Dalton Ghetti is a carpenter by day and an artist at night. His art, however, requires a needle, magnifying glass and a razor blade. Oh, and pencils. Lots of pencils.

For the last 25 years, Ghetti has been creating intricate sculptures on the tip of a pencil by carving the lead. He’s responsible for carving a giraffe, the entire english alphabet and a chain link that took nearly two years. He says, “I do it from my heart, I do it when I feel like – and I pretty much do it for myself,” he said. “It’s my own interest in the small things in life that drove me to call people’s attention to them.”
You can read more about Ghetti and the source of his inspiration here. In the meantime, however, enjoy the photos and marvel at the detail.

As of the writing of this post, there are 7,682,986 registered users on Twitter.  Once your business has made the leap in to the Twitterverse, you’ll need to have some resources at-hand to monitor and contribute to this additional way of sharing yourself. Your adoring customers, clients, fan-boys, and industry peers will begin following you. How do you stay on top of the flow of followers, and keep everyone engaged?

For businesses to grab a share of those potential customers, they need tools to research, track, and position themselves correctly.  Here is the short-list of business-oriented resources you should be using for Twitter.

TwitterGrader
Find out what your business rank/grade is on Twitter.  Great tool to start your research.

TwitterCounter
Register for this free tool to begin tracking your subscribers, get weekly reports, predictions, and advice on who you should be following.  You can also overlay your competitors in the graph to see how you compare.

HootSuite
The “do-it-all” tool for business tweeps.  Register and set up scheduled tweets to be posted days, weeks, and months in advance.

LocaFollow
Geo-located Twitter happenings in a specific area.  Set it up to track your city or neighborhood, and keep an eye on what is trending near you.

TweetScan
Similar to Summize (AKA Twitter Search), get reports on topics which affect your business.  Sign up to generate email alerts. Find out who is talking about your business or brand instantly or report daily and become aware of how your brand is viewed by the Twitter masses.

If you incorporate some or all of the above resources into your Twitter endeavors, you will definitely see better results than if you hadn’t done any at all. How much of a difference will it make? No one can say for sure, but at least you’ll be able to see how your numbers and metrics are being affected and what measures you’re taking that seem to be paying off. Happy Tweeting!

3D movies, 3D TVs, 3D cameras and camcorders, 3D cell phone displays… The 3D craze is well underway. So here’s a list of my favorite 3D development apps.

3D in Flash – Since Flash CS4, Movie Clips could have 3D transformations (position and rotation, but not scale). It’s a primitive 3D engine. In fact, Adobe calls it 2.5D. It’s more than 2D, but not quite 3D.

There are also 3D libraries such as Papervision3D and Away3D that can be imported into your Flash project that will give you a real 3D engine. These are great if you need to use Flash for your project, but you’re still limited to bending a primarily 2D program into 3D. Also, Flash comes with a lot of overhead and it is not the most efficient or fast solution for 3D content.

Virtools – Virtools offers a unique coding experience in which the programmer adds functionality by linking together behavior blocks in a schematic drawing, similar to a flow chart. It’s a very fast way to get basic functionality on your game assets. For example, to make a box rotate, just drop the box model in the 3D view to add it to the scene, then drop the Rotate behavior on it. In the schematic view, draw a link from the output of the Rotate behavior back to its input and you’re done. There’s not a single character of code to write, and it only takes about 5 clicks of the mouse. Of course, this is a pretty simple example, but most of it really is that easy. If you want more control, you can click a few more times to specify how fast it rotates and in which axis. You can also create your own behavior blocks if the hundreds that come with Virtools doesn’t have what you need. The downside to Virtools is that it is ridiculously expensive. Seriously, Virtools, offer a free version and lower the price to build your install base. You’d make up for it in volume.

Unity3D – Like Virtools, Unity is an integrated development environment (IDE) for building 3D games and simulations. I just started playing with it, but so far I like it a lot! Programming in it is not nearly as easy as in Virtools, but it is about the same as coding with Actionscript. It beats Flash with Papervision or Away3D when it comes to everything else. It’s a pain in the neck to get 3D models into Flash. In Unity, just save your assets in the Assets folder. They’ll now show up in your assets list in Unity. Also, because Unity is a real 3D engine, Flash can’t compare in visual quality to what you can do with Unity. Unity comes in a free version and a pro version, plus add-ons for developing for iOS or Android. And Unity 3.0 is coming out soon!

