Windows is pretty awful, and should have been binned about 7 years ago (Vista - don’t get me started). Microsoft keep resurrecting windows XP, and ironically it’s actually become quite a stable, reliable product. As long as you pay to keep it up to date, that is - plus pay for antivirus and antispyware etc. Then it usually shits itself for no apparent reason, requiring you to spend days reconfiguring it and setting up your system how you like it. Without endlessly tweaking it, it’s just plain awful to use.

Did you cotton on yet? I really despise Windows/Microsoft. They do some genuinely nasty stuff to consumers and competitors.

Anyway, you don’t have to use it - it’s not the be-all and end-all of operating systems. There are alternatives out there - Mac OS X is one - and GNU/linux is another.

‘Linux’ is really an umbrella term to describe hundreds of different operating systems, all using the linux core (the kernel). The differences between them are beyond the scope of what I’m talking about, but suffice to say that the huge majority are :

• Free (in every sense of the word)
  
• Super Stable
• Easier to Install that windows
• Come with all the software you’d ever really need (office programs, paint programs etc)
• NOT susceptible to viruses or spyware
• Easy enough to use that you can jump right in.

One of the driving philosophies of GNU/Linux is that it is open source - meaning that the software is completely free to use, modify and distribute. You NEVER have to worry about licenses, Windows Activation, or anything like that. You can just get on with using your computer for actually doing stuff. The whole FOSS (Free, Open Source Software) movement is hugely interesting.

I just installed it on Amanda’s desktop. Here it is (that’s Google Gadgets in the sidebar) - click for full size :

Click the more tag to hear more.
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Apple have always had their computers and peripherals manufactured in China and Taiwan - ASUS (nasty PC manufacturer) and Foxconn actually produce a lot of gear for them, but presumably Apple has a lot of control over the process.

9to5mac released a story on Saturday saying that Apple have now developed their own manufacturing plant/prococesses - “One of the biggest Apple innovations in a decade.” The innovation bit you’re wondering about is that they are using lasers to carve macbooks out of solid blocks of Aircraft grade Aluminium. Macbooks are currently made of polycarbonate plastic (and this morning I noticed a crack in mine!) while Macbook Pro’s are currently made of, I think, a magnesium-aluminium(-titanium?) alloy, probably machined and pressed into shape.

This is cool news for apple fans, because aluminium is damn nice. This is cool news for product designers, because they’ve invented a new manufacturing process, which doesn’t happen everyday (it has apparently taken Apple years to develop). I’m now interested in seeing which material - polycarbonate or aluminium - is more sustainable. Aluminium is a bitch to mine but lasts way longer and is recyclable.
9to5mac presents an interesting list of the advantages of this 3D manufacturing :

• - Carving out of aluminum eliminates the need to bend the metal and create weak spots or microfolds and rifts.
• - There are no seams in the final product, so it is smooth.
• - Screws aren’t needed to tie the products together.
• - The shell is one piece of metal so it is super light, super strong and super cheap.
• - You can be a whole lot more creative with the design if you don’t have to machine it.

Again, this puts apple a few years ahead of the competition. Like the Macbook Air, the company is pushing products at consumers that competitors won’t be able to match until sometime around 2010. If this rumour about the Aluminium is true (it probably is) then these macbooks will be available to buy in 8 days. This is why I like Apple.

I don’t have any useful updates about Perth and stuff, so here are two three things I got recently. (more…)

It’s pretty late, but this is so deserving of posting. The old Arcane Bookshop has been taken over by The Intercollective, who aim to reinvigorate empty, unused (wasted) urban spaces throughout the city. Their first project is SITE FICTION in the Old Arcane Bookshop until 3rd Oct (opp Brass Monkey on William St).
There are performances on every other night and changing temporary installations which greet me each time my inner-city bus crawls past there in the morning. How refreshing to get a fresh dose of public art every morn!
Basically their aim is to get passerby’s interested and interacting with these empty spaces. It’s all very topical for this period of land shortage! How cute is the photo of Claire above interacting with a common face in Northbridge! No amount of colour/light correction will do it justice!

The blog is great, and documents how hard it is to get your hand on land in the inner-city, even disused, empty space.
Here is a small smatter of some of the cool stuff they’ve already done. They are a dedicated bunch, a stroll down William St on any given evening might uncover some surprises… head down! Check out the Blog for more updates.

Playing with light and space.

An installation involving cut hands and salvaged bus shelter glass has an ethereal effect.

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It’s ARTRAGE festival time again and this year ARTRAGE celebrates its 25th birthday!  In celebration, the aptly named and freakin’ HUGE SILVER Festival (link!) will be taking place from the 16th Oct- 9th Nov. Seriously kids, it’s just going to be an awesome few weeks. I love how this festival kicks away arcahic traditions, with not one ounce of ‘Silver’ in its design theme. Instead replaced by the colourful works of Rose Skinner’s (of previous post fame).

Check out the website for the complete programme. Better still, get your hands on the real thing, a beautiful full colour pamphlet to hold in your hands and to cuddle at night. When it’s all over, show the bitterness in your heart by pulling it apart and cutting it up.

