facebook feed

RunPee.com Suggests the Best Movie Bathroom Breaks [Movies]

Kevin Purdy — Thu, 21 May 2009 04:00:00 -0700

Eminem, Topspin, Brian Eno & The Future of The Music Industry

(author unknown) — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:23:30 -0700

guest post by mikl-em

Rapper Eminem will release his first new album since 2004 on Tuesday, May 19th. There was speculation that his 3 years off might mean permanent retirement from recording, but recently Eminem said he plans to release two albums this year, the first being Relapse which comes out Tuesday.

The way Relapse is being marketed and distributed reflects some of the more innovative approaches to making money/adding value to music in the post-MP3 era. While the old model has been disrupted, new ideas that are starting to catch on have a lot of positive aspects, especially for fans who want (and are willing to pay) for more from their favorite artists.

In Brian Eno’s monthly column for Prospect Magazine, the veteran musician and producer notes that the evolution of the music industry is upon us. In addition to noting that more bands seem to be playing more concerts, also a great development for their fans, Eno observes:

The duplicability of recordings has had another unexpected effect. The pressure is on to develop content that isn’t easily copyable—so now everything other than the recorded music is becoming the valuable part of what artists sell. Of course they’ll still want to sell their music, but now they’ll embed that relatively valueless product within a matrix of hard-to-copy (and therefore valuable) artwork. People who won’t pay £15 for a CD will pay £150 for the limited edition version with additional artwork, photos, booklet and DVDs. They often already own the music, downloaded—but now they want the art. They’re buying art, and they’re buying it in a new way. That suggests to me the possibility of a refreshingly democratic art market: a new way for visual artists, designers, animators and film-makers to make a living. So, as one business folds, several others open up.

To his point, many mainstream artists are embracing novel approaches to releasing new music, these include “Deluxe Editions” with DVDs and other extras such as Bruce Springsteen and U2 have recently done. Bon Jovi has bundled iTunes downloads with concert tickets. Even Metallica, one of the most notoriously anti-MP3 performers in the industry, have embraced digital downloads and similar combo-offers that give fans exclusive and early access to their music.

Most bands haven’t gone as far as Nine Inch Nails who have released music under a creative commons license and directly uploaded high quality versions to bit torrent sites. Radiohead famously released an album with a limited-time, choose-your-own-price to pay download offer which seems to have been successful. All of these non-traditional moves from big rock stars, the bold and mild alike, show that the industry is finally coming to terms with a file-sharing world.

For Eminem’s album there are a host of special packages fans can pre-order the album in various digital formats with special exclusive extras available on Eminem.com. These include a limited run t-shirt, a print autographed by the rapper, and a special Relapse prescription pill bottle that you clasp in your sweaty hand, just like Marshall Mathers (used to?). There’s also a special interactive website (set at the “Popsomp Hills” asylum).

In terms of the music itself, if you pay for the basic package you can download in your choice of DRM-free 320kbps MP3, FLAC and Apple Lossless formats (starting the day of the album’s release). For more money, they will send you a CD or vinyl copy of the album, in addition to the digital. With all packages you get to download a video from the album immediately, even before the album release, and anyone can grab and embed the streaming widget above for free, which has samples from the songs and 2 full length videos plus some other extras.

If some of that seems similar to the type of promotion & packages that were offered a few months back for the release of the remastered 20th anniversary edition of The Beastie Boys’ album Paul’s Boutique, it’s not a coincidence. Both album releases were overseen by Topspin Media. Topspin does the widgets, like the one above, and other backend technology, and I assume plans and puts together the special packages.

Brian Eno has put his music where his column is: his collaboration with David Byrne, the album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, was released in the fall of 2008 with a similar set of packages also through Topspin. Eno and Byrne released the album without any major record label being involved.

Ian Rogers, CEO of Topspin, has a deeper connection with the Beasties. He became an obsessed fan of the group starting with the release of Paul’s Boutique, went on to compile their discography and put it up on Usenet and ultimately the Web. Eventually his fan site came to the band’s attention, and the rest is history which he relates in detail on his blog. Rogers previously worked for a company called NullSoft which made a little program called WinAmp that kinda had something to do with that toothpaste situation as well. He went on to work for the Beasties’ Grand Royal record label and to head up Yahoo! Music.* Along the way he also produced a daughter named Zoe who gained some notoriety as a precocious online teenage DJ.

Full disclosure: my day job is at Yahoo!, where I met Ian Rogers exactly once. I don’t know him personally or have any association with Topspin. I do think what they are doing is cool (as you can tell). Mostly though I am a former college radio nerd and an insatiable music consumer (in every sense of the word), so I’m excited to see the industry finally embracing the inevitable digital revolution.

Below is the embeddable player widget for the Byrne / Eno album:

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid.

For more content like this, subscribe to the RSS feed, Twitter & FriendFeed.

