Interactive Documentary 'Out My Window' Invites the Viewer Inside

Canada's National Film Board has sponsored an expansive, voyeuristic travelogue through the high-rises of the world. Documentarian Katerina Cizek directed the 'Out My Window' project, which allows viewers to experience life in the urban detritus of 13 different international destinations. The interactive documentary event ("film" doesn't quite do it justice) provides a literal and figurative window into the lives of families in Amsterdam, Chicago, Beirut, Istanbul and various other locations scattered across the globe. The intimate experience -- which sports the tagline, "The towers in the world. The world in the towers." -- purports to be "one of the world's first interactive 360-degree documentaries." Check out the trailer after the break.

The project may seem eerily similar to the interactive soap operas of 'Fahrenheit 451,' but there's no need for dystopian hyperbole. Out My Window openly celebrates the "remarkable high-rise residents who harness the human spirit -- and the power of community." So, go ahead and let yourself in. The window's open.

Nudgemail Is a Dead Simple E-Mail Reminder Service

Productivity nerds are constantly striving for what they call "inbox zero," a near constant state of having an empty e-mail inbox. The problem is, sometimes things can't or shouldn't be responded to right away. That, of course, leads to clutter. Nudgemail aims keep your inbox clear, while making sure you don't forget about e-mails that need your attention at a later date. If you get a message that you want to reply to tomorrow, simply forward it to Nudgemail with the word "tomorrow" in the subject and it will be re-sent to you the next day. This allows you to archive or delete the original without fear of forgetting about it.

One of the founders, Jeremy Toeman, described the service as part to-do list, part inbox cleaner. "I like to think of this as productive procrastination," he explained to the New York Times. Best of all, Nudgemail is dead simple to use. With no sign-up required and no account to register, you can simply start forwarding e-mails to the @nudgemail.com address. There are two ways of controlling when your reminder will arrive. First, you can include the day or time in the subject line (e.g., "tomorrow" or "2 hours"), and then send the message to nudge@nudgemail.com. Second, you can include your desired date in the address, itself (e.g., "tomorrow@nudgemail.com"). For now, the service is free -- but Toeman said the company may switch to a freemium model after the beta period, and charge a small fee to power users.

Switched Roundup: Top Posts This Week

Our top 10 most popular posts from this past week: TV Prices Expected to Plunge This Season Three Students Punished Over Flippant Facebook Photo Facebook Responds to User Complaints of Font Shrinkage, via Twitter Thwart Future Embarrassment by Taking Google Charts 'Off the Record' Magnets Glue Fidgety Kids to Ski Lifts, Still Confound ICP Disabled Boy Reads by Himself for the First Time With Grandma's Gift iPad myUnity System Can Tell When You're Slacking Off at Work Martha Stewart Floods iTunes With Tempting Cookies Google May Have Sent Voters to the Wrong Polling Places Find a Security Hole in Google, Make Some Extra Cash

Electroshock Your Way to Better Math Skills

One thing this writer was never particularly good at was math, which is why he turned to blogging and away from a career as an electrical engineer. But researchers at the University of Oxford believe that mild electrical stimulation of the brain can actually improve math skills, for up to six months at time, without any negative side effects. Roi Cohen Kadosh, a researcher on the project, told LiveScience that he wouldn't suggest that people go around shocking themselves silly, though. "Electrical stimulation will most likely not turn you into Albert Einstein," he said. Rather, the treatment could provide benefits to those with learning disabilities or who have suffered a stroke.

The research team's tests consisted of applying transcranial direct current stimulation to five students' parietal lobes (i.e., the region of the brain responsible for processing numerical information). The students, who all possessed average mathematical skills, were asked to solve basic problems using a collection of "artificial numbers" (random symbols in place of actual numerical values). The study found that the students' ability to solve the problems improved after receiving a mild shock treatment. The next step for the researchers will be measuring how those affected by disability, degenerative disease and stroke will respond to the treatment. The Switched crew, on the other hand, is going to see if it can produce similar results by licking a nine-volt battery.