Here is a selection of the banners used in the website. Nice… real nice….

There is no more… because the websites are so fresh, they speak for themselves. Navigate and fill your diary! Call me if we want to get a crew going.

This’ll be great - FLEXHAUX is doing a Windows on Williams piece, too - so keep your eyes peeled. - Jeremy

I finally got my camera in the same place and time dimension as this cat-themed art.
This stuff has been popping up all over the place (3 at the back of the Bakery alone!). I have no idea who it is, but it’s super rad. Best paste-ups I’ve seen for a while in Perth. I mean, Cat Copy? KILLS ME!

Anymore sightings, please post away! I want to find them,… and talk to them about cats.

Look on! For close-ups… Yeah you know you like it.
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A friend pointed this out to me. I’m very into lightbulbs.. (Clicky Enlargey)

They are, apparently, repurposed lightbulbs, salvaged from bins (whatever…) and the set above costs in the order of US$650. I asked how they’re fixed to the base - apparently, using neodymium magnets (’scary’ magnets) which is quite clever. He might try and make one, so we thought about perhaps using a dense liquid (or even pouring in a molten metal like lead) to keep them stable - because you don’t really want them rolling away from you…
While the concept is great (though I’m not sure where I’d put it..) I’m not sure if I like the execution - I know from experience (pulling apart lightbulbs myself, okay?) how fragile and thin the glass is, and how difficult it is to separate from the base. I also can’t see any mechanism to pull the wick through. Should it be classified as art? Do you like it?
By the way, there’s 64 left (out of 70) so get buying.

Edit : Oh look :) (They don’t seem to realise I’m being gently critical)

I’ve never really paid any attention to luggage design until stumbling across these.  how cool do they look?  Said to be styled on the rugged fuel cans locked to the back of old army jeeps.  They somehow also remind me of boxes you’d see lying around the levels of shoot-em-ups like Quake or Doom or something.

Bree - Fall 2008 Collection -

Holy crap!

About Shapeways

Curious about 3D printing? This video explains how it works.

Have you ever wanted to turn your 3D designs into reality? Enter Shapeways! Just upload your design, we print it and ship it to you - it’s easy. Within ten working days you’ll hold your own design in your hands.

We’re using a technique called ‘3D Printing’ which has proven itself as a high-quality production technique, but up to now has always been very expensive. By creating a large community we are able to produce much cheaper, meaning better prices for you.

I emailed them, got this back :

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for the compliments!

And yes we do ship to Australia. Actually we ship worldwide in 10 days!

Best regards,

Robert

Well. I. Never.

Quinno’s spotted these skullcandy earphones :

Obviously, I like them (I’m posting ‘em aint I?), but also I’m intrigued by these in a few ways. The first is the $100. That’s the same price I paid for my Etymotic ER6I canalphones, which are pretty good. You can assume you’re paying a premium here for the wood - infact, I think with a product like this, it’s almost assumed. The brand name (Skullcandy) also sort of suggests that form might (!) be taking precedence over function here, but it’ll be interesting to tell. The reason I’m intrigued is because if you realise all this and buy the headphones, and they don’t sound quite that good - yet, as we’ve established, you may not expect them to - they certainly do look good, and so satisfy the purchaser’s main requirement. I do love the look of them though, and - if they were a bit cheaper - would probably buy them just for that reason.

The manufacturing process must be interesting - if we’re to assume it’s made of real wood, not some tricky composite or something. By the way, do you think they deliberately shaped them like nuts or acorns? Personally I might have experimented with a cylindrical or truncated conical shape, to counterpoint the ‘organicness’ of the material with a geometric form.

Actually, I’m thinking of a shape very similar to these, which I bought for Amanda. I didn’t tell her how much they cost (well, would you?) and it was actually very interesting - from a product designer’s point of view, of course - to see her reaction. They look and feel quite expensive (way better in real life, actually) and so she experienced an ‘expensive’ sound from them - although it’s also possible they sound like rubbish and she doesn’t want to hurt my feelings.

I don’t want to crap on about headphones all night but I do want to suggest that anyone looking for canalphones try these - they’re cheaper than the skullcandy or etymotics and by all reports sound fantastic (for the price). And the ears testing these ones actually can tell a difference..

A few months ago a hip flask was given to me which I unfortunately and unbelievably lost minutes later. I hit up ebay and in a predictable fashion ended up bidding on about 20 hip flasks, two of which I won. The tallest one I bought today, at the Claremont craft and antiques fair, for $12.
Observe (click to enlarge) :

LOVER®

Quin’s been clever and has stuck woodgrain contact paper to his laptop and camera!
“$3.50 roll of woodgrain contact from kmart gives my lomo cam a woody! hehe. considering doing my mac’s lid.”

Click each image to enlarge!
Edit : Here’s a pic of the back of the camera..

I bought some of these for a 21st recently (they were a hit). I got them at Test Tube Objects (Mt. Lawley) but you can also get them at Pigeonhole (Perth City).

They’re ceramic; each one personally crushed by the artiste’s own hand. You can see Rob Brandt’s other work here (click ‘5′ for the cups).

