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This sketch depicting the equivalent of 15th century usability problems in the new-fangled “book” seems to argue that everything new is inherently confusing.

While I find it easy to believe that comparisons will always be made to the old technology and the benefits it was known to have — at least until people use the new stuff enough to realize its benefits — I find it hard to believe that a book is anything nearly as hard to learn as a computer. Remember that scene from Zoolander where Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson confusedly try to break into a computer with a blunt object? If you did that to a book — if you shook it and manhandled it as we humans intuitively seem to know how to do — its contents would reveal themselves. The only thing to fear is fear of busting up a holy manuscript.That said, the video is hilarious. Do you think the events depicted would happen?

The New York Times recently had an article on “Clocky“, an alarm clock developed at the MIT Media Lab that’s now available to the public through Nanda Home.  Unlike most alarm clocks, “Clocky” has wheels (and can withstand a 2 foot drop) so that it runs away after it goes off, requiring its owner to get out of bed and retrieve it in order to turn off the alarm.

Check out this video from the BBC news on high-tech Valet Parking in Manhattan!

Neat!