Wow - Google Sketchup, this is not!

I believe the screen is a Wacom Cintiq, by the way - they’ve been around for a few years.

Love someone’s sense of humour!

Saw this the other day and just laughed, aloud, alot. Not sure why. Giggling as I type this, actually.

Click to see the humour enlarged.

I have always thought I was pretty good at eyeballing shapes and lines - but I scored quite badly on this. Maybe I rushed?

The Eyeballing Game

Test your Colour IQ

Scored quite badly on the colour one too - will have to sort out a way of cheating..

Saw these on laughingsquid and was amazed! Give them a watch - honestly.

Beached from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Bathtub II from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Bathtub III from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

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.
(more…)

Found these just growing out of my lawn one morning..

Ah, SmartRider - my nemesis. I found this one on the ground and in the spirit of scientific enquiry, cracked that sucker open.

Actually, I plan to try and embed this into a nifty resin bangle - or ring? - and I didn’t really ‘crack’ it open, I used acetone to dissolve the plastic card (and most of the chip too - see last photo).

Click the More tag to see some more pics (click to enlarge). (more…)

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.

This morning I got playing with a borrowed 35-105mm lens and my 28-80 sigma lens, and attemped to replicate this trick which I heard about a few weeks ago (The video is embedded after the (more) tag in this post).

My results were pretty sketchy, it seems like there’s some sort of distortion and an amazingly thin depth of field. It also seemed impossible to get everything focussed correctly; I guess it’s going through about 20 lenses!

Click more to see the video how-to and some more photos I ended up with (not edited at all, and sorry about the size). (more…)

This afternoon, I made a USB thumb drive on a whim, while waiting for something to dry in the workshop. It’s a bit rough - I’ll try again soon and make a more refined version :)
Click more to see some other photos and a little bit of words.
(more…)

Just found this article on 10000words.net - 30 Amazing photoblogs (and a few tips for creating one). For those not in the know, photoblogs are like normal blogs but with photos instead of words, OK?

Look at the comments on that article too, because there links to more photoblogs.

Via Digg.com