Fantastic desktop OS concept

Not sure how I missed this but it's truly superb. One of the first really novel approaches I have seen to the whole desktop OS experience. I love the way that physics is being incorporated into more and more computing experiences, bringing behaviors that we expect from the real world into the digital. My principal concern with this concept is how it deals with large amounts of information or things that are inherently hierarchal. Would love to try this out on a tablet type computer, looks like a great rewarding experience. It is well worth downloading the video to check it out in its full glory. Is this the future: http://honeybrown.ca/Pubs/BumpTop.html thanks Ben

England vs Sweeden

In the City Sports bar round the corner from the office watching the England Sweeden match and using the free wifi here. That was a wonder goal from Cole, I would not be surprised if thats not one of the goals of the tournament. Now I would like it if they could just settle down and win this now. Interestingly (well not really) the regular espn broadcast is 6 seconds behind the HD broadcast.  There are a lot of televisions in this bar.

Thirds

one would. Originally uploaded by antimethod.

Came across this photo on the flickr blog, and thought I had to post if for its dramatic use of the rule of thirds. The person jumping and the horizon line both follow this rule and it ends up being a fantastic composition. I now want to rush out and take pictures of people jumping across various landscapes! via blog.flickr.com

Neighbourhood Tour

Welcome to Brooklyn my new neighbourhood in Portland. Thought I would share some of the local sights with you all.

Here is the local park, note the Basketball court, where I regularly suck in a lanky white guy way.

Bob's Handy mart predictably run by someone most likely called Kim and not Bob at all. Though to be fair it is handy.

The local pub, complete with pool table, and jukebox that plays the worst of 70's and 80's rock, only a 2 minute stumble from the front door. The Aladdin theatre not really sure what sort of gigs they have here, but there are certainly lots of the AlternaCrowd outside on a friday/saturday night.

The hotcake house, not been there yet, but I can see a time when I will, probably 3am with an imminent hangover.

Local Coffee shop/antique store/book shop. So next time you need a shot of espresso with your antique reading chair and a copy of The Great Gatsby, you know where to go.

Classic Pianos for when you need to satisfy that primeval piano urge.

Check out the rest of the shots on my flickr stream: link

technorati tags:brooklyn, portland, usa

Living the American Dream

Right now I am sitting on the couch with a cold beer watching game 4 of the NBA playoffs on a big screen TV and contemplating ordering pizza. Its a tough life.

Photoshop before & after

Another site showing jsut how much is done in photoshop to change appearance and reduce aging etc. Roll over the various images to show the original, the guy is obviously very talented, though you have to wonder at what point does it all become slightly absurd. I also found the following on some work done for Polo Ralph Lauren slightly disturbing, its of a young girl check it out.

I was very proud of how I made the lean, muscular adult's arms plump to match the girl's body type, but Polo asked to have them made skinny, just as anorexic as adult models.

brian dilg photography :: imaging thanks Ben

technorati tags:photoshop, design, retouching

Football and the art of language.

I am not able to watch the world cup, partly because I am at work and partly because FIFA hasn't figured out how the internet works yet. Perhaps as a consolation I can read the BBC's coverage which includes such wonderfully visual descriptions as this.

40 mins: Peter Crouch and Dennis Lawrence jump for and an up and under. It's like watching a regional pogo jumping competition when these two 6'7" beanpoles go for a high ball. Lawrence takes top marks on this occasion.

Come on England! Update: We never make it easy do we, but we won and are through to the last 16!

technorati tags:WorldCup, Football, BBC

Nice Shoes!

So there I am walking down the street minding my own business, when out of the back window of a big black limo young women scream that they like my shoes, and thats the random event of the day.

Sorry YAJV (yet another japanese video)

OK I know it's another Japanese video, but this one is worth it for the irony alone when she starts singing Don't make fun of me. It seems to be some sort of english lesson involving dancing in aerobics outfits and weird hand gestures, how that helps language learning I don't know, but it did seriously damage my spleen. Link via Boing Boing

Happy Birthday Bro

Happy birthday bro, This ice cold Mexican beer is being drunk just for you. Wishing you a fantastic year ahead with all the adventures and success you can handle!