Eminem, Topspin, Brian Eno & The Future of The Music Industry

- Everything That Happens Will Happen Today: David Byrne+Brian Eno

- BAVC Innovation Salon II, Rescuing The Music Industry

- Brian McCarty

- Photos of 77 Million Paintings by Brian Eno

- Zero Dollar Bill by Brian Romero

Long exposure shows Roomba cleaning path | Doobybrain.com

randometc — Sat, 09 May 2009 16:51:12 -0700

Bones and Concrete

archigeek — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:43:00 -0700

Bone is built of two basic components: flexible fibers of collagen and brittle chains of the calcium-rich mineral hydroxyapatite. But those relatively simple ingredients, the springy and the salty, are woven together into such a complex cat’s cradle of interdigitating layers that the result is an engineering masterpiece of tensile, compressive and elastic strength...

Bone also has a crack repair team, in every sense of the word: osteoclast cells that dig around the cracks, using acids to wipe away the old matrix, and osteoblast cells that migrate in and secrete fresh spacklings of bone.

Read it.

In the lab, self-healed specimens recovered most if not all of their original strength after researchers subjected them to a 3 percent strain—enough to severely deform metal or catastrophically fracture traditional concrete. Traditional concrete fractures and can’t carry a load at .01 percent strain.

Read it.

Here & There - A 3D Horizonless Projection of Manhattan by Schulze & Webb

(author unknown) — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:39:38 -0700

guest post by Burstein!

looking uptown from 3rd and 7th

Here & There is a composite 3D image created by Schulze and Webb that borrows representations of Manhattan from maps, comics, television, and games.

The projection works by presenting an image of the place in which the observer is standing. As the city recedes into the (geographic) distance it shifts from a natural, third person representation of the viewer’s immediate surroundings into a near plan view. The city appears folded up, as though a large crease runs through it. But it isn’t a halo or hoop though, and the city doesn’t loop over one’s head. The distance is potentially infinite, and it’s more like a giant ripple showing both the viewers surroundings and also the city in the distance.

The artists have posted a long and fascinating description of influences on this project at their blog.

looking downtown from 3rd and 35th

via Warren Ellis

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid.

For more content like this, subscribe to the RSS feed, Twitter & FriendFeed.

Here & There - A 3D Horizonless Projection of Manhattan by Schulze & Webb

- A Map of Marvel Comics Locations In Manhattan

- Stereographic Projection, 360° x 180° Panorama Photography

- Scintillation, A Mix of Stop Motion & Live Projection Mapping

- ROFLThing NYC, Internet Memes Invade Manhattan

- Video Projection on Homeless Man Making Him Look Invisible

Politicians’ answers to questions

Cheezburger Network — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 06:00:16 -0700

Politicians’ answers to questions

Graph by dunno, via our GraphJam builder.

better building business in the future?

archigeek — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:53:00 -0700

Graphs from AIA, for actual words and stuff: archrecord.

Will it lens?

A Googler — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:19:00 -0700

Not long ago, a bunch of us in our Santa Monica office pooled together the money to buy a four-foot by three-foot Fresnel lens. We've since been spending our lunch hours out in the sun playing with it.

A normal lens this big would be several feet thick and weigh a proverbial ton (the right-hand image below). However, it's possible to remove much of the inside of a lens and collapse down the shape without introducing too much distortion (the left-hand image):

Fresnel (pronounced "freh-NELL") lenses are used in overhead projectors and lighthouses. We've been using ours, however, to see what happens when you focus 1,000 watts of sunlight onto a single point. It's like when you were a kid and tried to burn ants with a pocket magnifying glass — but 400 times stronger. We built a wooden frame to keep the lens flat and focused, and a stand to hold it steady:

The light in the focal point is so bright that you can't look directly at it without welding goggles.

The lens maker claimed you could melt a penny with it, so that was the first thing we tried:

Modern pennies are made of zinc with a copper coating. The bottom row shows what happens when you put a penny in the focal point of the lens: the inside melts away and the coating stays intact (zinc melts at 693 kelvins, copper melts at 1,356 K). But if you heat it just enough, the metals mix and you make brass (the gold-colored penny in the middle). Older pennies (those minted before 1982) are almost entirely copper, so they didn't melt (top row).

We also had an aluminum can:

The water we poured in boiled quickly, while the can itself became so brittle that we poked holes through it with nothing more than sunlight.

Then we tried cooking. Popcorn did both what you'd expect and not quite what you'd expect: when you really focus the light on it, it kinda pops but mostly burns. However, if you don't put it directly in the focal point, so the light is spread over a larger area and doesn't heat it up as quickly, you can get a whole bunch of kernels to pop without burning too much.

The steam/smoke coming up from the kernels really highlighted the spectra from the lens beautifully. Our yield was very low (lots of unpopped kernels for each popped one), but at least we had real popcorn!

When we tried to cook bacon, about a third ended up well done, a third was burnt, and a third was uncooked. Cooking with the lens is difficult because it heats stuff up too hot too fast. But the well-cooked parts tasted great, so we added an egg:

(We didn't lens the spoon; we used it to eat the egg afterwards.)

