DailyDirt: Wacky Inventions and Inventors...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Fri, Aug 5th 2011 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Inventions aim to improve anything and everything. So there are a lot of pretty trivial inventions out there, but every so often there are some really cool things, too. Here are just a few quick links about inventions and inventors.

This device has to be seen to be believed -- and even after watching it, there's some doubt that it isn't some kind of video editing trick. Don't cry over spilled ketchup... [url]
Stephen Wolfram wonders if machines can discover axioms or invent interesting mathematical conjectures. Sounds like someone wants to replace an infinite array of monkeys with a server farm. [url]
One of the first voice recordings for sale to the public was a 12-second clip of a woman singing 'Twinkle, Twinkle, little star' for a toy doll. Thomas Edison would probably be impressed that the 123-year-old recording could be played using modern optical scanning techniques that don't physically touch the metal cylinder that the soundprint is etched into. [url]
IBM has named a group of employees 'Master Inventors' -- and one of them admits he usually helps invent pretty obscure things. It seems a bit presumptuous to call someone (other than Necessity?) a 'master' of invention. [url]
To discover more interesting tech-related content, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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Filed Under: edison, gel pickup, inventions, wolfram
Companies: ibm

5 Comments

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Pixelation, 5 Aug 2011 @ 6:28pm

"It seems a bit presumptuous to call someone (other than Necessity?) a 'master' of invention."

That depends upon your definition of master. I think people conflate being a master with someone who knows everything about a subject. I would say a 'master" of invention is someone who understands invention, understands the language of invention and is able to invent. I would also say there are many levels of mastery.
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Pixelation, 6 Aug 2011 @ 5:09am

Re:
...and what a cool job!
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shawnhcorey (profile), 6 Aug 2011 @ 8:07am

@goo picker upper: I remember reading about a proposed hospital gurney that was similar but used two sheets, one on top for the patient and another on the bottom so it wouldn't foul in the bed sheets. Since both sheets came out of the middle of the device at the same rate, they wouldn't foul with each other either.
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smithhogg (profile), 6 Aug 2011 @ 12:59pm

i wish you success in your project. we can learn a lot from your experiment. i hope to encourage my students to follow a similar endeavor.It helps people during research. your post is one of the same for blog readers.
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Bluestacks, 7 Sep 2018 @ 8:46am

dailydirt
I would love to read this articles and really very inspired.
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