Magic Mirrors, Pixelated Pics, And A Point & Punch Camera
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 5, 2009 by admin in Technology
Thursday, November 5th, 2009Some fun and interesting technology for creating unusual pixelated images.
I have a minor fetish for slick but slightly Rube Goldbergian technology that is utilized to achieve simple aims, which is why I love the idea of the punch camera, which captures an image, arranges little pins internally, and then lets the user punch the camera like a stapler to create a sort of dot-matrix/hole-punch rendition of the image. The camera is, alas, only a concept which was conceived by bay area design student Matty Martin. See the rest of Matty’s portfolio here. The punch camera concept reminded me of a sculptural design project by Daniel Bozen called Shiny Balls Mirror, which was one of a series of interactive sculptures which use a camera to capture whatever is in front of the sculpture to re-arrange objects to reflect the image back at the viewer in real time. I think Matty and Danny should talk to each other about an exhibit. See more of Danny’s sculptures here. And as is inevitably the case for search addicts like myself, while tracking down these links to share, I accidentally ran across this crazy Image Mosaic Generator, which lets you upload a photo, and then converts the image to a pixelated version with images that it automatically scours from the web. The results don’t look too impressive until you zoom in on the image, and realize how varied the images are, and how they were automatically snagged from the web and assembled into a single image. There’s an example below. Read the rest of this entry »
Did Facebook Pay Miley Cyrus To Quit Twitter? Do We Care?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 30, 2009 by admin in Technology
Friday, October 30th, 2009As Web 2.0 becomes so old it starts actually smelling bad, Social Networking starts a slow and ugly death. Don’t worry. The Real Time Web will save us all.
In spite of the fact that hillbilly superstar Miley Cyrus (c’mon, her dad’s name is Billy Ray, and he’s from Flatwoods, KY, population 7605) thinks that everyone should leave Twitter and it should be banned from this universe, it’s not likely that social networking or the real time web is going away any time soon. As it turns out, Web 2.0 (whatever it really was) was clearly a failure. Otherwise, we’d be talking about “Web 3.0″ or “Web 2.1″, right? And in spite of the fact that “blog” was Merriam Webster’s 2004 word of the year, the average person still barely understands what they are and how much they’ve really impacted the web in general, and search results in particular. So as a buzzword-hungry world of business & finance struggles to settle on its latest vaporware startup terminology, we’re left with the tragic results. Soon there will only be two relevant search engines, largely driven by social web results. And to aid the SEO-spammed utter banality of it all, camera manufacturers are marketing cameras either for obssessively taking your own picture or constantly photographing your life as it occurs. Please. I don’t know about you, but my life is generally boring enough in person that sharing it with others could serve no rational purpose. We originally wrote about the real time web and social networking in August 2008, we had just hoped it might go away by now. Maybe little Miley is right. Maybe the Internet is a “dangerous place“. Let us heed her ironic megastar attention whore warning: “honestly, people…you’re unhealthy…you need to get out and do stuff and be in the world instead of all hunched over your laptop…all I did was lay in bed on my computer and sit there and eat ice cream late at night.” Personally, I think her claim that she quit Twitter to “protect her privacy” is complete twaddle and she’s probably being paid by Facebook. Besides, Twittew pwobabwee has a Pwivacy Powicy at weest as sowid as Googoos.
Maybe The Green Car Of The Future Is A Boat
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 11, 2009 by admin in Clean & Green, Technology
Sunday, October 11th, 2009They just announced the Green Car of the Year finalists, but with Tuvalu disappearing into the ocean, maybe we should think a little further ahead.
Although the Green Car of the Year finalists were announced recently, maybe we should be even more forward-thinking. In spite of the fact that there’s a growing movement that claims global warming is a myth, this Scientific American piece points out that most of these naysayers are non-scientists, and I for one refuse to ignore the fact that Tuvalu is disappearing into the Pacific Ocean, or that a third of Florida is in danger of disappearing too. So as awkward and foolish looking as amphibious cars have always been, maybe their time has come. One of the coolest options out there is the Squba concept car, which, while vaguely reminiscent of James Bond’s aquatic Lotus Esprit, is a tiny bit less stylish, and carries considerably fewer armaments and secret weapons. Although only a concept, it possesses a couple of advantages when compared to vehicles like those produced by companies like WaterCar though: 1.) It’s not butt-ugly, and 2.) It will still be useful when the world is one big ocean like in Waterworld
Forget That Mac Tablet – The Microsoft Courier Is Coming
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on October 4, 2009 by admin in Technology
Sunday, October 4th, 2009All you fascist Mac-Addicted zombies are gonna be jealous when I have my cool gizmo before you have yours.
My interest in the ultimate iThingy, innovative laptop concepts, and the much-rumoured Mac Tablet borders on an unhealthy obsession. If somebody would just go ahead and MAKE one of the darn things, I’d be the first sucka in line to buy one. And now, I’m in real danger, because the Microsoft Courier may just beat the Mac tablet to market. I mean, when you’re talking about imaginary magic fairy gizmos, anything can happen, right? The impending Microsoft answer to the Mac hoopla is actually pretty intriguing. Watch the video below to see exactly how cool an imaginary Microsoft product can be. I’m just left wondering how a device that small can possibly run a Windows operating system. It must have a pretend fairy-powered CPU too. And since it’s a startlingly clever concept considering its Redmond origins, rabid PC-hating MacFreaks of course had to immediately dig up this video from 1988 showing that Apple was “already there”. Well, thank God Apple didn’t go there; if I had to look at and listen to that little bowtie-wearing dork in the video every day I’d stop using computers altogether. He’s more annoying than “Microsoft Bob” or “Clippy”. Well, maybe not Clippy. And just one last thought (swiped from Microsoft’s grinning robots or the Brotherhood of the Mac. Which is worse? ) to all you Mac-fixated zombies out there who are going to claim in advance that the Courier couldn’t possibly compare to a Mac Tablet: “Go back to your house. I know, you’ve got an iHouse. The walls are brushed aluminum. There’s a glowing Apple logo on the roof. And you love it there. You absolute MONSTER.” Read the rest of this entry »
Is The Age of Stupid Stupid?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 21, 2009 by admin in Clean & Green, Popular Media
Monday, September 21st, 2009Today is the global premiere of The Age of Stupid, a dystopian eco-film that the New York Times is calling a sterner and more alarming polemic than An Inconvenient Truth. But is it based on solid science?
In spite of being almost foolishly utopian in nature (I genuinely like to believe humans will come to their senses, commingle, and create a beautiful single race blended from all of the current allegedly separate ones) I still loves me a good dystopian film now and then. Which is why I’m disappointed that I’ll probably miss the special global premiere of The Age of Stupid today. In spite of some complaints from the more level-headed members of the progressive scientific community that the film’s heavy-handed assertions about the end of the world as we know it are poorly supported by science, it looks like a thought-provoking film. It’s also getting decent reviews from sources like Wired and the NYT. The clip featured here, for instance, provides an amusing and brief history of war, which, as the clip points out, is always over resources. They move quickly through war for animals, war for water, war for “shiny things”, war for fertile land, war for “nutmeg slice and tea”, and finally diamonds, slaves and oil. The global premiere of the film – which takes place today and tomorrow – will feature a “green carpet” solar-powered cinema tent in New York, and will be linked by satellite to 442 cinemas across the USA (find a theater here) and to more than 200 cinemas abroad. Special guests include the likes of Kofi Annan and Thom Yorke of Radiohead. The film was put together by Franny Armstrong, director of McLibel