It's been fun experimenting with different lensing techniques and items and we've learned a lot (including where the nearest fire extinguisher is!). These are just the highlights — we've lensed gourds, soap, gummy bears, CDs — you name it. Next on our list: marshmallows!

We've got more details and more pictures of our results on Alan's personal blog. If you have ideas of other things we should try lensing, we'd love to hear suggestions.

Posted by Alan Davidson and Dustin Boswell, Software Engineers

Obama will be the first U.S. president to attend a White House Seder.

Amanda Terkel — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 07:29:40 -0700

Last night, the White House released President Obama’s schedule for the remainder of the week, which included participation in the White House Seder on Thursday:

On Thursday, President Obama will participate in an event at the White House where he will discuss the need to enhance the quality of healthcare afforded to members of our Armed Forces and our Veterans. The Press Secretary will brief in the afternoon. President Obama and his family will mark the beginning of Passover with a Seder at the White House with friends and staff.

The Jerusalem Post notes that Thursday’s event is “believed to be the first White House Seder attended by an American president.” Yesterday, Obama also issued an official White House letter with his “warmest wishes to all celebrating the sacred festival of Passover.” “Chag sameach,” he added. (HT: JMZ)

Schizophrenic Brains Not Folled by Optical Illusion

(author unknown) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:10:50 -0700

Shared by Archigeek
Brilliant!

A bad connection in the brains of schizophrenic patients seems to leave them unaffected by a common optical illusion that turns the concave backside of a mask into a convex face. The difference may be a disconnect in the schizophrenic brain between what it actually sees and what it expects to see based on past experience.

BumpTop

archigeek — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:39:00 -0700

I've been enticed by the prospects of 3d environments for every-day workflow efficiency. A while back I saw the preview for BumpTop, and today the program has left beta for the public's consumption. So, of course, I grabbed it and am giving it a go as we speak. I thought I'd leave a few of my comments (from a perspective of work efficiency).

First, it's fun to play with. Second, the fun wears off, real quick. So what's left:

1. Different sized icons. You can shrink and grow icons of files and piles as you like. This is probably the most beneficial aspect of the program I've found, as it gives me a quick and easy way to visually organize my files beyond the constraints of the desktop's two dimensions.

2. Piles. A quick and convenient way to pile up a bunch of files, so they don't take up so much visual space. Unfortunately, piles do nothing more than normal folders do - or at least, I haven't found such a function. When you view a pile of piles, you see all the files in all the piles. Not very helpful for organizing (why wouldn't I just make a big ol' pile in the first place?). Althought it would mess with the physical metaphors being used, keyword piles would be helpful, where a single file can be part of multiple piles sorted by keyword.

3. Gestures. Probably another best-of feature. Love the pie menus. Circle a bunch of files to make actions on them, such as pile by type. When viewing images, drag to the left or right to navigate between images, etc. BumpTop also uses drag-n-drop features, such as dragging files onto the email icon to automatically attach them to an email. You can also drag icons onto walls, but I find that every time you click them or double-click them, the slide down the wall. A bit annoying.

4. Photo frames. Who cares? If I want a cool way to view images, I'll use a real image-viewer. However, if you want a constant distraction, you can set up a photo frame to cycle thru pics from a folder or rss feed. Neat?

5. Facebook and Twitter icons. At first I thought these were just dumb links. They're actually "widgets" to which you can throw or drop files such as pictures to share them via each service. Slick.

9. Physics and 3d: I find the physics to be a bit clunky, but I think that's more a matter of me getting used to the gestures (such as a 'throwing' a file towards a pile to add it to that pile). I have noticed that larger objects are more difficult to move - I'm anxious to see if this helps organize tons of files or not. I think the 3d aspect is one of the stronger aspects of the program. This allows users to spatially attribute organizational control to many more files than a simple 2-D desktop.

Conclusions: I've always avoided using the desktop as ... well, a desktop because Windows offers such crap options for the way to view it and organize it. Therefore, I always stick my working files in a folder (aptly named, "Working") so I can view by list or details or what have you. BumpTop offers a fun way to keep all my working files in one location, so I'll be giving it a try. The extent of its usefullness will be determined in the future.

Wish list:
- Keyword piles
- Make one of the walls a browser
- Keep your metaphors consistent: piles of piles should be piles of piles.
- A way to view details of files as well as sort and search by them

modern art

archigeek — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:12:00 -0700

Code: Flickr Developer Blog » The Only Question Left Is

randometc — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:19:57 -0700

Schizophrenic Brains Not Folled by Optical Illusion

(author unknown) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:50:46 -0700

Shared by Archigeek
I cannot control my brain. Unless I'm high, apparently.

