Botanicalls has figured out a way to get plants to Twitter when they need to be watered.
(Credit: Botanicalls)If you thought it was bad enough that all your friends, and even your mother, want you to keep up with them via their Twitter pages, your plants could now do the same.
That's because the folks at Botanicalls, a group that formed at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program that figured out how to get plants to make phone calls when they need to be watered, have now extended that functionality to Twitter.
"Botanicalls Twitter answers the question: What's up with your plant? It offers a connection to your leafy pal via online Twitter status updates that reach you anywhere in the world," says the Botanicalls site. "When your plant needs water, it will post to let you know, and send its thanks when you show it love."
And if you want to know how to make your plants Twitter their thirst, then hop on over to the Make magazine blog, where Geek Gestalt's good friend, Phillip Torrone, has the how-to information for you.
Now, don't get me wrong. I absolutely love the idea that you can get a plant to Twitter. But, at the same time, I'm a little worried about where this might lead. After all, my cat gets hungry several times a minute. I simply won't be able to handle if he gets ahold of a Twitter account.
AUSTIN, Texas--If you've never seen a machine that makes 3D models out of sugar, you should.
But unless you're part of a relatively small group of people who went to the Maker Faire in California in May, or are one of a few other people who know the machine's creator, you probably have never even heard of the device.
Similarly, you may not be aware--or at least the general public probably isn't--that there is a whole movement going on right now to build advanced, digital, relatively inexpensive personal fabrication and robotics tools that can do or create some very cool things like laser etchings on laptops or iPods, 3D models of virtual world avatars, Lego models of almost anything, and many other kinds of projects.
A primary example of the places that offer these kinds of tools and project support is MIT's Fab Lab.
As Wikipedia's entry on such fab labs puts it: "While fab labs cannot compete with mass production and its associated economies of scale in fabricating widely distributed products, they have the potential to empower individuals to create smart devices for themselves. These devices can be tailored to local or personal needs in ways that are not practical or economical using mass production."
On Thursday, as many of the organizers of Maker Faire Austin and the so-called "makers" themselves began gathering to prepare for this weekend's event, they took time out for what they called a "fabrication summit," a discussion of such tools, and more importantly, how to get them into the hands of and in front of a larger number of people.
Hosted by Make magazine editor and publisher Dale Dougherty, the meeting--attended by some of the most accomplished people in the personal fabrication field--became a referendum on what it might take to get the masses interested in these kinds of tools and machines.
No conclusions were reached, but there were some insights that might help the group reach its goal--particularly about why most people may not know about this kind of technology.
On Thursday, some of the organizers of Maker Faire, as well as some of the 'makers' themselves gathered for a 'fabrication summit' in Austin.'
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)"By far the biggest obstacle is fear," said Jim Newton, the founder and managing director of TechShop, a business in Menlo Park, Calif., that offers drop-in access to a wide range of fabrication tools. "People are afraid to try this. Very few people want to make things anymore because they've built up this fear. Aside from providing the actual tools, (it's necessary) to get people past the fear. It's (about showing) people that they can do this: 'You don't have to be an engineer. You can do this yourself.'"
Another meeting attendee, Make senior editor Phil Torrone, suggested that the way to getting people interested in using these kinds of tools, particularly young people, is to show them how to use the technology on their favorite devices.
"People under 18 want to (laser) etch their iPods and cell phones," Torrone said. "But the people that have this equipment are engineers. It's like a drug (though). You let them try it and get them addicted. You have to have a gateway drug. You have to give them something interesting first. And there are a hundred million iPods."
Lifehacker.com editor Gina Trapani had 'Make' magazine senior editor Phil Torrone etch a symbol of an Irish knot on her PowerBook. Here, the machine is still doing the etching.
(Credit: Gina Trapani/Lifehacker.com)But as Ted Hall, president of computer-controlled machine tool company ShopBot put it, "There's still very little awareness of digital fabrication capabilities. It's amazing to me how little awareness (there is) of how much can be done."
Part of the problem, Hall added, is terminology. For example, one important term in the personal fabrication field is CNC, or computer numerical control, which is part of the system that ShopBot uses. Hall said tools must have more accessible names.
For example, he pointed to concept of the 3D printer, a device that can build a three-dimensional physical model based on digital images. "Printer," Hall said, offers "a word of explanation that conveys everything that it is going to do. And for many of the other tools, that's not the case."
The meeting ended without specific resolutions or recommendations, but it appeared that those involved left inspired to promote their movement and to help bring the new tools to the public in a way they feel will empower the masses to do whole lot more creating on their own.
AUSTIN, TEXAS--I'm sitting in the lobby of the Radisson hotel downtown with a bunch of the folks putting on Maker Faire.
One of them is Make magazine editor Phil Torrone, who, among other crazy ventures, was the co-genius behind Roomba Frogger, when he and fellow hacker Limor Fried modified a Roomba vacuum cleaner and wirelessly directed it to run back and forth across an Austin street like the iconic classic video game during South by Southwest 2006.
This morning, however, Torrone is tired, as it's only 8 a.m. But he's got a goal, and it's not one that would be generally accepted by society at large.
'Make' magazine editor Phil Torrone holding the TV-B-Gone, an open-source kit for turning off televisions
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)And that is to show off his brand new TV-B-Gone kit, an open-source, build-it-yourself device for turning off almost any television created by Fried in conjunction with Mitch Altman, the designer of the original TV-B-Gone.
And while Altman sold his device, people couldn't build it themselves. Now, anyone can in about 20 minutes with some rudimentary soldering skills, Torrone tells me. This is much more in the spirit of Maker Faire and general DIY culture.
So, we're sitting in the lobby and Torrone shows me the device, which is small, with several LEDs and some circuitry. I would never have known what it is.
A big flat-screen TV on the wall is showing CNN and Torrone is bemoaning the fact that television tends to suck people's attention away from conversation. So he looks over at the set, surreptitiously pushes the button on his TV-B-Gone, and it flickers off.
We smile, because it's nice that it's off, but a minute later, someone walks over and turns it on again.
That's no good, clearly, and so Torrone clicks it off again using his tool.
Torrone turning off the television in the lobby of the Austin Radisson hotel using his TV-B-Gone kit. Someone turned it on a minute later, so Torrone turned it back off.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)"I feel really bad about this," Torrone says, "totally bad about that. I'm not a good person."
I don't believe him.
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