May 2009
1 post
Synthetic Biology or Synthetic Genomics?
Synthetic Biology is not a new term. In Laying the Foundations for a Bio-Economy[1], Rob Carlson writes:
“‘Synthetic biology‘ was, until recently, a phrase found in literature at least decades old (Szybalski and Skalka 1978), first appearing nearly a century earlier (Keller 2002), but not used much in the last thirty years.”
Drew Endy tends to emphasize that Synthetic Biology is development...
December 2008
2 posts
email graph
I’d like an application that graphed the 1000 email addresses I mail most often, clustered based on co-occurrences in messages to more than one person, with edge length inversely related to message frequency
November 2008
4 posts
disposable sticky lens
stick one on your iPhone to improve images of text and business cards etc
chorelog.com
Chorelog.com is a tool to help housemates reveal work done on common chores with very little overhead.
chores are entered as a short phrase and selected from an autocomplete list
time spent in minutes is also tracked for each chore phrase
fun visualizations of the stats are provided, like a leaderboard of the most active people and sparklines for each discreet chore
chorelog can watch for...
cap canister - keep track of all those beers
Keeping track of how many alcoholic drinks you have consumed is a fun and informative game. I have noticed an inverse relationship between my self-reporting accuracy and number of drinks consumed. So, a system for tracking drinks is in order.
Many exist already - my current favorite is the Last Call iphone app, which not only tracks all the different drinks you claim to have consumed, but...
Packaging Entrails
Packaging should be designed to tap into the opener’s carnal instincts and give them a sense of satisfaction from ripping it open to get at the tasty delights contained within.
Instead of packing peanuts or a string of inflatable plastic bags (amazon), items should be packed with a compromise between the two: a long intestinal string of lightly inflated tubes. Some could optionally...