Schizophrenic Brains Not Folled by Optical Illusion

Lizzie Buchen — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:15:00 -0700

Picasa-Webalben - ysamjo - web

ysamjo — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 05:40:52 -0700

The Community College Student’s Food Pyramid

Cheezburger Network — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:00:18 -0700

The Community College Student’s Food Pyramid

Graph by lynnym, via our GraphJam builder

big spending

archigeek — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 10:04:00 -0700

I read this economist's posts, and today's has some scary graphs about projected government spending.

http://www.thredgold.com/html/leaf090401.html

March 31, 1999: The Matrix Hooks Us

Scott Thill — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:00:00 -0700

I Just Twoted All Over the Place

archigeek — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:03:00 -0700

Twitter, explained:

Please Miss, How Do You Re-Tweet? - Twitter Heads To UK Schools

(author unknown) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:58:08 -0700

Shared by Archigeek
What is this world coming to?

No, it is not April Fools day - yet. The British government is proposing that Twitter be taught in elementary schools as part of a wider push to make online communication and social media a permanent part of the UK’s education system.

And that’s not all. Kids will be taught blogging, podcasting and how to use Wikipedia alongside Maths, English and Science. The draft plans were due to be published next month, but have leaked early.

Children will also learn “fluency” in keyboard skills, and how to use a spellchecker. Luckily they will still be taught how to spell themselves, rather than rely on Mr Clippy.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Please Miss, How Do You Re-Tweet? - Twitter Heads To UK Schools

Mike Butcher — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 03:23:37 -0700

Children will also learn “fluency” in keyboard skills, and how to use a spellchecker. Luckily they will still be taught how to spell themselves, rather than rely on Mr Clippy.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

The iPhone OS 3.0 Announcement Scorecard

Greg Kumparak — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:42:34 -0700

Tomorrow morning the sun will rise, and tech writers from near and far will descend upon Cupertino. The steady rattle of fingers flying across laptop keys will sound like rain on a windshield, drowned out only by the endless assault of cameras firing at the stage. All that typing, all those photos, all with just one subject: the 3rd iteration of the iPhone OS. Guys in button up shirts and blue jeans will talk, slides will slide - and in the end, the masses will turn to their Twitter accounts with 140-characters of pure adoration or utter abhorrence. It’s just the way Apple events tend to go; for those who care enough to pay attention, there isn’t often much of a middle ground.

But what if, rather than attempting to gobble up all of the information and form an opinion on the raw, we were to go about it with predetermined and set-in-stone criteria in mind? What if we ignored Apple’s flashy presentation and entrancing ways, instead looking solely at the fruits of their labor and comparing it to what users have been clamoring for for over 2 years? For that purpose, we present: the iPhone OS 3.0 Announcement Scorecard.

The idea is simple: We’ve assembled a list of the most common complaints we’ve seen that we feel have even a remote chance of seeing a resolution tomorrow, and assigned each a value. This value was derived from how frequently the complaint arises online and in personal discussion. Some items may seem low to some, while others seem too high - every item’s worth is relative to the person keeping score, so feel free to shuffle points around if the values don’t seem appropriate.

Print it out and play along!

The Criteria:

Background Applications: This one’s a bit confusing, as many folks don’t understand that there are two possible interpretations of “Background Applications”. Last June, Apple announced that the iPhone would be getting “Background Notifications” by September of that year. Background Notifications allow for developers to send alerts to the handset, even when an application is closed - but data from the handset (such as its current location) could not be sent back unless the App was opened. A one way street, so to speak. September came and went, and Background Notifications were no where to be seen, leading many to hope that Apple had ditched Background Notifications for a more two-way solution, be it full background processing or something else. If Apple clears the air about Background Applications, they get 20 points - but if it’s still push only, they only get 10. Consider it a penalty for missing their own deadline by half a year.
Copy and Paste: You know it, and you’re probably sick of hearing people whine about it. Some don’t care at all - for others, it’s the deal breaker that keeps them away from the phone. Kevin Rose says its a sure thing, and he’s always right. Sort of. 20 points.
MMS: Picture messaging. The go-to item for highlighting the iPhone’s shortcomings. How it has yet to make its way into an update still bewilders us. 15 points.
Video Recording: 10 points? What!? It loses a few points in our books (well, our list) for not being quite as useful as everyone pretends it is. Outside of the few high-end cameraphones where the camera bit is a major selling point, cell phone video tends to be absolute garbage that clogs up the (You)tubes. Jailbreak-only apps have already demonstrated the video quality as being rather meh. Apple might be able to do it better on the software end, but there’s really not that much you can do to a crummy camera sensor. It’s nice for catching that awkward moment at the bar, but it tends to devolve into a toy for many users.
Bluetooth Profile Upgrades: It’s a three-fer! There are a number of Bluetooth profiles that may be useful, but these are the three that seem to be on everyone’s mind. The Bluetooth Human Input Device profie, or HID, would allow for Bluetooth keyboards and mice (though the latter would be a no go) to be hooked up. This would be tough for Apple to pull off elegantly, as all of the Apps in the App Store are written for the on-screen keyboard. Wireless Sync would allow for the wireless transfer of data to-and-from a Bluetooth-enabled computer, though what sort of data that includes would be at Apple’s discretion. Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) would allow people to wireless enjoy their media with both ears. 5 points for each Bluetooth enhancement.
Flash in Safari: With the iPhone having one of the best mobile implementations of Youtube, we’re not 100% sure why the clamor for this is so strong - but it’s pretty deafening. Banner ads may be a nuisance and most games would work a bit strangely (if at all) due to screen size and input methods, but Flash has intertwined its way into the web in an almost unavoidable way. 15 points.
Landscape Keyboard in all default apps: Go start a new SMS. Turn the iPhone on its side to try to bring up the landscape keyboard. Won’t work. Try it in notes. Same deal. Email? Same. Apple may not be able to force every developer in the App Store to enable the landscape keyboard in their applications, but they can do it in their own apps. 10 points.
Tethering: We know it’s coming at some point - we just don’t know the nitty gritty details. Getting this to work in an officially endorsed and carrier-manageable way would presumably take a good amount of tweaking on the software end, so there’s no better time than now. 15 points.
Any of the 8 things we can’t stand: Last month, we wrote an article on 8 Little Things We Still Can’t Stand About The iPhone. As the title of the story implies, these things are quite little. Though trivial, they allow us to measure something we otherwise couldn’t: attention to detail. If Apple resolve any of our nit-pick issues, we can assume they’ve fixed plenty of other little things that don’t justify time during the presentation. Cumulatively, these little things matter to the experience just as much as some of the big ones. Chances are these things wont be touched on during the presentation - but if they are, that’s 5 bonus points for Apple for each one.

