The Double Robot (Video Conferencing On Wheels)
I always thought this’d be cool, it’s a robot that lets you work a room via an iPad on wheels. So you can video-conference in and still move around. At Social Media Day this year they had a Google Hangout with Jehan R, but it was mega awkward. There are few things worse than a 1-500 video call. This Double Robot, however, is much more cool. Using a system like this, Jehan could actually wheel around the room.
Sometimes you do just have to be there. But when you are there, you wonder how pointless it kinda is. I mean, you sit all the way in traffic just to talk to someone because a system isn’t online. Think of how difficult it would be to get, say, every item in a particular Arpico online. What if, instead, you had robots that you could control from home and order stuff sorta the same way that humans do. That’s actually kinda inefficient, but it’s something I’ve often thought about. That is, instead of taking stores online, just stick robots in the stores.
Other examples are, say, doing a tour of a factory floor, or checking out a printing facility. Numerous times I have driven way out to the boonies to just sign off on print jobs. I understand for that you need to touch and feel, except you really don’t need to touch and feel, not always. If I could dial in and keep an eye on a print run that’d do 50% of the time. This thing does cost like $2,000 though. Plus two iPads.
Another idea I had was something beyond this iPad on a stick, an actual teddy bear that, say, a travelling parent could control from abroad, via XBox motion control or something. So a young child could lay with their parent via an animated toy when they’re out of town. That’d be cool. Maybe a bit creepy, but I think mostly cool. And I haven’t even got started on teledildonics.
I’m happy to be featured in Echelon magazine’s 40 Under 40 feature, profiling young people who contribute to the economy in some way, mainly in business but also in terms of innovation and thought leadership. It’s an interesting article not just in that I’m in it (mainly for work on indi.ca and 
I won’t add too much commentary, but just read I guess. The youngest Rajapaksa, Rohitha (Chi Chi) has given an amazing interview to the 
In 2009 this strange character appeared on the Sri Lankan Internet scene, getting angry, flaming, trolling whatever. Then he started naming anonymous bloggers, posting comments as people’s kids, nasty stuff, for which I removed him from 
The chutzpah of this government knows no bounds. Every government since Independence has had to balance placating Sinhala nationalists (AKA racists) while at the same time actually running a sensible, inclusive nation that doesn’t send minority citizens, capital and foreign investment fleeing. Basically, they’ve had to pay lip service to nationalists while at the same time trying to run an actual nation. Every government has also generally failed, SWRD being killed by a nationalist monk and everyone after almost losing the country to various rebellions. In that context Mahinda is actually doing a better job by virtue of not being dead and not losing control of the country. But he’s still not doing a good job.
My goodness, the things I learn from this blog!
check out this Heartbeat pillow
http://techland.time.com/2011/11/09/glowing-pillow-with-heartbeat-connects-long-distance-lovers/