The Archives
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04.13.08New thinking on the climate crisisIn Al Gore's brand-new slideshow (premiering exclusively on TED.com), he presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists were recently predicting, and challenges us to act with a sense of "generational mission" -- the kind of feeling that brought forth the civil rights movement -- to set it right. Gore's stirring presentation is followed by a brief Q&A in which he is asked for his verdict on the current political candidates' climate policies and on what role he himself might play in future.
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04.13.08A time in North KoreaPaul Koontz is a general partner at Foundation Capital -- a position that takes him exploring in all sorts of places, including China's booming markets. While in China in 2007, he got the priceless opportunity to spend a few days in North Korea. He brought his kids, and his camera.
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04.13.08Wii Remote HacksJohnny Lee demos his amazing Wii Remote hacks, bending the $40 game part so it powers a digital whiteboard, a multitouch display and a head-mounted 3-D viewer.
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03.19.08Take 18 minutes and watch thisWow. This talk by Jill Bolte Taylor: "My stroke of insight" is simply touching, moving and worth every second of your time. In this hectic times, it is good to listen to people like Jill Bolte Taylor. All my respect. Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect ...
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01.10.08J.J. Abrams on movies and magicFilmmaker J.J. Abrams traces his love of the unseen mystery -- the heart of Alias, Lost and the upcoming Cloverfield -- back to its own magical beginnings, which may or may not include an early obsession with magic, the love of a supportive grandfather, or his own unopened Mystery Box.
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10.12.07Dance the MagicKenichi Ebina appears to defy the limits imposed by the human skeleton. He combines breakdancing and hip-hop with mime using movements that are simultaneously precise and fluid. In addition to the playful choreography, on exhibit here are Kenichi’s remarkable strength and agility as he first appears to be manipulated by a string, then plays with a beam of light, and ends the piece as an energetic hip-hop-dancing robot who expires as he loses his power source.
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08.28.07Jeff Skoll on inspiring real changeThis talk by Jeff Skoll (former eBay president) must be the most inspiring event of this year. I totally admire persons, who have become wealthy and spend it for good cause. I mean there are more people that have a lot of wealth and spend it only for their own dreams. Wouldn't it be great if you could influence the future of your society and the world in general, create awareness and give something back to the people who made you wealthy in the first place? Jeff Skoll made his fortune as the first president of eBay. Now he's spending it at ...
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08.08.07Master of multi-touch systemsOne year and 3 days ago I posted this blog entry that shows Jeff Han showing his multi-touch system that he developed. Now today, I found out that Jeff Han founded his own company called Perceptive Pixel Inc. which is a spinoff of the NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. The goal of his company is to develop the best multi-touch system in the world. Claims like this are usually a marketing twist, but when it comes to his multi-touch system I have to say that IT IS the best system in the world. Run, yes don't walk, over to his ...
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07.29.07Dan Denett’s talk questions some of western culture’s fundamental assumptionsThis is a talk from Dan Dennett that he gave in 2002 during the TED conference. His words and explanations are very much still valid today. when you watch this then pay close attention to the last 5 minutes of his talk. In the last part of his speech he questions and at the same time appreciates the technology that helps spread the news. Point is that we are all individuals and take upon a news, religion, philosophy and alike in different way. I guess, this is what humans beings with their free minds are made off.
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07.11.07Jonathan Harris: a glimpse of the soul of the InternetI am simply amazed at the TED conference and their speakers. I wish that I can attend one of these conferences one day. The idea's and projects that are presented during those conference days are all worth writing about and seeing them. Here is one of those conference gems, where Jonathan Harris talks about his projects. In short he makes online art that captures the world's expression -- and gives us a glimpse of the soul of the Internet. You simply have to see his new project "Universe", which turns current events into constellations of words. Also here is the talk he ...
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06.27.07Hans Rosling’s amazing demo at TEDIn a follow-up to his now-legendary TED2006 presentation, Hans Rosling demonstrates how developing countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. He shows us the next generation of his Trendalyzer software -- which analyzes and displays data in amazingly accessible ways, allowing people to see patterns previously hidden behind mountains of stats. (Just days after this talk, he announced a deal with Google to acquire the software.) He also demos Dollar Street, a program that lets you peer in the windows of typical families worldwide living at different income levels. Be sure to watch straight through to the (literally) jaw-dropping finale.
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05.31.07The semantic web of imagesThis demonstration of Photosynth by Blaise Aguera y Arcas is truly amazing. Again Microsoft got it first up and was smart enough to acquire this technology last year with buying SeaDragon. Photosynth itself is a vastly powerful piece of software capable of taking a wide variety of images, analyzing them for similarities, and grafting them together into an interactive three-dimensional space. This seamless patchwork of images can be viewed via multiple angles and magnifications, allowing us to look around corners or "fly" in for a (much) closer look. You really have to see it to believe it :-)
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08.05.06Watch this and see the future of applications and interfacesIn this movie you can see Jeff Han showing, the first time in public, his interface free touch driven computer screen. This is very amazing and the quality is also very good. Sort of reminds me off the movie "Minority Report" where Tom Cruise moves the screens around.You will also see the future of Adobe's Lightroom when Jeff starts to move images around, stretches them and so on...
