This Water Shield for fruit is somewhere inbetween those two.  It’s a completely new idea, but something thats completely cool too, (in a “I wonder if this will ever work the way the picture shows” kinda way).  The idea behind it is that bugs, and germs and animals, and ghosts can make it through the plastic, or glass covers that you would put around fruit (if you put anything).  But they can’t get through water.  So a solid flow of water from a bell fountain would cover the fruit and protect it from all forms of badness from fruit flies to ectoplasm.

Now that part is all simple and very easy to make.  The neat part is that there are sensors in the top of the tower that detect your hand, and will turn off the water flow in that one spot to allow you to reach through, grab your fruit, and run away without getting you, or your loot wet in the process.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

That’s how it works, it’s really simple in theory, but then again, so is nuclear fusion.

{Technology World | Yanki Design}

Lagoa Multiphysics 1.0 – Teaser from Thiago Costa on Vimeo.

I’m no 3-D artist, or game designer, but I can tell you that that has some serious potential.  For the most part it looks entirely realistic, but who knows how much processing power that takes.  And, it looks like this is just a plugin for already existing software.  But I can see people using this as a stepping stone to move into other places.

Alls I know is that I want to see this in the Jurassic Park game.  I’d love to see the dirt move around when the t-rex presses his foot down.

{Pop-Sci | Redmotion}

My allergies haven’t been bothering me too much, I just have like glass in the back of my throat that hurts when I’m awake maybe I should see a doctor {source}

It’s a good thing I only drink straight from the Tap goodness. {source}

That’s fucking insane!  Here’s the story behind this true event {source}

I want to grow this tree. {source}

I like this tree too

They are practicing correct Nuclear Bomb Etiquette {source}.

It’s funny because it’s true. {Source}

Haha, 2 awesome movies, 2 amazing similarities. {source}

So this is a real picture of a US vs. Mexico game of Volleyball playedi n Arizona in 1979, with the border fence as the net.  That is awesome {source}

WTF? {source}

It could be real, it could be photoshoped, it’s still pretty funny nonetheless {source}

Truest words ever written {source}

They Officially need to name a hurricane Blaize because of this {source}

How i love the 1950s, {source}

Tools are generally awesome as they are, this makes it automatically more awesome.  Yes there are a few puns nailed into this description.  No I will not apologize for them.  Yes you can have sticker {source}

You may have not known, but just recently Google launched a new format for their Image Search.

For those that can’t see it, here it is:

As of right now, it seems like it’s only available though the use of Google Chrome, because as of right now, Firefox produces the same old (better) results:

I’ve come up with a list of 5 problems, and one positive part of this change.

1. The images are too close together

There’s nothing but some small white space to distinguish between each result.  Now, that’s fine for some images, but for others it can make it impossible to tell where one image starts, and another begins, and as the images get smaller, or larger, or more ununiform, the whole layout begins to look like utter crap.

2. Stop hiding vital information

I’m speaking specifically about the dimensions and the source of the image  (the image’s name is something I can honestly live without.)  But the dimensions and source are what makes each image worth important.  I like to know that when I find images from Wikipedia, they are

1. relevant to what I’m searching for
2. most likely fair use

Now, if you click the “Show Sizes” button on the left, it adds the dimensions to each image.  That helps distinguish between each image better then when it’s not there, (and should be the default view in my opinion),  but it doesn’t replace the wealth of information given the old way, the only way you see that is if you hover over the images

3. The Hover thing needs to go

I know it’s the only way to get the extra information about each picture, but its annoying and distracting times alot.  The delay is too long.  The extra step required to view the details of each image is annoying, but most importantly is this.  I am a keyboard user, meaning, I hardly ever use the mouse if I can help it.  I don’t like to move my hands from the keyboard, so I often have the mouse remain in one place for a long time.  This is a problem because as I search for images, the mouse is over an image, and it will enlarge it obstructing my viewing of the other images surrounding it.

It also messes up the practice of middle clicking on links to have them open in a new  tab.  I have to click twice now to open up the new images, or wait for the hover to load before clicking brings me to the images’ page.  This is no good, because I tend to open 6 or 7 links at a time to find the one I want, or to find multiple ones to get all at once.

4. Lazy Loading is not for lazy people

Lazy loading is the practice of loading images (or scripts, or functions or anything really), only when they are needed.  Lazy loading of images means that if the user can’t see the images, such as when it would require the user to scroll down the page, the images aren’t loaded.

It’s a (somewhat) useful trick to that webdevelopers use to speed up the loading process of webpages. The problem is, that Google encodes the images in Base64, meaning that there is no link to a file that needs to be downloaded, the browser just takes this incredible long line of gibberish:

into the above picture of immaculate Matt Damon, that whole process negates the purpose of lazy loading images.

Now, I do understand that this lazy loading of images is required to make the “infinite scroll” work, but, there are other ways you can do that, specifically, something along the lines of the way wallbase.net has their infinite scrolling set up.  You can scroll forever, and not have to wait for the images to load, and that’s the way it should be.

Right now if you scroll too fast you are treated with a gray box with the dimensions in the lower right while you wait for the images to load.  If you scroll too fast, you can miss the images entirely, not good.

I’m all for the infinite scrolling, provided it works well, right now it’s working subpar.

5. Return the grid structure.  It works.

The grid is nice, professional, streamlined, usefull, clean, simple, elegant, perfect.  Everything was the same regardless of the size of the image, and that made it easier on the eye to scan the page.  Right now everything looks cluttered, thrown together, and very amatureish.  It’s like they just output the results and didn’t care about the looks of it.

