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Timothy Lord Discovers the Good Night Lamp at CES (Video)
Many reporters go to the CES, AKA Consumer Electronic Show (warning - link landing page plays annoying sound) in Las Vegas to see the newest 42.001" LCD TVs, which are 0.001" bigger than last year's 42" models. And there are many boring Windows 8 devices, many of which both run Windows and can display the number 8. These items, along with keynotes from tech gurus like Bill Clinton (We're not making this up!) may be amazing to some news outlets, but not to Slashdot or to Our Man Timothy, who seeks out the new, the bizarre, and the unusual and -- without taking a dime from them -- lets their instigators talk to him about their wares. But it's got to be good stuff, not run of the mill incremental advances. Like the Good Night Lamp(tm), which was invented by Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, whose "work has been exhibited," says the goodnightlamp.com/team page, "at the Milan Furniture Fair, London Design Festival, The Victoria & Albert Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York." Now the Good Night Lamp people are showing off their product and trying to raise money through Kickstarter. But that's enough from us. We will now hand the microphone to Ms. Deschamps-Sonsino and let her tell you the rest.
He was a keynote in Chicago in the late 90's on the digital divide.
(granted he was president then)
Just what I need to have a blissful night sleep is a lamp that is controlled by someone else. Next up, let's put control of the toilet flush lever in someone else's hands while I'm showering.
don't give bad boss any ideas and this can be a very bad one.
Is the android-powered butt plug. No shit. It's got wifi and a web server so you can browse your ass and control the vibrations. There's also a web cam but I don't know why... there's no light and the camera will probably be covered with lube. (Hmm... sounds like a new instagram filter).
That is a *lot* of money for something that pretty limited in its usage.
It's like the spirit of the "Jump to Conclusions" mat lives on
Just set your IM status to "at home" or "asleep" instead.
Judging from the tone and content of the "article" above, I'd guess that Timothy Lord discovered magic mushrooms at CES.
Kickstarter seems to be getting seriously diluted. Everybody is using it.
That's like saying the internet is diluted. The word you're looking for is *popular*.
Not that this is a particularly worthy project, though...
But I really doubt she's going to get full funding.
meep!
"Like the Good Night Lamp(tm))"
Will you be revisiting all articles every time a company name is mentioned that has a trade mark to note "(tm)"?
Seems like a solution looking for a problem. Also, holy shit at the price. China will knock this off for $4.99 per remote house and $12.99 for the big one. Hell, I can build them for $20 a piece by hand (although I wouldn't bother with the $1 worth of plastic case).
Definitely the worst of CES.
Nobody uses it anymore - too crowded!
Dark Reflection
More than anything I was interested to figure out what the leading indicators of the next industry bubble would be(after being in college during the 90s.com fun). My takeaway from this is while it's a fun gimmick, it's a solution looking for a problem. The fact it's getting traction in conversation is fascinating and provides greater insight than the concept itself.
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I believe implementing the wizard's clock from Harry Potter would be a better, very similar, idea.
I don't really give a shit whether or not you're not Bill Clinton, tell me what the lamp does. I'm not going to click a video and turn my sound up at work.
The hell does this do?
This may be good for elderly relatives living on their own. When they turn their lamp on in the morning, you know they are ok. If it doesn't turn on by a certain time, have the police (or a trusted neighbor) run a "welfare check" on them.
Meh, and double meh.
You mean it's not limited to macbook carrying hipster douchebags only? Wow!!
*goes to fund some non-macbook-carrying-hipster projects*
The Goodnight Lamp is simultaneously among the creepiest and stupidest things I've ever seen.
Please stop producing useless garbage in fancy plastic and metal coverings and give us high speed internet. And when I say high speed, I don't mean that watered down swill your ISP sells you. I mean "set my harddrive on fire downloading torrents" speed. I mean multiple 1080p streams of video over one pipe. I do not need an iWhatever, or a remote-controlled lamp... I need a network connection that doesn't suck so hard it's in danger of forming its own event horizon.
I don't care if it's wireless, or runs over copper or fiber, or if you have to shoot lasers through the sky. Get it done, people. We're about ten years late to the party as it is right now -- our infrastructure is rotten. Shannon's Law is kicking our butts, and we can only re-arrange bits of metal and plastic and input devices in clever new ways for so long before it's just old and busted.
The future is bandwidth. Get on it.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Innovating new products that you don't need or want. It's a space consuming version of the away button in IM. And the summary? *rolls eyes*
Could we please stop calling everything that's designed around existing technology an invention? Thank you.
Clinton has more smarts in his little finger than the sum of the brains of the 2 presidents who succeeded him.
This stuff doesn't belong on the front page of Slashdot. You aren't a news source, you're not reporters, and you never will be. How about you spend more time actually editing and curating decent submissions, instead of the political tripe you've been doling out? Stop with the videos. Just...stop.
