool and neat ideas that I will definitely try to implement in my final project.

Chapter 0:What is electricity really?

The author starts this chapter by describing electricity in its most basic form, at the atomic level.  He then talks about how electricity works, what conducts electricity and what insulates it and why this all happens.  I imagine the author of this chapter as a fresh new teacher that is trying to be hip with his students and get them interested in science.  It is a very basic understanding of what goes on and it seems to be aimed at people that have absolutely no idea what electricity is, how it works, and what it's made of.  And because I have not take a science class in well over 2 years now, I found it refreshing to recall all of this information, but it seems to be a bit dumbed down for the actual target audience.

"August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains"

This short story is about a futuristic home that is in a world that has been ravaged by war and famine.  The particular home that is referenced has long since been abandoned by it's owners, but the robot servants continue on as if they were still there.  Unfortunately, a brush fire starts near the home, and the robots are unable to quell the fire in time. This short story felt very close to the worlds created in movies like I,Robot and Back to the Future part II.  It had a clear message that the overuse of technology will eventually kill us but I have to disagree with the story.  It is a very one-sided view of this controversial topic and it generalizes our dependence on technology.  While the increase in our dependence has exploded over just the past 10 years, this story seemed just a bit too extreme.  I felt that the sudden fire at the end was seemingly out of nowhere and also kind of rash.

Inside the Mind of a Synaesthete

Back in high school, I had a friend who was in a band named Synesthesia.  When I asked him what it meant, he  told me that it was the ability to see music in bright vibrant colors.  He said it was a magical thing that he hoped people would relate to after they heard his band.  Now years later, I'll never forget watching them play and imagining little fireworks going off while they were playing their original songs and always ending with a glorious Freebird cover.  Also, after seeing a personal description of how it isn't all fun and games to have this disease, my mind is a bit conflicted on how to feel about it.  While it is a cool thing to think about and wonder what it would be like to have it, I would not want to have it in the slightest. Whether its the sound to color, or color-word association, this would seem to me to be more of an annoyance than anything else.  The most interesting part that I learned about this disease was the story of a couple who both have synesthesia had a child and the colors that the child saw when looking at a certain letter were the mixtures of the colors the two parents saw.