Links ARCHIVE: New York Times

Technology

Published on March 1, 2004 By joetheblow In Pure Technology

Source: New York Times

ONLINE DIARY
A Web Idea for Flipping Channels
By PAMELA LiCALZI O'CONNELL

Published: February 26, 2004

Big Ideas

One of the hottest TV shows in Britain is a live digital satellite broadcast called "Flipside'' in which experts and call-in participants discuss what people should be watching at that moment on other channels.

The concept, though, came courtesy of the Web. It first appeared at idea-a-day.com, a British site that has posted a new idea daily (or thereabouts) since it was started in August 2000. So far it has archived more than 1,280 ideas, ranging from a "variety loaf" of sliced bread to a governmental system for Mars. More than 5,000 people receive the site's free e-mail newsletter.

Unlike most other online "idea banks," the site's ideas are free, no strings attached. Anyone can submit an idea for posting, although many are generated by the site's four founders. Each idea is credited to an author, and some have led to real-world projects. In the case of "Flipside,'' the grateful producers gave the author, Chas Bayfield, an equity stake in the show.

The site aims to present "ideas as entertainment," said David Owen, a site founder. "It's a great shame when people hold them back. Often the person who thinks of a good idea is not the one to put it in practice."

Also in the Article:

Going, Going, Sold

If you've ever visited an online auction site, you may well have wondered how much that cameo brooch, used laptop or fuzzy-bear quilt was really worth.

GoHook (www.gohook.com) is a new auction database that is meant to answer that question. Its goal is to allow buyers and sellers to research the fair market value of an item by checking the final sale prices in completed auctions. So far the site lists only about 150,000 - all from eBay - but it is adding more than 2,000 auctions a day and hopes to offer a million auctions by the end of the year.

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You Can Be a Bar Code

Bar codes are everywhere. While their main function is to encode the value of a product, they also have come to symbolize consumer culture itself. Artists have been using bar codes in their work since their advent in the late 60's, and a growing number of sites play with, comment on and even generate them.

At www.barcodeart.com, Scott Blake, an Omaha artist, creates computerized portraits of celebrities in which each pixel is part of a bar code. The result is a sort of digital pointillism. His portraits play on the (rather well-trodden) idea that the famous have commodified themselves. For instance, his portrayal of Madonna uses bar codes from her CD's and books. He also invites visitors to bar-code themselves by entering personal data like age and weight.

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On the Radar

License plates from Virginia to Vietnam can be found at worldlicenseplates.com. Enter a word in hyperdictionary.com and it searches four reference works in addition to an English dictionary. Compelling video of building implosions is featured at the demolition site implosionworld.com.

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