Steven Leckart

Kodak Can't Decide What To Call Its Next Camera

When The Boston Globe reviewed Kodak's latest pocket handicam, the pub dissed the product's "dreadful" nomenclature. Surely, writer Hiawatha Bray wondered, Kodak can come up with something better than "Zi8."*

Nope!

Which is why they want YOU to name their next video camera.** From now until this coming Monday August 24, you can submit product names on Kodak's corporate blog OR via Twitter &mdash just @ reply Kodak CMO JeffreyHayzlett and hash tag your suggestion with #NameAKodak.

Winner gets a trip to CES 2010 to see the unveiling of the new camera***. 100 runner-ups get a free Kodak Zi8.

Thus far, I can't say the crowd-branding has delivered too many plausible or palatable names. Many of the straightforward entries sound gimmicky ("MILI. You'll sell a mili-on"), familiar ("Zen"), or too hodgepodge-y ("Camvantix"). My favorite non-serious entry is "The Zod," which was posted by a guy named Fabien. Kudos to you, Fabien.

Here's a few quick suggestions of my own:

*The Kodak ZiRule (cause its predecessor does, in fact, rule)
*The Kodak Zzzz (ironic!)
*The Kodak HDude (Jeff Bridges endorses, in character)
*The Kodak J-Allison (lampoon-y!)
*The Kodak Raul (non-sequitur-ial!)

Got any legit and/or hilarious suggestions?

*For the record, I agree the name isn't terrific, but it's certainly not as bad as TrekStor's iBeat blaxx MP3 player from a couple years back.

**As everyone knows, tapping the wisdom of the crowd is the latest and greatest go-to ad/market/content gimmick... or at least it was back in 2006 when Wired dubbed crowdsourcing the "future of corporate R&D."

***The cam pictured above is the Zi8. Kodak hasn't released any photos or details about the new cam. But, I'm guessing it won't look too dissimilar from the Zi8. I've love to be proven wrong! ;)

Steven Leckart

Why Overt Gaming Could Take Over Social Networks & Recommendation Engines

I'm the Mayor of my local dog park. For two days, I was also the Mayor of Wired Magazine's San Francisco office. I'm now recovering from a disconcerting case of TMI-tus. All thanks to Foursquare, a GPS-enabled app I downloaded to my phone.

If you're unfamiliar, here's how it works: You launch the app, your phone determines your location, and you then have the option to broadcast this "news" to your friends, Twitter followers, etc. and add tips about, say, a restaurant &mdash what to order, what table to sit at, what time to go, etc.

But here's the catch: it's a game. Points are awarded every time you check in. Additional points are handed out if you do this frequently at multiple locations. Even more points are earned every time you add a new location to Foursquare's database.

The result: I ranked #14 on the San Francisco leaderboard after a long, exhausting weekend.

The purpose: I have no clue.

...Or actually, maybe I do. Find out after the jump.

photos by Adam Jackson & Filmoculous

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Steven Leckart

Geek Cruising with The Woz

When Woz appeared on Dancing with the Stars, you may have noticed this shirt. Funny, but what's it mean?

Geeks on Board is a feature-length doc that was shot in 2004 on a 7-day Caribbean "Geek Cruise" using only prosumer gear, including a Panasonic DVX100A. I found out about the doc as it was being filmed because my wife was actually on that MacMania III cruise (my father-in-law is a big Machead).

The doc, which was cut together using only 27 hours of footage, didn't receive wide distribution at the time. However, filmmakers Abe Forman-Greenwald (currently producing "In Their Boots") and Nate Smith (drummer for the band Shy Child) eventually self-published their work via CreateSpace.

Best part, imho, is what's around the corner. Says Abe:

We want to make all of our raw footage from the cruise available through a Creative Commons license so that anyone who is interested in repurposing the footage can do so.

Here's an outtake of Woz explaining his relationship with gaming, followed by the trailer:

Lisa Katayama

First look: GDGT

GDGT (pronounced gee-dee-gee-tee), the gadget crowdsourcing-meets-social networking site created by Pete Rojas and Ryan Block, launches now. I had the chance to play around with it last night &mdash it's really cool! The interface is beautiful and easy to use, the features are fun, and in a world where talking about gadgets has become a common icebreaker, it seems completely natural that something like this would exist. Now, a brief inside look...

This is my profile page. It's vaguely reminiscent of my Facebook profile, with personal info up top and recent activity below, except it's a lot better looking and easier to navigate &mdash also, it has squeezed my existence down to gadgets I have, want, and had. If you can't find a gadget you own in the database, you can add it yourself.