Justin just linked me to his friend’s, er, photostream? - on pxcream, a new super-duper photography sharing site for semi-pro and pro photographers (but tough luck for YOU - it’s in beta/invite only stage). Flufftreacle’s been touring South America since April, his photos are really stunning. Amazing colours and subjects - by which i am specifically referring to Monkeyman.

When I see Rose Skinner’s art, I feel like I’m walking through a toy factory in over drive, bubbling under a soup of neon pigments, and I’m looking for my inner child, who I can hear giggling in the distance, but not above the sound of sherbert popping in my ear and an army of small plastic men running over bubblewrap.

She makes really exciting sculptural installation art that makes me very happy to be in Perth.

I wish I could find more stuff on the net about her art, but ripping off her myspace will do for now.

From her time as artist in residence at the Breadbox Gallery.

An installation in the middle of Forest Chase. It drew small children.. like... well... a giant sculpture made of fluro plastics and candy.

One of her pieces was in Hatched, the national grad show. It was like a dome of candy... a DOME people…

Rose recently did a crazyarsehuge installation using popular foods (cheezels, mee goreng) and a whole lot of coloured sugar at the Breadbox Gallery. It smelt like a lolley store. The clean up was icky, but it means we’ll be seeing a lot more of her stuff, and for that, I am glad to haul bins of dubious gook.

Perth illustrator Sean Morris has a knack for wielding a fine tip ink pen and appreciating metal heads with no necks. His first solo show is on now at Behind the Monkey, Beaufort St.

I like this guys stuff, I want to be his friend.

See more at his own website and his blog ‘Paper Shields’.

And a small smattering of more brutal pen driven boganic dreamscapes… by the man (more…)

If hadn’t spent the whole day designing graphics I’d spend all night trying webdesign after catching some sick-as inspiration at web creme.

Web Creme | Web design inspiration

Holy shit weburbanist, go, go! Another piece on unusual and clever living room furniture.

Via Digg

There’s a blog and a link to some lovely photos of transistor radios on The Cosmonaut blog - The Cosmonaut: Transistor Radios

Everyone loves these oldschool slash moderne aesthetics, particularly me.

Thanks Quin..

We never wear pink for the dead. on Flickr - Photo Sharing.

Its nots just the photos in Hillary the mammal’s photostream I like but their curiousness when in context with their titles :-)

Weburbanist comes through with the goods again :

8 Highly Unconventional Modern Bedroom Furniture Sets

This is something that I remember from waaaay back when this were all fields - it’s the biggest subwoofer in the world (?). It’s so Italians can listen to Jazz apparently!

Honestly, have a look at the page - the horn is big enough for some Italians to stand around in, and 16 woofers are required to displace such a huge volume.

Click these pictures to enlarge (below) or just go straight to the page.

Via MakeZine.

Quin found this on eBay - It’s a Ducati Camera.. Ducati as in the motorbike. Ahh, those Italians. Pretty crazy no?

Can’t beat 1950s metal manufacture and finish though.

VINTAGE DUCATI SOGNO HALF-FRAME 35MM RANGEFINDER CAMERA - eBay

Click the more tag to, you know, read more.
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Weburbanist has this cool feature on Transforming Furniture!

Came across this brilliant page - But haven’t looked into it properly yet. I really should - my vector skills are not so..well.. skilful..
(It’s OK - I have Photoshop..!)

Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator and Photoshop Tutorials, Tips and Best Practice

The video I’ve been waiting for since I heard about it two days ago :

It’s filmed with lasers - specifically, LIDAR - a laser scanning system that captures the 3D point data of everything it ’sees’ (including Thom Yorke). This means there are no cameras involved (just a laser, really) and so it’s not actually filmed. It’s all just 3D data. Which means you can do this crazy shit and manipulate the video in real time, moving the camera around and zooming in and out. Like this :

(Click this image!)

(Click to enlarge)

Gizmodo also posted this video which shows the (sort-of more boring) making of :

Sativa are a (UK?) producer of hemp products including lovely soft bags :

I was looking at a nice padded laptop messenger bag in a shop in Lake St with Zoe but can’t seem to identify it on the site. Pretty pricey bags but really nice - much better than in the photos..

Basically too cool for me to find myself, Sally showed me.
It freaking erases itself then draws the time every minute.

Credit

More stuff from Etsy..

This is over at Etsy from the user tinyminds :

This is actually a BEAM robot (Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, Mechanics) - I got interested in BEAM about 4 years ago and have been collecting (and losing, mostly) tiny bits and pieces since then!

They’re traditionally made using recycled/scrap parts (from a VCR for example) - This is a ‘photopopper’, where a solar panel charges a small capacitor (slowly), and a pair of photoresistors or phototransistors (for each eye) control the ‘pulsing’ of two tiny pager motors. Really cute analogue electronics! Sometimes they’ll cleverly use the LED as a photosensor too.

Stephane Tartelin’s portfolio feels pretty quirky dreamy.  I like his unique character styles.

Magnetic Movie from Semiconductor on Vimeo

Yeah, pretty amazing. Click the ‘expand’ button to watch full-screen (resolution is pretty good)

Via Neatorama..