Sprout ~ HP's 3D Interactive proto-Smartbulb...

Check out HP's new Sprout, their 3D interactive PC/workstation that's a first-stab (albeit third-rate) at a commercial smartbulb... USAToday's Edward Baig reviews Sprout... This reminds me of the Calliope Never-ending Drawing Machine at MIT Media Lab... And also the MIT Media Lab LuminAR project... Of course, all of these are pre-dated by John Underkoffler's 1999 PhD on The I/O bulb and the luminous room!

Rolltop ~ Computing Sceptre Concept Video...

This Rolltop concept video from 2010 is still compelling...

R.I.P. Doug Engelbart ~ Intelligence Augmentor...

Sad to hear Douglas Engelbart has passed away at 88. As John Markoff writes in his NYTimes obit, Engelbart "had an epiphany in 1950 that would change the world." Co-inventor of the computer mouse, Engelbart envisioned future of radical intelligence augmentation via online information, linked references, text editing, video conferencing, multi-media, and more. His December 1968 epic "Mother of all Demos" showed a working system with all of those envisioned elements... That's immortal even if Doug isn't.

Mobile Eats World ~ Benedict Evans Slideshare...

Thanks to Fred Wilson for spotting Benedict Evans slideshare on Mobile Is Eating The World...

Odyssey Inventor ~ Baer, Father of Video Games

Kottke spots Ralph Baer, The father of video games...

Silicon Valley ~ Epic PBS American Experience!

PBS American Experience spotlights Silicon Valley! Note, btw, how Silly Valley was really born as MIT-west with Francis Amasa Walker MIT President co-designing Palo Alto's Stanford University, Fred Terman MIT SB'24 creating Stanford Industrial Park, Bill Hewlett MIT SM'36 co-founding HP with first product based on his MIT Masters audio oscillator, William Shockley MIT PhD'36 co-inventor of transistors and co-founder of Shockley Semi, Bob Noyce MIT PhD'53 co-inventor of the integrated circuit and co-founder of both Fairchild Semi and Intel, Tom Perkins MIT SB'53 co-founder of Kleiner Perkins VC firm, Bob Metcalfe MIT SB'69 co-inventor of Ethernet and co-founder of 3Com, and dozens of other key MIT alumni figures playing early roles!

Raspberry Pi ~ Tiny Computer, Million Tinkerers

NYTimes John Biggs writes A Tiny Computer Attracts a Million Tinkerers...

"The story of the Raspberry Pi begins in 2006 when Eben Upton and other faculty members at the University of Cambridge in Britain found that their incoming computer science students were ill-prepared for a high-tech education. While many students in the previous decade were experienced electronics hobbyists by the time they got to college, these freshmen were little more than skilled Web designers. Easy-to-use, modern PCs hide most of the nuts and bolts behind a pleasing interface. Mr. Upton posited that parents did not want their children to destroy their expensive computers by experimenting with their insides. But a cheaper machine would be fair game for messing around. The Raspberry Pi -- about 3 inches by 2 inches and less than an inch high -- was intended to replace the expensive computers."

It's become a hot-selling DIY hit kit!