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All posts for the month July, 2007

To Catch a Web:Emil “Rocky” Fiore

Posted by _tango! on July 31, 2007
Posted in: art, entertainment, ideas, inspiration, materials. 5 comments



Very cool! Capturing spider-webs to make art! I love simple, random, some may think odd, hobbies that become a business!
via Coolhunting part 1 and part 2.

“The first in a two-part series, this video is an introduction to the real Spiderman, Emil “Rocky” Fiore, who captures and mounts spiderwebs on glass. Here, the episode documents his process—from spray paint and varnish to delicately aligning the glass—on a pier along New York’s Hudson River.”

“Our second video on Emil Fiore, New Jersey’s only spiderweb catcher, ventures into the forest to watch a few “catches.” Going a little deeper than Part One (which documented the capture of one web), this episode looks more closely at his process, as well as the spiders and their webs themselves.”

Second video after the jump.
Continue Reading

Start-Up Stories

Posted by _tango! on July 31, 2007
Posted in: brand, design, entertainment, experience, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, tech, thoughts. 2 comments

Here’s a great hour long panel discussion moderated by Guy Kawasaki (garage.com) talking to successful start-ups about how they started, how they made millions, how they survived, what not to do, where they came from, fun times, etc.

On the panel:
James Hong– HotOrNot.com
Max Levchin– Slide.com
Akash Garg– Hi5.com
Sean Suhl– SuicideGirls.com
Drew Curtis– Fark.com
Markus Frind– Plenty of Fish

CableYoYo

Posted by _tango! on July 29, 2007
Posted in: brand, design, experience, ideas, me, style, tech, thoughts. 2 comments

cableYoYo
I first spotted the CableYoYo at CES2005 and never really thought I’d need an extra piece of plastic to manage my small extra corded products such as my mouse, laptop, earphones, keyboard, etc, but I received one as a gift last year and latched it onto my favorite Mouse (red Logitech MX510).

Having to hop around with my laptop a bunch, the CableYoYo has saved me loads of time, frustration, and space. It seems rather un-needed at first, but shortening my mouse cable has freed me of tangling wires in the bag, a cluster of noodling wires next to my laptop, and a few saved seconds every time I pack. Why not just get a bluetooth mouse? Well, I find them a bit slow and jumpy nor do I care to change batteries every few months or bother with an extra USB dongle I can lose… and as far as a charger… I’m not packing another clunky charger with more wires since I already have many for all my other electronics. (I really wished power adapters could be universal like USB for everything)

“>Buy the Cable YoYo here. ($5)

Weekend links!

Posted by _tango! on July 28, 2007
Posted in: art, brand, design, entertainment, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, materials, misc, style, tech, wacky, weekendlinks. Leave a Comment

– Proof Aquafina and Dasani water is just local tap water!
– Super high res image of downtown boston via neatorama.
– IDSA Okala EcoDesign Guide.
– Naoto Fukasawa’s project on how materials make a huge difference.
– Dippy Egg set.. makes ya want eggs and toast!

– Tech guru GigaOm launches The GigaOm Show! The first episode was a great interview with co-founder James Hong of HotorNot, and CEO Bill Watkins of Seagate.
– SoundBall! Pretty cool! Reminds me of Mario Brother in Reality! Watch the video!
– Double sided toothbrushes (brush your gums while brushing your teeth)(The Colgate 360 or the Reach Fresh & Clean) I think i saw this as a student project many years ago…great design!
– Underwater Pool Installation! Fun fun! via Hemmey.

Kameraflage: Camera Visible Ink

Posted by _tango! on July 28, 2007
Posted in: art, fun, information, inspiration, materials, tech. Leave a Comment

kameraflage
Very cool! Time to tag the whole city with invisible yet camera visible tags!

“With Kameraflage, now you’ll be able to plant subliminal messages on T-shirts, movies and billboards that can only be seen with digital cameras. This context-sensitive display technology, developed by Sarah Logie and Connor Dickie, works by using colors that are invisible to us but easily picked up by the silicon chips in digital cameras. As you can see, the lovely model above is wearing a shirt that only reveals that cloud’s lightning bolt when seen through an iPhone’s digital camera, although any ordinary unmodified digital camera would get the same result. She just as easily could have placed her phone number in that cloud. Hmm. Let’s think of some other uses for this cool tech.

