Jo-of-All-Trades An aspiring polymath posts on the environment, education, technology, libraries, and other things, in an attempt to make the world a better place. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 0 674

Articles from Jo-of-All-Trades

'Slippers' for Democracy 2008-02-18 13:17:00 Plusea has posted directions on Instructables for how to make improved 'Joy Slippers.' Joy Slippers are footwear-based controllers (the 'joy' comes from 'joysticks') with four embedded analog pressure-sensitive sensors. The current design is wired, but in the comments, Plusea says that she will be making a Bluetooth version soon. Right now, the Joy Slippers' main use is drawing with the feet; however, the possibilities for such controllers are much larger. What if we could teach (or reinforce, during practice) foot positions for dancing or sports with Joy Slipper-like controllers? How about teaching rhythm through the familiar mechanism of the human foot? If manufacture of such controllers became cheaper because of innovation spurred by the DIY experimentation of people like Plusea, it could democratize aspects of training for physical activities. In addition, if Joy Slippers were used to control the movements of characters in popular video games, it could increase fitne ...

Steampunk Saves the Planet! 2008-02-15 13:06:00 Ok, I'll admit it. I have an unhealthy obsession with Stirling Engines. But the idea that one of the most efficient ways to transform the sun's rays into usable energy is based on a technology invented before the American Civil War is just so fantastic! Now the world record for solar-to-grid efficiency has been broken with the help of...a STIRLING ENGINE!!! (Thanks to EcoGeek for the link.) The new record is 31.25% efficiency. Now if only the magic eco-power of shiny cogs and gears could be harnessed... ...

Knowing Your Rights Just Got Easier 2008-02-14 14:49:00 The Public Library of Law (via Lifehacker) is a search engine for legal information, including court decisions, federal, state, and local laws, and free legal forms. If you need a form to make a living will, they have them available for every state. If you need information on buying and selling real estate, they have real estate handbooks. If you think you've experienced workplace discrimination, you can look up statutes and court cases on that. This is an example of what the net should be; a force for the democratization of information. ¡Viva las bibliotécas! ...

Hedgehog Love! 2008-02-14 14:19:00 Hedgehogs: almost as cute as my corgi...but not quite. Check out this video I found (via The Daily Dish). Disclaimer: Although the hedgehog in this video is cute incarnate, it is illegal to keep a hedgehog as a pet in large parts of the US. Check local laws before trying this at home, kids. ...

Hillary Clinton and Tracy Flick! 2008-02-13 14:04:00 I'm an Obama supporter, for so many reasons that I decided not to blog on the subject based on the idea that other people tend not to be more than 10-issue voters. I'm probably a 50-issue voter, if I think about it enough. It's kind of a problem. If you aren't into politics, or you, like my mother, support Hillary Clinton so intensely that a sense of humor is not an option, stop reading this post here.For everyone else, this video comparing Hillary to Tracy Flick in the movie "Election" is so funny I almost cried. ...

Gamers to the Rescue! 2008-02-12 22:33:00 If you're going to spend time playing games when you should be working, you might as well learn something. Games4Change is an organization that promotes digital games whose objective is social change. So instead of watching Strindberg and Helium for the umpteenth time, or playing the Plushies game (you know who you are), avoid work by playing games like Karma Tycoon, where you run a virtual nonprofit and "solve community problems, such as homelessness, in cities across the US," or try Melting Point, where you work to "balance the energy needs and economic growth of regions around the world against the accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO2)." If you find one you think is particularly cool, let me know in the comments. (I only have so much time to screw around, so I can't play ALL of them myself...one-year MA programs are killer on the work front.) ...

Puppets, Libraries, Ray Guns, and Copyright Law 2008-02-12 18:55:00 Add a bottle of wine, and you've got a party! No, seriously. Funny and informative. ...

"Gizmo High"...Too High? 2008-02-11 21:36:00 I found this article in the Washington Post. It's about a public high school in Northern Virginia where the school system buys so much technology that the teachers complain. First, this is a prime argument for more nationally equal school funding. While the teachers at T.C. Williams complain about too many gizmos, the teachers in nearby DC public schools are lucky if the buildings aren't crumbling and the metal detectors that they do have are working. Second, this seems like less of a problem of too much tech than of badly chosen tech. Technology, like money, isn't something you can throw at a problem in order to solve it. It has to be carefully applied in the right ways, in the right amounts, to the right places. The school in the article hurried to issue students laptops, and is now "constantly trying to play catch up with the technology." It seems to me that one of the big problems in educational technology is that in many cases, the software simply has not caught up with ...

EfficienCity 2008-02-11 17:21:00 Greenpeace UK's website has a cool little simulation called EfficienCity that shows a bunch of climate-friendly innovations implemented without much change in the way people live. I think that the graphical, nonlinear interface is definitely a step in the right direction in terms of drawing people's interest. On the whole I tend to think that these things would be more effective if some sort of interactivity were involved, creating a sort of game, but if Greenpeace made a game about a climate-friendly city, it would probably suck. A lot. Of course, the changes shown in the simulated city would work better in places where people live in more concentrated areas with access to public transit, but it's nice to see semi-realistic possibilities of what people could do. After all, if we need to cut emissions to 80% less than 1990 levels by 2050, we have to get started now. ...