xkcd: Amber Waves of Grain
Colorado is working to develop coherent amber waves, which would allow them to finally destroy Kansas and Nebraska with a devastating but majestic grain laser.
thanks to xkcd.
28. October 2011
20. October 2011
The Free Monkey Problem
This is an entertaining take on the high cost of free:
The Free Monkey Problem: The High Cost of Free Things | Credit Karma Blog
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, unless your monkey steals it for you.
They mention one of Dan Ariely’s findings (from Predictably Irrational) - when Amazon introduced FREE shipping, sales skyrocketed everywhere except France. It turns out that the French division offered 1 Franc ($.20) shipping instead of FREE. Apparently, skipping the Franc expense was worth buckets of money to consumers.
There is no question that things exact costs from us, even when they are FREE - we have to store them, insure them, clean and maintain them, perhaps even use them (so we won’t have wasted our money). Try calculating the cost of the storage space in your home and compare it to the value of the stuff you have in it.
18. October 2011
16. October 2011
Spherical Photos - pretty cool!
This is pretty cool:
The Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera which captures a full spherical panorama when thrown into the air. At the peak of its flight, which is determined using an accelerometer, a full panoramic image is captured by 36 mobile phone camera modules.
