Could You Switch Off?

July 20, 2011
by Rodney Olsen
2 Comments

After reading one of the questions on one my favourite blogs yesterday morning (That’s My Answer) I was thinking about how addicted we have become to electronic gadgets. Everywhere we go these days people are glued to gadgets of various kinds. I challenge you to walk down just about any street around the world without seeing at least one person, if not several, on a mobile phone.

Earlier this year while I was on jury duty I travelled by bus and train into the city every day. It was definitely the minority that weren’t plugged in to some kind of gadget.

Is your life cluttered by gadgets? Have all our gadgets improved our lives?

Would you cope if you had to shut off all your electronic gadgets for an entire week?

Could you find the off button on your mobile phone and leave it off for a week? How about your computers, your TV, iPod, video games? Would you last the week? Would you last 24 hours? Maybe you could rediscover real books or spend your time in real conversations.



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Technology Stole My Life

March 19, 2011
by Rodney Olsen
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One of the blogs I always enjoy reading is Challies.com.

Tim Challies is about to release a book about how our increased ability to use technology to connect with people all over the world we’re losing touch with those closest to us. It asks the questions whether all this connection to technology is good for our souls.

Check out the video above and see if it resonates with you.

Two weeks from today is the official release date for my book The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion. And if you’re planning to order the book (and really, you should, don’t you think?), it makes some sense to pre-order it before the official release date.

If you are going to be reading it in Kindle format, you will definitely want to order ASAP. For every 200 people who order on Kindle, the price will drop by $1 (and since you’re not charged until the day it actually releases, you’ll get those savings). Other ebook platforms will also get those savings, but not until the book actually releases. The price has already fallen and I’d love to see it fall some more.

The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion will be available in hardcover or Kindle version.

So, do you find that you’re ‘connected’ to more people than ever but that technology is stealing your life?



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Losing Sleep Over Sport

June 19, 2010
by Rodney Olsen
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Technology is a wonderful thing. Instead of waiting days or months to hear results from sporting events on the other side of the globe, we now watch sport live wherever it is being played.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is currently happening in South Africa and so football (soccer) fans all over the world are watching hours and hours of the world game. Many of those watching are on a completely different time zone so they’re watching their televisions through the night and trying to stay awake at work each day. I’m not such a fan so I’m happy to just hear the results the next morning.

For tennis fans, Wimbledon is about to get underway. Again, fans around the world will stay up late to see their heroes battle it out on centre court. I don’t mind watching tennis but I’m not going to lose sleep over it.

At various times of the year there are all kinds of sports that are played on the other side of the world, dictating late nights and sleepy mornings. Cricket, Formula One, Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games and the list goes on.

Now it comes to my weakness. Cycling. The Tour de France starts on Saturday the 3rd of July. I may well be losing vast amounts of sleep over the three weeks of the tour. I won’t watch every moment live but there will be some exciting stages that will keep me glued to the television.

How about you? Are you a sports tragic that watches all kinds of sport, no matter when it’s being played? Do you have a favourite sport that you enjoy watching live, even though it means you’re up in the middle of the night?



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Did You Know?

November 6, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
1 Comment

I posted one of these videos in December last year and asked the question So what does this all mean?

I spotted this latest edition on Hamo’s Blog yesterday and it is truly mind blowing. I’m not sure if anyone knows where we’re going but we’re sure getting there very, very quickly.



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The EyeBorg Project

March 12, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
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EyeBorg.jpegHave you ever wished that you could video what ever you see without lugging around a video camera?

Rob Spence, a one eyed film maker, has found a way to do just that. Taking his cue from the 1970s television series The Six Million Dollar Man, Rob has had a camera inserted into prosthetic eye to create The EyeBorg Project.

Take a one eyed film maker, an unemployed engineer, and a vision for something that’s never been done before and you have yourself the EyeBorg Project. Rob Spence and Kosta Grammatis are trying to make history by embedding a video camera and a transmitter in a prosthetic eye. That eye is going in Robs eye socket, and will record the world from a perspective that’s never been seen before.

The possibilities for this kind of documentary making are endless. Imagine how much more at ease people would be talking one on one with someone rather than having a visible camera shoved in their face.

I’d love to do something like this but I’m not really prepared to lose an eye to do so. Of course, the way technology is going, it probably won’t be too long before we can take a direct feed from our own eyes.

The thing I’d really like is to be able to have a zoom function on my eyes like The Six Million Dollar Man had. That sure would beat having to take binoculars to the footy or concerts.

The Eyeborg Project is the work of Rob Spence, a 36 year old filmmaker residing in Toronto, Canada and Kosta Grammatis—an unemployed engineer from San Francisco, CA. The eye in question was badly damaged in an accident involving a shotgun when Rob was 13. Rob had his eye surgically removed and replaced with a prosthetic one after enduring ten years of pain. Now, with the help of Kosta and a team of ocularists, inventors, engineering specialists, Rob is building a prosthesis that can capture and transmit video. He will soon be filming the world from an entirely new perspective.

Kosta Grammatis has led the charge to solve the engineering problems involved with the endeavor. In order for the project to be successful the smallest, lightest, power efficient technologies had to be found and implemented. The world’s smallest CMOS cameras—1.5mm square are being used, small enough to be lost in a sneeze. The video signal is being transmitted wirelessly to be recorded elsewhere by an RF Transmitter that’s smaller than the tip of a pencil eraser, and lithium polymer battery technology is powering the eye. Kosta envisions that the data will be sent to a backpack to be recorded.

You can follow the project at the EyeBorg Project Blog.



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