Sunday, July 07, 2013

Google Art: poetry generator

Another example of art based on Google: Google poetics. 
Very simple idea, it's a collection of "poems" that have showed up when Google made a list of suggestions to automatically complete a search. The phrases that Google suggest are based on the most common queries, so in that sense the poem reflects the interest of all we Google users.
Mesmerizing stuff. Open for contributions.

Thursday, July 04, 2013

Too cheap: booking a Ryanair ticket

I just ordered a ticket with Ryanair and the main impression that I came away with was one of feeling almost unclean, after dealing with someone a bit too sleazy for comfort. I acknowledge that they have been pioneers in changing the level of prices for air travel – but to me they are pushing it too far now. I’m glad I’m not an employee there, but even as a customer, you get a sense that they are trying to trick you.
The moment I enter the website, I am on alert, because I know that unless I move very carefully, I will either spend more money than I thought I would – or I will waste a lot of time, before finally quitting in frustration and protest.

The first thing I want to know is whether they have a departure that fits my plans. But in order to search for flights, I have to declare that I have read and accepted the conditions. I don’t have the patience for that, so I accept – with a slight unease: what am I accepting that they do with the information about me?















 



The design of the website is explicitly cheap, Typography and colors are LOUD, pop up windows appear, ads for all sorts of additional stuff is everywhere – they’re even selling ad-space for competing airlines. 
The box that asks for permission to keep spamming me with offers has a intriguing backwards phrasing:

 










Obviously they are very eager to sell additional services – like insurance:
















Not only does this big and loud sales pitch come up, but for every extra item they offer – airtime for phoning (…), sightseeing tours, luggage – you must specifically click no or scroll all the way down to the ”not interested” option. 
















  
It goes on for several screens, including one for rental cars, and finally one for some sort of lottery - which you must also explicity reject:

 





Finally you get your total price – I noticed an extra charge for paying with my credit card, of course.

Then they send you a confirmation and itinerary. Again, filled with colorful ads for extra service. For me as a customer, I would like a simple document, that didn’t force me to spend precious color ink on printing ads for stuff I don’t need.



So, now I’m ready. I just have to remember, that when I check in from home, I must print out the boarding card. Otherwise Ryan air will charge me 70 pounds to print one!

It’s the only departure that fits my schedule for this travel. And it’s cheap – but maybe a bit too cheap.

Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Rising wages and aging population in China


A recent article in BusinessWeek details the rising salaries in Chinese factories. In 2012, 25 provinces increased wages by an average of 20,2%. The article describes how large manufacturers like Fox Conn and Flextronics move inland for lower wages, but also because there are more workers available. BusinessWeeks points out that, according to China Bureau of Statistics, the number of working-age Chinese in 2012 fell by 3,45 million – due to the aging of the population.  

Monday, July 01, 2013

Nøjsomme løsninger i Radio24syvs kina program

Jeg fortalte om vores konklusioner i projektet om nøjsomme løsninger i Globus, Radio24syvs ugentlige program om Kina.
Du kan høre indslaget her - det starter ved 11:42 og varer 11 minutter:

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Frugal solutions – Our brief new pamphlet


At the Universe Foundation we've just published a short, easy to read pamphlet which describes why we see a need for companies to develop more "frugal solutions".
It also features  a toolbox of methods that companies may consider if they want to try lowering prices without comprising the utility for end-users. 

Obviously, there’s an extensive website as well.
In English - and in Danish


Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Counterfeit paradises - amazing photo book from China

 
Matthew Niederhauser is a photographer living in China with a keen eye for the absurdity of the ways Chinese developers create completely artificial town as replicas of German villages, French chateaus or Venetian canals. You can see a large collection in his online book, Counterfeit paradises. Very funny, very weird - a bit hard to comprehend, actually.The pdf is rather large, so it takes a while to load. It's worth the wait. 

Foxconn's robots are late

Interesting update on the situation around Foxconn’s plans to deploy massive numbers of robots in their immense factories in China – the ones that, among other, produce phones and computers for Apple.

Several details I wasn’t aware of:

- Foxconn is losing money, $US 316 mio. last year

- Foxcon build their own robots – they call them Foxbots. They started constructing the robots with the help of MIT back in 2009. So far they have only made 20.000, but the plans are to build a million.

