Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Enso and the future of software interactions
Aza talks about Enso, zooming user interfaces, the death of the desktop metaphor at Google TechTalk. Aza starts demoing Enso about 29 minutes into the video. If your an interface designer, I highly recommend watching the whole thing. He introduces new ideas and reminds us of our pitfalls throughout the entire presentation. Very Inspiring.
Enzo software »
Aza's site Humanized »
Here’s the abstract for his talk:
The computer desktop metaphor is ubiquitous, but how much work do we get done there? None! Our time is entirely wasted navigating or shuffling content to the application in which we can finally work. What lessons can we learn from designing interfaces without the desktop and without applications? Is it even possible? And how does this apply to the Web? Currently, Web applications are often more usable than their desktop-based counterparts because each one does one thing and does it well. Desktop applications used to be the same way, but over time — as applications grew to support the the users in the long tail — each became a complex portmanteau of all possible features. If we are not careful, our Web apps will suffer the same conglomerated fate. Mashups and services help to solve the problem on the development end by freeing functionality from any particular application. But, there is currently no way to offer that wealth of possible functionality to users in a scalable way. Would it be nice to embed a dynamic map into your Gmail message? Sure. A Flickr slideshow? Sure. But for Google to offer those in addition to the hundreds of other possible options, would clutter the interface beyond usability. What’s needed is a universal method of accessing functionality: a way of harnessing the power of services without the need for application developers to explicitly support them. I’ll be demonstrating such a method.
The talk demonstrates that a ZUI plus a universal method of accessing functionality spells the death of the application-centric computing model and the desktop-design paradigms.
Enzo
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
The Making of Wanderlust
The final video »
The final video in crappy 3D »
This and more trippy videos like it were made by EncyclopediaPictura.
I give this video four stars not five because I'm sick of Bjorks voice. It was really neat for the first few albums, but now it just sounds too predictable.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
What the future sounded like (Documentary)
A wonderful documentary about the late pioneer computer musician Tristram Cary. 26 minutes of why he was important.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Kinetic skin for large environments
FLARE is a modular system to create a dynamic hull for facades or any building or wall surface. Acting like a living skin, it allows a building to express, communicate and interact with its environment.
Learn More »
These are how the flakes look from behind:
And an up close paper model:
Learn More »
These are how the flakes look from behind:
And an up close paper model:
NOVA Car of the future
"Two decades ago, physicist and energy expert Amory Lovins came up with a notion he called "Hypercar," a general class of vehicles so fuel-efficient it might, Lovins hoped, radically reduce oil consumption in the U.S. and worldwide. A tailpipe dream? Perhaps not. While the Hypercar SUV that Lovins and colleagues designed in 2000 remains a one-of-a-kind concept vehicle, many automakers are beginning to embrace the underlying principles of Hypercar. In this audio slideshow, Lovins describes the key characteristics that any Hypercar would have, and he offers a glimpse of a Hypercar-like Toyota vehicle that may soon be driving through your neighborhood.—Susan K. Lewis"
[via NOVA]
Lunar Habitat Hauler (ATHLETE)
This thing is really well thought through.
http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-space/article/2008-04/lunar-habitat-hauler
http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-space/article/2008-04/lunar-habitat-hauler
Carrot Mob - Organize & Buy Smart
For many years now, I have thought that the most valuable vote is how we spend money. Well the Carrot Mob was started to help organize how we spend money. The goal is to impact how corporations and local businesses contribute to political needs. Since the government is sleeping and more interested in corporations than the people, I hope this video inspires you to create your own local carrot mob.
Learn More »
Learn More »
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Golden Eagle Throws Goats off Cliff
Goats thrown off clifs (minute marks into the video):
00:30
05:05 (very impressive glide)
06:30
The Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) is one of the best known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. Once widespread across the Holarctic, it has disappeared from many of the more heavily populated areas. It has a wingspan averaging over 2 m (7 ft) and up to 1 m (3 ft) in body length.
How to play Angeles by Elliott Smith
CHORD TABS - all in relation to capo, 5th fret. All chords are actually a fourth higher than listed.
name - EADGBe
verse
E minor 9 - 022032
A - x02220
B minor - x24432
G - 320033
F# - 244322
D - xx0232
E - 022100
additional chords used in the bridge
F#/G# - 4x4322 (read that as "F sharp with G sharp in the bass". that was really confusing to me for a long time)
C# - x4666x
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
The scientifically most annoying song
Listen Now »
Russian-American artists Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid took an online poll in the '90s to find out which musical elements people found the most irritating. Then they did the unthinkable: they combined the least popular elements into a single monstrosity, specifically engineered to sound as unpleasant to as many people as possible. The song is not new; it recently resurfaced on Dial "M" for Musicology.
Amazingly, this "most unwanted song" contains little dissonance -- that would have been too easy. For the most part, they seem to have tried to assemble these elements in a listenable way.
Komar and Melamid's list of undesirable elements included holiday music, bagpipes, a pipe organ, a children's chorus and the concept of children in general (really?), Wal-Mart, cowboys, political jingoism, George Stephanopoulos, Coca Cola, bossanova synths, banjo ferocity, harp glissandos, oompah-ing tubas and much, much more. It's actually a fascinating listen, worthwhile for the opera rapping alone. (We didn't think that was possible either.)
[article and description found at Listening Station »]
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Wine Tasting - Jamie Kennedy Experiment
Jamie Kennedy as Mr Carlsson. A man who has had a jaw surgery and is experiencing some difficulties drinking wine.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Relaxed Death Metal Drummer
Scott Ellis, ex-Drummer of the brutal deathmetal band Warface. (title : Inquisition)
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Brilliant look at the present and future of digital
If you like thinking about what's next with digital interfaces, watch this video. It's a little longer than your average web show, but it's well worth it.
