End of week videos: Photosynth on Wired & Simplicity patterns, TED Talk

It’s hard to top off a week when the world’s biggest software company moves into the health-care industry – just when you thought Windows Automotive was a far stretch, although I’m beginning to think it’s all part of grand strategy for discounted life insurance if you buy a Windows Automotive car. Windows, car, crash. Get it? On a different note here’s two interesting videos for your weekend enjoyment.

The first is a PBS-produced television show called Wired Science. In this week’s premier, they featured Photosynth, a project you should all be familiar with from Microsoft’s Live Labs. Whilst much of this video is a repeat from what you’ve all seen from all the demonstrations and TED talk, Blaise – the mastermind behind the technology with an equally complex last name, explains in a bit more (than usual) detail about exactly how they can visualize the abundance of visual data they do. They claim their visual system is not limited by anything except the screen resolution. The fact it actually works is just mindblowing.

The second video is from the TED conference, the best conference in the world? Although I’ve never heard of this presenter before, John Maeda, but boy is he fascinating to watch. He’s been involved with the MIT Media Lab for some time where he’s been able to experiment with art and technology in interesting new ways. For this presentation, he tries to explain what is simplicity. You might think the first 14 minutes out of the 16 minute presentation is a confusing mess, but trust me, it’s a worth the ride.