- Unusually, there is currently a freeze in hiring at Foxconn, or at least thay was the situation back in february, after the new year holiday.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Basic tricks for computer use that you ought to know

New Times tech columnist David Pogue delivers real value for your time in this 6 minute TED presentation of 10 basic trick for easier everyday use of you computer, phone and camera.
Like: don't use your mouse to scoll on a webpage, use the spacebar to go down a screen - or shift space bar to go back up again.
Or: Press ctrl + to magnify the size of text on a webpage. ctrl - to back in size again. (it's the cmd-key on Macs)
useful stuff.

Thursday, May 02, 2013

The core of e-learning

E-learning, flipping the classroom, blended learning... it's been exploding recently.
Here are links to three podcast with some central actors in the field:

A presentation by Salman Khan at the London School of Economics

A presentation by Sebastian Thrun from Udacity for the Commonwealth club of California on april 17. 2013

And finally, some interesting critical observations from Nicholas Negroponte, ex-head of MIT Medialab, speaking for the Long Now Foundation. He argues that videoinstructions and online tests are disastrous for learning. He calls it instructionalism. Instead he reminds of the virtues of constructivism; learning by doing and making, and the combination and the combination of theory and practice.
His remarks are concentrated 44 minutes into the programme.






Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Saving all open word documents at once

Ah, I finally found this function: If you have a bunch of word documents open on your screen and want to make sure they are all saved, you can save them all in one go by pressing "shift", and then choosing the "save all" function which will now appear in your "file" menu. Works for both windows and Mac. Wonderful!
It's explained in detail here.

Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Chinese phrases for key cultural concepts

Here are some Chinese phrases that anyone dealing with China might find useful to know: 

Fendou - 奋斗 
Struggle, hard work. There’s a strong belief that hard work and plain living is the way to build up a person – and a country, as well. Fendou is the drive that allows China to catch up

Renao - 热闹
Lively, hot, noisy. Whereas Danes typically prefer a quiet, orderly setting, Chinese often like to go where everyone else is mingling, talking, eating.

Mianzi - 面对
Face. Showing a big face, protecting face is very important. Nice clothes, a big car, an impressive façade on the house, paying the bills at restaurants – even if you can’t really afford it.

Shanzhai - 山寨
Literally: The bandit’s nest. Refers to pirated copies and low quality semi-legal products. Shanzhai companies are used to working fast, delivering what customers want, really cheap and with whatever means it takes.

Hexie, 和谐
Harmony. A very important concept in later years. Chinese leaders have emphasized the wish to develop a harmonius society, with comfortable, stable and fair relationships. Family and teams in companies should also be in harmony.

Shuang -
If something is just great, feels wonderful, clear, bright and satisfying, the Chinese will call it Shuang, in an affectionate voice.

Jia You-  加油
Literally means: Add gas. Usually a shout to encourage someone to work harder: Go! Commonly used at sporting events, or to ask employees to speed up.

Monday, April 01, 2013

When the copy comes before the original

Here's a great little story about copying in China:
Zahia Hadid, one of the world's leading architects, has drawn the very distinct Wangjing SOHO complex, which is currently under construction in Beijing. However, it seems that someone has gotten hold of the drawings and used them as a very direct inspiration for a similar complex, which is under construction in Chongqing. Apart from illustrating that anything is subject to copying in China, there's a delicious twist to the story, because apparently the building in Chongqing will be completed before the one in Beijing. So the copy will precede the original.
You can read the full story in this article from Der Spiegel.


Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Watch Google making associations

This is mesmerizing. It's like seeing how Google's image search makes associations to find pictures that look like eachother. By following the variations the artist, Dina Kelberman, makes this great and When You've surprising trail of random images.
Afterwards, have a look at this piece, also by Dina Kelberman, and similar in approach: All kinds of little animations from the web with smoke and fire.


Tuesday, March 26, 2013

On the internet we're carving out meaning, not assembling it

How does the Internet change the way you think? was John Brockman's question for the members of philosophical society of science writers at Edge.org. 
I just read through most of the 150 replies, and one in particular stands out for it's poetic way of expressing a core concept very briefly. The essay by George Dyson titled "Kayaks vs. Canoes". 
 I'm taking the liberty of quoting here in full. 


