Swerve, a new milk-based drink from Coca-Cola, will be launched this summer to appeal to children and teens. A cow with dark glasses will pitch the new beverage which comes in chocolate, vanilla/banana and blueberry flavors.

Discussion about ambient devices made the Internet rounds earlier this year, and I was reminded of them again when Gizmodo mentioned them recently. My first ambient device was the LED on my phone when I interned at Lotus Technical Support in college. The color of the LED indicated the length of the caller hold queue. I thought the color ranged from green to yellow to orange — until the day they opened up all the trunk lines as an experiment and I saw the LED turn a bright, stress-inducing red. When I saw the orb from Ambient Devices, I started envisioning many useful products, most of which I’m sure have been thought of already. A baby monitor for moms who want to do yoga in peace and quiet, a thermometer for the doneness of your roast, a pollen count indicator (perhaps partially funded and branded by an allergy medicine company), moisture indicators for plants, color feedback on your target pulse rate while exercising. Imagine having a customizable glowing light or two on your wristwatch or jewelry that you could set to indicate whatever you wished. The concept also took me back to my minimal encouters with fuzzy logic, where computing doesn’t necessarily always result in a one or a zero. Ambient Devices’ orb FAQ is a fun read. Here’s some speculation on Apple’s glowing LED case and whether it will be an ambient device. And there was a Slashdot discussion on building your own device. Ambient technology continues the evolution to make the actual computer less obvious. And think of the potential art projects!

In a superbly unintentional publicity stunt for Meow Mix’s new kitty TV show, Meow Mix CEO Richard Thompson was bitten on the posterior by a Rottweiler.

The Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies was actually founded last year when the U.S. Army awarded MIT $50 million for their winning proposal, but last week they formally launched the institute at the dedication of its new facility. Various corporations (e.g. Raytheon) are kicking in an additional $40 million to fund the center. Their areas of focus in the military uniform/armor realm are “protection, performance improvement and injury intervention.” Thus, exhibits at the kick-off included magneto-rheological (MR) fluids which may be used for armor that stays flexible but hardens when hit with a bullet, a “selectively permeable” fabric that can protect against chemical and biological agents, and mocked-up uniforms with futuristic exoskeletons. One day, my raingear will be something more than Goretex, and my husband’s motorcycle gear will be something more than Kevlar.

Warner Bros. is dusting off its Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ownership and remaking the movie. Although author Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay of the original, he was not happy with the end result. His estate has approved Tim Burton to direct the new film. The producers include Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt. How will Burton re-envision the Oompa Loompas? They already give me the creeps without a Burtonesque treatment.

OK, Martha watchers, what’s the scoop? Did Ms. Stewart attend Bill Gates’ annual CEO Summit or not? A high profile attendee in the past (2001 news item, 1999 photo), one would expect that she was invited, but perhaps she is keeping a low profile. The Seattle Times even brought up the question: “There’s no word on whether Martha Stewart, a past attendee, will attend this year.”

In a case, I dearly hope, of a reporter picking the most ear-catching soundbyte to pass along, a NY Times article about attracting women into computer science, quotes U. of Washington professor David Notkin as saying “Most women think, ‘I’m going to be in a cubicle at Microsoft typing next to some guys who smell funny. There’s a perception that it’s not a good field to be in.” As a female CS major told me after reading this: “Yuck!” Her response was cleaner than my entirely unprintable reaction. While some women may certainly be turned off by the stereotype of the male geek, this quote is a horribly inaccurate distillation of the actual problems we face in involving more women in technology careers. It also gravely discredits the ability of women to accurately judge the challenges of a technical career.

If the people who can effect change (and computer science educators fall into that category which is why a quote from a Prof. Notkin worries me so) have misguided views of why women are not entering computer science and enforce those views in interviews with the media, the road ahead is difficult indeed. Women naturally inclined to succeed in computer science are not frightened away by strange geeky men (in fact, many find them intriguing as another interesting puzzle to solve). I would bet that just as many men do not pursue computer science because of the perception of “guys who smell funny.” “Most women” are not avoiding computer science because of smelly guys, but because of a misperception of their own abilities, as a result of our culture, and a misrepresentation of how multifaceted and artistic computer science can be. The real barriers for women are covered well in the book Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing.

To celebrate the series finale of Buffy we had our commemorative BuffyLoaf (buffalo meatloaf). Although buffalo is readily available at our local gourmet markets, our frugal vendor of choice, Trader Joe’s, has not been carrying it consistently. We buy it whenever we see it there, but often it is not to be found and we were lucky we had it in the freezer for this occasion. A NY Times article on the entrance of yaks into the U.S. culinary market says that there is actually an oversupply of buffalo, after a period of speculation when prices shot up. Buffalo are ornery, aggressive creatures who don’t like fences. Some ranchers are turning to the more docile yak. Yaks need less food, are used to foraging, surviving winter (they eat ice!), and (sorry PETA) their meat is as lean as buffalo and just as tasty if not more so. I haven’t tried it yet, but if TJ’s starts stocking it, we will be sure to. Now we just need a TV show to match. But not Yakov Smirnoff, please.

T.V. Review Haiku

Martha Inc: Boring
I would rather be watching
My herb garden grow.

Lorelai stays blind
To Luke’s hinted interest.
But Lane’s mom came through!

Oh poor Enterprise
When will they find a fresh plot?
Save the ship, Porthos!

Buffy saved the world.
Again. I laughed and I cried.
Thank you, Joss Whedon.

Geek Links

Now that E3 has come and gone, game previews and trailers galore are available on sites like FilePlanet.

If you’d like to go over one of the more intricate exchanges of dialogue from Matrix:Reloaded with a fine tooth comb, here is a transcription of that scene in the room with the video screens. Spoilers of course!

The Matrix Reloaded phone is already sold out. How many did they sell?

I missed another chance to see the Power Tool Drag Races.

Albert Einstein’s papers, letters, and essays are now available online thanks to the Einstein Papers Project at Caltech.