My team is finally uncloaking the all-night, puzzle-based race we’ve been planning for the past year: “Brain Drained.” If interested, read on for details! If not, do me a solid by forwarding this email to a nerdy 20- or 30-something puzzle enthusiast you know!)

Midnight Madness is a movie from 1980 (Michael J. Fox’s first movie, actually). Here’s IMDB’s plot summary: Leon planned “The Great All-Nighter” by picking college students to participate in his night long scavenger hunt. The five teams [...] are given clues to solve, leading them to the next clue site hidden in the city. The movie is the inspiration for Arkansas Midnight Madness. Held annually in Hot Springs, AR (though, this year, starting in Little Rock) during winter break (when far-flung friends are often back in town), we take to the streets for our own type of “Madness.”

Since participants are often distant, the game consists of an Internet-based pregame (starting around September) which traditionally gives the location and date of the in-person event. The team that wins the challenge gets the opportunity to put on the game for the next year(!) and… well, a trophy. My team, Pinky & the Brains, won MM2K10.

The P&B crew have used a variety of web services, video calling, email, and every postal courier to produce a high-quality game this year. Our team met between once and three times each week during the second half of 2011 (and even organized a three-day sleep-over mega-meeting during Thanksgiving break). We logged countless hours on Skype, and created over 300 documents detailing locations, puzzle ideas, story lines, game mechanics (rules and scoring), supplies, props, scripts and accounting.

This year’s installment is called “Brain Drained,” with all the trappings of a Double-Dare-style game show. My character is currently blogging her way through the solution to our pregame exercises—with a new post every three days till Christmas. Hopefully this will get contestants in the right frame of mind, as the in-person game/event is December 26th and 27th.

• 12/12: This Way Through the Pregame!
• 12/15: A Pressing Release
• 12/18: Mathleticism And Sudocoups

Keep it puzzling!

tl;dr

i <3 earthaid.

GOOGLE POWERMETER

It can’t use google without a device or a cooperating utility, so I couldn’t get very far with this one, especially since the little gadgets cost a bunch of bucks. If I was trying to really get into the nitty gritty of saving energy at home on a per-device basis, it would probably be worth it.

MICROSOFT HOHM

Well, two negatives off the bat:

• Hohm can’t connect to any of our utilities and get bill info (I have Centerpoint for gas, Entergy for electricity, and Central Arkansas Water for… well, you know).
• The initial setup is quite lengthy; you have to answer approximately 200 questions about your house, each side, door, window areas, etc., and some of the info I couldn’t find (Like heating/AC ratings).

Nonetheless, I typed in all bill info for electric and gas into Hohm (after figuring out how to convert natural gas centi-cubic feet into therms), and it gave me pretty charts. Seriously, that’s about all I was able to get back out of it. For having to keep up with the system manually, that’s not good.

Based on the home profile you fill out, it does generate a list of to-do items to reduce energy consumption, and the list is sortable by cost-to-implement, cost-savings, and CO2 savings. Yet I found them mostly to be things everyone knows (increase attic insulation, lower temp on water heater, etc).

EARTHAID

I think this one was the best of the three; it is the only site that actually provides incentive to modify behavior. Not just because they offer reward points (because none of which are redeemable within a hundred-mile radius), but rather because of the social aspect of the site; it can compare friends’ energy usage, which is a great idea.

It was also the only one that could actually connect to our utilities: a HUGE plus. It connected to Entergy and Centerpoint accounts easily. It also can track water usage, but Central Arkansas Water does not have online billing available, so no love there.

Also, it’s very direct about savings. One morning, after my latest gas bill came in, I received the message email, in  well-designed, uncluttered email:

We’ve just retrieved the data from your CenterPoint Energy bill for December 20th to January 20th. In December, you used 13800 cubic feet of gas — that’s 37% less than your December baseline, and 84% more than you used in November.

Good stuff. It also forecasts what your usage (and thus bills) will be.

I think we should start an EarthAid group, and all sign up for it, and then pressure Central Arkansas Water to somehow make billing data available to them. And maybe suggest to EarthAid to allow for paying the utilities through the site… that’d be rad.

It’s imprinted on your bones,
everything you learned back home.
Even what you think is wrong,
stays with you when you’re gone.