The only thing I absolutely love about the new layout is the way the images are shown when you click on them.  With a lightbox effect of the image overlain on the page, and clicking the X removes the frame and brings you to the context of the page.
(although, after 9 years I have grown used to the frame being horizontal as opposed to vertical, but that’s a change I can live with)

Funnily enough, 3 and a half years ago Google changed the Image search interface, and there was a similar uproar of dislike, and within a month, Google changed it back to the old way.

Hopefully, this new search will last less then half as long, because it is not user friendly at all.

Confession, I love Jewel.  Absolutely love, Jewel.

So finding this gem of aceness with Jewel (total pun intended) humor was great.  The makeup team did a great job disguising her as not looking like herself.  And, if it weren’t for people like Arnel Pineda, who sounds exactly like the Steve Perry, I would have questioned her at the bar had I been there.

{Zug}

Last night was the Manhattanhenge, the twice yearly event when the setting sun aligns perfectly with the cross streets of Manhattan.  It’s a unique event that is spectacular if you can catch it on the right block.

We did alot of walking from 42nd, to 34th Sts, and 3rd Ave. to 8th Ave.  Ideally you want to watch it set with some famous buildings in the background.  Mainly, The Empire State Building, or The Chrysler Building.  Then you have two options.  You can see the sun set on New Jersey, or see the sun set into the street.  I wanted to see it set into NJ, but chris convinced me to set up with it setting into the street.

Our spot, the corner of 34th St., and 3rd Ave was just alittle too far.  Maybe one avenue closer would have been better to see the sun set into the street.  But I was able to get some good shots from street level with my wide.

The best part of the whole day though was some guy who was yelling at us from the sidewalk for standing in the middle of the street taking pictures.  “That’s very dangerous!”  He kept saying that.  The problem was though, we were perfectly safe, there was a 5 foot “divider” in the middle of the street and the yellow lines, where cars weren’t supposed to go.  We did have to move out of the way of a bus, and some dumb taxi driver, but otherwise we were perfectly safe.

I got about 20 good shots from the day, lots were under/over exposed, or too many taxis or busses in the way of the actual sun.

And this one with the awesome 18 pointed sunstar over in Herald Square at around 7:30pm is one of my favorite ones from the night.

Just watch it.  I’m not gonna comment on anything else about it, it’s just an excellent commercial.

click to make giant

Well, it’s not really a “spy” jacket, especially since you have to take it off and get it X-rayed at the airport anyway, but the name of the company that makes/will make/thought it up, SCOTTEVEST, reminds me of Soviet, and that reminds me of Spies, and so this will get the name of the Spy Jacket.

The “Carry-On Coat” or, what I would call it, a trench coat,  the one pictured above, is, for lack of a better term, their “Flagship” product in this new, untapped market of unneededness.  It is a good concept, but I find that in testing it wouldn’t work at all.  I’m all for putting as much stuff on your person as possible when you travel, it’s just smart.  But have you ever tried to sit down in an airplane chair with a coat on?  It doesn’t work, especially if you have 2 shirts, a pair of shoes, and a full bottle of water.

But you already knew that, so you took your jacket off and stuffed it in the overhead bin.  But oh noes, this flight is full of smart people, and they all have their two allowed carryons, all at the maximum size allowed, now the flight attendants are saying you must keep your jackets on you/your lap to make room for all the bags.

Now you’re stuck with this giant uncomfortable Teflon “pillow” for your 8 hour plane ride next to some screaming 2 year old.

Also, this is not in leather, and I like leather, it looks better.

There is this sport coat version, which is slightly easier to wear and not be all weird, except you can’t keep an extra pair of clothes in it, but really, what purpose does that serve.

{Engadget | Gadling}

For those of you who have never heard of her, now you have.  And I’m talking to you the thousands of readers of this site combined.  (And yes, combined, I do get over 1000 unique visitors to this site).

I took 4 videos of her performance at the Highline Ballroom on June 20, 2010:

Rockstar

Sweet 17

Wishing Well

Tonight Tonight

Apparently some people think that the audio isn’t great on that last one. I can agree because well, it’s from a hand held Flip Video Ultra (which is an amazing little camera that is worth every penny), I also don’t care.

Also, you should watch those videos in 720p because it’s there.  And no matter what you do, don’t press this button, you will regret it, and I warned you.

(No idea why this wasn’t posted last week when it was supposed to go up, but whatever, can’t change the past)

I’m not gonna go into details about this whole thing, that’s not my job, but I will say that I am excited because not only have all the Robert Ludlum books I’ve read begin to have a grain of truth to them, my 2nd favorite time in history is coming back.

I just felt that I should bring this to your attention, that’s it for now, you can go on with your boring life,

Either way I see this a a great waste of time, effort, and (possibly) money.

The motives were good, trying to keep people out of trouble on social media sites.  Except the reasons behind said “trouble” are ridiculous.  People are becoming more afraid of what certain things they say online will reflect about them, so they try to be all goodie good, nicey nice on Facebook, and Twitter, and their blog and whatever.

Yea, not me.

There’s a difference between a work environment, and a personal environment.  Facebook and Twitter, are personal environments.  Its your own damn fault for becoming friends with your boss on Facebook.  That being said, you can still say whatever the hell you want about him and your job in your status updates, and legally there’s nothing they can do about it, because as I said in the first line of this post: constitutionally protected freedom of speech.

Stop being afraid of silly things, move on, and live life to the fullest, and do not even show some support for this device, or anything or anyone that censors your internet ramblings.

And I will close with all due respect towards V, words only have power if you give it to them.

{Hacked Gadgets}