Right now, I have three friends and two followers. This part reminds me of Twitter &mdash I'm hoping to have more friends and followers by the end of the day because it will make me feel popular.

Community updates and gadget news show up like this. Just imagine, you could be talking about gadgets all day. GDGT is prepared to host hundreds of thousands of conversations about gadgets, so if you want to geek out about your 3GS, this would be a good place to do it, better than at the dinner table with your luddite friends and family.

You can also use GDGT to find gadgets...

...or to compare them. So now that you know all this, you can sign up and check it out for yourself.

GDGT main page

Steven Leckart

Contest: Win an Alto User's Handbook & Smalltalk Instruction Manual

When I visited PARC for the second time, I asked the staff what kinds of historical mementos they had lying around. Not only did they promptly hand me a copy of the Alto User's Handbook from 1979 and a Smalltalk-72 Instruction Manual from 1976, BUT they also told me I could keep them.

How cool is that?

Then it occurred to me that not just anyone can call up PARC, schedule an appointment and commandeer these classic manuals. Sure you could visit the DigiBarn and ask to see one, or try eBay and Amazon. But I do realize it's a bit gauche to show off my good fortune, which is why BBG is going to give away these collector's items to one reader.

What to Enter:

1) share any pics of yourself using an Alto
2) share any stories about your use of an Alto/Smalltalk, memories of the first Alto you saw, etc.
3) write a poem, paint a watercolor portrait of Alan Kay or create some other homage to PARC

How to Enter:

1) include text and/or links in the comments OR email me steven AT boingboing DOT net
2) if you leave your entry via the comments, be sure to include your email address, and be sure to write/format the address as I did to avoid spammers

Who Wins:

BBG will choose one person, winner-take-all. Good luck!

Alto photo provided by PARC

Steven Leckart

PARC: What's w/the Shagadelic Carpet & Beanbag Chairs?

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Brandon Boyer

Do you make chiptunes? Help us score these retro-videos.

Here's the deal: Boing Boing has come into possession of some wicked footage of an anonymous Atari Computer Camp excursion that has everything you could ever want from grainy stock video: namely, yellowed and over-saturated money shots of retro-tech, and a bevy of over-eager and still-innocent pre-teens banging out BASIC to make crossword crosses out of the words Van Halen (no joke!) and gawping at the awesome limitless power and future of computers.

Here's the catch: neither of the videos -- the first clocking in at about seven minutes, and the second coming in at seven and a half -- have any sound at all.

And so: given Offworld/Boing Boing's sizable audience of chiptune/junk-tech musicians, we thought we'd throw the score open to you. If you're interested in submitting some of your music for the videos, which will be broadcast on BBtv at a later date, send an email to brandon@offworld.com with the subject line "Atari Computer Camp" and we'll dig through and select our favorites from there. Bonus points awarded for (but certainly not limited to) composing on actual 8-bit Atari tech.

See the original post on Offworld for more inspirational shots of the kids at work (and play).

Joel Johnson

It's 2009 and the L.A. Times is still treating geeks as mysterious others

The L.A. Times profiles Utah's Neumont University, said by some to be a "geek heaven", but also known as a school that exacerbates their students asocial tendencies.

Some of Neumont's female students, who make up about 5% of the 266 enrolled this year, are on a mission to get their peers to tune in to the world around them. In October, one posted a message on Neumont's Web forums protesting what she called "offensive odors."

"The truth is there are people in this school who just don't smell pleasant at all," she wrote.

There's a lingering sneer throughout the whole piece (typified by the unflattering picture of this poor student) that makes it seem like something from thirty years ago, before geeks were an identifiable subculture unto themselves and before the business world figured out it was best to leave them alone and let them get to work. Neumont is an accelerated programming school, pushing students through a degree in two-and-a-half years—you're gonna get some kids who enjoy a little dungeon crawling. If the worst you can claim is that they're awkward and occasionally smelly, you're not telling anybody anything they didn't already know. Leave mocking geeks to other geeks. We've evolved far less subtle and infinitely more powerful mechanisms for inoculating ourselves against the slings and arrows of regular folk. (c.f. Something Awful)

(Although I'm going to have to back Alana Semuels on the stink thing: Geeks—and in my experience this applies trebly to those of the core gamer variant—can occasionally smell like a sarlacc's vagina. Take a shower every single day. I don't care to hear your excuses about sensitive skin or brittle hair. Wash yourself with soap every day, perhaps even twice if necessary, and wear clean clothes. You're not just embarrassing yourself—you're embarrassing the rest of us.) [via The Awl (which is read by dicks, judging by the comments. Mean ol' dicks!)]

