Your Friday Omicron [Pronunciation] Variants

It’s Ours Now!

With the advent of the new year comes a new round of books, films, and other copyrighted material that falls out of copyright and enters the public domain. Boing Boing rounds up this year’s collection, including A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, TE Lawrence’s The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (the source for Lawrence of Arabia), and Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Also entering the public domain are an estimated 400,000 sound recordings from before 1923, including “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” recorded by Arthur Collins and Byron G. Harlan, “Crazy Blues” by Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds (1920), and Pablo Casals’ recording of J.S. Bach’s “Bourée" from Suite No. 3 in C (1915).

Enjoy!

Surfing the Webb

You Can’t Judge a Cover By Its Book

For some of us, one of the things we missed in 2020 was browsing the local bookstore and being attracted to a cool book cover. The New York Times Book Review’s art director picked what he felt were the best book covers of 2021. Here are some of his picks:

Picky Picky Picky

Scout’s Honor

This kind of thing is always a bit clickbaity and one is certainly bound to disagree, but it’s always interesting to check it out without getting too exercised about it. And that is the New York Times’, “What’s the Best Book of the Past 125 Years? We Asked Readers to Decide.”

In November, we presented a list of the 25 most-nominated books (one per author) for a vote. After tallying more than 200,000 ballots, the winner, by a narrow margin, is…To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

They could have done worse. The runners up were The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (funny, but neither of the other two books in the trilogy made the top nominations list), 1984 by George Orwell, and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.

GUI Goodness

We take it for granted today, but some of us remember a time before computers had a graphical computer interface (GUI). We all think we know its history—Steve Jobs saw a GUI at Xerox PARC in the 1970s and co-opted it for the Apple Lisa and then Macintosh, with Microsoft Windows appearing a few years after that. But this “History of the Graphical User Interface—1945–1980” from the Lunduke Journal of Technology traces it as far back as a seminal article written by Vannevar Bush (the first Director of the USA’s Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II) in 1945. Titled “As We May Think” and published in The Atlantic, it described a new machine—which Bush called the “Memex”—and what is basically what we know of as a personal computer.

Bush also describes ways of storing, retrieving, and interacting with information within the “Memex”. What he describes is the precursor to things like Hypertext, structured file systems, wide area networks (and the Internet) and… Graphical User Interfaces.

Nearly 20 years later, in 1963, a PhD. student named Ivan Sutherland was inspired by Bush’s article and the Memex, and he set about to build a computer system that used a real GUI.

A system where the user could work, with a lightpen, on a graphical display with immediate feedback. Vector graphics. Flowcharting. 3D Modelling. Object oriented design.

Check out this demo from 1963. Pretty remarkable.

The work of Bush and Sutherland laid the groundwork for later developers to create GUI-based systems that would eventually lead to Xerox PARC—and the Apple OS and Windows.

NFTrees

Lego Sans

Mrcraigward is on a mission, and that mission is to create the perfect typeface for the “Lego building system.” His attempts have resulted in Brik Font, samples of which can be purchased at Etsy or Society6.

Fab Four-Color

Dedicated Follower of Graphene

Was it a good week for graphene news? It’s always a good week for graphene news! Although 2021 was a challenging year, there was still a lot happening on the graphene front. Here are the top developments in textiles. A few of these have been highlighted here at Around the Web, including Grafren’s graphene-coated textile, the world’s first active heating fabric; AspenX’s collaboration with Prada on a graphene-enhanced capsule collection; and EDASI’s graphene-enhanced bed sheets.

In new news, Superdry will develop graphene-enhanced garments, using Versarien’s GRAPHENE-WEAR technology, which will utilize graphene’s thermal and moisture management properties into its garments.

Before long, graphene-based fashion will be all the rage!

Baby Food

Harvest Festival

You may have seen in the news that the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was held this week, the venue where all sorts of new gadgets (some clever, some cool, some…not) are introduced, at least in theory if not in actual commercial form. Via Gizmodo, one of the coolest introductions was a TV remote, believe it or not. Specifically, a new version of Samsung’s Eco Remote. Earlier versions were solar-powered, but the new version adds a new twist to ensure the remote is always fully charged: harvesting energy from your Internet router’s radio waves.

Harvesting radio waves isn’t a new idea, but the technique rarely makes its way into actual products you and I can use. Now, the remote can’t operate on RF energy alone; the upgraded Eco Remote also uses solar energy from either outdoor or indoor light and has a USB-C port as a backup. 

As Samsung noted with the previous model, using solar power alone could prevent 99 million batteries from being discarded over seven years, or the average lifetime for a TV.

It’s odd that more low-energy devices like remotes still rely on batteries; some of us still have old calculators that were (and still are) 100% solar powered.

Signs of the Times: Gnawed on My Watch!