When you make a phone call or send an e-mail you're breaking routine to specifically take part in connecting with someone. What's lost are those little, seemingly insignificant (but I think incredibly important) moments where you're just doing your own thing, but doing it around family and friends and there's a kind of passive sharing of that experience happening. That doesn't happen in an e-mail or a phone call.
This idea feels like a way to engage in that passive sharing that I think is important in relationships. And it does this in a very simple, but familiar way.
Some kind of services that shares every detail of a person's daily routine is just information overload and becomes annoying (twitter, 4square, facebook). This is just a nice, simple message (I'm home) that is personal, but unobtrusive and "feels right".
Someone invented the precursor to the IP phone. It's the IP telegraph. Now I just need to polish up on my Morse code.
My God, this summary is terrible....
The opposite being just as true.
Now, I love my family, but broadcasting that I'm home with the implication that I want to chat, well, I can imagine getting annoyed and unplugging that thing -- and then the police shows up later because my mom though something bad happened to me and got scared (and said 'You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air")
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
Someone forgot to replace the lorem ipsum text with the real summary.
That won't be making it's ridiculous finding goal. Not very useful and stupidly expensive to boot.
she looks like a vulcan
1. Instead of selling/producing the large lamp. they should develop a module with embedded WiFi that goes between any lamp and the power circuit. That way you could use any lamp with the system.
2. Instead of selling separate little home lamps and, presumably, having multiple lamps, what they should do is develop a "Christmas Village" type product with multiple houses, street, etc. Each miniature house would then light up based on the status of the paired module.
3. Create virtual "Christmas Village" software/web page
For the "Christmas Village" piece, it could have different scenes: Winter, Suburbs, Big City, Summer cottages, etc. In fact, if they did it right, they could develop the village layout that allows for skins for each of the houses, landscape, etc. which could be changed based on the season, etc... For example, this would allow the user to set up a village with an office building, cottage, house, etc. You could add grass, asphalt, water, snow landscape skins, etc.
Personally, I think that it would be cool to see a miniature village light up when my sisters, parents, nephews, etc. are home. At least I would then know when to call them to wish them a happy birthday, etc.
college is the next bubble to many people are going and cost is to high.
"I don't know what to tell you, there, Bobbo. Either this kid has a light bulb up his butt or his colon has a great idea."
Source
The G
If you nail together two things that have never been nailed together before, some schmuck will buy it from you.
How about a left nostril inhaler, that glows in the dark, with your state motto on it?
Not that this is a particularly worthy project, though...
It's not for me either, but that will be determined by number of people putting up their own money (or lack thereof).
has to be one of the top 10 dumbest items to come out this year, and we're only a week and a half in.
That said, because I consider it such a stupid idea, people will buy it in the millions. Better invest in the company now before it goes public.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
While it's not exactly the must-have tech toy of the century, I don't think its completely useless. Some suggestions:
a)Set up bomb triggered by photoelectric sensor.
b)Place lamp next to bomb.
c)Press button.
Someone's already mentioned the morse code use. Sure, the FBI is monitoring your tweets, but are they monitoring your, uhm, blinks?
It is worth noting that not everyone is always watching their IM, etc. A signal to people who are NOT online that your status has changed is not without its uses.
Add in some kind of color changing mechanism, so that you can sync colors, and you can send a large number of message. "Two blue blinks means the cops are on their way, clear out!", for example.
Heck, I HATE it when I am summoned from my home office for dinner by someone shouting down the stairs at me. It breaks my concentration hideously. Having a signaling device like this with no annoying vocal component would actually be useful to me. Others in my family aren't online all the time; they can't/won't just send me an email to let me know dinner is ready.
We live in the dying days of a great empire. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can change this -- not by individual or collective action. Thus, we should eat the bread and attend the circuses. Our descendants (well, your descendants, I'm not spawning) will envy us for having the kind of surplus resources that allows the creation of things like this. Enjoy it while you can; refusing to enjoy it won't change anything, except your happiness level.
That is all.
Sometimes my lamp burns out and I don't notice it's been set to "on" for days before I go replace the bulb. This would give the false impression to people that I am home when I am not.
Because everyone wants to watch their relatives, friends, and neighbors comings and goings.
Gee. My ex-girlfriend just got in at 3:00AM. I wonder who she brought home?
Have gnu, will travel.
Give the little lamps to people your stalking. Don't tell them what they do.
What if the house where the BIG LAMP was kept was, somehow, hacked into!! Then people will know when you're home or not!
Sorry, I had to do this in light of all the recent school RFID card posts.
I remember in college having to immediately step out from under the shower as soon as I heard a toilet flush. It was an old dorm.
