Technology Prevails!

.
Well, it seems like my phone's email functions are working again. After spending quite a bit of time looking in the manual and trying unsuccessfully to tweak various settings, I called the technical support line of my provider. Their solution? "Have you tried turning your phone off and on?"

I'd be more annoyed but for the fact that it worked...

The only downside to blogging by email is that I can't post links as well because of the plaintext restrictions on both my phone and in the blogger email. However, this could be good in forcing me to write about things that I'm thinking about rather than simply reacting to news stories like I'm about to.

(slight pause while I email the first few paragraphs to the blog and then continue in Blogger)

This article on incorporating technology into various items of clothng intrigued me just now, but for two reasons. On the one hand you see interesting applications and ideas, but then you really have to wonder about the commercial viability of any of the ideas. A bikini laced with solar cells is a neat trick, but it does feel exactly like that, a trick - surely if you were going to wear a solar cell it would be better on a jacket or a t-shirt, something with a much larger surface area.

The "intimate controllers" are frankly ridiculous as are the "concept shoes" that inflate a chair behind you that you then sit on until it deflates; the artist/designer mentions something about "transforming walking into something like performance art." That's all very well if you want to be a performance artist, but as a concept it doesn't really do much for walking...

I like the idea of bracelets or other fashion accessories that store up solar energy during the day and then become lights at night; as ideas go it is a low-cost, affordable thing that someone could buy and use - OK, it's not going to solve the energy crisis, but a person could wear a bracelet or whatever during the day, and then use it to read by before bed.

The idea which really looked like it would have legs, and it was something that came to me straight away, was related to the idea of fabrics being printed on in a way such that the naked eye can't see certain images, but that a camera phone or digital camera can pick up. This "Kameraflage" printing technique will, I predict, become very popular over the next few years; in a world where more and more people have a digital camera with them everywhere thanks to the capability of the average mobile handset, it seems quite conceivable that companies will create more and more sophisticated "multi-layered" advertisements for their products - and even within their products.

(the Facebook addict comes back from a night out, with an albums-worth of photos to upload, and sees for the first time the hidden adverts and messages on their friends' clothes, background billboards, flyers for club nights...)

If the details of how exactly it is achieved were known then other uses it could be put to include adding content to books and other publications in interesting ways, or possibly in a home setting it could allow for intriguing personal customisation of clothes or accessories - or even for covertly passing messages?

Two more days, and then holidays are here... Two more days... But no interruption of service this time - thanks to technology!