Jay's Joys ~ CNN on ML Alum Maker-Tinkerer

Excellent to see MIT Media Lab alum and JoyLabz founder Jay Silver in CNN piece by Brandon Griggs on How to control a computer with a banana using...

"[MakeyMakey which] seems like a toy, and educators have used it to play games or teach kids about basic electrical circuitry. But Silver believes that his kit can also help engineers test concepts and prototypes more cheaply. "Some people are just totally goofing around (with the kits). Some people are making devices so that their son with cerebral palsy can access browsing the Web," he said. "I don't know which of those two things actually are more important. They're both, to me, really valuable." "The reason I'm making this kit is that I'm totally stoked about what I can do with it and what other people can do with it," he said. "I hope that other people use it in a way that makes them feel alive. And if they are, it doesn't matter to me if what they're doing can be called useful or not." Silver talks wistfully about a utopian future where everyone creates their own unique space instead of settling for cookie-cutter homes or furnishings or decorations."

Raspberry Pi ~ Tiny Computer, Million Tinkerers

NYTimes John Biggs writes A Tiny Computer Attracts a Million Tinkerers...

"The story of the Raspberry Pi begins in 2006 when Eben Upton and other faculty members at the University of Cambridge in Britain found that their incoming computer science students were ill-prepared for a high-tech education. While many students in the previous decade were experienced electronics hobbyists by the time they got to college, these freshmen were little more than skilled Web designers. Easy-to-use, modern PCs hide most of the nuts and bolts behind a pleasing interface. Mr. Upton posited that parents did not want their children to destroy their expensive computers by experimenting with their insides. But a cheaper machine would be fair game for messing around. The Raspberry Pi -- about 3 inches by 2 inches and less than an inch high -- was intended to replace the expensive computers."

It's become a hot-selling DIY hit kit!