Archive for December, 2005
Way of The Rodent has an uber-cute Katamari Xmas tee-shirt which I would fully buy if it was availble in the US. I guess it’s time to bust out the old xacto knife, masking tape and acrylic paint and make my very own one-off Katamari shirt. What about a series of one-of-a-kind Katamari t-shirts with a different twist on the object being rolled for each design. One day the prince can roll around a …, and the next he can push ‘n’ shove the whole globe! Haven’t seen the Katamari Indiana Jones clip, check it out!
December 9th, 2005
I found these nice examples of retro design at a page that features photos and design from the radio station WINS in the 1970s.
December 7th, 2005
Don’t know too much about this retro watch other than the fact it is called the “MusicMachine.” My friend Rigpa would probably make some comment about ‘Does it have midi?’
December 6th, 2005
The people over at artificial.dk do the kinda stuff I would love to get into if I was a bigger geek than I already am. Reprogramming retro video game console EPROMs for artistic ends (The pic is a Super Mario game where the only thing left is clouds!) - There are tons of great examples of Art Games as they call them, which involve taking video game tech and repurposing it to artistic ends. One artist took Unreal game data and made a program that re-interprets it as an abstract illustration. Another visually overlays the structure of Goto and loop commands in the code of old games such as PacMan. Other non-visual art related projects include making a dot matrix printer into a music synth. Just moggling.
December 6th, 2005
rsstroom readerâ„¢[via Spyhunter]
A crazy new product out of Taiwan seems to be aimed at the feed dependent of us out there. The ‘rsstroom reader’ is a bathroom gadget that prints news feeds onto your T-P - that’s right, your TOILET PAPER! The best part is the “biometrics” toilet seat that’ll figure out who you are based on your weight and prints the news you want - not your roommates tabloid garbage. Going to the rsstroom will never be boring again! Here’s the scoop:
Yi Tien Electronics enters the digital home with rsstroom readerâ„¢ personal news delivery system
TAIPEI, December 4, 2005 - Yi Tien Electronics today announced a breakthrough news delivery system for the restroom. At a press conference, Yi Tien Electronics unveiled the rsstroom reader™, an rss reader for the restroom which prints directly to toilet tissue through RapidResolution® inkjet technology. Complete with wireless connectivity, the rsstroom reader™ will print out up to the minute articles from rss 2.0 and atom newsfeeds. Configurable via web browser*, the rsstroom reader™ can be set up to output an unlimited number of feeds in either sequential, alternating, or random mode. Included with the rsstroom reader™ deluxe package is the biometric seat which allows for customized feed output based on the unique features of users. The biometric seat also allows for tracking & printing the progress of your weight-loss regime.
Yi Tien Electronics also announced the future availability of a commercial version of the rsstroom readerâ„¢, a more robust model intended for installation in public restrooms. The commercial model allows advertisers to place customized messages targeted to a specific audience through Yi Tien Electronics’ online subscription service.
* rsstroom readerâ„¢ control panel requires Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher on PC or Mac
[note: the rsstroom readerâ„¢ is a conceptual product by dj spyhunter]
December 5th, 2005
Though I’m not commonly found browsing Hot Topic (a trendy goth/punk/rave lifestyle stuff store), I couldn’t help but buy this Foamy the Squirrel tshirt when I saw it. It has a bold, quirky message that really striked home in my quirky, bold heart. Somehow I never looked up Foamy on the web until almost a year later. As it turns our, Foamy is really funny cartoon character, and a total riot! Check out the animated shorts - the Squirrely rants n raves are funny as hell. More at Friends of Foamy. Says Foamy : “Someone should stab you in the eye with a really hot french fry!”
Check out the Foamy shirts I threw togther
December 5th, 2005
These Paper Walls from unica are really interesting - The six foot tall wall comec accordioned, but once expanded out, they can span up to 25 ft. Made from 400 layers of honeycombed translucent white, fire-retardant paper, these organic walls are a great way to split up a large space, at low cost ($50)
December 5th, 2005
Hawaiian canoes artist Francis Pimmel has updated his biography with current information, as well as populating his list of reference books about Polynesian canoes / Canoes of Oceania. His work encompasses a wide range of styles of canoe - the Hawaiian Voyaging Canoe, the fishing canoe, the outrigger canoe, war canoe, Marquesan canoe, and many other canoes that originate from Polynesia, the Pacific, Hawaii & more. All of them use woods of Hawaii. He has also created an amazing model of the Yapluka 60. Additional photos of his work can be found on Flickr The quality of these models are superb, down to the finest detail.