The Score:

120+: The perfect announcement. The untouchable debut. Apples will rain from the sky, the energy crisis will be solved, and cats will stop being jerks.
90-115: Not technically perfect, but we’re still mighty impressed. No more Copy and Paste jokes! Hurray!
70-85: If Apple manages to squeak into this range, there probably won’t be much naysaying around the internet. (Just kidding. Everyone will still complain, because that’s what people on the internet do.)
45-65:: If we were the bettin’ type, we’d put our money on Apple landing somewhere in this range tomorrow. Of course, this would also require a mystical gambling hall where they bet on Apple events. Most will walk away satisfied, others will feel burned that their must-have feature is still not at hand.
20-40:: Meh. One or two significant features, but is that enough to warrant the big jump from 2.2 all the way up to 3.0?
0-15: Event got canceled.

Of course, there’s one item that no scorecard could ever take in to consideration: the good ol’ “One more thing..” If Apple comes out and blows our minds with some feature we never ~~knew we wanted~~ considered (”By the way, your iPhone? It’s now also a love-powered jet pack. Enjoy.”), there’s no way for us to assign it a value. If something mindbogglingly amazing happens, consider the scorecard nullified - or just give the new goods a value and pretend it was on the scorecard the whole time.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

bloody fun

archigeek — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 05:55:00 -0700

A bit sick and twisted, but silly fun:

Play free games at Kongregate

fish moment of zen

archigeek — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:51:00 -0700

Gimme back that filet-o-fish
Gimme that fish
Gimme back that filet-o-fish
Gimme that fish
What if it were you
hanging up on this wall?
If it were you in that sandwich
you wouldn’t be laughing at all!

This song gets in my head like nothing else. And it makes me laugh every time. And, amazingly, make me kinda want to go out a buy a fillet - o - "fish."

arch.unemployed

archigeek — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:22:00 -0700

"There it sits among the produce and fish, amid sellers of honey and jewelry and pastry in the Ballard Sunday farmers market. Simple and unadorned, it reads like a wry joke -- except maybe to anxious students in the University of Washington's Gould Hall."

Crisis of Credit

archigeek — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 01:09:00 -0800

Saw this shared this morning (thanks, Mark!):

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

level 3

archigeek — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:50:00 -0800

level 3
Originally uploaded by Archigeek

I gained enough experience at work today to level up again.

Level 3 engineering geek.

Happy V-Day!

archigeek — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:28:00 -0800

it's been a while

archigeek — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:16:00 -0800

Wow, it's been a while. That's what happens when the holidays hit, and then I just check out of reality for a while. I suppose a trip to Colorado, and a subsequent one to Cairo don't help.

So a quick update on things new: I've been indoor rock climbing several times now - enough, I believe, to call myself a beginner instead of just some lame ass on the wall. The economy has affected even my side projects, canceling a website project I was ramping up to do. The bright side of this: I've redone the koasynth site because I had some time, and I was sick of the flash placeholder that had been there for almost two years. My day work is still solid, though the number of projects has slowed dramatically, leaving some days a bit longer than they should be.

I'm still flabbergasted at how differently browsers render sites, still. It's frakin 2009, and still they can't settle on a standard that they all follow correctly? Amazing.

And speaking of frak, BSG has nearly gone off the deep end. It's now the 'Weekly Kill Show.' Yet still entertaining...