So there you have it; 4½ 3D development solutions (Flash by itself only counts for ½).

While perusing Design*Sponge, one of my favorite blog sites, I came across another blog called PAPERCUTS by “MrYen” that posts about design finds and his own papercut artwork that he sells on Etsy (I am loving the whale papercuts shown). Paper cutting is as simple as it sounds, the art of cutting designs out of paper, but the process, however, is extremely meticulous, time consuming and involves an exacto and a steady hand.

I’ve done some simple papercuts of my own, and it’s always more difficult than it seems, especially when your goal is to get a perfect edge, while avoiding a ripped mess. Did I forget to mention that it is time consuming? I think the precision and detail of papercut art is so beautiful. Designs are delicately filled simple silhouettes, amazing textures and depth that you wouldn’t be able to achieve from plain printing. Below is just a sampling of what papercutting has to offer.

To learn how to create your own papercuts check out The Heart of Papercuts, who offer an introduction on how to start paper cutting. And for more inspiration and variations on the style you should also check out these amazing artists, Yulia Brodskaya, and Julene Harrison.

We lucked out with the weather, sure it could have been a little warmer, but we didn’t see a single drop of rain. We ate like kings and queens and even had our own floating island. We also learned a thing or two. Kris taught us that the water in the lake is wet! Who knew? Thanks to Eva we realized that when laughing uncontrollably while laying on a floating island in the middle of a lake, its best to keep hold of a handle. Kurtis demonstrated exactly why half shirts went out of style. June and Lisa informed us that camping is dirty. And Tim taught us that short ribs are even better when cooked over the fire in the wilderness. But most importantly, we learned that with a group of Zoomers working together, we can accomplish anything!

There are no official dates that have been announced, but Samsung has had a few releases of FroYo available for the international Galaxy-S on their website. These were mostly beta tests and bug fix releases, and wouldn’t work on any of the branded phones (T-Mobile’s Vibrant, AT&T’s Captivate, etc.) but once the platform is solid, you can be sure that each of these vendors will be hard pushed to release their update over the network.

I for one, am very stoked. Check out this site or this site for more information.

Speaking of the iPad, Samsung is getting very close to releasing their own pad based on the Galaxy-S hardware. It’s a 7 inch tablet that will roll out with Android 2.2, and it looks very nice.

I had been thinking of doing this to my monitor(s) here at Zoom for a while when I ran across this article at Smashing Magazine detailing the process and showing some really cool applications. And not just to your monitor or laptop but also your PSP or phone as well. Here are a few that really caught my eye.

You can find a Transparent Screens Flicker Group here and a tutorial for creating your own here.

“If recent patents are any indication, your future iMac might just include a built-in iPad.

The website Patently Apple has uncovered some European patent filings filed in September 2009 and first published in January 2010. The document outlines a system for an iMac touch, a device that acts like a standard desktop computer in one orientation and a tablet in another.

The idea is that when the device is in the upright position, like a standard iMac or flatscreen monitor, it can be controlled using a mouse and keyboard. When reclined, an accelerometer will trigger advanced multi-touch mode and switch the operating system from Mac OS X to iOS.

In addition to seamlessly switching modes/operating systems, the patent information also details a system that would allow peripheral control of an iPhone or iPad from the iMac touch.

The idea of the two operating systems co-existing and switching seamlessly based on orientation is awesome for a desktop and even more killer for a netbook. I love both my MacBook Pro and my iPad, but if I could combine them into one super device, that would be the best of all worlds.

Some of the information in these patents go back to 2007, so it is clear Apple has been hard at work perfecting touch for the desktop for quite some time. The company’s most recent accessory, the Magic Trackpad, is just another indication that the company is slowly but surely aiming to bring touch to the desktop.

1. Social Scanning:  Smartphone owners have the world at their fingertips. As grandiose as that may sound, advances in mobile barcode scanning technology have given rise to applications that allow for comparison shopping, QR code place checkins and ultimately a social experience around product barcodes.

What this means is that at any given moment, any smartphone owner can pull out their device, fire up a barcode scanning application, scan a code and complete activities or gain access to a wealth of immediately relevant information. Really, what we’re seeing is the convergence of social media and barcode scanning to create “social scanning.”

