I am a Hot Monster

Ugly and Beautiful...Together at Last.

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

An iPod before there were iPods

Here's a great story from Wired about a guy in the UK who came up with the idea of a portable digital music player. His name is Kane Kramer and he was way ahead of his time.

Kramer came up with the idea for a pocket-sized, portable solid state music player... The IXI System had a display screen and buttons for four-way navigation. In a report presented to investors in 1979, the IXI was described as being the size of a cigarette packet. Is this sounding familiar yet?


It's a sad story that he had an Idea back in the 70's and now his dream is realized. And Kramer isn't getting anything for it.

Transom Show: Fake City, Real Dreams

A great story about a guy in Detroit who's hand drawing his own fake city. It's his way of solving problems of existing cities. His fake city solves transportation and city planning problems. The map-maker's name is Neil Greenbern.
Point to any intersection and Neil will seamlessly delve into the history of that block, that neighborhood, that business district, etc.

Greenbern is the subject of a radio story produced by Zak Rosen. Found this on Transom.org

Via Transom.org

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