ThingsAmongMany

The crew over at Hack A Day has posted a comprehensive how-to on creating a fully networked graffiti wall for your office, bedroom, or what-not. “A what??” you might ask… Well, its one of these guys…and the best part is that it’s connected to the web so that anyone can upload their own sequence to the Graffiti Wall.

Their explanation is definitely thorough, though a little on the technical side. I had to take a break from it about halfway through - the build is not for the faint of heart. But the result is definitely impressive. They also have a live feed of everyone’s uploads if you want to keep an eye on what people are doing with it. Someone even went as far as creating a Pong re-enactment for it. Here’s the vid of it:

And, of course, the site has complete instructions down to each soldering point if you’ve got the gumption to build your own. If you do, let us (and the crew at Hack A Day) know how it turns out!

Ever wanted to keep track of…anything? Want to know when someone tweets your name? Or when your site comes up in a Google search? There are tools out there to do just that. And who doesn’t want to know who’s talking about them?

Google Alerts lets you set up a daily, weekly, or at-once email notice of when your chosen terms come up in new search results. TweetBeep offers similar functionality specific to Twitter with plenty of specifications around defining your search terms. In fact, we were talking about this service for Twitter around the POKE office yesterday. While TweetBeep is cool, we’d really like to see a similar service offered that would put the alert directly in your Twitter stream rather than sending it via email (this may not exist due to limitations with Twitter’s API).

What are some of your other favorite services for keeping track of your digital life?

Since the Apple TV came out - under much scrutiny to say the least - the idea of streaming media from a “computer” source to a TV has become much more mainstream (and let’s not discount the impact of iTunes in that process as well). Netflix has followed up with a variety of streaming services as well, including the recent launch of it’s beta program for streaming content to Macs (check this link if you’re interested in joining that program) and the relatively new Roku set-top box for Netflix.

Well, now that the public is starting to understand what these offerings can do for their entertainment purposes, some newcomers are cropping up in the field with products that cater to this type of viewing. Perfect example is the new Archos TV+. Combine a DVR with a media player for video and audio content and you’ve got the gist of it. But, in my mind, what sets the Archos player apart is the ability to browse the web (though it does require a “plug-in” that they charge for). Suddenly your living room entertainment center has the potential to replace a second computer for those emergency situations when you need to book an appointment at the genius bar but can’t…because your computer is broken.

I’ve dug through the info on the Archos site, but can’t seem to determine what the potential is for moving media around (for example, what if I purchase something from iTunes?). But it does allow access to the major video hosting sites. It would be killer if they built streaming Netflix capabilities into the box as well!

If anyone’s had face-time with one of these bad boys, give us the run-down!

While many owners of this now-ubiquitous device would be hesitant to admit that its anything shy of perfect, the crew over at the FullSIX Group didn’t agree. While they’ll readily admit that they LOVE their iPhones, these guys were so adamant about some missing features on the device that they created a new site devoted to the missing pieces. Enter PleaseFixTheiPhone.com, a digital wish-list and peitition engine that anyone can add their iPhone wishes to in hopes that the God of all things Apple will hear their pleas.

Currently topping the list of desired features are copy & paste, MMS (picture messaging), and the inclusion of Flash in the phone’s capabilities. Of course, that’s only a few of the more than 1700 wishes that users have shared with the community in hopes of bettering their beloved devices. And those wishes have garnered more than a quarter of a million votes as of this morning.

But don’t mistake their wishlist as a fire-into-the-ether vocalization. The list of wishes that have already been fixed by recent updates is pretty impressive. So if you’ve got something that you can’t help but think would make your iPhone ownership experience just a bit better, get over there and let them know what it is. Hopefully someone in Cupertino is listening.

Veritable genius and fellow POKEr Charles Gallant and his friend Luke McCormick, have taken their slightly twisted senses of humor along with some engineering and illustration expertise and combined them to launch a new site dedicated to Robot Designs for Tomorrow, or RD4T for short. Each design is dedicated to solving a problem – often one that you didn’t even realize you had.

The first few include Infant Enhancement Appendages and the Homeless Person Collection Robot. While not designed to be “real”, each design offers a realistic design to those problems you didn’t know you had. The designs are emphasized by an engineering/blueprint style of illustration that lends an air of credence to each – just enough to make you wonder if maybe the designs are real.

Check it out for yourself at RD4T.com.

There’s a newcomer to the title of “most expensive iPhone app and it’s there to keep an eye on you. iRa, a new piece of software from a company called LexTechLabs, is designed to integrate with a surveillance and security system to allow you to keep tabs from anywhere. At $899.99, this one doesn’t come cheap, but compared to the old “I’m Rich” app that created a stir for doing absolutely nothing, iRa looks like it offers some true functionality to the right target.

