Comments on: A glimpse of the future…of wasting time

By: Salil Maniktahla

Salil Maniktahla — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:54:30 +0000

that...is...awesome!

clearly, the phone needs a bit more horsepower for this to work smoothly, but really, why not?

Oh, and mad props for posting a TED talk. I love these so much.

By: shlok

shlok — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:39:17 +0000

awesome product. genius name. thanks for posting this.

By: Paranoid Android

Paranoid Android — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:28:20 +0000

another brilliant desi – http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-03-12-younggenius_N.htm?csp=usat.me

sorry, i know i should have used the tip off button.

By: Suki Dillon

Suki Dillon — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:20:54 +0000

our site administrator Chaitan often comes to me with suggestions for how we can improve your Sepia Mutiny experience. Often he helps us battle comment trolls and spammers by hacking clever new countermeasures on the fly to thwart them.

How about people have to sign up with an email address and a password like on many other sites to comment on SM. This would go along way to get rid of trolls.

By: as

as — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:01:11 +0000

How come Pranav didn’t speak about this product, but that tall, ghora did?

I am not sure if you ask that in jest – but the reason is actually much simpler. Its not about Pranav’s or Pattie’s skin color or ethnicity – its about their professional roles. Pattie seems to be the one who leads the lab where Pranav is a grad student. That she pointed Pranav out in the crowd and let him take some of the limelight is much more than what many bosses would usually do at such an event!

By: boston_mahesh

boston_mahesh — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 06:39:41 +0000

I thought Pranav was that Germanic lady speaking at first, and I got really confused! Well, I'm very proud of a fellow-Desi, and he's based over here in my neck of the woods. Way to go, brother.

How come Pranav didn't speak about this product, but that tall, ghora did? Are ghoras more trust-worthy or more marketable than Indians? Why do they all need white spokespersons and salespersons to pitch a product? Why not a black or an Indian?

By: Sad

Sad — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 05:55:42 +0000

these kinda demos are good only for that, for all practical purpose it will never be close to usability in real life, technology to create these in a controlled environment is already there, challenge is in making it practical. plz don’t drool over these scifi book ideas, welcome to the earth.

By: portmanteau

portmanteau — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:53:49 +0000

13 Â· as said

The Media Labs guys are particularly good at doing this kind of hype.

This is true. Of course, the video made it look effortless. Nonetheless, it’s a nice idea. Just the mere premise of all this stuff — that we all want to connect and interact meaningfully with as many people as possible is refreshing. Otherwise, the news is all about partisanship and fundamentalism (yes, reading the muck that is dredged just before Indian elections and Pakistani politics is wearing me out )

By: better living through gimmickry

better living through gimmickry — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:45:46 +0000

This is truly the most revolutionary thing to come out of the Media Lab since Clocky.

By: as

as — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:07:39 +0000

More from the same guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQT5_4aVvHU

Interesting, simple but provocative uses of increasingly cheaply available mobile computing power.

Is it worth the hype? Well hardly anything that gets hyped ever is, isn't it?

The Media Labs guys are particularly good at doing this kind of hype. The OLPC and the Media Labs Asia debacle in India come to mind.

In this case, iphone + webcam = Internet fame and fan groups