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Recently I created an extreme feedback device from a LED cube. An extreme feedback device provides a rapid feedback cycle after a commit to the repository. Having a visual clue on the state of the project is very valuable. If introduced correctly it can boost productivity and morale within a team considerably.

You can read more about this in my article "Converting a LED cube into an extreme feedback device".

Here's my new indoor plane. A 6" infrared controlled F18 Hornet in the blue angels color scheme. Total weight is 5.5 grams. You can read more in my rcgroups post.

I'm finishing up reading the book 'Ambient Findability' from Peter Morville which is mind bending for me. The subtitle is very catchy and true: "What we find changes who we become". The book is a journey into the aspects of findability, ranging from search strategies on the web to how human kind built maps to know the world they live in. It is a great book for everyone who wants to get a deeper knowledge on what social software, tagging, folksonomies and other web 2.0 catch phrases actually mean and how they have the potential to change the way we think about how we categorize objects in our world.

I really liked Neil Gershenfeld's book FAB, which talks about the personalization of fabrication. This book discusses a trend in which the power to fabricate things shifts from specialized factories to personal fabrication. Imagine having a small factory sitting on your desk that churns out real-life functional objects, combining construction material with electronics and other components to make a real functioning object. But most of all I was amazed by the altruistic approach Neil takes in setting up fablabs, small shops able to create almost anything, using technology that is available now like lasercutters, PCB etching machines, CNC routers, 3D plotters and more. These fablabs are in fact high technological learning and self-teaching centers that bring the power to make life-saving contraptions to poor areas in the world. As an example, in the book he discusses a small microcontroller project to test the fat level in milk, so mothers can check the milk they need to raise their children, because local farmers dilute the milk with water...

After hearing Bruce Sterling's Emerging Technology keynote about 'The Internet of Things', I got interested into the concept of thinglinks, labels for everyday items bringing tagging, linking and searching to the real world. Ulla-Maaria Mutanen, who coined the term has now created an open database where people can create and share thinglinks, making the first step to bring the 'Internet of Things' a small step closer to reality.