December 4th, 2005
When I last visited London, I was introduced to a neat (albiet wasteful) product that makes ice using self sealing ice cube bags. You fill it up from the tap, and when it is full, the pressure of the water inside seals the funnel/neck so it wont come out. You can then stick it into the fridge without the usual spillage worries of a tray. They are easy to get out of the bag - you just crunch up the bag and the cubes will come out of their cells. While the cubes actually they look more like ice pillows, it is a neat ice cube system. Another interesting product is the Ice Tube system that makes handy cylinders of super-cooled H2O for your bottling convenience.
December 4th, 2005
For someone that never eats at Wendy’s, they sure do take up much of my brain-space. I visited the Good to be a Square site and thought it was pretty fun. Of course, as it turns out I’m about 6 months behind the rest of the world in seeing the viral marketing distributed Square movie. It’s not my fault though, the Square ad campaign only recently reached me! I think the “Square’s School of Music” is good for a few minutes of fun. Now, in conection to my other post about Wendy’s slyness - I just noticed a line in the Square song that takes a direct stab at Burger King and McDonalds :
It takes flair to be a square
to walk around with no hair
I’m bold, yes I swear
to be the only single square
because it’s better than being round or being a king or a clown
it takes flair to be square
to be hardcore enough to dare
to be made the way you like
to be juicy
to be fresh
to be BEEFY
is the best
December 3rd, 2005
CNN.com - Has tallest tower caused more quakes? TAIPEI, Taiwan (Reuters) — Seismic activity in Taipei has increased since the world’s tallest building, Taipei 101, was built, raising questions over whether the Taiwan capital has become more vulnerable to earthquakes, a geologist said on Friday.
Lin Cheng-horng, a geologist at the Institute of Earth Sciences at Taiwan’s most prestigious think tank, the Academia Sinica, said seismic activity historically had been low in the Taipei basin, home to about 7 million people.
But the city has experienced more micro-earthquakes (of magnitude 2.0-2.5 on the Richter scale) since construction began on the 508 meter (1,667 foot) skyscraper in 1997, he said.
December 3rd, 2005
Our perception of color is so subjective. This page on illusion and color perception has some really interesting examples of the effects of an overall image on a specific portion of an image. For example, the two middle squares in the image on the left are actually the same color, despite appearing otherwise. The fascinating thing is that the effect is accentuated the more colors surround the specific sample area - if you remove the upper and lower squares in the lefthand image, the effect is much dimished (view at site) Just goes to show how we can’t trust our eyes. If you’ve never made an object disappear in your eye’s blind spot, I highly recommend trying it out!
December 3rd, 2005
The breaks I spin really give me the uncontrollable urge to crossfade, tweak, and generally muck around with the mixer. So my initial reaction to my friend Rigpa’s laptop/mp3/midi rig was “UGH! How can I mix with that thing??” Well, OK, I admit the setup is pretty good - a midi controller setup to operate a software based mixer playing mp3s through two stereo channels of a pcmcia sound card. If you replaced the more traditional midi controller with a more DJ mixer style device, or better yet a DJ mixer that also sends midi commands, that would be sweet. Though I’m not really sure why you’d go to all this trouble instead of just popping CDs into a pair of CDJs. Well, it’s always fun to play around with technologies. Click here for my DJ Spyhunter site - lots of breaks mp3 tracks, downloads & mix sets.
December 3rd, 2005
Waiting for the ‘white man’ to let you cross the street sucks. When you walk a certain route a lot, you start to learn the tricks to certain intersections - when you can safely cross even though the light is against you. I wonder if there is a niche for gathering this kind of expertise/experience based data from pedestrians (perhaps drivers also?) and mapping it online. My thought is that it would be most effective as guerilla signage - publish a set of PDFs with RouteHints that people can print to stickers and paste up in good spots for others to navigate by. For example, “Cross After –>” would indicate it’s safe to cross once there are no more vehicles going through intersection from left to right. Of course, I would feel terrible if someone got hit by a car when using an incorrect posting, so I’m not gonna be the brave one to start this guerilla scheme….
December 3rd, 2005
My “Eighties Car” Fiero TShirt design is up up Threadless.com. Click here to vote for the design - there’s still a few days left! I really want a funky Fiero tee!
December 3rd, 2005
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Way of The Rodent has an uber-cute Katamari Xmas tee-shirt which I would fully buy if it was availble in the US. I guess it’s time to bust out the old xacto knife, masking tape and acrylic paint and make my very own one-off Katamari shirt. What about a series of one-of-a-kind Katamari t-shirts with a different twist on the object being rolled for each design. One day the prince can roll around a …, and the next he can push ‘n’ shove the whole globe! Haven’t seen the Katamari Indiana Jones clip, check it out!