Steven Leckart

Eureka 2.0: collaborative urban prospecting

Last week our pals at Gizmodo stumbled on an Instructables project for hacking a metal detector with a hydrocarbon sensor. The goal: use it to find oil you can extract and sell for $$$ OR locate underground toxins, so you can try to sue whoever put them there (win win, if you ask me).

When I spoke with project founder Col. Jon Cohrs a few days ago, he was racing to finish assembling another 5 detectors for the Futuresonic festival in Manchester. But why?

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Steven Leckart

Awesome n00bian moms, we salute you

Does your mom have a meltdown just cause you won't put away your laptop? Does she have technical difficulties? Try to throw her a bone sometime. More and more moms, grandmas and great-grandma's of all ages are learning to get down with the Wii, strum to Rock Band and fiddle with other gadgetry. To all the ordinary, wonderfully un-techy moms out there who aren't afraid to give it a go -- even when cameras are rolling -- we say, "Rock On!"

"Hey, I am darn good at this!"

More after the jump...

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Steven Leckart

Sonogram art & remixes for new/expectant/sentimental moms

Skip cookware, a new vacuum cleaner, or pink electrical devices this Mother's Day. The gift of life is plenty. What a mom doesn't necessarily need, but will cherish forever is artwork based on her baby's first portrait, and even heartbeat.

Companies like Baby Heart Art will transpose the data points from a sonogram onto paper, then place those BPM's within an acid-free mat and 11"x14" frame -- all for $125 (or less if you skip the mat or frame). All you have to do is email a file, select a color combination (I like green/blue), and decide which data you want graphed: the more chaotic pulsed Doppler pattern or condensed M Mode pattern (tough call).

Too pricey?

Try a simple ultrasound art-y photo tweak. Sites like iCanvasArt charge $35 (?) to do some Photoshoppery to make your baby's first pic look like a Warhol (sorta). No idea why you'd use one of these sites, unless you are strapped for time, or for whatever reason, are completely incapable of stumbling your way through consumer-oriented editing programs like iPhoto or Picnik.

Too boring?

Go for SonoArt. They'll remix your sonogram in some amazingly odd ways. The "Robot" version of your baby might seem strange, but who doesn't think of his/her baby as a "Future Leader"?

Warning: it is not advisable to conduct non-medical sonograms purely for "keepsake" purposes.

[top image via Flickr; note: Baby Heart Art sample is not based on top sonogram]

Steven Leckart

Star Trek: a complicated rainbow coalition

In the Star Trek universe, there are 200+ nations teeming with thousands of various ethnicities, gender(s), religions, languages and artificial intelligences. So why is it dominated by so many darn white dudes?

Many a scholarly essay and book has examined race in film and TV, but as one of the longest-running and varied franchises, Star Trek is ripe for deconstruction*. After all, since its inception, the series never shied away from tackling blatant racial issues. Exhibit A: literally "bi-racial" characters like Lokai and Bele (pic above). Nevertheless, considering race both within and outside the story is where it starts to get really interesting, imho.

This site hasn't been updated since 2002, but it provides some interesting figures from the series' formative years all the way through "Voyager."

40% of principal characters have been non-human, or partially non-human... 33% have been women... 28% have been played by non-white actors... Of the 42 principal cast members, eleven (26%) can be classified as racial minorities

And the ethnic identity of the characters adds a layer of cultural complexity:

In some cases, the actor's race did not relate to the character's race. For instance, Tuvok played a dark-skinned Vulcan. But it was not correct to call Tuvok an "African-American Vulcan," because, although the actor was African-American, the character was not. There is no Africa or America on the planet Vulcan. Also, although Torres had a Hisanic last name, her Hispanic ethnicity was never addressed on "Star Trek: Voyager", because the conflict between her human and Klingon backgrounds was much more important. Worf was also played by an African-American, but his character was simply a Klingon, and was not a "black Klingon."

...Chakotay's character is very much a Native American (from South or Latin America) who devoutly subscribes to many of his culture's traditional religious beliefs and practices. The actor himself is of Mexican descent. So he does have Native American ancestry, although he is mestizo, and describes himself as Hispanic or Mexican.

I'm off to see a screening of the new Star Trek tomorrow (woot!), and can't wait to see whether these figures/percentages hold true. In theory, they should, since it's a prequel. BUT, already we've been promised Captain Robau, played by the first-ever Middle Eastern/South Asian actor to play a major role in Star Trek.

[image via HeroSpy]

*If you want to dive in deeper, check out Race in Space: The Representation of Ethnicity in "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation

Alan Graham

Questions for Ford's CEO?

