Egglings-- "Crack & Grow!"

cute little egg-things with seeds inside, you crack them open, water them, and out grows a basil, mint, thyme or flower plant!

check them out!

Ross Lovegrove Talks About His Work, What Inspires Him, and The Future

This video is very inspiring...he's a bit of an eccentric, but in a good way!


Ross Lovegrove is an industrial designer, best known for his work on the Sony Walkman and Apple iMac. In this highly visual presentation, he presents his recent work—from furniture to water bottles—which is organic in form and inspired by nature.

check out the video

The First Computer Mouse!

from the first computer mouse patent! wow.

see more on this Stanford site about the history of Human Computer Interaction

The picture credits are from SRI International. http://www.sri.com/

thanks to Andres Jimenez for the link

Metropolis Magazine NEXT GENERATION Competition!!!

only 2 weeks left to submit! TAKE A LOOK!

from their site: "The Next Generation competition was created in 2003 to promote activism, social involvement, and entrepreneurship in young designers. Metropolis saw the need for a new type of competition, one that went beyond the usual beauty pageants for finished projects, a competition that would generate and reward ideas.

Metropolis celebrates the next generation by rewarding imaginative young designers at large companies and recognizing the hard work of those striving with their own young firms or on their own as well as students—while some designers have a proposal ready and waiting, others are at the beginning of the process with an undefined desire to create and can use a kick start. "

Make your own comics

2 great new tools came to my attention recently:

Com-Mix:

see the com-mix site

QuickComic:

see the quickcomic site

Learning to Love You More

For some reason I'm obsessed with this site, Learning To Love You More (and I think I can even Learn to Love that name, though I'm still working on it, especially as I can't think of a better one!). Anyway, it's a website where you can accept "assignments" and submit text, image, audio, or video files and see other peoples' submissions.

New assignments are posted all the time and you can even get grants for your submissions! From their site, "Learning To Love You More is not only a website; it's also a series of exhibitions in museums, galleries, schools, senior citizens centers, radio shows and film festivals. The shows are comprised of work that we select from the web site for a particular exhibit, or in some cases all of the reports for a certain assignment will be used. Participants are asked to mail their completed assignments to the location of the show. So don't burn your report after you send documentation to the web site"

Check it out!

BigTrack - Monster Trackball Makes Mousing Easy

BIGtrack is the largest trackball around, giving people with fine motor control issues, small or large fingers easier access to the computer.

Controlling a mouse is essential for using a computer, and there should be more products out there like this to give people of varying dexterity equal access.

Some have used BIGtrack as a foot-driven input device, when using ones hands isn't an option.

Other features include a cursor trail function which, when enabled, lengthens the cursor trail making it easier to see on the computer screen for someone with a visual impairment. Both the BIGtrack and a second mouse can be connected together allowing for simultaneous participation between a student and his or her teacher.

The trackball is Windows or Macintosh compatible and comes with both a PS2 and USB connection.
check it out

Smart Furniture for Schools

Smith System sells cool-looking and sturdy furniture for classrooms and offices -- plus I like the modular desks and chairs that allow for different configurations.




check out their online catalog




<------ Here is a nice stackable chair .