But you can see it among all the other responses at the Annual Question site
Here's George Dyson: 
 
In the North Pacific ocean, there were two approaches to boatbuilding. The Aleuts (and their kayak-building relatives) lived on barren, treeless islands and built their vessels by piecing together skeletal frameworks from fragments of beach-combed wood. The Tlingit (and their dugout canoe-building relatives) built their vessels by selecting entire trees out of the rainforest and removing wood until there was nothing left but a canoe.
The Aleut and the Tlingit achieved similar results — maximum boat / minimum material— by opposite means. The flood of information unleashed by the Internet has produced a similar cultural split. We used to be kayak builders, collecting all available fragments of information to assemble the framework that kept us afloat. Now, we have to learn to become dugout-canoe builders, discarding unneccessary information to reveal the shape of knowledge hidden within.
I was a hardened kayak builder, trained to collect every available stick. I resent having to learn the new skills. But those who don't will be left paddling logs, not canoes.

Friday, March 22, 2013

For 9 kr. reklamer pr. dansker om dagen

Jeg fik nogle interessante tal fra Danmarks statistik forleden:
Omsætningen af reklamer er faldet markant igennem de sidste 5 år, men selve salget af plads i både trykte medier, radio, TV og internet er steget.
I stedet er det alle andre dele af branchen der er skrumpet, inklusive rådgivning, design og konceptudvikling. Man kunne fristes til at konkludere, at der er flere reklamer, men der bruges færre penge på at producere dem.

Omsætningen svarer i øvrigt til 3225 pr. dansker om året - knap 9 kr. om dagen. 







Al Gore's nye bog, The Future: 6 hovedpunkter

I min anmeldelse af Al Gore's nye bog iPolitiken forleden havde jeg skrevet en sammenfatning af bogens hovedpunkter, der ikke kom med i avisen. 
De kommer her i stedet:

Al Gore beskriver i The Future de 6 overordnede drivkræfter, som efter hans mening tilsammen definerer vores fremtid.

Earth inc.
Verdens rigdomme koncentreres i takt med at globaliseringen skaber selskaber af hidtil uset størrelse og magt. Industriarbejdspladserne forsvinder, de outsources til billiglande eller overtages af robotter. En stor del af væksten er rent pengemæssig, den skaber ingen jobs og er ikke til gavn for de fleste. Resultatet er en foruroligende udhuling af samfundet, hvor nogle få bruger løs, og millioner kæmper for at overleve. Kapitalismen er den mest effektive måde at skabe fremgang og udvikling, mener Gore, men når kapitalen får frit spil, overtager vinderne alt.

Magten er lammet og uafklaret
Demokratiet er i dyb krise. Systemet er blevet hacket af gigantiske corporations, der med klækkelige penge bidrag og massiv lobbyisme reelt kan styre, hvad politikerne vedtager eller afviser. Gore kalder det ”blød bestikkelse” og ”et statskup i slow-motion”. Resultatet er at der ikke længere er nogen ledelse – nationalt eller globalt. Politik er lammet, på et tidspunkt, der i dén grad kræver styring.

Den globale hjerne
Digitalisering og smamenbinding af alt og alle. Privatlivet forsvinder, alle normale medier og jobs udfordres, kunstig intelligens, der vokser sig stærkere, en fælles bevidsthed, nervøst sitrende.
Det er her håbet findes, mener Gore: De kommende års vigtigste kamp er når den globale bevidsthed går imod Earth inc. blinde vækstkurs, og i stedet lader fornuften og sandheden råde.

For meget af væksten
Mennesket breder sig og vokser langt mere end kloden kan bære. Befolkningen vil vokse med nye milliarder, og alle knokler vi for at få mere: Kød, transport, bekvemmelighed. Væksten holdes oppe af målrettet politik og solide doser reklamer. Imens forsvinder naturgrundlaget under os med foruroligende hast.

Gen-opfindelsen af liv og død
Bioteknologien vil give mennesker indflydelse på naturen på et langt mere dybtgående og detaljeret niveau: Gensplejsede afgrøder bliver det nye normale, vi vil kunne dyrke organer, udvælge børn med attraktive gener og forlænge levetiden radikalt. Men teknologien kan også bruges til terror – eller bare uden forståelse for konsekvenserne.

