Two Become Something Better
Most of our audience can ignore this post, but for all those of you who are trying to setup named virtual hosts with MAMP on Leopard (and we know it’s alot of you), this might be helpful.
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College Students: I don’t know how long this has been around, but it sounds amazing. It’s a pen that records audio and links it with what you were writing at the time. Now, pens that let you transfer what you wrote on paper to your computer aren’t that exciting - I’ve never seen much use for them. But being able to write notes in class, and then link that to the audio of the lecture you were hearing just strikes me as incredibly useful. The pens are around $150, and seem to require a special type of notepad.
I’d love to see something like this for people who take notes on the computer like myself, linking audio to typing.
I never thought that I would be the type to like Indiana Jones. I’ve never seen any of the original movies, and the mental image of a guy who swung from a whip while being chased by a large boulder always struck me as a bit of a stretch. When I went to see the newest movie with Kierstyn last week, however, I was pleasantly surprised.
The visuals were stunning. The very first shot left my jaw hanging open in amazement, and they just kept coming. The effects were good, but it was the plain, “simple” film shots that really stole the show. Definitely worth going to see on the big screen. The story itself also good, although the end could have been more satisfying. There was plenty of humor, intensity, bad science, and large insectery. If you liked the originals, you’ll probably like this one alot. Even if you’ve never seen anything Indy however, I think there’s a good chance that you’ll find it worth the ticket. Overall, I’d definitely recommend going to see it.
Lowercase Tees
Predictably, lowercasetees attracted its share of negative feedback. “Some people, mostly Conservatives, have criticised us for putting a political message on a child, but my boy Spencer’s mommy does want a new President, and my daughter Isobel wouldn’t vote for Bush, so there’s no exploitation at all there.” (CA)
Darn conservatives. You’ve got to admit its a fun idea - I’m thinking of buying a few up for my sisters just in case Rush is right. I doubt they’ll have them for sale if their tiny “Obama” tshirt is effective in winning elections.
The Punishment Theory of Blog Reading
Pattern I’ve noticed with my own blog reading - if a blog is posting on a regular basis, you’ll start checking it on a daily basis, or whenever you think about it (which could be more or less often, depending on how interesting it is). Here’s the catch though - every time you visit a blog and there is no new content there, the blogger is effectively punishing you for visiting their site. Bad reader. Bad.
You’ve taken the effort to type in the address and get excited. They’ve disappointed you. If this happens several times, the you starts to realize that you really shouldn’t be visiting that blog so much. And the bloggers hits go down. So that’s the theory. I think it might explain a lot of the hit dynamics in the blog world. I think it also explains many geopolitical crises. Not that I’m necessarily suggesting that you do anything about it, considering that would be somewhat hypocritical. Haha.
Blender 2.46 RC1
That. It’s out now for playing with and testing. The new particle system is much happier, now allowing things like multiple systems on one object, boids (kinda like birds, except different), and (somewhat) advanced particle physics!
Speaking of particle systems, here’s something I made with the older system.
3D Dynamite Fuse Burning from Alex King on Vimeo.
Well, on that note, I’d probably ought to get back to writing my paper on theology and church government. It’s about how if protestant churches just had a pope, then there’d be lot less confusion in the authority structure. Yeaaaaah.
I came across an amazing tool this weekend called Processing. It allows you to generate images or video using programming methods and data. This is nothing new, but its simplicity and ease of setup makes it the digital equivalent of a sketchbook. Granted, you still need an understand of programming to use it (the script is similar to Javascript), it doesn’t have a drawing GUI, but its far more lightweight than building a program from scratch with C++ or putting something together in Houdini (which, as a sidenote, is finally releasing a mac version).
So far, people have been using it in a wide range of projects that go from visualizing bursts of Yahoo search queries to making flocking imagery for music videos (as show in the picture). Another very interesting aspect is the ease that you can access video, even directly from a webcam. This makes it ideal for testing out analysis techniques without a lot of overhead. Overall, it’s a very cool program, and you should definitely download it and try out the list of samples included at the very least.
Thought this was a humorous parody of the genre. Watch it. Laugh. Buy a volvo. And feel free to skip that last part.
Seen any other cool ads lately?
Ever wondered what the different drinks you see at a your fine local coffee shop actually are? What’s the difference between a Cappuccino and a Cafe Breve? And what is a Cafe Breve? Well you could just ask that person behind the counter, but if you’re a visual learner who likes illustrations, you might to check out this post (via SimpleBits). It shows the ingredients and ratios for nine different coffee drinks (I believe they’re all types of espresso). They might wake you up just looking at them.
This is, Alex. And Kierstyn. They're courting. And this is their blog. It's not courting, but it is sort of a combination of Kierstyn's Politically Incorrect and Alex's Smart Homeschool. We think they'll go well together. Kinda like thoughts and letters.
