Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

nice design... JB

David Pescovitz: This beautiful video morphs through 500 years of female portraits in western art.
Link

this is amazing...JB

Magnum Photographic Cooperative celebrates it’s 60th birthday this year. The cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices located in New York, Paris, London and Tokyo. According to co-founder Henri Cartier-Bresson, “Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually.” The photojournalistic cooperative provides photographs to the press, publishers, advertising, television, galleries and museums across the world and have done so for 60 years, forming a living archive with one million photographs in both print and transparency in the physical library, and 350,000 images available online. Celebrate 60 Years of Documentary Online or head over to Wallpaper where their photography director Claudia Donaldson has chosen ten photos from each of the six decades of Magnum’s life.

very cool...JB

Today Google launched Google Maps Street View, a new Google Maps feature that shows a 360-degree view from the streets of select cities. “With Street View, you can virtually explore city neighborhoods by viewing and navigating within 360-degree scenes of street-level imagery,” said Stephen Chau, product manager for Google Maps, in a blog post. “It feels as if you’re walking down the street!” They’re launching with imagery in San Francisco, New York (check out Times Square), Las Vegas, Miami, and Denver. Watch a video of Street Views in action.

As most know already, but this is really cool. Eyebeam is there as well! JB

You love the paintings; now buy the action figures! Hieronymus Bosch Action Figures that depict sin and moral failings as pictured in the infamous Garden of Earthly Delights 1504. Bring on the playful and portable images of demons, half-human animals and machines to evoke confusion and fear in evil men. Like the paintings the action figures are highly original, imaginative symbolic figurines and iconography, that might even inspire you to start your own surrealist movement. You too will soon realize that human beings, due to their own stupidity and sinfulness have become prey to the devil himself and like Bosh, you’ll be tempted tempted to dream up fantastic punishments of the various types for sinners. Or hell, scare the hell out of that special neice or nephew by planting one of these in their Barbie Dreamhouse.

these are really funny...JB

When a person passes away, sensitive information might reside on a Gmail account. How can a family get access to this information if necessary?

this will inevitably happen, but how weird...JB

aeireono posted a photo:

..use friends and family as shields from giant arrows, which may attack from any direction.

I do think this one is funny. what happens if the fire assembly point is on fire? Then where do you go? JB

Researchers are all abuzz over a promising new source of biofuel that flourished almost 3,500 years ago in Europe. Camelina, if planted on a large scale on marginal farmland from eastern Washington to North Dakota, could provide a significant source of clean energy. "This is the most exciting crop I have seen in my 30 some years in this field," said Steven Guy, a crop-management specialist and professor at the University of Idaho. While early results from test plantings have been encouraging, the only farmers who have shown interest in it are from Montana, where over 50,000 acres of camelina have already been planted. Unlike other potential biofuel feedstocks like canola, camelina...

interesting, why this more than other plants? JB

Perth, Western Australia, as we’ve noted before, is considered the most remote city on the planet. And one thing they are running out of, like much of drought declared Australia is fresh drinking water. Plans are in train to provide a chunk of this via a desalination plant, but such facilities do require a hefty amount of energy to run. Wind is being considered. But a new alternative hopes it might get a look in. Inventor Alan Burns has his idea with Seapower Pacific (Carnegie), who’ve invested $10 million AUD on R&D to bring the concept towards the market. I...

this looks interesting...JB

Filed under: Household, Networking

It took them a year and a half, but Hawking Technologies has finally started shipping the HomeRemote, that net-enabled Z-Wave controller that can be acessed via any web browser -- even a cellphone browser. Looking a little sleeker than before, the $229 box serves as the master controller for all those Z-Wave devices you have in your house, and runs a slick web interface so you can turn your lights on and open the garage door from anywhere in the world. Add in the $179 HomeRemote camera and the system will also stream video -- we're not sure how good it'll look over "any cellphone web browser" but Hawking says it'll work just fine. Make sure to check the read link for Hawking's hilarious promo video in which the video feature is used to futilely monitor a dog eating a shoe -- down, Fluffy!