I'm a Ford Fiesta Agent for the social media experiment called the Fiesta Movement. Basically Ford brought over a hundred 2009 Fiesta prototypes from Germany and gave them out to be driven like mad for the next 6 months, along the way creating buzz and a boat load of user generated content in the manner of photos, videos, blog entries and Tweets (the Fiesta goes on sale here next summer).

As a marketing strategy it is pretty smart, and with any luck might be just the shot in the arm that Ford needs to get its balance sheet back in the black. Joel and I are gonna take my Fiesta out for some track testing, but in the meantime I've managed to score an interview with Ford's CEO Alan Mulally over on TreeHugger. However, while the questions over in our community tend to trend "green," I wanted to give boing boing readers a shot at asking some questions outside that box. So, if you have a question you'd like to ask Mr. Mulally, pop on over to the TH forums and post it, no account required. If your question is selected the answer will be posted here on boing boing gadgets.

I'd like to see some clever questions or comments regarding technical issues, gearhead issues, or just pure geek stuff you want to see in upcoming cars that will get you buying American again. I gotta tell you...this thing is LOADED with tech...so whatever you may want, could already be in here. If you want to ask me something about the car just leave a comment here.

Joel Johnson

Quote: Why we need GeoCities

Phil Gyford:

GeoCities is an awful, ugly, decrepit mess. And this is why it will be sorely missed. It's not only a fine example of the amateur web vernacular but much of it is an increasingly rare example of a period web vernacular. GeoCities sites show what normal, non-designer, people will create if given the tools available around the turn of the millennium.

(Jason Scott is trying to make a backup.)

Joel Johnson

Video: These are the sort of mistakes I make when brewing beer at the BBGS

Thanks again to Justin, who gives the impression that I know what I'm doing in these videos.

Tonight's meeting will orient mostly around planning upcoming projects: on deck are a bio-diesel-powered go-kart (although electric is also on the table), an evening of building your own theremins, and a lesson on distilling spirits.

It will also orient around drinking beer. I may also break out that new smoker and smoke some dank meats, yo.

Joel Johnson

This is the type of fruitless anonymous comment I will now be binning

"Yay I just thought "I wish I could spend my moning watching ads" and boing boing has delivered! Now if only I could find a blog which is all ads all the time. ...seriously boing boing, why are we posting ads? Are they a 'wonderful thing'? Hell, you don't even have any editorial copy to go along with the ads in this post. Weak." – Anonymous

First of all: Ha ha. Get bent.

Second of all: I'm all about letting the idiots have their say in the comments, but from here on out if you want to being snide or criticize, you're going to have to register. I don't see why I have to put up with drive-by douchesniping on my site when someone doesn't even care enough to put their name on their comment.

Joel Johnson

Tonight @ Baker Boulevard Geographic Society: How To homebrew beer

Above, Patrick and Don of the Baker Boulevard Geographic Society generate a wall of noise from found objects connected to contact mics, a portable record player, and a signal generator. (Video shot and edited by Justin.)

Not pictured: Me drinking way more than anyone else and then basically passing out right after everyone left.

We'll be meeting again this evening at 8PM, where I will attempt to brew my first batch of homebrew in about two years, whereby others may learn from my mistakes.

Previously • Tomorrow Night in Eugene: The inaugural assembly of the Baker Boulevard Geographic Society (Includes a map.)

Joel Johnson

Reader Comment: "One AT&T operator once tried to convert me to Jesus"

The Secret Life of Plants' comment in a thread about iPhone exclusivity made me giggle:

T-Mobile is not perfect but they are nice, and you can talk to people who have actually power. One AT&T operator once tried to convert me to Jesus and then wouldn't let me pay my bill because I had forgotten my password. I was only trying to *give* them money but they said that it was a security risk if I didn't remember my password. This was after the warrantless wiretapping thing. I told her that I didn't give a shit if Saddam Hussein wanted to pay my bill and she hung up on me. I have been happy with T-Mobile ever since.

Joel Johnson

Tomorrow Night in Eugene: The inaugural assembly of the Baker Boulevard Geographic Society

View Larger Map

Let's do it.

If you'd like to attend, please email me (joel@bb) so I can get a general head count. You will be asked to bring a chair of some sort, as my seating is spotty in the garage. (We can go into the house if we must, of course.)

I have emailed Ninkasi to see if they sell kegs.

Let's start at 8.

Joel Johnson

DorkYearbook.com

Due to the surprise success of Dork Yearbook, I have rolled it out into its own site. I moved over all the pictures from the post on BBG to DorkYearbook.com. If you don't want your picture over there let me know!