CHORUS
I don’t know anything about this.
I swear I’m not like my mom;
I’m optimistic.
With every swallow, every heartbeat,
You sense the water in your body.
it’s hard to miss it.
Ahh—

Thinking, the memories that fire,
The history you compile.
You say and say and say—
The system, the zeros, and the ones
Is where it all comes from.
(Is where. It all. Comes from—)

CHORUS

The blood that runs in my veins,
it gets around.
The water that makes up the rain
It only knows down
The trouble with communications
when language gets in
the way…

Ooh—

(Not entirely sure of the italicized lines.)

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Image via Wikipedia

1. Recall the relevant class. Comment on Toxoplasma Gondii. What do you think??
   1. 1. 1. 1. • In an abstract sense, things affecting our psychology are nothing new. All of the effects of toxoplasma gondii can supposedly have on us can also be the result of psychological stimulation, like being on a sports team, or having an overbearing mother.
               • So, I’m not too shook up about it. Then again, I live with two cats (and have all my life). Who’s to say I’m not infected, and just being a mouth for the protozoa? If it were really as sinister and slippery as characterized, it would’ve long ago made me love my cats so much that I would defend our relationship no matter what.
               • Therefore, as a possible gondii-controlled human by cat proxy, I must recuse myself from the question!
2. Add more to your project. Put the new stuff in a new blog posting. Consider new material that has some connection to Toxoplasma Gondii. Alternatively, it could have a connection to some other parasite or disease, or parasites or diseases more generally. Or it might be about something completely different…your choice!
   • For my project, there’s not much that organisms (other than humans) factor in. So, I decided to read and take notes on the “Internet of Things,” also known as “object hyperlinking.”
   • There are a few ways to get this done. Either every device can be “smart” and carry its own addressability (identification), or one can overlay identification onto “dumb” objects, similar to asset tagging.
   • There have been recent rumors that Apple will put an RFID scanner into its 4th generation iPhone. This would truly bring this concept to the forefront in the US.
   • However, the Japanese market is already used to such convenience, using their RFID-enabled phones to interface with the ATM network, get on public transit, pay for parking, and hyper-local information retrieval.
   • Some other uses of RFID include:
     • Tracking of endangered species. Arizona’s Saguaro National Park is implanting RFID tags into cactii to be able to track when they’re stolen. Likewise, the New Delhi forest department requires that elephants get implants to prevent illegal trade.
     • For that matter, tracking non-endangered species like cattle can provide a chain of accountability for meat products.
     • Tracking things you don’t want to lose, like surgical sponges, car keys, pets, etc.
     • Authentication. The article mentions police badges, but I’ve also read that high-price, commonly-knocked-off luxury handbags will also be getting RFID chips, to prove authenticity. (For example, an RFID signed with Gucci’s public key inside a purse).
     • Tracking prisoners. This is kind of scary, but: “Forced to release prisoners due to overcrowding, Britain wants to chip them. Cops would know if, say, a felon enters a school.”
   • Hong Kong has had RFID-enabled payment cards since 1997 (Octopus Card). These cards were originally used for public transit, but now can be used at stores, vending machines, parking meters, and many other places, including in other parts of mainland China.
   • Another way, besides RFID, is the use of QR Codes to “tag” an object. These codes (2D bit matrices) can be generated and decoded easily in software, printed on a sticker, and stuck to an object. QR Code readers were some of the first applications to enter the App Store for iPhone. Now there are many 2D barcode readers available for iPhonee which use the built-in camera.

