Sunday, June 05, 2011
Saturday, June 04, 2011
Outside Aperture: fan made epilogue to Portal
"Outside Aperture," an eight-minute fan-made epilogue to the wonderful game Portal, created by EisenFeuer. It's pretty adorable, and there's cake.
Friday, June 03, 2011
Adam Bosworth Unveils Keas, The Game That Keeps You Healthy
After two years in stealth, Adam Bosworth is finally ready to start talking about his health startup Keas. Keas is not a Mint for health, although it began that way. Bosworth, who previously launched Google Health at Google and before that was known as the father of XML at Microsoft, founded Keas two years ago with $10 million from Ignition Partners and Atlas Venture. He thought he would build a Mint for health, but discovered that people don’t want to measure their health. So instead, he turned it into a game.
Keas is a game that keeps you healthy. You pick three goals a week, which can range from exercise to eating more fruits and vegetables to reducing stress. You get points for accomplishing your goals and for taking health quizes. If your company signs up for it, you can get rewards as well, including cash (HR departments are willing to pay for programs that will keep employees healthy and productive).
Bosworth came by the TCTV studios in New York City earlier this week for an interview, which you can watch above. He already has 10 companies including Quest Diagnostics and Novartis with about 1,000 employees each testing out the system in a private beta. But it is now public, and you can play here.
One of the key differences between Keas and something like Virgin Health is that Keas is inherently social. You join a team of your co-workers and everyone has to achieve goals together in order to level up in the game, so that encourages players to support each other.
Keas also takes a completely different approach than Google Health, which Bosworth helped to start. I asked Bosworth why Google Health never really took off. His answer in the video clip below is that Google Health never asked, “What could they do that people would want?” Instead. “they basically offerd a placeto store data.” People don’t want to store data, they want to have fun.
Guy Creates Smaller Version of Real Life Android-Powered Labyrinth in Under a Day [Video]
Google came to I/O this year with a life-sized Labyrinth game controlled with nothing but a Motorola XOOM. We were pretty awed by it and excited to see what else would be done with the Android Open Accessory ADK. The first, outside of the official demos we saw at Google I/O, seems to be a clone of that Labyrinth game, except it’s a million times smaller and uses a phone ( Nexus One instead of a tablet.
The engineer said he started the project – hardware, software and all – at 7pm and was finished at 5am. That’s exactly the type of turn-around developers like to hear when it comes to creating prototypes ahead of a deadline. We’re not sure how long it’d take to develop a more robust and advanced system, but hobbyist and beginners should rest easy knowing that it’s easy to get started with. (The engineer stated that his only prior experience with Android was a “Hello World” application using the demokit and accelerometer samples from the web.) Check the video out above. [Thanks Tipster!]
Thursday, June 02, 2011
TEDxVancouver - Jack Horner - The Shape-Shifting Skulls of Dinosaurs
"The Shape-Shifting Skulls of Dinosaurs" will focus on our latest discoveries concerning how dinosaur skulls changed as they grew to adult hood, and why it is that some dinosaur species are actually juvenile growth stages of other species. I will illustrate how it is that scientists got it wrong to begin with, and how we figured it all out. The talk will concern field work, studies in morphology, and osteohistology (the microscopic study of bone)
Jack has published more than 170 professional papers, 9 popular books, and more than 100 popular articles. His book Digging Dinosaurs was described by New Scientist Magazine as one of the 250 most important science books of the 20th Century. Jack also directs the largest dinosaur field research program in the world. He was the technical advisor for Steven Spielberg on all of the Jurassic Park movies, and has worked with National Geographic, and The Discovery Channel on numerous dinosaur specials.
Jack is the Curator of Paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies, and Regent's Professor of Paleontology at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. He is also a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Paleobiology at the Smithsonian Institution, and an Honorary Research Fellow with the Natural History Museum in London.
About TEDx, x=independently organize event
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-
organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.
At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep
discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized
events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event.
The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but
individual TEDx events are self-organized.*
(*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
Microsoft Windows 8 for Tablets - Detailed Demonstration
A detailed demonstration of the new Microsoft Windows 8 for tablets at Computex 2011 in Taipei
HP May License webOS
At the D9 conference today, Hewlett-Packard CEO Leo Apotheker says the company is planning to make it available to its partners to provide mobility services to their customers
Andrew Mason Demos Groupon Now
Onstage at D9, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason demos Groupon Now, which is location-based offers that consumers use instantly, and talks about how it's different than what Google announced yesterday with Offers.
Fanhattan Demo
Fanhattan, formerly known as Vuze, is a cloud-based app trying to aggregate the Web's many scattered video sources into a single location.
Square CEO Jack Dorsey
Kara Swisher jokes that he's the James Franco of the Internet, but given that he's CEO of Square and Product Chief at Twitter, the joke isn't too far from reality. Here he talk to Kara about how he spends his time
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