As a special treat, Dork Yearbook got its first celebrity dork submission this evening: two pictures from a young Mr. Steve Wozniak. I think he founded Oracle or something.

Joel Johnson

I was thinking about considering to start a Society in Eugene, Oregon

Every Friday night, my girlfriend teaches a milonga here in Eugene, leaving me home alone until the wee hours. Which is fine by me—I hate going out on Friday nights, especially in a college town.

So I've been toying with an idea: Having people over to my house. To sit in my garage. And Do Things.

Do what I'm not exactly sure, but I was hoping we might be able to work on projects together, sip a few beers, maybe bring in guest speakers, sit in chairs, smoke pipes, debate the merits of carburetors versus UNIX. Sort of a cross between a technology meetup (without so much schmoozing) and hackerspace (except I am inept) and a Victorian club.

In fact, the only thing I'm really sure about is that I'd like to call it the "Baker Boulevard Geographic Society".

Joel Johnson

Pictures: Mom's drunk on the scanner, again

The black & white photos are my grandfather and my Uncle Mike, I believe. When Mike went to West Point, they handed out copies of one of Grandpa's electronics repair books in class. Apparently when they realized that Mike had the same last name as the author, they started to give him shit about being really good at electronics, too. It only got worse when he told them it was his dad.

And the bucktoothed kid in front of the 286 is me, proudly showing off the sum total of my activity for the summer between sixth and seventh grades: shoplifting pewter dragon statues from the mall, dicking off on Prodigy, and spending hours a day tracking down Lord Verminaard in Trade Wars 2002 until I blew him and his parter into space for daring to tussle with DRIZZT DO'URDEN and his sock puppet buddy SHARP BLACKWOOD. (When a month before this shot was taken Verminaard had looted my home planet, I went out into the backyard and wept and sniveled at the stars for justice.)

If you have any pictures of you and dorky tech pastimes of your childhood, I would love to see them. Don't leave me hanging with my whistling gap teeth here. You can email me and I'll add them to the thread, or just add them t to the BBG Flickr pool. (Tag them "dorkyearbook" and I'll find them.)

Previously: Things On My Desk: My Grandpa's "Lemonaid Loader"

Update: The first batch are here.

Rob Beschizza

More great laptop art

Previously: The Heart and Soul of Laptop Art

Joel Johnson

Driving from Brooklyn to Oregon next week; What weird should I espy?

I am moving to Eugene, Oregon, because I am in love with a girl.

I'm also in love with my dog Porter who, as an English Bulldog, has a not-impossible chance of dying in the cargo hold a jet (even one heated and pressurized; bullies have breathing issues). So I'm gonna lash him in to the passenger seat of a rented minivan, test out my new awkwardly large Pioneer GPS unit, and bop across the country from Brooklyn listening to my first audiobook ever. (Ender's Game, which I've never read. I know.)

Along the way, I'll be doing the things one does when hauling ass on the interstates—gulping coffee, then slathering umeboshi plum paste on my teeth to try to counteract the acidity; asking truckers where to find the best chicken-fried steak with cream gravy, America's perfect food; falling asleep in the mountains to die in flames at the bottom of a ravine, my organs shimmering on my outsides like a grotesque Nudie Cohn suit—and I'll be recording them all on the video machines.

I have to cut through Kansas City to drop off an old Kustom amp that my buddy Jason had to leave when he moved back home. And I hope to be rolling into Oregon by the weekend. But along the way, I've got a little time to sightsee and visit. What should I see? Want to meet up?

Joel Johnson

Tweet Week: Win Dirty Dolls Lingerie, LeapFrog Didj, iVoice headsets today

We're starting off today's Tweet Week giveaways with a bang: I'm going to pick one of you to win some panties from Dirty Dolls, a just-launched lingerie company that "specializes in catering to the needs of voluptuous women." (Bless them.) Founder Courtney Leigh Newman is giving us two items, the Organic Cha Cha Cheeky Short [pictured] and the Organic Thrilling Thong. (Which, despite first glance, is a technically SFW image. Subtle!)

On deck for later today: Five Didj handheld gaming systems for kids from LeapFrog, plus three games for each. (Unintentional awesome: We give away videocameras, then lingerie, then kids' toys. Narrative is a powerful form.) We've also got a couple of Bluetooth headsets from iVoice, the Diamond-X and GX7.

How do you get a chance to win this stuff? I've explained the details already, but in short: if you follow the Boing Boing editors on Twitter this week, you have a chance to win fabolas prizes. Here are our accounts again; Each follow is an entry: • @joeljohnson; @xenijardin; @beschizza; @brandonnn; @doctorow; @johnbattelle; @frauenfelder