På kanten
Der er der desværre ikke gode nyheder om klimaet. Vi går imod de værst tænkelige udfald, og vi er nødt til at forholde os til truslen nu, siger Gore. Vi får snart rigeligt at gøre med at tilpasse os til store forandringer og udfordringer, men samtidig er vi nødt til at få stoppet årsagen til katastrofen. Der skal sættes pris på CO2, i form af skatter, skatteregulativer og handelskvoter. Al Gore håber på teknologiske fremskridt og at vi kan skabe den samme hastige udvikling af bæredygtig energi, som vi har set indenfor computere og bioteknologi.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Bang & Olufsen's $ 32.500 loudspeakers for China

Red and Gold are auspicious colors in China, and so is the number 88. So here are Bang&Olufsen's 88th anniversary special edition loudspeakers  - as seen in a fancy Hong Kong magazine. 
Price: 243.000 HK dollars - US$ 31.500 - 182.000 Danish Kroner 

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Al Gore discusses "The Future" in Science Friday

Al Gore's recent book "The Future" is a very good diagnosis of the challenges humanity faces, and the reasons why we seem incapable of moving anywhere on the issues - due to the extreme concentration of wealth among a very small elite that has managed to take over politics because politicians depend so badly on their contributions to get elected.
Gore reminds me of Kassandra, the mythological Greek figure, who was given the ability to look into the future - but was cursed that noone would believe her. Gore has done more than just about anyone else to tell the world of the challenges ahead - but noone seems to listen close enough to act.
"The future" is a good book - I reviewed it (in Danish ) for Politiken - but it is very heavy on facts.
An easier introduction to the themes is listening to this really good interview on NPRs Science Friday with Al Gore.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Makers - the book explained in an hour

Yet another great podcast of a seminar from the Long Now Foundation: Chris Anderson, former editor of Wired magazine, speaking about his latest book, Makers - the new industrial revolution, which describes how 3d printers and networked collaboration changes industry.
The book is excellent, if a bit breathless, but even if you've read it, Anderson's presentation is a good way to recap the main points.

Friday, March 15, 2013

An evening with Tom Wolfe - podcast

Wonderful one hour and twenty minutes in the company of my old hero of new journalism Tom Wolfe. He's being interviewed for one of the many great events in the ALOUD series from the Los Angeles Public Library.
The event starts out with a magnificent reading of some highlights of his writing, from the early sixties to today.
And one thing I particularly like is that Wofe is obviously an old person now - but he is absolutely sharp. It's great when you build up experience, but don't lose the ability to convey and use it.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Monday, November 05, 2012

Jugaad - frugal innovation in India

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"Jugaad – frugal innovation in India" is a brand new report describing the methods and the mindset which companies and organizations in India use to create low cost solutions under very scarce circumstances. 
It's based on my recent trip around India. 
The report argues that some of these methods could well be transferred and used by Western companies.
There are many indications that the market will demand lower priced solutions, and for Western designer and engineers, the Indian approach could be an inspiration and a challenge to our usual way of developing new products.
The report is available in English and Danish.

Saturday, October 06, 2012

India: So run down - so beautiful

This is normal

Robo-jugaad


Should you need to have your robot repaired while in India, it's nice to know that there is a shop in Pune, that will do it for you, cheap and while you wait. No need to use those fancy high priced Japanese service labs.

Thursday, October 04, 2012

5 (very rich) persons living in a 27 story skyscraper - in Mumbai

 


India never ceases to surprise. It’s just so weird sometimes. Now this: In Mumbai, which is not exactly Monaco, the owner of one of India's largest Industry conglomerates Reliance, has built a home for his family of 5 persons. It has 27 floors and is supposed to have cost a billion dollars to build. Vanity Fair has photos of the inside – looks more like a hotel than a home to me. Certainly, it's quite a contrast to the rather hardcore slums in other parts of the city. 
When I passed it the other night, it didn’t look like anyone was home.
You stare and wonder.

Monday, October 01, 2012

Trains of Mumbai

The trains in Mumbai are filled beyond the brim. I'm surprised by the calm that these guys radiate, despite hanging on the edge of the door.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Ugly dog in ugly underwear

I collect photos of ugly dogs. There are some amazingly ugly, infested, worn out, and just weird specimens out there. Just met this one on a crowded street in Mumbai.
How did this come about, I wonder?

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

The conspicuous ecologist

Here it is, at last: our new 3,5 KW PV panel. Let the sun shine!

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Audio interview with Michiel Schwarz, co-author of Sustainism

I reviewed Michiel Schwarz and Joost Elffers book "Sustainism is the new modernism" for the Danish newspaper Politiken. The review is in Danish, but I also did a telephone interview with Michiel Schwarz in which he talks about some of ideas behind the book, and why they chose to coin a new word – sustainism – and design new icons in order to describe the characteristics of the future.
The interview lasts 14 minutes.