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

now we can be super lazy...JB

Cory Doctorow

i suppose this is one way not to get your bike stolen...JB

David Pescovitz: New York City's Chocolate Bar boutique, sellers of the CBGB Retro Bar, created a line of candy bars wrapped in labels designed by pioneering NYC graffiti artists. (Seen here is John "Crash" Matos's Crash Dark Rum bar.)

From the product description:

Get One. Get the Set. Eat the Chocolate. Save the Wrapper.Ten legendary New York City graffiti artists including Blade, Crash, Crachee, Crime 79, Dondi, Dr. Revolt, Iz the Wiz, Lady Pink, Spar One and Voice of the Ghetto (Stay High 149) have created one-of a kind works transforming wrappers for an array of new candy bar of which a portion of the proceeds will benefit the All-Stars Project. Each Graffiti Bar weighs an impressive 2.25 ounces and is filled with classic treats enrobed in the finest gourmet chocolate. New bar flavors include Milk Almond, Milk Cafetto, Caramel, Cookies-n-Cream, Smores, Dark Strawberry, Dark Toffee Crunch, Banana Milk, Dark Rum and Dark Chocolate. Individual bars can be purchased for $4.00 each or a Limited Edition “gallery box” includes the full 10 bars. Price $40.

Link (Thanks, Lindsay Tiemeyer!)

gotta get some...JB

[Image: Future climate map of Europe; the cities have been relocated based on what present locations their future climate will most resemble... or something like that].

Last week, the Guardian took a look at what London might look like in 2071. The city, they suggest, will be defined by "heat, dust, and water piped in from Scotland."
To illustrate the point, that article includes a somewhat cryptic climate map, produced by scientists at the University of Bremen. The map relocates Europe's capital cities to the present region that most closely resembles their impending future circumstances.
In other words, London, in 2071, will be more like a city on the coast of Portugal today; Paris will feel how central Spain now feels; Berlin, unbelievably, will be like north Africa (one of the coldest summers I've ever experienced was in Berlin) – and so on.
These regions are those cities' "climate analogues."
In any case, one of the scientists behind the map says that it's also meant to "help architects and officials who plan buildings, streets and services to adapt to the likely impacts of global warming. 'If you look at the map you see that Paris moves to the south of Spain. It's scary that just a few degrees rise will make such a difference. Paris is currently designed to deal with a very different climate, which means designs in future will have to be very different.'"
For exameple: "Houses and buildings in northern Europe typically have windows to the west to make the most of meagre winter sun... 'But in warmer countries you will never find windows to the west because the sun just pours in all afternoon during the summer.'"
What isn't mentioned, however, is that architecture will have to change gradually, decade by decade, even year by year; after all, it'd be inappropriate to get rid of all west-facing windows today – and it might still be premature, come 2030 – but, by 2071, perhaps all west-facing windows will be entirely phased out... Or skylights, or rain catchment systems, or winter insulation, or whatever.
But you'll be able to track changes in the European climate based on what styles of architecture still exist, and where.
Read more at the Guardian.

(Story originally spotted at Kottke).

this is kind of scary...JB

So says Tyler Hamilton of the Star and Clean Break. He points out that when the local utility in Toronto applied to raise the average bill 1.7% to cover the cost of convservation programs, "many ratepayers went ballistic. Callers on radio talk shows called it a "government cash grab" and "slap in the face," even though ratepayers who participate in such conservation programs can reduce their bill by up to 20 per cent." He then notes that we don't pay very much for electricity here compared to other countries like Denmark. Applying the Economist's famous

energy in different means, i like this table...JB

Man, I love toast. When people see me they say, There’s a guy who loves toast. But toast you can draw on? That’s taking it to the next level.

I’m not sure how it works, but Zuse makes 8-bit-looking patterns on your toast for you. Designed by Inseq Design. And check it out - Zuse: The Movie.

Wonder how it would look on pumpernickel.