1. Suppose you had a coupon for a free robot. The catch is it can only do one thing. But you can get a robot that will do whatever one thing you like, just not anything else. What would you want your robot to do?
   • This is probably cheating, but I want a robot that will act as a surrogate for me in day-to-day life, leaving me to survive in a disaster-resistant womb. This robot (android) should be a better-looking version of me, like in the recent movie Surrogates.
   • Another possibility would be to make a robot that somehow creates more energy than it uses; either through some chemical process (breaking down organic matter) or other, delivering electricity from raw materiel.
   • If we constrain ourselves to modern-day technology, I would want a robot that purr-fectly simulated a cat, similar to Ugobe’s Pleo Robotic Dinosaur.
2. Write or develop an additional significant piece of your project. As a suggestion, consider the connection of robots to your topic. However, if another subject besides robots seems more appropriate, that is just as good. Post the new section on your blog.
   • I covered a bit on the applicability of robotics to my research of human-computer interaction in a previous blog post, pointing out that the research being done in robotics will someday come in useful when humans are ready to adopt non-hominid appendages and sensors.
   • Instead, I would like to talk about sense-making.
   • Sensemaking is the process of making sense of an ambiguous situation [Wikipedia]. The Department of Defense considers the broad case of a framework for military operations wherein nodes of the operation (soldiers, commanders, medical personnel, drones) are networked for information-sharing so that an individual’s situational awareness can be linked with others’ to provide a more complete view of a situation for all.
   • In the most abstract sense, this is something we do—as citizens, shoppers, lawyers—every day. From the moment we wake up, we’re constantly probing and analyzing our senses to literally make sense of our lives. In the broader context, we network with our trusted sources (peers, family, aggregated public sentiment) to get multiple perspectives on a situation.
   • One example would be comparison shopping. Jane goes into Best Buy looking for a new camcorder. She sees the prices, gets to know the layout of the display shelves and how they’re arranged, and starts looking at features. Then, she can compare those items to each other. We can say that Jane is developing situational awareness. But to escalate to sense-making, Jane needs to network: she pulls out her iPhone and consults Consumer Reports to see what this trusted source recommends. She plugs a model number into Twitter and finds scads of complaints about the camcorder. Jane is now situationally-aware.
   • The implications for robotics are many. For example, after a crash-landing, autonomous Mars rovers should be able to figure out where in space and time they are from their senses, network information with other nodes, and develop a framework for existence.

1. Discuss briefly the applicability or inapplicability of the discussion from Monday 10/26 (Prediction vs. Intervention; Weather vs. Climate) to your project.
   • In any discussion about the future, there will always be a bit of “wiggle room” as our current understanding of anything (technology, in this case), can—at worst—prove to be totally irrelevant to the technology of tomorrow.
   • It seems that our best methods for prediction can only give us a short glimpse into the possibilities of short-term events; iterative technologies can be taken axiomatically to keep on iterating, but true innovation is forever obscured. If innovation could be predicted, then the predicted technology would have already been created!
   • Peter Drucker, self-described “social ecologist,” noted that “the best way to predict the future is to create it.” This gets to the crux of the prediction vs intervention debate; namely, that since we are interacting with the system we are predicting (that being the technology of the world), and prediction we make about the system will necessarily affect the future of the system. There are numerous examples of this happening; my favorite is the Star Trek original series’ communicator, which was consciously adopted by Motorola in the design of the most popular phone ever, the flip-phone RAZR.
2. Discuss briefly the applicability or inapplicability of the discussion from Wednesday 10/28 (Robots!) to your project.
   • In the Samara/Monocopter (Maple Seed) video, one thing that struck me was the use of the fabricator machine; where the developer of the device said that he didn’t need to know how to machine metal or anything, he could “print out” his device.
   • In a larger sense, the Petman video demonstrates the growing understanding of natural gait in walking, which will be important in an augmented human. Some of the other projects showcased demonstrated the use of non-hominid walking systems, which, also, would be useful as “post-human” prostheses, as Aimee Mullins (and her 12 pairs of legs) attest.
   • Such prosthetic systems could be automatically controlled by software, freeing the user to dedicate brain power to other, more fruitful goals.
3. Advance your project. What’s new?
   • Continuing to dump raw project materials into my off-brain storage mechanism.

1. We discussed in class how there is no such thing as a “scientific proof.” Explain in your own words.
   • Every scientific theory must take into account that there may be new and better evidence discovered in the future which may negate or extend that theory. Therefore, scientific theories take into account that nothing is ever “final” and therefore the theory is only ever the currently-available best explanation, that fits available evidence. This contrasts with the closed systems of logic and mathematics, where proofs can be reliably proven.
   • From a Psychology Today article, “Common Misconceptions About Science“: “The creationists and other critics of evolution are absolutely correct when they point out that evolution is “just a theory” and it is not “proven.”  What they neglect to mention is that everything in science is just a theory and is never proven.  Unlike the Prime Number Theorem, which will absolutely and forever be true, it is still possible, albeit very, very, very, very, very unlikely, that the theory of evolution by natural and sexual selection may one day turn out to be false.  But then again, it is also possible, albeit very, very, very, very, very unlikely, that monkeys will fly out of my ass tomorrow.  In my judgment, both events are about equally likely.”
2. Write a new part for your project of 250 words or more.

