Random link round-up

Now I’ve finally got the spiffy new WordPress walking to heel properly, here are some links I’ve come across recently that I liked that at least some of you might also like – sorry if they’re old news. In no particular order:

• For those who take lots of digital photos, here’s a reason to take even more: Photosynth. It stitches together lots of photos taken of the same place / thing. I haven’t installed it yet, so I don’t know what it’s like, but there is a very groovy demo video on TED from one of its creators. When I see amazing technology like this, I sometimes wonder if there are people working on classified projects for governments who did this ages ago but can’t tell anyone.
• Talking of TED, I have no idea how he does this – 30 minutes of genius.
• If you start taking loads more photos, you’ll need somewhere to store them. A colleague is thinking of buying this neat gizmo, which seems to be hard disks That Just Work.
• I often get fed up when people say how the Internet is going to change the world, how we’re going to order pet food online from specialist pet food web sites, how the world is going to be a better place etc. However, when Clay Shirky talks about the internet it’s usually thought-provoking and often seems perceptive and accurate. He’s written an another article on social participation and the internet with parallels to the past, which is much more interesting than it sounds, and there’s a good introduction by Tim O’Reilly.
• The internet isn’t going to save the world, but people like Amy Smith and her International Development Design students might.
• More stuff to make me ponder, but in a different way.