Monday, February 1, 2010|
Apple iPad Just Tried To Assassinate Laptops [Apple]. Only way to interpret the launch of the iPad? Apple has declared the PC dead. Well-crafted but closed devices are their future of consumer computing. And if no one else can match the iPad experience,... [Gizmodo] 7:02:06 PM 
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Wednesday, January 27, 2010|
Dying news media looks to Apple tablet for hope (AFP).
[Yahoo! News: Technology News] 7:41:17 AM
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Tuesday, January 26, 2010|
'Cult of Apple' awaits mystery product. No matter what type of new product Apple unveils at its much-anticipated press event later this week, Xavier Yaffar says he will buy it. Whatever the cost. [CNN.com] 6:38:14 AM
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'Microraptors' shed light on ancient origin of bird flight. Researchers in the United States and China say that they have settled the long-standing question of how bird flight began. 6:29:51 AM
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Friday, January 22, 2010|
NASA's Puffin Is Way Cooler Than a Jetpack. It has every one of our geeky transportation ideas in one vehicle. [Wired Top Stories] |
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NASA Garage Sale Includes Shuttles, Engines, Space Suits. NASA looks for new homes for its retired shuttles, as well as thousands of other artifacts from the space program. [Wired Top Stories] |
Sunday, January 17, 2010|
Hey, That's Not How You Build a Log Cabin [Architecture] . Your ordinary log cabin is laid out with lengthwise logs stacked to make its outer walls. Piet Hein Eek, charged with building a cozy recording studio for friend and musician Hans Liberg, did not... [Gizmodo] 7:28:51 AM
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Sunday, January 10, 2010|
Wendy Carlos and color perception.  In addition to being one of the most historically significant pioneers in electronic music, Wendy Carlos is fascinated with how people see and hear. I am, too. She has been conducting experiments on color perception for over 50 years. Wendy created a cool little red/green color lightbox and a series of pages that show how two monochrome images can create full-color images when combined. She explains the origins of her interests:
Interestingly enough, most primates which evolved in Africa, Europe and Asia and environs posses a similar wide range as ours, while those which evolved later in "The New World" of the Americas usually have the narrower range of human color deficiency. The technical distinction is between: "trichromats (human and old-world primates)" and "dichromats (new-world primates and the common human color deficiencies)." Anyway, I built a lot of amusing devices way back in grade-school that allowed me to tinker with mixing various colors, both with paints (subtractive mixing of: magenta, yellow and cyan) and with colored lights (additive mixing of: red, green and blue). I read everything on color I could get my hands on, and with many years of more or less scientific experimentation, I thought I knew a bit about the subject. But I was wrong. Experiments in Color Vision (Wendy Carlos) Wendy's music (recommended: 'Tron' and 'A Clockwork Orange' soundtracks, Swiched-On Bach, and The Well-Tempered Synthesizer)
Image: Another amazing Andy Gilmore design via bridbird.com. |
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Google unveils its 'super phone' (photos). A recap of Google's Tuesday press event, in which it took the wraps off its much anticipated Nexus One smartphone designed by HTC. [CNET News.com] 4:24:30 PM
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Are pico projectors the next big cellphone trend? (Reuters). Reuters - Large flat-screen TVs were all the rage at the Consumer Electronics Show, but companies like Microvision Inc are putting their bets on image viewing of a much smaller scale: projections from devices as tiny as cellphones. [Yahoo! News: Technology News] 4:23:32 PM
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RCA Airnergy Charges Gadgets with Nothing But Wifi Signals [Chargers] . Forget PowerMats and wireless charging and the like, because the Airnergy wi-fi signal harvester is my new front runner for the future of gadget charging. It's not exactly new tech, as ohGizmo... [Gizmodo] 4:19:06 PM
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Saturday, January 9, 2010|
Architecture on the Cusp The Third & The Seventh, a short film by Alex Roman uploaded to Vimeo just last month and already viewed nearly half a million times, is an entirely computer-generated, exquisitely rendered, photorealistic tour of architectural space. While Frank Gehry's Disney Concert Hall unfortunately makes an appearance, the remainder of the film tours some concert halls, pavilions, museums, wind farms, and other urban icons, from both inside and out, that you will no doubt recognize. There's no plot as such, but the imagery is of such ridiculously high qualityóalthough I could skip the soundtrackóthat this seems much more visually promising to me then, say, the much hyped, half-a-billion dollar technologies used in Avatar; I would rather watch the opening two or three minutes of Roman's film stretched out to feature length and threaded through with some narrative cues than revisit James Cameron's badly rendered blue giants.  [Images: A Calatravian still from Alex Roman's The Third and the Seventh].This also seems to be yet more evidence that architecture students are literally just on the cusp of expertise in several different industries, and that even the briefest of collaborations with interested writers could push many student projects instantly over into fully realized narrative films. While I'm aware that many architecture students couldn't care less about thisóthey didn't, after all, apply to film schoolóI think it is nonetheless a strategically interesting option to consider when it comes to developing, presenting, and recontextualizing spatial ideas: a slight tweak here and there, a presentation of the most bare-bones scenario imaginable, and you've gone from student thesis project to La JetÈe after one late night and some 5 Hour Energy drinks...   [Images: Stills from Alex Roman's The Third and the Seventh].In any case, Roman's website includes galleries of some gorgeous film stills, including these details, these lighting effects, a few examples of "man-made vs. nature," and multiple glimpses of classic furniture.  [Image: From Alex Roman's The Third and the Seventh].However, Vimeo seems to be loading quite slowly at the moment, so I've included a few stills here.  [Image: Alex Roman, The Third and the Seventh].Here's hoping Roman gets the attention he deserves for this, and that we someday see his work popping up in more venues. The film was created using 3ds Max, V-Ray, After Effects and Premiere. (Thanks to Jim Rossignol and Ilari Lehtinen for the tip!)  8:01:55 AM
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Last update: 2/1/10; 7:02:24 PM .
Last update: 2/1/10; 7:02:24 PM .