• • Up until recently, the view of most people was that interacting with the digital world would mean “jacking in” to some sort of fully-simulated virtual reality environment. However, a recent confluence of technologies is beginning to birth a new outlook on digital interaction: Augmented Reality.
  • Current iterations of AR technology are exemplified by the iPhone 3GS. This state-of-the-art phone combines ample storage space (up to 32 Gb), GPS location, compass, video camera, impressive processing and RAM capacity (for doing complex visual recognition), and touch-screen interaction. These integrated, high-quality elements make the iPhone a good platform for writing AR applications.
  • AR interfaces overlay digital information over our analog sight system (eyes) through technological mediation of some sort. This mediation can be in the form of images projected directly on the retina, through a loupe or other viewing device (such as a phone), and maybe one day through direct ocular prostheses.
  • Augmented Reality applications include a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, military and emergency-response, prospecting, architecture and other real-world design fields, sight-seeing, collaboration (usually with the name “mixed reality”), and entertainment.
  • Some existing examples of augmented reality for iPhone include:
    • Le Bar Guide, sponsored by Stella Artois, transforms the iPhone into a loupe: hold it up and turn, and it will tell you where the nearest Stella-serving bar is located, as well as give you reviews and indications of amenities.
    • Car Finder solves a minor annoyance that many people face; namely, the “where did I park” moment that people experience upon leaving a shopping center or other location with a large parking lot. Simply ping your location upon leaving your car, and when you’re ready to return, the application will guide you on the quickest path back to where you’ve parked.

I’m forbidden from tweeting this, so I’m blogging it instead.

Twitter is testing Lists. See screenshot.

1. In a new posting on your blog, post your current writeup. Add notes inside it in various places. Each note says what you would like to add in at the location of the note. If you are writing a story, this might not work – instead, just add some more material to it, or develop more plot description, or whatever advance seems best.
   • Latest updates are always kept at my online document store.
2. Write and incorporate a new part. Ideally it should be about crime (or precrime!), or indeed any other idea from Minority Report or our discussion of it. But if that doesn’t fit, any other advance to your project will do just as well.
   • Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the Wii Remote
   • Low-Cost Multi-point Interactive Whiteboards Using the Wiimote
   • Untold Stories of Touch, Gesture, and NUI (Joe Fletcher, Design Manager for Microsoft Surface) [and my notes]
3. Write and incorporate another new part. Ideally it should be about cyborgs, mind hacking, ghosts, shells, ghosts in shells, therm-optic camouflage, or something else related to The Ghost in the Shell. But again, any advance to your project will be fine.
   • Thanks to the remarkable cortical plasticity of the brain, signals from implanted prostheses can, after adaptation, be handled by the brain like natural sensor or effector channels. (Townsend, G.; Graimann, B.; Pfurtscheller, G., “Continuous EEG classification during motor imagery-simulation of an asynchronous BCI,” Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, IEEE Transactions on , vol.12, no.2, pp.258-265, June 2004.)
   • Aimee Mullins blurs the line between prosthesis, augmentation, and art. [Video, 10 minutes.]
   • Licklider, J. C. R. ”Man-Computer Symbiosis,” Human Factors in Electronics, IRE Transactions on, volume HFE-1, pages 4-11, March 1960.
   • “Brain implants in fiction and philosophy” from Wikipedia discusses the “brain in a vat” scenarios from Descartes and Putnam through the themes of contemporary films like The Matrix.
4. Explain briefly what you did for questions 1), 2), and 3) so that I can decipher what you did for this HW.
   • I am continuing an exploration into the current trends in prosthetic and augmentation design for the human body, as well as where the technology is headed, and what philosophical repercussions will occur. I have read the aforementioned journal article and watched the videos, taking notes (linked), to put into my presentation.

My roommates and I live the networked lifestyle, primarily when it comes to entertainment. In the house there is a PS3 and an XBOX 360. I don’t usually play games, so I use the XBOX for streaming NetFlix movies and the PS3 for streaming video and music from the house server. All of the entertainment systems (TiVo, PS3, XBOX, server) are on their own dedicated network segment with a Dell PowerConnect 8-port Gigabit switch, snagged for a bargain during one of their end-of-fiscal-in-January sales.

When CompUSA was slowly dying, my friend Chris Heien and I kept waiting for the right moment to swoop in at the sweet spot between value and desperation to acquire the HP MediaVault m2040: a 2-bay Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. NAS devices sit on your network and act as a file server. Since our house network runs to every room (via LinkSys Ethernet-over-Power adaptors and 802.11n/g clouds), a home server was essential for sharing large files between roommates and devices.

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