Riding fixed

Switched my bike over to fixed wheel this morning, mmm interesting! Made it to work with only one minor incident, stood up to sprint to the traffic lights then tried to freewheel only to have the bike leap up underneath me and nearly send me flying. Lesson 1, do not attempt to stand on pedals when going fast. The other one that nearly caught me out was trying to coast through corners. That could have been a nasty surprise. My main lesson this morning is you have to think ahead a lot further and anticipate.

Cooking For Engineers

Where has this been my whole life! All my recipe needs explained in a clear way with pictures of each stage and a really cool diagrammatic recipe card to print. Cooking For Engineers: via Lifehacker

New Ride

Just bought a bike, after days of frustration with ebay, I went to the bike store and bought a new one! Check out the pictures and I will let you know how it rides in a couple of hours. Its a track bike setup with a flip-flop hub, one side fixed one side freewheel. At the moment its set up to freewheel, but I will probably switch it over once I have gotten used to it. Oh and its black and mean. Update: It rides sweet, fast, responsive and forgiving. excited to try it in fixed gear set-up.

Sunday morning silliness

OK, this is a great example of too much time, diet coke, and mentos. Check out this recreation of the fountains at the Bellagio using nothing but the above ingredients! Very impressive work. Link [Via]

International School

Spent much of last night playing the American game of pool with an Indonesian who studied at an English boarding school in Singapore before coming to study in Portland and school me in the art of pool. Predictably he knew many of the places I hung out in Singapore, plus my ex-girlfriends new husband etc, as well as Haydens girlfriend here, and every detail of Arsenal's last 5 seasons in the premiership. Its a strange small world. My next door neighbors are some of the indie band The Decemberists, we live in a rock neighborhood!

First TV now the Times

Looks like I made the times, only as Hayden's UK business partner not by name but its me I promise.

He also appreciates having alternative skills and viewpoints. His business partner in the UK is “someone I have worked with and get on well with although we argue constantly, but that is part of the benefit. You need a different point of view and someone who will push you to further explore issues. He complements me and pushes me,” he says.

There you go, I am argumentative, nothing new to any of my readers. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8171-2194269.html

Fast Run

Had a great run, on the Springwater Corridor trail right near our house. An easy half mile warm up and then:

• 1st mile @ 7:10 - 157 AvgHR
• 2nd Mile @ 6:37 - 167 Avg HR

Probably the fastest couple of miles I have run, and looking good for a 20min 5k. Long way to go though to be fast.

I am the ikea monster

Hayden hit Ikea for an instant house furnishing, which meant Saturday was spent assembling. I can now reliably assemble an ikea dining chair in 37 seconds, possibly a record for a non ambidextrous scandinavian furniture builder. Surprisingly there were no injuries despite the use of both power tools and pointy sharp things. My body seems to have 2 states of being at the moment, sore from exercise or hungover, and quite often both together.

So what are you watching?

An advertising campaign in Osaka japan, it makes dressing up in a giant bunny suit and hawking hamburgers look like easy money, mainly because people cant see your face. Japanese company promotion campaign spotted in Osaka Spotted on flickr by Las Insolitas Aventuras del Pez. via we make money not art

Product Concept for a hairdressing salon

Whilst sitting in the hairdressers last week I thought how cool it would be to see how my hair looked before and after. Building on this idea I came up with the following solution. First you replace the regular mirror, with a semi silvered mirror and place an LCD screen, and a camera behind it. When you first sit down the camera starts to record. When you finish your haircut, you can switch on the LCD behind the mirror to display how you looked before, and even show a time lapse video of the cut in progress. The LCD can also be used as a time delay mirror, so that you can see the back of your head. Turn around once and the LCD will display your image with a 5 second delay, giving you a chance to examine the back of your air cut. To build on this even further you could use the system to preview possible haircuts with a little image manipulation you could overlay different cuts in realtime over your reflected image, never get a bad cut again and if by some small chance it does you can keep the time lapse video of the destruction for posterity. OK now just to go and build this thing.