The app is built to allow tracking of multiple cameras as well as pan/tilt/zoom functionality and much more. Here’s how LexTechLabs describes it:

Define multiple groups of cameras, each containing as many video feeds as you like, and quickly switch between them for managing multiple facilities. The iPhone or iPod touch pulls the video from the camera to wherever you are. Simply touch the screen of your iPhone or iPod touch for a full screen view or to manipulate a pan and tilt camera.

They’ve also got a YouTube vid that demonstrates the app (though without any sound or description):

Oh, the horror! You know that sinking feeling. You go to sign up for that social site you’ve been putting off for a few weeks. You enter your username – the one you use everywhere – and, much to your dismay, some cheeky fool has already signed up with it?! So, in a horrified rush, you start going to every social site you can think of to register your name before this copycat can beat you to the punch. (Wait, you don’t? That’s just me…errr…I mean, of course you don’t! Who would??)

Well, now you don’t have to rack your brain quite so hard to figure out where your username is available. Instead, hop on UserNameCheck.com and just punch in the name that you’ve co-opted across the web. The site will ping 45 of the most popular social sites on the web and let you know if your username is available or not. Unfortunately, it can’t determine with of the taken sites are taken by you, but it can help you beat the copycats to the punch on the yet-to-be-taken sites.

If you can’t get it to work right away, check back a little later. Apparently they’re having some server load issues due to increased traffic (9 vists on monday and 23,000 on wednesday), but the check process does work. You can also follow them on Twitter if you want to keep up with their progress.

Hurry up, protect your secret identity!

RFID is one of those brilliant pieces of technology that no one seems to have integrated into mass market usage. Rather, let me qualify: RFID is used all the time in our everyday lives, BUT most people couldn’t readily explain or even name where it is they come across these little gems out in the world.

tikitag is looking to change that. With a recent, invitation-only launch this week – to be followed by a public beta launch on October 1 – tikitag is aiming to bring near field communications (a big brother to RFID technology) into the mainstream consciousness. Their starter kit will include a USB-based reader as well as a selection of tags that can be programmed to a variety of actions. While simple actions can be programed easily via the starter kit, tikitag is also encouraging programmers to flex their mind muscles to create new and interesting uses for the system. In short: tikitags are NFC enabled tags that interact with either a mobile device or a USB reader tethered to computer. They allow physical objects to control digital actions to further integrate the physical and digital worlds.

The technology is promising (proven?), and it’ll be interesting to see how a more mainstream market embraces the technology. The obvious weak link in the system is need for the USB reader (and subsequent computer), but tikitags will also work with NFC-enabled mobile devices, a technology that some claim will generate as much as $75 BILLION in sales over the next five years! This type of physical/digital interaction is going to change the way we lead our lives very, very shortly.

Want to learn more? tikitag has an intro video on their site that explains the system (not embeddable?? come on guys!).

Sometime back when, I read about this giant underground science project being built in Switzerland. I’d forgotten about it until this morning when some pictures of said “giant underground science project” started floating around our office. Turns out, the project in question is the Large Hadron Collider being built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, aka CERN (don’t ask me how they got “CERN” out of “EONR”).

The Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, is a 17 mile long particle accelerator along the borders of Switzerland and France. After more than 8 years of construction by some really smart dudes and dudettes, the particle accelerator is ready to begin tests this month. If tests go as planned, the LHC should help confirm the existence of subatomic particles that have only been theorized to date.

CERN has also released some incredible photos of the facility that are available on Boston.com along with explanations of each. Here’s one of those shots, showing the facility from the air (see the three loops on the ground?):

We’ve all seen these things by now, though many people don’t realize exactly what they’re looking at. Semacodes (aka QR Codes) are those funky looking bar-code things that don’t quite look like the bar codes you’re used to. They’re also a lot more flexible in their uses than a standard bar code.

Prime example? Nerd patches. I noticed these on NotCot yesterday and Tom picked it up over at Made With Computers this morning, so I finally took a second to stop and check it out. Well, call me a nerd, but these things are awesome! Created by P8TCH, and more specifically termed the “Commando Nerd Patch”, each is sold with an individual QR Code that can be mated to any URL or Google Maps location the user desires. Take a picture on your camera phone, and the code will redirect you to the specified URL. Think of it as a tinyurl that’s controlled by an image.

On another note, it appears that the crew at Semacode are stepping into the world of social networks. They’ve created a Facebook app that allows people to connect via QR Codes. Somebody give it a try and let us know how it works!