[Link] via Design*Sponge

this is pretty amazing, but then wouldn't you feel bad eating it? JB

Among other interestings things to read in Rubble: Unearthing the History of Demolition by Jeff Byles – who will be speaking at Postopolis! on Thursday afternoon – is the fact that part of Manhattan is actually constructed from British war ruins.

[Image: Winston Churchill visits the ruins of Coventry Cathedral, 1942; courtesy of the Library of Congress].

Toward the end of the book, Byles describes how "[m]ore than 16 million people saw their homes wrecked by bomb destruction during World War II, with more than 4.5 million housing units completely toasted."
Further, "[w]ith London and Coventy knee-deep in rubble by the fall of 1940, a phalanx of 13,500 troops from the Royal Engineers got busy ripping down war-ravaged structures."
But what to do with all that rubble...? Byles:

Around that same time, New York's FDR Drive was being constructed, which ran along the east side of Manhattan. "Much of the landfill on which it is constructed consists of the rubble of buildings destroyed during the Second World War by the Luftwaffe's blitz on London and Bristol," the historian Kenneth T. Jackson wrote. "Convoys of ships returning from Great Britain carried the broken masonry in their holds as ballast."

When you're driving around on the FDR, in other words – or, for that matter, when you're simply looking out over the east side of Manhattan – you and your gaze are passing over fragments of British cathedrals and London housing stock, flagstones quarried from Yorkshire, the shattered doorframes and lintels – and eaves, and vaults, and partition walls, and bedroom floors – of whole towns, pieces of Slough and Swindon perhaps, embedded now in asphalt, constituting what would otherwise have passed for bedrock.
Down in the foundations of the city are other cities.

(Elsewhere: We learn that the British coast has become geologically French, further complicated our future sense of geological belonging – raising the interesting possibility that one can exist in a state of geological alienation... Psychoanalysts will have a field day. [via]).

did not know this, did you? JB

hmmm...JB

this is an interesting article in the NY Times...JB

http://www.panopticist.com/

AP - The world's largest beverage maker on Friday kicked off the holiday weekend by creating a 10-ton ice cream float to break a world record the company set nearly a decade ago.

yummy. it's hot today and an ice cream float sounds great.

Via: "mahmood farooqui"

You are invited to the launch of PERINEUM-NETHER PARTS OF THE EMPIRE,
a collection of short stories by Ambarish Satwik at Amaltas, India
Habitat Centre on 30 May at 6.30 pm.

The author will read excerpts from the book and Mahmood Farooqui will
give readings in Urdu based on the book.


For invites please write to dan.husain@gmail.com

Perineum:

The perineum refers to both an external surface area and a shallow
compartment of the body. It is a diamond shaped area extending from
the pubic bone anteriorly, the insides of the thighs laterally, and
the gluteal folds and the upper end of the intergluteal cleft
(buttcrack) posteriorly.

is butt-crack one word or two?

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found on the Depthcore website: "A Trip to the Park" by David Garvin

Wouldn't mind learning this program, whatever it is. The line quality, overall softness, and obvious ease of creating quirky, subjective "psycho-geometries" appeals. It's not that typical Pixar rendered look, even though it's rendered. The artist here is under 20, and this could be a one-off but somehow it feels newer and fresher to me than say, Torben Giehler, who seems stuck in an old labor-intensive paradigm (hard-edged painting--been there!) but is trying to hip it up, computer it up. This looks like it just happened, but could also be from the game world. (A Katamari Damacy-like screenshot will follow to accentuate the point.)

single GIF by unknown artist displayed four times

"LONDON, May 23, 2007 – Ubuntu 7.04, commercially sponsored by Canonical Ltd., was honored by PC World with a 100 Best Products of 2007 Award. The article is available now on PCWorld.com, and will also be featured in the July 2007 issue of PC World, which hits newsstands June 12."

