Blog.LitStudios.com - Geeknology

Interactive Christmas Tree using Twitter

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:40:38 -0500

Summary: An interactive Christmas tree with ornaments that react to mentions of specific keywords on Twitter. A Twistmas Tree if you will.
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free-ish Multitouch workshop NYC

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:46:03 -0500

This is my open letter of invitation to the NYCResistor group. I invite anyone to make contact if you're interested in coming over. Workshops are fun, multitouch and HCI is fun. if you like coffee and carbs, then you're in for a triplewammy!

Read On...

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Need to cut, weld, code, hack around NYC?

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:12:11 -0400

Once upon a time I had my own workshop. I loved my workshop. It was a block away from Prospect Park in beautiful Brooklyn, New York and I could make all the noise I wanted there. Recently though, I had hardly been there, I paid a few rents in a row while barely stepping foot in the space - my work has recently been more about sitting at my laptop in a new office in Soho. Good news, i'm still busy and it's nice to be white-collar for awhile. Bad news, I still occasionally need to create a working prototype for something like a multitouch table, or other somesuch geek-magic.

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One Mouse Per Child

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:15:55 -0400

You may have heard of the OLPC (one laptop per child) initiative. It's great... But here's a concept which seems way cheaper to attain, One mouse per child.

I was looking at my feedburner stats today and I saw a blog at beamlog.blogspot.com referring to me (Thank you Beamlog!). While it is in another language, it's plain to see what gets that blog owner excited... I enjoyed these youtube videos about a MultiMouse concept created by Microsoft Labs. I like human computer interaction topics, but I especially like seeing them applied to education.

I think the real tough part with a brand new interaction method is that some of the old teaching methods may go out the window. To truly see the value of a mouse at each desk, new concepts in teaching are probably necessary - I'd hope enablement from a new tech is an exciting challenge for a teacher. Some obvious value - a computer (especially when it's a rarity, 1 per 100 students) would certainly bring excitement to learning. I'd love to see concepts created that really make the mouse's (mice?) as useful as #2 pencils.

I had an instant gripe with this though, some of this video looks like they've unnecessarily replaced the simple task of walking up to the chalkboard in an expensive (and electricity using) way. I hope they're packing advil in their lunchbox as some of the apps looks like superstimuli, I can feel my old Unreal Tournament headache coming on now.

Unfunny jokes aside, my kudos to the developers for creating and staying on such a path.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW3c1QHvSqc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8Jt2HBDJE0

Welcome!

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:36:20 -0400

Welcome! My name is Alpay Kasal. Inventor. h4X0r. modder. tweaker. Video Artist. My projects sometimes involve very tech concepts, sometimes very... not. I'm also somewhat of a creative, a designer & video artist who does installation work and staging, utilizing hacker/modder skills when possible. I plan to showcase some such efforts right here.

Why'd I start the blog? My website has been a work in progress forever. seriously, forever. I seem to blaze through client projects well enough but, as some creative types might tell you, your own identity can be a tough one to deliver. Maybe the website is always a work in progress because we ourselves are always works in progress, how cerebral. The blog though, it's a form of publishing that is meant to be "unfinished", always fluxing forward. I like that. so here we go, word up.

oh, and a quick addendum: you will see embed codes and associated links whenever applicable. I am big on using the arpanet for it's intended purpose - the spread, warehousing, and redundancy of information, time to get your link on. In the language of buzzwords, we're democratizing content.

www.LitStudios.com