Merry Christmas

archigeek — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:32:00 -0800

Or "Happy Holidays" if I'm to be politically correct. So Schuba's is on the list for tonight to see an old high school acquaintance that happens to be a friend of my girlfriend play with his band. Should be a fun time and a good way to kick-off my holiday break.

I'm still not done with gifts. 30 hours until Christmas and I've got one Amazon order trickling in, a few more to wrap, and they all need to get from Chicago to Elgin tomorrow in a wonderful snow/rain storm. I can't wait. Actually, I'm way ahead of schedule compared to my norm for the holiday season. Looks like I won't be up til the small hours tomorrow night. Sweet. Sleep.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Enjoy what warmth you find in family, friends, and bottles of joy.

And if you need some lewd humor from a few years ago:

chi-city

archigeek — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:05:00 -0800

chi-city
Originally uploaded by Archigeek

Friday night was my company's holiday party. It was a festive evening up on the 95th floor of the Hancock tower downtown. The view was incredible, and I did my best with some long exposures and a steadied camera next to a frozen window mullion.

superintendent's words

archigeek — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:33:00 -0800

Fell into my inbox this morning: An email with quotes from "a central-casting superintendent of the old school." The words belong to Jim Roosa, who passed away November 6, 2008. As the email's author says, "look past the 'construction language' and enjoy."

1. I’d rather be the only girl on a Greek freighter than sit in that meeting
2. He wouldn’t say XXXX if he had a mouth full of it
3. Run a job? He couldn’t organize a one car funeral
4. He’s slower then the second coming
5. It’s like killing chickens, there really is no clean way to do it
6. He’s stuck in my neck like a chicken bone. Can’t swallow him and can’t spit him out.
7. It’s so messed up it stands out like a XXXX-house in a fog.
8. He doesn’t have enough common sense to know to get out of the rain.
9. If I tell you it’s Easter, you better start looking for Easter eggs.
10. If I go in there without knowing the answers, they will be looking at me like a bug in a jar.
11. Hey what’s done is done, you can’t put XXXX back in the donkey (credits to Tony Soprano)
12. They are so stupid they would XXXX up a free lunch.
13. He doesn’t know if it’s raining or Thursday.
14. I’ll be watching you like a chicken hawk
15. If he were a gazelle on the Serengeti he would have been eaten by now.
16. They want us to track every bolt. Next thing you know we'll be counting light bulbs. It's like picking fly sh#% out of pepper.
17. He doesn’t know sh#% from Shinola
18. Let me tell you something, I ain’t as dumb as you look
19. The moron couldn’t put together a two camel caravan
20. If I tell you it’s Christmas you’d better start singing me Silent Night
21. Why don’t you just go back to the office and count some more paperclips, pretty boy?
22. Drawings? You can roll up those drawings real tight and stick them up where the sun don’t shine.
23. You’d better square up you’re a$$ and start XXXXing me Tiffany cufflinks (borrowed from Full Metal Jacket/ Sgt. Hartman, but used often)
24. He’s just an office rat, you know, a Wall Street Journal in one hand and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the other
25. Hey, you, how come I’m talking and I don’t see pencils moving! (from a subs’ meeting)
26. Your extra tickets? Yes I got them, they are going through the shredder as we speak.
27. How ‘bout I sign your extra tickets as “Abraham Lincoln”
28. Shut up. When I want your opinion I’ll give it to you.
29. If it can’t kill you it ain’t construction
30. Do I have to get an Act of Congress or call George Bush to get you off your lazy a$$?
31. Get out of the trailer and knock on the door first
32. He’s a real BS artist, can talk his way out of a traffic jam
33. Think about how many mouse-clickers we can fit on this floor
34. I’m gonna go out there and stir up some XXXX just for the heck of it. Keep’em on their toes.
35. Watch your step buddy, I got a caisson with your name on it.
36. Did I tell you about the job that burned down to the ground in Cleveland in 1961? That’s not in the corporate brochure.
37. Make sure you don’t lose (insert name of an Executive Vice President) in the building
38. And tell him not to wear his Gucci slippers when he comes to my jobsite.
39. I don’t give a XXXX how you did it at (insert name of another superintendent’s job)
40. Sometimes I think he screws things up just because he can’t stand prosperity
41. Cheap SOB’s – they’d take the low bid if it was from Charles Manson
42. I remember him well, used to take his lunch money in grade school
43. Laptop? You won’t be needing a laptop. You won’t be spending much time in the trailer. Better go buy some thermal underwear.
44. Not much you can do with him. All you can do is give him a map and a ham sandwich and send him on his way.
45. If you can draw it up on your funny paper, I can build it.
46. If you have to talk, make it real quick. One word or less.

brain dump

archigeek — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:14:00 -0800

I should do this more often, but I'm trying to force my brain to excrete what it likes to think about. Easier said than done... This was a stream-of-consciousness thing, so please excuse the typos.

