Russell Davies

Interesting 2011 - ticket news

As discussed before, Interesting's going to be a bit different this year. Less listening to talks, more doing odd things. Food things, physics things, design things, hacky things, simulating nuclear fission. So I think we need to let fewer people in, to create more room. And we'll need to charge a bit more, to cover the extra costs of materials and offset the fewer people.

So we're just going to sell 200 tickets and they're going to be £40 each. Hope that's not too much. (Previous speakers will still get in free.)

People have been badgering me about tickets so despite not really having the programme finalised I thought we'd put the first lot of 50 tickets on sale on Friday at 10am. I know it's a Bank Holiday so you might be doing other things but, equally it's easier for all the people who can't get tickets when at work.

Before buying a ticket please consider these factors:

1. We've never done it like this before. It probably won't be very good.

2. We might well ask you to bring things with you - cooking stuff, pots and pans etc - that might put you off.

3. You won't enjoy it if you're not going to join in. And some of the activities might require being in groups of four or so. If you don't like that sort of thing please think on. And/or book tickets with friends.

4. It's a Saturday in June. Are you sure you don't have a wedding to go to?

5. If not a wedding there must be something better.

6. I think that's it. Just generally, please manage your expectations down. Just think of it as a waste of £40.

So, Saturday June 18th. Conway Hall. All day. £40. Get your tickets here from 10am on Friday 22nd of April.

newspaper club - now even more available in the US

 

We can take dollars! We have a fancy .com domain! We're prepared to countenance spelling colour without the u! What are you waiting for? Details.

homesense bikemap

And here's my other Homesense project. Made which much assistance from Tom and Andy.

It's very simple. If there are more than five bikes at one of these bike stations the relevant LED comes on. It's a glanceable guide to which way to walk when we head out. It's going on the wall by the door. No need to reach for a device, launch an app and navigate to our favourites.

Simple, but I think, good.

well, have you?

We've finally finished our first Homesense project. It took so long because we went wildly beyond the scope of the project and the hardware you're supposed to use and even more wildly beyond my technical abilities. So Daniel has had to be very kind and patient with us.

However. Marvin The Discrete Reminderer is now up and running and sitting on the shelf in our bathroom, opposite the toilet.

The IR ranger on his head detects the presence of an individual poised to use the facilities and lights a red LED to indicate that Marvin is 'armed'. On completion of toilet activities, when the user departs the immediate vicinity, Marvin then issues one of three enjoinders to remember to flush - playable below. (This was an issue in our house, though in the time it's taken to make this, has become less so.)

 

Marvin1

 

Marvin2

 

Marvin3

 

These were recorded by Arthur and mucked about with in Record.

And why have we done such a stupid thing? Not sure really - partly to see how to do it but mostly to honour Arthur's first idea. He wanted Marvin to talk. This was a useful thing for him to talk about. So we did it. Think of it as proto-RodneyComp.

InnoRobo

InnoRobo from russelldavies on Vimeo.

more paper science

This isn't the future for publishing, periodicals, comics and DIY, but it's a future. A good one.

(Front cover by Luke Pearson)

Interesting 2011 - the rough plan

I've booked the Conway Hall. Interesting 2011 will be Saturday the 18th of June. But I think this time it'll be a bit different.

Boring, Playful and The Story are all now much better 'people talking about stuff' events than Interesting. Better curation. Better organisation. Better names. And I don't want to organise something similar but not as good.

After cancelling Interesting last year we eventually rushed together a last minute Papercamp. And it was great fun. Less listening to talks, more doing stuff. Less yammering, more hammering. (Though quite a lot of wondering around chatting to people while doing the stuff)

So, this year it's going to be more about activities than talks. And it's going to be divided into sections run by different people.

For instance:

Leila's going to host an hour or so of 'hacker circus'. I'm hoping this will involve teaching us all how to pick locks.

And Chris is going to be host a molecular gatronomy session where he'll get everyone to spherise food.

And there'll be some music stuff. And I'm hoping Matt will be getting us building towers from tubes and catching eggs dropped from the balcony.

I don't know yet, really. If anyone has any ideas about activities we should do, please let me know.

But probably, because we'll need more room, there'll be fewer tickets on sale. And the tickets might be a little more expensive because we'll be providing you with ingredients or locks or arduinos or something. And we might ask you to bring cooking equipment or ingredients or musical instruments with you.

I'm really selling this aren't I?

Anyway, like I say, that's the rough plan. I will let you know more. Tickets on sale soonish.

There will still be bunting.

curious scarves

Alex has made a marvellous RIG thing - curious scarves. And, she's written a splendid post about why they're a bit more than what you might pay at ASDA.

multi image projector pop

I've got to do a talk in a couple of weeks and I think it's going to be about screens. A varient on this piece from The Observer but perhaps a bit more optimistic.

So now, of course, I can't help seeing screens wherever I go. This is possibly the cheapest I've seen to date. A Sponge Bob "Multi Image Projector Pop" (that's what it says on the side).

It's like a small, cheap, externalised ViewMaster, without the 3D. Or something. It's a sweet dispenser with a screen built in as the disposable gimmick.

That's the future for screens - disposability. Ubiquity through gimmickry.

cutification

I think Matt talked about this during his Royal Institution talk. The way that toys have cutified over the years - our predisposition for big eyes and bright colours 'evolving' each generation of toys to be cuter than the last. (See, for instance, this post about the cutification and sexualisation of My Little Pony).

We saw these Yoo Hoos in Hamley's window. I like the look of them. But I can't help wondering how outlandish they'd have looked 20 years ago.