This post from Smashing Magazine really inspired me and in more ways than one.
For starters it really made me want one of these cute little programmable Nabaztag rabbits. They accept anything that can be delivered via a http push, so the coding/custom options are almost limitless. The premise is that these cute little creatures can interact with a set rfid tags which can be applied to everyday objects. For example, it can keep track of how many times you wore an outfit, read RSS feeds, and send out emails from your keys. Oh, and did I mention how cute it is? It lights up, plays music, and moves its ears around!
Beside the cute factor, this little guy provides the perfect excuse to learn new coding skills or be innovative with old ones, which is the real focus of the article from Smashing. It’s far too easy to get sucked into the never ending stack of projects at work and the countless side projects sitting at home and forget to do something fun. Now that good old Catholic guilt (thanks high school) can still be assuaged while I’m having fun, because I can learn new stuff at the same time. I know it might sound a little cheesy, but I really do miss doing fun little projects. That’s how I learned all this stuff in the first place. For now, though, it’s back to work…