Get Back

Are you tired of telling your children to stop sitting too close to the TV? (Actually, does anyone even say that anymore?) Well, if so, you can now have your TV scold your kids instead. Via The Verge, at CES this week, Sony introduced a its new Bravia Cam, a video camera that will come bundled with the company’s high-end TVs. What does it do? Well, what doesn’t it do?

the Bravia Cam will allow you to control 2022 Sony TVs with gesture controls from the couch. Want to power your TV off with a close of your fist? Have at it. Or you can pause your content or adjust the volume by waving your hand around.

Make sure your TV is not in the same room as the computer you use for Zoom calls—all the waving everyone does at the end of a Zoom session could easily cause the TV to get eardrum-punishingly loud. As for the kids and their sitting too close to the TV:

With the Bravia Cam plugged in, you can set your Sony TV to display a proximity alert if it detects someone sitting too close to the screen. This is really intended for kids — the entire screen gets blacked out if you don’t move back — and is off by default. The camera can also be used for what Sony calls “viewing distance compensation,” with the brightness and voice emphasis settings both automatically adjusting based on how far away you’re sitting. Even the left and right channel sound balance can adjust itself for what side of the couch you’re planted on.

That last bit seems kind of cool. As for gesture-based controls, we’re perfectly happy with remotes (especially like the Samsung Eco Remote) but then gestures wouldn’t need any kind of power so maybe that’s a good thing.  

Yadda Yadda Yadda

Lick Me

When it comes to all five senses, today’s TV’s are falling a little behind. Oh, sure, resolution is better than ever (vision). And surround-sound and other audio technologies are great (hearing). But what of taste? Well, one Japanese professor has that, um, licked. Yes, he has invented a lickable TV screen that lets you taste what is on screen. Says Hypebeast:

Dubbed “Taste the TV”, the screen can imitate food flavors and uses a “carousel of 10 flavor canisters that spray in combination” to mimic the tastes of items, Reuters said. The spray sample is then rolled out onto a “hygienic film” laid over a flat TV screen for the viewer to taste.

“The goal is to make it possible for people to have the experience of something like eating at a restaurant on the other side of the world, even while staying at home,” Meiji University professor Homei Miyashita told Reuters, adding that he was inspired to create new ways for people to connect with the outside world during the pandemic.

Sounds a little gross, and you probably wouldn’t expect this to be used in public spaces. To commercialized the concept, Miyashita said it would require about $875.

The professor, who has also helped produce a fork that makes food taste richer, says that down the line he hopes to create a platform where flavors from around the world can be downloaded and shared.

Sweet.

All Maps Amazing and Terrible, Part the Infinity

Sesame Seed Buns of Steel

Do you like fast food but worry about putting on weight? In China, McDonald’s is installing stationary exercise bikes in its restaurants so diners can work off a few of the calories they ingest. But not only that, they can charge their phones. Says Taiwan News:

McDonald’s has not only confirmed the design of the exercise bikes but also revealed its "Upcycle for Good" plan, saying, “The stationary bike seats for eating inside are being tested at two locations in China as a way to respond to the government’s low carbon emission policy,“ according to Hypebeast.

McDonald’s China said the bike seats can reduce customer guilt at the idea of eating fast food. The bike is made of recycled plastic materials, McDonald’s said.

While exercising on the exercise bikes, cellphones, or other electronic devices can be charged by the energy generated during the process. This is part of McDonald’s China’s measures to promote sustainability, per Hypebeast.

The fast food company said it will continue collecting customer feedback and might expand the idea to more cities, the report said.

It reminds us of a story we read a 12 years ago about a Crowne Plaza hotel in Copenhagen that had hooked its fitness center’s exercise bikes to the power grid and would reward guests who generated a certain about of electricity. Unfortunately, these rewards were credits to the bar or restaurant, but still…

Sound Idea

Mousk Up

We here in the Around the Web Cultural Accretion Bunker have no problem masking up in public—indeed, at this time of year it’s warm. Plus we can lip-sync along with songs in the supermarket without looking too much like a dork. Still, what we lose with a mask is the ability to use facial expressions as a form a communication.

Well, technology can solve that. Via Core 77, SVA MFA Products of Design student Cathy Tung has created what she called Mousk, which is a face mask with an embedded digital display and a complementary app and platform that let you display specific facial expressions right on the mask. Users can upload and display not just facial expressions (well, lips, really) but also words, emoji, and other images. (Hmm…this could be entertaining.)

Based on the usability testing of her digital prototype, Tung started to think about the opportunities in targeting multiple users. "What if users could customize the color of their lipsticks? What if that lipstick could be patterned—or even animated—customized for different occasions?" Further, Tung asked, "What if users could upload emoji or hand-writing to make communication in a way that doesn't mimic the mouth at all?"

Thinking more expansively about a "Smart Mask", Tung includes a microphone in the mask to capture the intonation and emotions of its wearer, providing a dashboard at the end of the day or week for how they "actually sound."