Cooks Source Editor Rips Off Writer, Calls All of Web 'Public Domain'

Judith Griggs, the editor of Cooks Source -- a recipe magazine based out of Sunderland, Massachusetts -- broke one of the two cardinal rules of publishing: don't plagiarize. (The other being don't make stuff up.) Monica Gaudio, a freelance writer and college student, claims that Cooks Source stole an article she posted about apple pies and reprinted it without her permission. Rather than deny the accusation, Griggs fired back a rather haughty e-mail, in which she claimed that anything posted online is, essentially, up for grabs. The Web, Griggs informed Gaudio, "is considered 'public domain' and you should be happy we just didn't 'lift' your whole article and put someone else's name on it!" (Read the entire insane e-mail here.) Moreover, Griggs contended that rather than pay Gaudio for her article, the student should pay her for editing her "poorly written" piece. Let's just say that this did not sit well with Gaudio, or the reading public as a whole.

Griggs quickly found herself on the receiving end of a torrent of hate. The magazine's Facebook page was inundated with negative remarks, some pointedly stating that Griggs clearly doesn't understand copyright law, while others resorted to simple vulgarity and name-calling. The publication's Facebook page was eventually hacked and hijacked, leading Cooks Source to start a new page, which is already attracting a fair share of negative attention.

Ira Glass on Violent Video Games, Zadie Smith Examines Two Zuckerbergs

Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.

Read:

Novelist Zadie Smith looks at the split between the real Mark Zuckerberg and Aaron Sorkin's.
We were going to live online. It was going to be extraordinary. Yet what kind of living is this? Step back from your Facebook Wall for a moment: Doesn't it, suddenly, look a little ridiculous? Your life in this format?

Watch:

John Hodgman and Ira Glass Take on Violent Video Games Angry Birds: Stop-Motion Edition

Know:

The $24.95 Hex band wraps your latest generation iPad nano in a surprisingly sleek case. [From: ShopHex, via: Gizmodo] Kinect launch day joy. [From: Wired] Grab the new Flash Player update today to patch the media player's seemingly endless batch of security holes. [From: Download Squad]
Got a tip? Want to talk to us? In need of more choice links like these? Drop us a line on Twitter and check out our Tumblr blog.

Light Your Own Path in 'Closure,' An Indie Game That'd Make 'Braid' Proud

No, your monitor isn't broken. While this week's crop of games have been drained of color, they're just as ingenious as their more vibrant brethren. Inspired by doodles, noir cinema and silent films, this batch's stark graphics present curious mechanics and clever adventures. Their addictiveness is as simple as black and white.

One of the things we love about indie games is that their designers can let loose and experiment with innovative gameplay mechanics without being subjects to stuffy investor-types. Using an ingenious lighting element, 'Closure' is a perfect example of a fun, inventive (and slightly haunting) way to rethink platform puzzles. The interplay between light and shadow is the point: in order to maneuver through each level, you must shine a light on your path at all time -- anything still in the dark will send your ghostly guy plummeting to his death. (Pro tip: take a cue from horror film ingenues, and refrain from heedlessly diving into the blackness.)

To solve each light-based quandary and find the way out, use the arrow keys and employ illuminating orbs to guide your tour de noir. The orbs are meant to be carried along, lantern-style, or placed on pedestals to permanently light specific areas. As long as you stay on solid, well-lit ground (which often requires running to keep up with your spotlight-like haven), you're golden, and sometimes the negative space lets your dude jump through once-forbidden walls (the brighter a surface, the less permeable). These quirky qualities make for a terrifically atmospheric challenge, proving that bright ideas don't need big budgets.

