pogueman

I've been carrying around the iPhone 5s Apple loaned me to review, but now I have to ship it back. My own iPhone 4s is due for replacement (yes, I'm on a 2-year contract just like everyone else), and I'm mulling what to replace it with!

Wow, that is a WEIRD story!

They had this grant to make a miniseries about materials science. Yeah, THAT'S a great topic for a TV show! Everyone thought it'd be dry as dust.

So they hired this genius outside producer, Chris Schmidt, to come up with a concept. His idea: (a) have a host (NOVA doesn't usually have hosts). (b) Pick a non-scientist host, someone who's curious and funny and represents the viewer. (c) immerse him in extreme situations--hang gliding, swimming with sharks, pouring gold--to illustrate the science.

For a reason that mystifies and delights me to this day, he and the head of NOVA both thought of me simultaneously!

There are examples all around us! Just look at Nest, whose Internet-connected, intelligent thermostat shook up the thermostat business (which hadn't changed in 50 years)! Now they're introducing a smoke alarm that will have the same effect!

We have much farther to go with cars/traffic/transportation. With groceries. With customized clothing shopping online. We're at the Commodore 64 era with those!

Cool question! I'm a hardcore Google Voice user, so that link is first on my bookmarks bar. (That's where I can read--yes, READ--my voicemails. And send and receive texts. From the laptop.)

I also tune daily into NY Times, Facebook, Techmeme, and my local town news site, westportnow.com.

I can honestly say I never realized that.