Touch Your Screen

   I brought in my AlphaSmart to the computer art room this morning, used the scanner cord to download that sweet sweet wordcount, so all that backlog Zootopia Watch Trailer Review will be up... soon. Once I can figure out what I'd meant to type, clean that up into normal human conversation. I'd been going to chill around the Spori building until something happened to alert me to where Thomas Hull was holding his workshop, but right there on the door to the computer room was the notice which I'd seen telling of the activity, and so, oh, is that where I saw it, I guess I'll just hang around for the next half hour. I could do my sudoku for this week-- I'm getting better, or the puzzles are getting easier; I don't even need to digitize them anymore to solve them. I suppose I could check which... I do have that photo I took of the first week's sudoku...

   The workshop (for lack of a better term; it was basically more a presentation) lasted from 9:00-11:00, and was comprised mostly of a series of... case studies, I'll call them, from his career. This time, I not only have my notes but kept them too, so if I wanted to I could go into it, though it was far from the only thing that happened today... Like Star Wars; I finally caught The Force Awakens in 3D.

   But anyway.

   There weren't many others at the workshop, and so we could each get a copy of one of the books whose creation he profiled, A Communicator's Guide to the Neuroscience of Touch, a paper company's commision to explain how much better tactile, haptic material is over digital media. Which it is. Present medium notwithstanding. It gets really deep into weird fascinating science. And of course it's gorgeous to the fingers as well as eyes.

Reach out and touch the screen. Go on. Do it. It'll make you feel good.

   Alright, so you can't actually feel the paper the book's made from, but it does feel as fantastic as it looks. It feels like... have you ever unboxed an iPod, iPad, or iPhone? Apple's boxes are made out of hopes and magic, and most certainly not manufactured, of course; if they were, we wouldn't be allowed to talk about it, so I'm most certainly not implying that these are the guys who make those. Nope. Definitely not.

   I also can't say that famed neuroscientist David Eagleman contributed his expertise to the book, even though he did-- Thomas Hull outlined the whole history of the project, and having to talk Dr Eagleman into supplying material though in between hosting serieses of PBS documentaries, doing a TED talk, and having his wife give birth-- and also there was the tiny issue of conflicting interests, where the original study that the campaign had initially been supposed to be based on was less-than-scientific (having, for one, a sample size of only eight people), and also one can seriously jeopardize one's scientific credibility if one appears to endorse things for corporations. So, yeah, I guess I can say David Eagleman contributed his expertise to the book.

   From such a shaky beginning, now the whole thing is on the level, with bonus material from Dr Eagleman if you use your Layer app over the silver-bordered pages in the book. However the "Layer" app works. Presumably it really is magic this time.

   So we each got to take one of those home, since he brought a pack of six and there were only six of us, plus that seventh person who walked in but there were a couple extra copies floating around the campus from earlier somewhere. And also the company will gladly mail you one if you write in and ask.

   Except your copy won't be autographed.  

   Thomas Hull also offered to draw a turkey hand for me (the signature is in the back of the book with the right hand, because he's left handed and so he'd be able to trace his right hand,) but I said he didn't need to do that if he didn't want to, soo...

   I finished off and submitted my sudoku, went home for a couple of minutes to drop off my AlphaSmart and stuff, and also finish off my breakfast, and then went off on an adventure! Which could be a whole post on its own, though, yes, it does include Star Wars. I only got back after sunset.

   And even then, there was dinner, and people invited over, and we all watched Fantastic Mr Fox, and I want to go to bed but I had to finish this blog...

   And to think, I'd wanted to get in some studying today.