Craft Challenge #18 - Felt Inanimate Objects

You can see all the entries here:

The winning entry was gerrijo’s felt Japanese Bento Box!

wow, the things that can be made out of felt...JB

E-Fabrics is a branch of E-Brigade, an environmental information and awareness organization that promotes actions to spread a culture of individual responsibility and sustainable development. This branch was founded by Brazilian designer Oskar Metsavaht, whose brand Osklen was considered by WGSN ‘one of the top ten most influential and inspiring brands in the world’, and aims to identify textile commodities that respect fair trade criteria and sustainable development. “E-Fabrics it’s not a certification, on the contrary. As an identification label, its philosophy even covers transition products”, they say on their website. This ...

good stuff...JB

Mason serves up a great new interview with Tokyo-based Atelier Bow-Wow. Very enjoyable read about their research and work in small leftover urban spaces and personal customization. GO

Xeni Jardin: Here's a first for NASA, if I'm not mistaken -- snip from announcement:

NASA Ames Center Director Dr. Pete Worden's speech at the International Space Development Conference will be given live from Second Life by his avatar, on NASA's own CoLab island. Join us this Saturday, May 26th at 8am SLT as Dr. Worden talks about the importance of small satellites, collaborative science, and how virtual worlds will enable us to "all go" to space.

Link (Thanks, Sam Coniglio)

i am always fascinated with all that goes on in this other world... am i missing out? JB

We show a lot of proposals for buildings in Dubai, often draped in photovoltaics and covered in propellers, or twisting and turning, it is a Disneyland of architecture. Sometimes we think they are going a bit overboard, as they evolve from Disney to Lucas with buildings like OMA's Ras al Khaimah Convention and Exhibition Centre. We have used Picasso's bon mot, updated by Le Corbusier before: "Good architects borrow but great architects steal" but never was the homage so obvious. Architectspeak below the fold. ...

this is frightening...JB

One Eye Ball is an attempt by Hung-Chih Pen to experience the world from the view of dogs.

He mounted LCD displays approximately the size of eyeglasses in a helmet and connected them through a tube with a camera attached to the end of this trunk. The trunk reached to just below the knee of the viewer, just the height, where a dog's eyes would normally be. Inside the helmet, the display shows what the camera records through the "dog eye". You can control the camera by hand or by moving the body and thus view the world from various perspectives.

While learning to deal with this new medium, viewers experience a feeling of dizziness: it is as though they have to newly adapt all the nerves of their body to this situation, in order to experience the sensory perception conveyed by this new medium with its low-control and high-tech feeling.

This way to the helmet party, also: BlinkCam, The Interstitial Space Helmet.

you may look scary, but it sounds cool...JB

Check out the installation video for the massive greening of the Lyttelton flytower at London's National Theatre by artists Dan Harvey and Heather Ackroyd.

okay this is really interesting, building with plants...JB

Jennifer Broutin and Carmen Trudell, outgoing Eyebeam Artists in Residents, initiated the collective FluXXlab to operate at the intersection of architecture and technology through sustainable means. The first project produced by FluXXlab is a full scale, do-it-yourself device that can be attached to any swinging door as a closure assembly to locally capture and redistribute energy. FluXXLab is now in the process of creating a prototype which intervenes with people and architecture at the urban scale, thus increasing the quantity of energy obtainable as well as engaging in a larger discussion of sustainability, individual capability and willing participation in the collective. The Revolution Door project, currently being researched and designed at Eyebeam, is an innovati ve attempt to reinvent the standard revolving door as an energy harvesting device, which places both power and responsibility in the hands of its users. Jenny and Carmen presented this project to the public and served as panelists at the Interactive Architecture Symposium at Eyebeam. The article "Let There be Life" by Lisa Delgado was published in the Architects Newspaper 03.07.07 in conjunction with this event. FLUXXlab, with Natalie Jeremijenko, was recently awarded a NYU Sustainability Grant to install a prototype of the Revolution Door on campus.

Jennifer recently graduated from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation with a Masters in Advanced Architecural Design, where she received the William Kinne Fellows Travelling Prize. Jennifer has worked on the magazine Volume, a collaboration between C-Lab, Archis and AMO, and has experience in such diverse fields as exhibition design at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and furniture construction. Jennifer is currently working as a Project Designer at 212box Architecture in New York, NY.

