Inch-Rest-Sting

Interesting words, quotes, and pictures.

[withclosedeyes]

GE testing jet engines against ice in Canada

[thegirlwiththebigbrownhair]

I literally just threw my phone.

[smartercities]

Rachel Haot, NYC’s chief digital officer talks about how to run a successful hackathon and how it can benefit cities. 

[emergentfutures]

CHART OF THE DAY: Search Is Still The Main Source Of Mobile Ad Revenue

Full Story: BI

[jkottke]

This interview with a 14-year-old girl about how she uses her iPhone and social media is almost equal parts fascinating and terrifying. Some choice quotes:

“I’ll wake up in the morning and go on Facebook just … because,” Casey says. “It’s not like I want to or I don’t. I just go on it. I’m,…

[thenewenlightenmentage]

[tomemrich]

New Wireless Electronics Could Heal Wounds and Then Dissolve

Nestled inside a wound, a remote-controlled device perks up and begins releasing bacteria-killing heat, a form of thermal therapy that can fell even the most drug-resistant microbes. After it does its job, the electronic heater dissolves, and its biocompatible ingredients become part of the person it has helped to heal.

Though not quite a reality yet, this scenario isn’t too far off. In addition to dissolvable electronics, scientists have now built a biodegradable remote-controlled, power-harvesting circuit, described May 17 in Advanced Materials, and are already testing absorbable thermal electronics in rodents.

Continue Reading

[thenextweb]

Some useful stats and tips for Tumblrs.

What have you found works best?  Let us know?

@MattNavarraUK

[parislemon]

Why you should move that button 3px to the left

Braden Kowitz on the importance of the details in design:

There’s a curious brain hack at work here. Our minds are deeply tied to emotional states. Being frustrated or happy changes the way we approach problems. I have certainly been in a bad mood, gotten confused by a product, and found myself repeatedly smashing a button to no effect. In my frustration, I try the same thing, justharder. But it doesn’t help me accomplish my goal. 

When we’re happy, using an interface feels like play. The world looks like a puzzle, not a battle. So when we get confused, we’re more likely to explore and find other paths to success. There’s a whole book on this topic: Emotional Design by Don Norman. But here’s the important bit: Getting design details right can create positive emotional states that actually make products easier to use.

[parislemon]

Is This The Fastest-Growing Game Company Ever?

Karsten Strauss of Forbes reporting on Supercell, the creators of the insanely popular iOS game, Clash of Clans:

Most game studios have an autocratic executive producer green-lighting the work of designers and programmers. Supercell’s developers work in autonomous groups of five to seven people. Each cell comes up with its own game ideas. They run their ideas by Paananen (he can’t remember ever nixing a proposal), then develop those into a game. If the team likes it, the rest of the employees get to play. If they like it, the game gets tested in Canada‘s iTunes App store. If it’s a hit there it will be deemed ready for global release. This staged approach has killed off four games so far, with each dead project a cause for celebration. Employees crack open champagne to toast their failure. “We really want to celebrate maybe not the failure itself but the learning that comes out of the failure,” says Paananen. 

I like everything about this, and especially the toasting to (the learning from) failure.

[thatiswhyimbroke]

More at That Is Why I’m Broke

[futurescope]

IBM creates liquid-based transistors that can process data like the human brain

From VentureBeat:

For decades, the transistor has been the building block of electronic devices, from computers to smartphones. It has seen little change, but a team of researchers at IBM has given the transistor a major makeover, and it may enable the company to build computers that function more like the way the human brain works. If it pans out, IBM could use the technology to build chips that are highly efficient and use much less electrical power. That could lead to a revolution in mobile devices, which today are bound by short battery lives and electrical inefficiency. The whole process is not unlike the charged electrical fluids sloshing around in our brains. If the brain can do it, an artificially crafted material might be able to do it too.

[read more]

[emergentfutures]

Wal-Mart is openly discussing an idea that would use customers at its stores as a delivery service to deliver packages on their return trip home, an example of ‘crowdsharing’:

Full Story: GigaOm

[courtenaybird]

Study by Time Warner Medialab (via AdWeek)

[courtenaybird]

Browser Wars Revisited (via laughingsquid)

[pewinternet]

TEENS HAVE GONE MOBILE.

Check these stats:

78% of teens now have a cell phone, and almost half (47%) of them own smartphones. That translates into 37% of all teens who have smartphones, up from just 23% in 2011.

23% of teens have a tablet computer, a level comparable to the general adult population.

95% of teens use the internet.

93% of teens have a computer or have access to one at home.

AND - 1 in 4 teens are “cell-mostly” internet users, who say they mostly go online using their phone and not using some other device such as a desktop or laptop computer.

More: http://pewrsr.ch/ZmwgLG

[therealityinstitute]

Watch a swarm of aquatic robots assemble into an emergency water-bridge George Dvorsky, io9.com

The idea of creating autonomous robotic swarms is nothing new, a concept that’s been demonstrated by GRASP Lab’s quadrotors. What needs to happen now is for developers to push the technology forward and come up with practical applications for thes…

[analyticisms]

It’s a social-mobile world folks…