Gallery: Closure

Take Control of Your iPod and iPhone's Playlists (With an Ironlike Grip)

This week we've primarily covered iTunes as it exists on your computer, but we've left out an essential component of the iTunes system: mobile devices. Of course, managing music on your iPhone and iPod opens up a brand new set of problems and issues. By default, your iDevice is set to automatically sync with your iTunes Library; if you've got an extremely small media library and rarely listen to music on the go, auto-sync may work for you. For most, though, libraries are showing no sign of slimming down, and auto-syncing all your media is a sure-fire way to get an irritable and error-laden iTunes.

Although iTunes does let you sync specific playlists, you'll end up playing mind games every time you go to hook up your phone or iPod. "Did I add too many songs to the Late Night Jams mix? Will this overwrite my Morrissey B-sides collection? Exactly how many songs have I added to my 'New Albums' folder since last syncing?" Here is a rare Switched recommendation: Going manual is your best bet. This way, you gain complete control over the music you're carrying around, as well as the power to delete and filter without auto sync's playlist-based constraints.

Blogger Exposes Teen Halloween Vandals With Facebook Stalking

On Halloween, a group of really cool teenagers decided to remind everyone of their awesomeness, and proceeded to vandalize their Brooklyn neighborhood. Little did they know, however, that 26-year-old Daniel Cavanagh was lurking in the shadows and observing their every movement.

After doing a little research, Cavanagh friended the teens on Facebook, and headed to his blog, where he described the scene in lurid detail. According to Cavanagh, a group of "50+ teens" stormed the streets of Gerritsen Beach on the 31st, and spent the night hurling "eggs, shaving cream cans, potatoes, rocks, at anything that drove past and anyone who dared to confront them." Cavanagh added that the rugrats "even started throwing eggs at people, parents with young children and strollers."

Google Cuts Facebook Off from Contact Data

Google just made a small, but significant tweak to the terms of service for its Contacts API. The altered section now reads:
By accessing Content through the Contacts Data API or Portable Contacts API for use in your service or application, you are agreeing to enable your users to export their contacts data to other services or applications of their choice in a way that's substantially as fast and easy as exporting such data from Google Contacts...In simple terms this means that any service that accesses Google Contacts must reciprocate, and allow Google to access its contact data. This is being largely interpreted as a challenge to Facebook, which allows users to scan their Google Contacts for people who also have Facebook accounts. This makes getting started on the social network easier, but Facebook does not offer similar access to Google for importing Facebook friends and contact info into Gmail, Buzz or Google Talk. In fact, Facebook has actively thwarted other services that attempt to crawl friend lists. For example, Twitter once offered the ability to find your Facebook friends on Twitter, but Zuckerberg and crew decided to block the microblogging service from importing contact info.

The Week in Design: Electrolux Thinks Trash Sucks and Designer Phones Done Wrong

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never move from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over their creations, nevertheless.

Last week, we saw Tokujin Yoshioka's flawless take on a cell phone redesign, but big names don't always mean big success. Although this week's Alessi concept phones were crafted by some of the more notable names in the design world, they left us wanting. Still, we were wowed by Electrolux's creative use of oceanic garbage -- which also made us feel bad for the poor fish swimming through all the world's debris. Read on to see more designs after the break.

YouTube Vigilantes Shine a Spotlight on Nasty Neighbors

YouTube users have repeatedly helped merchants, homeowners and police to nab evildoers. Plummeting tech prices are apparently now inspiring a new wave of YouTube citizen sleuths, and these vigilant observers are shifting their sights from burglars, animal abusers and Halloween hoodlums to perhaps the most despicable and annoying cretins on the planet -- belligerent neighbors.

The New York Times recounts the rise of these Little Big Brothers and their unceasing fight against neighborhood peepers, intruders, vandals and dog doo slingers. That fight doesn't just involve watching and finding a culprit, though, because this global YouTube Neighborhood Watch is all about abject humiliation. One victim uploaded a wacky, narrated musical video of his poo-hurling neighbor, and another created a variety of slapstick tributes to his next-door snoops.