Carmen recently graduated from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation with a Masters in Advanced Architecural Design, where she received the Lowenfish Award for outstanding final semester design project. She has over eight years of professional experience as a registered Architect and is LEED accredited. She taught architectural design at California Polytechnic State University, and has been an invited jury critic at Pratt University. Carmen is currently working as an Architect at SHoP Architects in New York, NY.

The $100 laptop, while helping bring technology to impoverished children everywhere, is also creating quite a stir in the technology industries. OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte and Intel CEO Craig Barrett got into it about Intel's slightly less cheap, slightly more functional laptop.

John Ashcroft, it was revealed last week, refused to authorize the White House's warrantless wiretap program while deathly ill in his hospital bed. This is causing some problems for people who formerly hated John Ashcroft as an evil rights-abridger. Shades of gray can make your head explode if you're not careful.

It was too good to be mine….

sharpie marker on top of a Bank of America free money offer, 2007

eyebeam posted a photo:

eyebeam posted a photo:

z6p6tist6 posted a photo:

Specs1 posted a photo:

Hobbes vs Boyle posted a photo:

Someone apparently didn't love our lord

From the Guardian:

Sounding more like a cast member of the Sopranos than an international leader, in testimony by one key witness Mr Wolfowitz declares: "If they fuck with me or Shaha, I have enough on them to fuck them too."

And from the Nelson Report:

every day the sad, sordid saga of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz drags on, and you are left wondering at what point does the elite leadership class lose not just all sense of every day reality, but all sense of shame. The Washington Post this morning reports that apparently, the Wolfowitz marriage has never been dissolved...putting a twist on Family Values which is novel, even for this bunch.

Continued after the jump.

Has there ever been a gayer Peter Parker than Ms. Tobey Maguire? Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Moreover, the movie was a piece of utter garbage. It was like watching two geeks play the Spiderman 3 video game in a Pacific Ocean of cheese. Hate it to another movie.

I saw it. It was disappointing. --SL

“While the French get 30 [whoring it] days of paid leave and most other Europeans receive at least 20 [loving it] days, the country with the world’s biggest economy (the United States does not guarantee workers a single [hating it] day, researchers said on Wednesday . . .”

Get to Work!!

djdau posted a photo:

Day135 A collection of stop signs on a part of the campus.

erink posted a photo:

I found this (apparently recently defunct) business while walking from the Caltrain station to the hotel.

this sign is in San Jose and the pig dances at night. --SL

Octoferret posted a photo:

Click for full size (4616 x 3085)
Click for large (1024x768)

It took me almost an hour to unroll it in little sections and photograph it. There are 153 different signs in this picture, and another four (69, 74, 84 & Muni logo) that I left out so there would be an even number of columns and rows.

I found two similar photos of rollsigns on Flickr:
Toronto streetcar rollsigns
Oxfordshire, England bus rollsigns

Johnson Cameraface posted a photo:

why you should consider being cremated... there's only so much land. And it moves. --SL

I have worked with both Joe and Renny. They are great. The sound on this is a bit low at the beginning. --SL

Our President has been (in)famously skeptical about the dangers of climate change: We don’t have all the data, and why waste time putting on a seatbelt until you feel some impact? But after last month’s Supreme Court decision that, under the Clean Air Act, carbon dioxide is indeed a pollutant—one that can be regulated by the EPA—it looks like Bush’s hand is being forced. He’s going to announce his plans later today. The pre-announcement announcement was vague, but Tony Snow still managed to work in at least one false dichotomy: "The question is: do you try to set up a mandatory system or do you try to set up an innovation-based system. The president prefers innovation." In related news, lovable buffoon Neil Cavuto tells us that his boss is taking News Corporation carbon neutral by 2010. Pigs, prepare for liftoff.

Not sure if you were aware it was National Bike Month