If you have been following the console wars you are surly aware of Nintendo’s success with the uniquely named, and marketed Wii. Although I don’t own one yet, my son and I stop at our local GameStop every chance we get to play.

Before we started doing these freeloading recreational excursions, my son had never played a video game. He immediately picked up the Wii, and was able to play games without instruction or frustration.

This got me thinking about how the Wii was different from other gaming systems. By making the game controls a natural extension of the user, Nintendo has tapped into a very powerful control mechanism: the human body.

Although my son had not yet mastered a mouse, keyboard, or complicated button combinations, he had already mastered his body, and therefore the Wii.

Here is a video of my four year old playing a racing game on the Wii:

Finally. The New York Times Online will no longer require readers to subscribe to most of its content.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve googled for some news story and clicked on a promising result from the NYT Online, only to have to have my way barred by “you must be registered to view this article” or some such similar nonsense.

Under the old system, readers had to pay roughly 50 bucks a year to get their dose of the NYT online. Now they will only charge for a selection of archives between 1923 and 1986.

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A week ago I was strolling through my local shopping complex with the kids in tow. The weather was rotten, and I was desperately searching for something to keep them occupied for a few minutes so I could rest my weary bones.

To my surprise it wasn’t a toy store, candy machine, or fountain that provided my rug rats with the sensory distraction they so desperately needed. It was an advertisement. More specifically, an interactive advertisement platform from a company called Reatrix.

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Last Saturday night I attended the Artcrank Poster Show in downtown Minneapolis.

The show was at one on one bicycle studio, a place I had never been but wish I had, and will go back. And whatdya know, ran into Mr Tim Bramer! Pretty cool concept – Bike shop/Art Gallery/Coffee House/Local Hang Out for bicycling enthusiasts and activists. They also have a “bike graveyard” in the basement – hundreds and hundreds of old bikes and parts lined and stacked, interesting.

On display was a pretty impressive collection of bike inspired art and design, including this one by one of my design school classmates Adam Turman. He’s got a great style and does a lot of concert posters and album art for an impressive roster of clients. I picked up a couple of Minneapolis-ish prints for my office a couple of weeks ago – (this one and this one), just need to get them framed.

*update – Adam posted pics from the event on his blog

Might be time for a replacement…

If I did more presentations, or had a reason to use mac’s “front row” tool more I would definetely scrap my apple issued remote and get one of these. Maybe when I get my Apple TV

SiK Remote

Post-worthy simply because its a great design – why didn’t apple think of this?