'architectural digital technology'

understanding computers
ones and zeroes
moore's law - when will it end?
affect of digital on the world's economy
efficiency, collaboration
breaking borders, geography no longer matters
work in a cube
your computer is your new home
spatiality of the digital world
spatial metaphors
information is wealth more than ever
common appreciation for design
apple, microsoft, google, yahoo, facebook
visualiziaton
communication
conceptualization
2d vs 3d vs 4d
mathematics of rendering
turning reality into numbers
blue pill, red pill, the matrix
virtually boundless capacity for storing information
grid computing
the cloud
capacity for computing continues to be pushed
push for hardware
push for software
hardware vs software
building design
building information modelling
why are computers still dumb?
color spaces, gamuts, the human eye
input devices - keyboard, mouse, voice, motion
display devices - crts, lcds, olcds, projectors
device size and its effect on workflows
contant communication
digital addiction
virtual communicative workspaces - message boards, wikis, email, chats
applicability of architectural design to the digital realm
human beings existing in a 2d world
dehumanization
evolution
permanence of digital information and spatiality
ease of 3d design - sketchup, modelling, shaping, molding
mathematics and geometry of digital modelling - polygons, faces, curves, nurbs, vertices, vectors
visualizing information - radiohead's house of cards
edward tufte
resolution - printed, screen, rods and cones
video game generation - comfort and familiarity with 3d
native and intuitive interfaces
the layer metaphor
sketch, talk, model, render, revise, repeat
copyrights and intellectual property - clinging on to 20th c. reality
architects are designers of space - this can be applied to just about anything
pragmatic thinking in a digital world

Transit systems join long line for federal bailouts

Kevin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:00:00 -0800

The CTA and 10 other transit agencies went hat in hand to Congress Tuesday, asking for the Feds to guarantee long-term financing deals that have soured recently with the global credit meltdown, Crain's Chicago Business reports.

Last week, Crain's reported:

"The Chicago Transit Authority has asked a judge to intervene in a contract dispute that threatens to shut down the agency’s Green Line and force the agency to pay $76 million in damages.

"The CTA has an agreement with EntreCap Public Financial Holdings LLC of Connecticut and two other organizations to lease back property, railway tracks and train stations on its Green Line. When the 45-year contract was signed in 1998, the CTA’s payments were guaranteed by American International Group Inc.

"Two months ago, AIG’s credit rating was cut amid the U.S. mortgage meltdown that claimed several financial institutions and forced a federal bailout of the former insurance industry powerhouse.

"AIG’s rating cut triggered a clause in the CTA leaseback contract that required the already cash-strapped transit agency to find another backer in 30 business days or face a $76-million penalty, along with the end of the deal with EntreCap."

Tuesday the transit agencies asked the Treasury Dept. to guarantee these deals instead. Crain's had a great quote from a Maryland congressman: "I made the point that it would be wrong to ride to the rescue of private Wall Street firms and then leave public transit agencies out in the cold," Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, told The Associated Press last month.

Electronic Waste

archigeek — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 -0800

Watch CBS Videos Online

Good Quote: Barack Obama on Dumb Debate Questions

(author unknown) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:42:47 -0800

Shared by Brian L
You said f*@#... I won't tell.

"I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, 'You know, this is a stupid question, but let me ... answer it.' So when Brian Williams is asking me about what's a personal thing that you've done [that's green], and I say, you know, 'Well, I planted a bunch of trees.' And he says, 'I'm talking about personal.' What I'm thinking in my head is, 'Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I f***ing changed light bulbs in my house. It's because of something collective'." - President-Elect Barack Obama, during preparations for the primary debates, via Newsweek's Special Election Project, "How He Did It, 2008."

Dumb debate questions, with a brilliant response. It's so refreshing that President-Elect Obama get's it and sees the bigger picture. It's clear he doesn't literally means changing light bulbs won't make a difference, but it's all the levels at which we act that create comprehensive change. What do you think, do you agree with Obama's response? Image by Scott Hansen

flu shots

archigeek — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:35:00 -0700

I know fall is here because I cannot go anywhere without an ad, billboard, or email reminding me to get my flu shot. I've been joking a lot with friends about absurd conspiracy theories behind the shots (that they allow the government to track everyone... heh), so I figured I'd throw a few minutes into some internet "research" this morning.

The American authority on this matter are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I also referenced a bit of the Illinois Department of Public Health.

About 10-20% of Americans get the flu virus each year.
The flu shot prevents influenza for 70-90% healthy adults under 65 years old, 30-70% of those over 65.

Okay, fine n dandy. What gets icky about these vaccinations is when the CDC touts that "the flu causes" 36,000 deaths and 200,000 hospitalizations annually. These deaths are based on statistical models, not on real, recorded deaths. I'm an engineer and love numbers, but I also realize these numbers are recorded by people, and if you look for real numbers of recorded deaths directly attributable to flu, it's difficult to find stats of more than 1000 in a year.

What the CDC does is lump flu with pneumonia for its statistics, and sometimes the data is even more general as "respiratory illness." For instance, here's the 07-08 summary.