Another use for the technology would be to watermark video and filmed content, so when pirates try to videotape movies by taking a camcorder into the theater, there could be a big bunch of funky-looking text all over it. Enabling this is a clever trick using a patented invisible light projector developed by Logie and Dickie. More Kameraflage clothing will be demonstrated at the ACM SIGGRAPH Unravel fashion show on August 6 in San Diego.”

via Gizmodo

Merlin Mann presents “Inbox Zero”

Posted by _tango! on July 26, 2007
Posted in: brand, design, entertainment, experience, ideas, information, inspiration, me, tech, thoughts. Leave a Comment

Do you have 500+ e-mails sitting in your inbox? If so, shame on you! Get your digital communications gear in tune and get that email mess count down to ZERO every single day! Trust me, it’s worth it! How you might ask; two options: 1) take an hour listen to Merlin Mann (43 Folders) lecture about “Inbox Zero” while at Google (his slides here), or 2) give Mark Hurst book “Bit Literacy” a read. (Marks run CreativeGood in nyc and also runs the incredible inspirational GEL Conference yearly which I’ve attended many times)

I’ve been using a hybrid of these systems for many years now, and I’m not sure where I’d be without it. Many ask me how I manage so many different email accounts, clients, web accounts, etc… and the simple answer is… I keep my inbox down to zero! In the most simple cliff-notes version on how to achieve this system:
– Answer emails asap.
– Do not let emails be your address book/calendar/to do lists.
– Trash the ones you don’t need to read.
– Answer and move emails to folders (this is a step Merlin says not to do, but archive it all).
– Make it a habit to get to zero daily.

You know how right before you leave for a vacation or something, you sit down and hammer out tons of overdue emails, activities, projects, etc…. we’ll basically be that productive every day… with an inbox of zero, your less stressed, can find things much faster, and you feel much cleaner!!!

via Lifehacker (via 43 folders)

Seagate FreeAgent: User Experience

Posted by _tango! on July 25, 2007
Posted in: brand, design, experience, fun, information, inspiration, me, style, tech, thoughts. 2 comments
seagate freeagent user experience

A few weeks back, I was in need of an external hard drive, and like most geeks I cruised the internet for reviews, asked opinions from friends, and ventured off to store shelves to see what was hot. After pacing around for more than needed, I finally bought the FreeAgent by Seagate because it seemed clean, was understandable, and it just felt better.

I’ve been incredibly happy with the product and ran into this great post describing someones great experience in the packaging design, which I’ll admit made me buy over the other options because the packaging was so human and sweet. I’d say “simple”, but I don’t like using that word because everyone thinks it means reduction when it actually just means intuition.

Look through the pictures at the post here. (note: the re-wording of the packaging rocks… no mumbo jumbo tech terms… just things us humans ask.)(Also reminds me how Jetblue said “buh bye Red-Eye, Hello to shut-eye“)

Columnar Basalts

Posted by _tango! on July 24, 2007
Posted in: art, inspiration, materials, misc, thoughts, wacky. Leave a Comment
column like basalt

Woa! These cascading column like basalt formations rock!

“Columnar Basalts are rock formations resulting from the quick cooling of lava flow. Fractures form in a random cellular network (similar to soap bubbles, organic cells, etc.), though the average distribution of sides is six, giving the hexagonal structures an eerie man-made appearance.”

Lots more pictures via centripetalnotion.com

Toothpaste Damages Teeth

Posted by _tango! on July 22, 2007
Posted in: design, information, materials, thoughts. Leave a Comment

toothpaste damageDid you know that toothpaste can damage your teeth? According to the following article, I can see why… Otherwise, I’m sticking to my tasty paste for now.

“CBS2Chicago is reporting about a growing concern among some dentists that excessive brushing with toothpaste is not good for one’s teeth. Dentists increasingly see patients destroying tooth enamel and soft tissues, and scientific evidence seems to implicate the toothpaste.”

It reminds me that in design or any other field, sometimes when you create solutions you also create new problems down the road . We feed ourselves problems through solutions if not pass it onto other fields … what a paradox. 😉

Read the rest of the article via MedGadget
Source: CBS article/video