Tung explains: "When we remove facial expressions, so much nuance is removed. I might smile slightly to indicate humor or 'just kidding', for example, but if you can't see my mouth, you won't get that layer of communication." Employing AI, users could choose display screens that either complement or counterbalance these factors—"confident" "easygoing" and "aggressive" are three examples she uses—with the marketing pitch, "connect how you talk to who you are. Sync your mask data to understand yourself more!"

Sort of “mask as therapist.” If this catches on, people may never want to stop wearing a mask.

Comfort and Joy

Fishy Drivers

Back in the 1950s, cars with fins were all the rage. Now, fins seem to be coming back—but not in the same way. That is to say, thanks to a bizarre experiment in Israel, fish can now drive cars. Says Gizmodo:

For the experiment, the team designed and built a Fish Operated Vehicle, or FOV for short, because we now apparently need an acronym to describe such things. The goldfish car consists of a water tank, four motorized wheels, a computer, a camera to track movement, and LIDAR to identify the vehicle’s location (the team has provided instructions for those wanting to build their own FOV). When driving at full tilt, the fish moved at a humble 0.93 miles per hour (1.5 km/hr).

“The vehicle was designed to detect the fish’s position in the water tank and react by activating the wheels such that the vehicle moved in the specific direction according to the fish’s position,” according to the study. “In this way, the vehicle’s reaction to the fish’s position allowed the fish to drive the vehicle in the environment.” So, if a fish was swimming near the wall of the water tank while facing outward, the FOV moved in that direction, but if the fish faced inward, the FOV stopped moving.

Why would anyone want to do this? The researchers, biologists Shachar Givon and Matan Samina from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, sought to evaluate the navigational skills of goldfish outside their usual habitat, the ultimate goal being to understand the origin of navigational skills in general.

Wait until they give the fish a Tesla.

User Error

This Week in Printing, Publishing, and Media History

January 3

1749: The first issue of Berlingske, Denmark’s oldest continually operating newspaper, is published.

1870: Construction work begins on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York.

1892: English writer, poet, and philologist J.R.R. Tolkien born.

1926: English composer, conductor, and producer George Martin born.

1947: Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.

1957: The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.

1977: Apple Computer is incorporated.

2000: Final daily edition of the Peanuts comic strip.

January 4

1643: English mathematician and physicist Isaac Newton born.

1809: French educator, inventor of Braille Louis Braille born.

1853: After having been kidnapped and sold into slavery in the American South, Solomon Northup regains his freedom; his memoir Twelve Years a Slave later becomes a national bestseller.

1958: Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, falls to Earth from orbit.

1960: French novelist, philosopher, and journalist, Nobel Prize laureate Albert Camus dies (b. 1913).

1965: American-English poet, playwright, and critic, Nobel Prize laureate T. S. Eliot dies (b. 1888).

January 5

1932: Italian novelist, literary critic, and philosopher Umberto Eco born.

1944: The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.

1953: The play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett is first performed.

January 6

1838: Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).

1852: French educator, inventor of Braille Louis Braille dies (b. 1809).

1878: American poet and historian Carl Sandburg born.

1912: German geophysicist Alfred Wegener first presents his theory of continental drift. (Afterward, everyone slowly moved away from him.)

1931: Thomas Edison signs his last patent application.

1931: American novelist, playwright, and short story writer E. L. Doctorow born.

1946: English singer-songwriter and guitarist Syd Barrett born.

2000: Kerplonk! American cartoonist Don Martin dies (b. 1931).

January 7

1706: German publisher Johann Heinrich Zedler born.

1831: German postman and founder of the Universal Postal Union Heinrich von Stephan born.

1873: Hungarian-American film producer and co-founder of Paramount Pictures Adolph Zukor born.

1894: William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.

1912: American cartoonist Charles Addams born.

1927: The first transatlantic telephone service is established from New York City to London.

January 8

1547: The first Lithuanian-language book, Simple Words of Catechism, is published in Königsberg.

1642: Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher Galileo Galilei dies (b. 1564).

1775: English printer and type designer John Baskerville dies (b. 1706).

1824: English novelist, playwright, and short story writer Wilkie Collins born.

1862: American publisher and founded of the Doubleday Publishing Company Frank Nelson Doubleday born.

1889: Herman Hollerith is issued US patent #395,791 for the “Art of Applying Statistics”—his punched card calculator.

1904: The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system.

1935: Elvis Presley born.

1941: English actor, screenwriter, and Monty Python member Graham Chapman born.

1942: English physicist and author Stephen Hawking born.

1947: English singer-songwriter, producer, and actor David Bowie born.

January 9

1606: English printer William Dugard born.

1890: Czech author and playwright Karel ?apek born. His play R.U.R. coined the word “robot.”

1944: English guitarist, songwriter, and producer Jimmy Page born.