90% of deaths and 63% of hospitalizations due to flu / pneumonia occur for those over 65 years old (source).

What remains unclear from my brief research is the link between flu and pneumonia because the CDC simply states "flu can lead to pneumonia." This excerpt with CDC sources shows that of the 62,034 deaths from flu/pneumonia in 2001, only 0.4% were from the flu.

Think about that. How many of those 0.4% led to the other 99.6% of deaths - the link that the CDC suggests? Were those 99.6% bacterial or viral pneumonia? If anyone can find this data, please share.

Peter Doshi, while a Harvard graduate student, wrote a nice review on this topic, which was posted in the British Medical Journal.

My conclusion, before I get into conspiracy theory: consider a pneumonia and a flu vaccine.

I tend to believe in the evils of money - not that people singlehandedly have malicious intentions, but where machinations can be obscured in groups, data, and collective-thinking, it seems to be easy for things to go awry. Consider our present financial crisis...

The flu vaccine is given about 80 million times annually in the US. From my own rough sampling, these cost about $20 each. That's $1.6 billion. Each year. Contrast this with about $30 for a pneumonia vaccine, but consider that these last up to 10 years. That's potentially only $240 million per year. Not quite as lucrative... 15% as lucrative.

My final comment: Vaccines are good. I'm glad we have science that can provide these wonders. Just please be aware of how they are being used.

And if you want more controversy, mercury.

TV cards

archigeek — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:49:00 -0700

Thought these were pretty funny:

http://glark.org/truthful-tv-title-cards/

Zima? Zima!

Bryan Bowden — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:42:40 -0700

I just read a story in the Tribune that MillerCoors is ending production of Zima. That’s interesting Tribune, but I think the real story that blew my mind was the fact that MillerCoors was still making Zima. Which brewery was still making Zima? The one trapped in 1992? I guess this gives me hope that somewhere there is a lonely factory making Cross Colors, Hypercolor t-shirts, and Zoomba pants. It makes my mullet smile.

(picture from maaco)

day 3

archigeek — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:05:00 -0700

I'm on my third day of being part of the iphone elite. Psh!

This iphone thing is probably the coolest gadget I have ever used:

I downloaded the Laundry app, which when I run it, not only does my laundry, but also separates the darks from the whites from the colors. Yesterday, I grabbed the Maid app, which has this funny character that reminds me of Rosie from the Jetsons, but she left my shower as clean as the day I bought it. My favorite app, tho, is the Wolfgang Puck app, which made me a fantastic steak and lobster dinner last night.

But I think I'm getting the most cred for the RPN Calculator app. It's definitely the best way to make your engineering cohorts go "Ooooooo."

And, Dad, yes, the thing can even make a phone call. I just wish I could have gotten it in lime green...

Randomness I miss

archigeek — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:52:00 -0700

Rainy days seem to make some memories return. I happened upon some old old rusty and dust-covered writing I had done from back in the day when I was much more hippie and much more hopelessly romantic. But time helps fade that away.

I miss summer evenings on a hammock. Laughing til I cry at late night television. Walking aroung campus soaked in warm rain. I kinda even miss feeling blissfully ignorant of what the real world's all about.

But back to reality. It's fun to think about what is and what could have been.

vote

archigeek — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 07:49:00 -0700

cute:

photos n MPs

archigeek — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:43:00 -0700

Digital cameras have always used megapixels as a primary statistic for marketing. It's been a good one. It's a simple number that represents how many million pixels can be recorded per photograph. But as MPs get higher and higher, their change in value decreases.

So I put together this chart to show how much height of a printed photograph (300 dpi) you'd get per megapixel for a 4:3 ratio image:

When cameras used to sell with lower MPs (2-5 MP), the difference was significant. Nowadays, the difference is more constant per increase in MP.

Here's another, showing a photograph's height per MP. Keep in mind that you can double these heights (150 dpi) and still have a very good photograph.

I wanted to put these charts out here 1) because I was playing with Google's spreadsheet charts, and 2) to show that the average camera nowadays (I'll go out on a limb and guess it's around 7 MP) is more than enough to print big photos. Additionally, I'd like to further discount MPs' marketing privileges by pointing out that as MPs increase in cameras, the lenses are more or less staying the same: small and compact. Just because you're throwing more MPs behind the lens doesn't mean the lens is letting in better light.

gd

archigeek — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:22:00 -0700

Dear Rockbox, take a graphic design lesson from Apple. Your new looks are fun, but you can't read shit.

I downloaded this a few weeks ago and was plenty skeptical: Cooliris. It's surprisingly simple and feeds me lots of images and videos with minimal clicking and intuitive scrolling. Oh, and it looks cool, which is always a nice bonus.

A new laptop came my way a few weeks ago, and it's been treating me well. I'll probably do a mini review of it when I get a chance and want to record my thoughts in that department.

Anyone have any news on 32gb iPhones?