These scans aren’t inherently social in nature, but because they can double as verifiable place checkins, they can also possess the social properties of a checkin: location-sharing with friends on the same service or via social network distribution.

2. Q&A | Intelligent Information Discovery:  Web-based Q&A services have been around for years. Now the previously sleepy space is seeing renewed interest from some of the Internet’s biggest names. This second iteration of Q&A services will likely forever redefine the way we find information, because it re-imagines “search” as intelligent information discovery.

The most buzzy of the bunch right now is Quora, an intuitive and relatively straightforward Q&A site whose co-founder, Adam D’Angelo, is most known for his past role as Facebook’s CTO. Quora was founded in June 2009, released into private beta in January 2010, and immediately became a hit Q&A site with the technorati crowd. In fact, web celebrities have been known to use the site to answer questions about themselves.

There are few Q&A services that have received the same type of attention as Quora, but the just-launched Facebook Questions project — which mirrors Quora in purpose and function — was released before Quora ever achieved mainstream recognition. Now the two products are essentially going head-to-head, competing for the same audience.

3. Group Buying:  Group buying is the deal-a-day group coupon trend made popular by Chicago-based startup Groupon. It’s also a slight variation on flash sale sites such as Woot, an Amazon property, which originated in the early 2000s.

Groupon is the brain-child of CEO Andrew Mason, who came up with the group buying idea after founding the earlier group-focused site The Point in 2007. The Point is a campaign platform designed to support group action around causes. In 2008, nearly a year after launch, the platform was repurposed to bring Groupon’s deal-of-the-day vision to life in Chicago.

Today, Groupon deals are available in cities across the world, thanks in part to the acquisition of international clone Citydeal. The company has also managed to come by a $1 billion valuation, partner with Twitter to power @EarlyBird deals, find alternative distribution via newspapers, and start personalizing deals for subscribers in select cities. Just yesterday, Groupon introduced its first nationwide deal — a 50% discount at the Gap — to much fanfare, attracting roughly 10 Groupon purchases every 10 seconds.

Over the years, Groupon’s successful model has been copied with ease. LivingSocial, 8coupons and a host of other clones have found their own way on the web. Recently, Yelp, Zagat and OpenTable have veered away from their core product strategy to bring group buying to their respective site audiences.

4. Mobile Loyalty:  This trend is just beginning to take shape as smartphones become more commonplace, scanners become more sophisticated and retailers become digitally savvy. In the future, we can expect integration with merchant loyalty programs, as well as integration with checkin services like Foursquare. The latter also demonstrates the inevitable convergence of social media with traditional loyalty programs, which we’re already seeing from Tasti-d-Lite’s innovative approach to automatic, POS-integrated social media rewards system.

Shopkick’s retailer-friendly automatic checkin service is currently being tested by Best Buy, Macy’s, Sports Authority and Simon Property Group. This early interest in Shopkick points to retailer interest in verifiable, checkin-driven rewards. There’s also private beta mobile app Pushpins, which seeks to leverage QR codes to further enmesh the in-store shopping experience with digital retailer rewards, the likes of which resemble the sophistication of SCVNGR’s recently released rewards program.

5. Checking In to Entertainment:  What are you watching on television right now? Whether it’s the latest episode of Mad Men or the next installment of a reality dating show, chances are that you’re sharing the entertainment experience either through face-to-face interaction with friends and family, or by posting outrageous and shocking moments to your favorite social media channels.

Consuming most entertainment media is an inherently social experience. A crop of services have popped up in recent months to refine that social experience through entertainment checkins — the act of checking into the television show or movie that you’re watching right now.

We’ve already explored why entertainment will drive the next checkin craze, and three of the emerging startups — Philo, Miso, and GetGlue — propelling this trend toward mainstream audiences.

There are a few other services in the same mix that are certainly worth watching. CBS recently released their entertainment checkin service, TV.com Relay. It’s a browser-based mobile app for most smartphones that allows users to checkin to live television shows and follows the same TV guide-style format that Philo employs.

While reading an article on Smashing Magazine about Designing Style Guidelines For Brands And Websites I came across a personal identity guideline by Christopher Doyle that makes fun of branding guidelines in a smart and humorous fashion. It’s definitely worth a look whether your a designerd or not! Download the full .pdf here.