Bruce Sterling from Innovationsforum on Vimeo.
Science Fiction (Sci-fi) writer
Bruce Sterling from Innovationsforum on Vimeo.
Science Fiction (Sci-fi) writer
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
Crap orbiting our earth
The European Space Agency has just released images showing all the satellites and human-made debris now orbiting space as a result of 51 years of launching stuff since Sputnik. That's about 6,000 satellites up there—of which only 800 remain operational—plus thousands of other objects from launches and accidents. According to their mindblowing simulations things are getting a lot worse...
Read more about it »
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Cognitive Performance-enhancing Drugs
I've been looking everywhere to find out what drugs I should be taking to make my brain function better. This is what I have been looking for!
Via Slashdot: "A new poll published in Nature showing unprecedented levels of cognitive performance-enhancing drug abuse by top academic scientists. The poll, conducted among subscribers to Nature, surveyed 1,400 scientists from 60 nations (70% from the US). 20% reported using performance-enhancing drugs. Among the drug-using population, 62% used Ritalin, 44% used Provigil, and 15% used beta-blockers like Inderal. Frequency of use was evenly divided among those who used drugs daily, weekly, monthly, and once a year. All such use without a prescription is illegal."
Via Slashdot: "A new poll published in Nature showing unprecedented levels of cognitive performance-enhancing drug abuse by top academic scientists. The poll, conducted among subscribers to Nature, surveyed 1,400 scientists from 60 nations (70% from the US). 20% reported using performance-enhancing drugs. Among the drug-using population, 62% used Ritalin, 44% used Provigil, and 15% used beta-blockers like Inderal. Frequency of use was evenly divided among those who used drugs daily, weekly, monthly, and once a year. All such use without a prescription is illegal."
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Save & send portions of web sites
Clipmarks is a browser plugin (Firefox, IE) that lets you select and share pieces of the web. Very cool tool if you blog or email friends links a lot.
Learn more »
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Colors of Code
A pleasant color scheme called "Zenburn" used for writing code or whatever text you stare at all day.
Get it »
Monday, April 7, 2008
Florescent tubes powered by air
The 1301 fluorescent tubes are powered only by the electric fields generated by overhead powerlines.
More photos of the florescent tubes »
How he did it:
Because powerlines are typically 400,000 volts, and Earth is at an electrical potential voltage of zero volts, pylons create electric fields between the cables they carry and the ground.
Richard Box, artist-in-residence at Bristol University’s physics department, got the idea for the installation after a chance conversation with a friend. ‘He was telling me he used to play with a fluorescent tube under the pylons by his house,’ says Box. ‘He said it lit up like a light sabre.’ Box decided to see if he could fill a field with tubes lit by powerlines. After a few weeks hunting for a site, he found a field, slipped the local farmer £200 and planted 3,600 square metres with tubes collected from hospitals.
A fluorescent tube glows when an electrical voltage is set up across it. The electric field set up inside the tube excites atoms of mercury gas, making them emit ultraviolet light. This invisible light strikes the phosphor coating on the glass tube, making it glow.
Box denies that he aimed to draw attention to the potential dangers of powerlines, ‘For me, it was just the amazement of taking something that’s invisible and making it visible,’ he says. ‘When it worked, I thought: ‘This is amazing.’’
More photos of the florescent tubes »
How he did it:
Because powerlines are typically 400,000 volts, and Earth is at an electrical potential voltage of zero volts, pylons create electric fields between the cables they carry and the ground.
Richard Box, artist-in-residence at Bristol University’s physics department, got the idea for the installation after a chance conversation with a friend. ‘He was telling me he used to play with a fluorescent tube under the pylons by his house,’ says Box. ‘He said it lit up like a light sabre.’ Box decided to see if he could fill a field with tubes lit by powerlines. After a few weeks hunting for a site, he found a field, slipped the local farmer £200 and planted 3,600 square metres with tubes collected from hospitals.
A fluorescent tube glows when an electrical voltage is set up across it. The electric field set up inside the tube excites atoms of mercury gas, making them emit ultraviolet light. This invisible light strikes the phosphor coating on the glass tube, making it glow.
Box denies that he aimed to draw attention to the potential dangers of powerlines, ‘For me, it was just the amazement of taking something that’s invisible and making it visible,’ he says. ‘When it worked, I thought: ‘This is amazing.’’
DIY Electric Motorcycle
This guy has limited experience with electronics and bought all his parts off craigslist.
The electric motorcycle is now his primary mode of transportation. "If gas is three bucks a gallon, I can go 300 miles on that same amount of electricity. 300mpg isn't too bad for a motorcycle, is it?"
Range is 15 miles (25.5 kilometers), and top speed is around 40 mph (70 kph).
One of the benefits is noise: "It is dead quiet compared to a regular motorcycle. [...] I can actually hear birds singing. There is zero vibration from the engine."
Learn more »
Lame Laser Beamz Instrument
Warning, this is not an instrument. It's a $600 scam disguised as a crap instrument with no musical merit. The Beamz Synthesizer provides 6 sound stream and allows you to trigger the next sound in each sound stream.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Fantomas Live
5 songs (10.13.18.19.20.April`05) with Terry Bozzio at Montreux Jazzfestival 2005
Mike Patton and Dave Lombardo going insane
Mike Patton and Dave Lombardo going insane
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