Monday, August 06, 2012

E.O Wilson - interview

Oh, I should put this up: I did an interview with biologisk E.O Wilson about his most recent - and excellent - book The Social conquest of Earth.
You can hear it here, at Danish newspaper Politikens website. 

I did the interview in conjunction with my review of his book. If you can read Danish, you can read it here. 

Friday, August 03, 2012

Ord, der trænger til en opstramning

Det er forbløffende, hvordan mange af de helt centrale ord, der definerer vores kultur har meget forskellig betydning, alt efter hvem man er.
Vi bruger ord som vækst, kvalitet, fællesskab, demokrati og kreativitet til at beskrive, hvordan vi ser verden hænge sammen, men det, vi forstår ved begreberne, kan være vidt forskelligt.
Resultatet er en kommunikation, hvor vi kan sige og høre de samme ord, selvom vi hver især mener noget forskelligt.
Faktisk kan betydningerne af nogle ord – vækst, eksempelvis - være direkte modsatte. Resultatet er at man kan anstrenge sig for at realisere én opfattelse af vækst, samtidig med at man forringer mulighederne for at opnå det, andre forstår som vækst.
Når et ord bliver udvandet eller det får en ny betydning, indebærer det, at det oprindelige begreb, som ordet beskrev, bliver vanskeligt at tale om.

Der er grundlæggende ord i vores kultur, som har fået så forskellige og brede anvendelser, at de ikke længere er præcise nok til at handle efter.
Der er ord for centrale ideer, der historisk har fået en bagage af associationer, som gør, at ordet i sig selv afskrækker mange fra at overveje det bagvedliggende begreb.
Endelig er der ideer, forhold og mekanismer der først netop er opstået, ellers som vil præge verden fremover, men som endnu ikke har fået et alment kendt ord, der gør det muligt for de fleste at diskutere og tænke på det.

Uden mere præcise forståelser af de ord, vi bruger, risikerer vi at forværre de problemer, vi vil løse. Uden de rette ord, kan vi ikke beskrive vores visioner.
Ved at diskutere ordene, giver vi dem mening og får selv mening. Vi skaber redskaber til at skabe forandring.

Hvad mener vi egentlig med….?

- Kreativitet

- Fællesskab

- Demokrati
Utilstrækkeligt i forhold til realiteterne og tidens problemer

- Forbrug
Forbruger, mindset og rolle, i modsætning til borger
Deltagelse, openness, sharing

- Frihed
Til hvad, for hvem

- Ansvar
Påtage sig ansvar, ansvarlig, i modsætning til u-ansvarlig

- Integration
Forpligtelse, Interdependence, indbyrdes afhængighed, connectivity

- Vækst
Udvikling, produktivitet, velstand, effektivitet

- Kvalitet
Nytte

- Lighed
Polarisering, mangfoldighed

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Bill Clinton: interdependence means you can't get a divorce

Bill Clinton recently participated in one of London School of Economics public lectures - talking about the activities of his global initiative fund. Like all of the amazing LSE events, you can listen to it as a podcast.
During the Q&A (41 min. into the recording) he talks about some very fundamental political issues: 
"...The world has become completely interdependent, but we can’t make up our minds what that interdependence is going to look like. Interdependence simply means you can’t get a divorce. That’s all it means: that you can’t get away from each other. But it might be positive, it might be negative, it might be both. To pretend that the United States and China are not going to share the future is nuts. Or the US and India, or Europe and... You pick, fill in the blanks. So the world now is awash in a kaleidoscope of questions that all come down to this: are we going to share the future – or try to take it away from someone else?
Will we adopt a conflict model or a cooperation model to resolve our differences and to meet our own objectives? And I basically believe - in a world where growth and opportunity, and even basic humanity is drastically constrained by severe in-equality and the un-availability of jobs that pay an affordable living, by instability that is brought on not only by the aftermath of terror but by the financial crisis and by a totally unsustainable use or resources that causes climate change and local resource depletion - the only thing that makes sense is to try to develop a path to a shared future, where you have shared responsibilities and shared prosperity, and where people respect their differences, but think that their common humanity matters more. No other strategy will work."


Sunday, June 03, 2012