If the walls had eyes

Welcome to Idealog Weekly, the free email newsletter for New Zealand commercial creatives, entrepreneurs and anyone rich with ideas.

If the walls had eyes

Heading into the lazy summer months you probably feel like crawling onto a deck chair. Or into a house. A team from AUT and Massey universities are working with wireless technology to build a home that serves you—and you don’t have to be able to afford servants to buy it. A 150-square-metre house can be put to work for only $20k. Home, James.

City hop

Paint the town green with City Hop, New Zealand’s first car share system, based in Auckland city. Once you’ve signed up, you just book your motorised shopping cart—otherwise known as a Daihatsu Sirion—and pick it up from a CBD carpark of your choice by swiping your membership card across the windshield. At only $12 an hour you can’t go wrong—unless the police see you entering a vehicle without a key.

Wind it up

If Sirions aren’t your style, you can do your bit for the environment with style with a wind up-lamp. Could this be the answer to the world’s problems? Probably not, but it could be the answer to having to get out of bed to turn off the light—and that’s life-changing in itself.

Drop dead gorgeous

If you’re a female who’s never really got into hunting, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has discovered why: you didn’t have a pink gun, did you? But good news—it’s not too late: The Gander Mountain Store is selling pastel-pink rifles emblazoned with the encouraging phrase: ‘Shoot like a girl—if you can’. All the feminist mothers trying to tear their Barbies off their daughters will be stoked.

Be brutal and win some sweet sounds

We want your opinion. We want it so badly that we have some shiny new Apple hi-fi kit to give away to our opinionated readers. Fill out the readers’ survey on our website and you’re in the draw to win an awesome iPod Hi-Fi worth $599 and an AirPort Express to stream music around your home. The survey will take about 10 minutes, is mainly multi-choice and we do pay attention to what people tell us! So get clicking.
iPod Hi-Fi

Fill your home with sound, not stereo components. Keep your music collection at your fingertips, not in countless CD cases. Change the way you experience digital music. For $599, iPod Hi-Fi delivers crystal-clear, high-quality sound in a clean, compact design. Hear, hear.

AirPort Express

Enjoy your iTunes music library in virtually any room of your house or several rooms at once. Share a single broadband Internet connection and USB printer without inconvenient and obtrusive cables. Create an instant wireless network on the go. Extend the range of your current wireless network. How many devices do you need to do all this? Just one: the Airport Express. Featuring AirTunes for playing your iTunes music wirelessly on your home stereo or powered speakers, AirPort Express (retail value $169) brings not only the Internet but your music to wherever in your home you like to enjoy them most, whether you use a Mac or PC.

Would you like e-coli with that?

“Try this delicious combo of free-range rodent, tainted tomato, savoury salmonella sauce … and lettuce,” reads the mini billboard at the Taco Bell drive-thru. Sounds irresistible, doesn’t it? The temptation was too great for experienced culture jammer Vinchen anyway. Convince your competitor to hire him and you’ll have it made.

Facebook times

The New York Times and Facebook are proving you don’t have to fight new media—you too can roll over and become shiny and fresh. The New York Times Quiz on Facebook presents users with a daily multi-choice test on top stories—a great way to make sure your kids know the world isn’t flat.

Eye spy something beginning with ‘s’

20/20 vision is as compulsory to moon-walking as a sequined glove. But NASA has announced if you’re not that lucky, don’t worry—you can just have your retina shaved with lasers. The approval of Lasik eye surgery means all kinds of people who had their space-faring dreams dashed with their very first second pair of eyes, can now have another go at blasting off. Heck, maybe even Neil Armstrong will make another giant step … at 77, the anti-gravity couldn’t hurt.

Fish for fun

If you’re in Auckland this weekend follow your nose to the Auckland Seafood Festival at the Fish Market. On for two days, there will be music, entertainment and, very probably, a whole lot of fish.

It’s almost AUT-Idealog Innovation Series time again. Get your head around the wisdom of Kent Sneddon, Methven’s head of design, who will show you how to design your products—and your bank statement—the way you like it. Wednesday, 21 November, 6pm.

Check out Idealog’s events guide, Agenda, online and in print. Anyone can add an event to Agenda—just fill out the form on our website.

Quote of the week

“The computer knows exactly where you are in a space at all times and can effectively make decisions about what is the best course of action to take for your welfare”

—Professor Olaf Diegel freaks us all out in ‘Smart Space’

More at Idealog online

Read more on our website: web exclusives, opinion, Idealog IP, the Idealog blogs and the Idealog podcast. See you at idealog.co.nz.

  Gena Tuffery
  Senior writer

Idealog Weekly is sent to friends, subscribers and registered website users of Idealog magazine.