"Not that this is a particularly worthy project, though..."
I beg to differ.
Terrorist of the world are waiting for this. Just make bombs out of the sub-lamps and install them where you want the kaboom to happen.
Then fly home and switch on the master lamp and bathe in the soft, soothing light.
This product is significant because it will be the first online appliance that most non-geeks will discover.
After people get used to the Good Night Lamp, they won't bat an eyelid when their car tweets that it has just received a parking ticket (and by the way, the front left tire is half-flat). They'll take it in good stride when their refrigerator emails to say that it is shutting down unless the six-month-old lump of rotting blue cheese is removed by midnight.
People will expect their toothpaste tube to order the next tube to be delivered just in time, and won't be surprised if the park bench posts a YouTube video of their fat ass sitting on it.
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They're asking for £360,000 (~ $580,000) on Kickstarter, a target I very much doubt they'll meet. Feeling a little greedy, are we?
"Not that this is a particularly worthy project, though..."
I beg to differ.
Terrorist of the world are waiting for this. Just make bombs out of the sub-lamps and install them where you want the kaboom to happen.
Then fly home and switch on the master lamp and bathe in the soft, soothing light.
>implying this is more economical or straightforward than using a ten dollar prepaid phone as a remote trigger.
Since the mid 2000s, the giant bandwidth growth has slowed down. Long distance fiber optic lasers have been around a single digit gigabit/sec for a decade. A decade ago, gigabit ethernet prices were plumeting. Copper 10 gigabit ethernet is still expensive, after several years of predicted low costs. 100 gigabit ethernet is still new, and it remains to be decided if 400 or 1000 gigabit ethernet will be the next target.
Besides, except for downloading movies, the average person does not use extra bandwidth.
Because the night is dark and full of terrors.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
If this stupid project manages to raise money, would it mean that Kickstarter has officially jumped the shark?
The connected rabbit could do this, you move the ears and if so set up via "communing" the ears at the other rabbit moved also. It was better than that
lamp as you could send a message also and the message would be read out loud, or send a song for that matter with lightshow and choreographed ear motions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabaztag
H.
Sign you have been in Amsterdam to long:
Is the android-powered butt plug. No shit. It's got wifi and a web server so you can browse your ass and control the vibrations.
NOTHING in the above line triggers any red flags that someone is trying to be anything but serious/informative.
Mind so open, my brain has fallen out.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I see the shiny white side of the house and think "rear projection screen for ads". Damn, now somebody will do that for real.
Average Intelligence is a Scary Thing
So instead of being kept awake with all the beeps and tweets and flashing lights from your phone or tablet as your friends check in, now your room will never be dark as all these lamps fire up.
Seriously, I know its great to be social, but we don't have to be so connected as to know when friends and family walk in the door. There is something to be said about having a little privacy these days. Maybe I might start a Kickstarter project for a button that can be pressed that just ejects you out of the social network completely and lets you enjoy a few moments of peace from all your stalkers.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
WELCOME to today's consumer electronics! Bask in our amazing locked-in toy computers and comically useless doodads!
Seriously if we brought a person from just 10 years ago to this year's CES with a time machine, they'd insist they were being pranked.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
You know what?
Fuck you and lighten up.
My mother would adore this, sometimes it's nice to be able to 'glance over' and see your loved ones without actually having to 'communicate' with them. I know because she keeps a picture of me by her bed side (as well as all her other children) because they 'remind her of us' and make her smile. She even watches old movies of us because it reminds us of her.
I expect the last thing my mother wants to do is have me call her at 10:00pm when I am shutting down to sleep, but I can tell she would smile when she saw the lamp go on and off because it would remind her of her child and hey look, they are going to bed now or waking up.
What about grandmothers and their grand children (who might be toddlers - yeah they're too fucking arsed to text message their grandmother, oh wait, one is 2 years old and the other doesn't even know what text message is).
It's indirect communication by loved ones who are far away.
It's nice idea.
Nobody goes there anymore - it's too crowded.
-- Lawrence "Yogi" Berra.
No, it's mostly wallets.
I don't buy that argument - we've had IP appliances(Fridges, home security systems) for the better part of a decade. We've had alarm clocks that get global time information sync'd for decades. Connected appliances, and recently on-line appliances are not innovative.
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One of the joys of kickstarter is that lame ideas like this will just go way.
You could DIY it - http://www.indiegogo.com/pinoccio
Strange, I was just looking at that a little bit ago. It's a fair ways out of my usual price range and suite of services for a prototyping platform, but it's interesting.
This idea actually strikes me as cool. Sure, it has no practical uses, but so what? A Lamborghini has no practical uses, but it's still cool that somebody actually made it. It only sounds stupid because they're trying to claim that it's useful.
Good on her for actually making something and taking a chance!