By Bjurström, from the student and upcoming designers booth at the Stockholm Furniture Fair

[Via David Report blog]

Flowing Danger
Nuclear Invincibility
Stoic Menace

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Microsoft, you don’t need Yahoo, BUY THIS FOR WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER!!!

Solar from flight404 on Vimeo.

[Via Neatorama]

Higher res images of the visuals here. More videos after the break: (more…)

And I add “so far” because evidently we are waaay far from reaching anything that could be labelled as “definitive” regarding UFO’s”. THIS is the link to the “Out of the Blue” documentary on Stage6, although there is a slight disconnect from this file and the documentary’s Wikipedia and Official page, where the movie’s publication year is shown to be 2002 (the website doesn’t say this textually but they are selling a “5 year anniversary edition”) and its running time 90 minutes. The documentary available on Stage 6 runs for 113 minutes and shows and narrates documents and events happened in the last few years up to 2007 (that, or I am mixing memories of documentaries). Perhaps this is the 5 year anniversary edition, I don’t know, but in any case, best for us; more material, more proof… more hope?

One of the “additions”, I guess, is the mention and extensive summary of The Disclosure Project (non-profit organization with the intention of de-classifying and disclosing all information on UFO’s) [wiki] National Press Conference that “hosted over 20 witnesses, most of them ex-military, who provided testimonies, some of them about the cover-up of the UFO issue. You can actually watch the full conference in Google Video (2 hours). I would however recommend watching Out of the Blue first.

Another document addressed in the movie and worth commenting on outside is The Cometa Report, roughly a French version of The Disclosure Project [wiki] [more at Ufoevidence.org with links to the complete translated report in PDF].

A skeptical Chris Harris from Autocar Magazine comes to certain conclusions after testing and going flat out in a Bugatti Veyron. Unbelievable speedometer live action included.

I have been looking for a video or article that gets the essential point about the Veyron across shortly and effectively. The fact that, for several reasons, it is the most remarkable engineering achievement in the auto industry. In the literal sense of the superlative. What’s most incredible is how all the test drivers are left with a feeling of dissapointment by realizing that they are never going to feel anything like it again. As Jeremy Clarkson put it last year “it’s not only the best automobile ever built in history, it is also the best car we will ever see in our lifetimes”.

[This is an actual email sent to my Transportation Design classmates and teachers]

I may have found the ultimate tool for creating the “bubble” or “memo” maps Shook introduced us to in Trans 4 this week; and what’s best, sharing them for active feedback: Bubbl.us That is, hands-on editing by those you choose. The obvious advantages of making the bubble map on this website/program are several:

Z. Automatic arranging and coloring of bubbles by levels.
Y. Manual rearranging of bubbles at any time, both in placement and hierarchy.
X. Shows primary and secondary connections between bubbles distinctively.
W. Shows direction of connections.
V. Option for exporting to high resolution JPEG, perfect for printing any size.

The less obvious but with most potential feature is the ability to share bubble maps with coleagues, and give either read-only or full edit access. The latter, in my opinion, can be especially useful throughout the semester in Trans 4 and I encourage all of you to try it out. Registration is easy through the invitation email I am sending you right after this one. (And no, I don’t get commission or anything from this :))

[Via Download Squad]

I’m tempted to start a new category, Technohuman, for innovative devices that augment our senses or skills in order to produce Superhuman results (really, the Hang Drum should be one of them). Monome, a year-old open source interface system with a grid of highly customizable button-LEDs, is one of them, and the most beautiful application is music.

Two more videos, including interview and demos by one of its creators: (more…)

De título original “The Green Machine”, éste documental de Odisea (2006) expone ejemplos privados y públicos, empresariales y nacionales, relacionados con energías renovables, construcción ecológica, sostenibilidad, etc. Ésta parte en concreto trata de cómo Chicago es una de las ciudades con mejores intenciones al respecto. Un parque verde en el tejado de cada rascacielos es uno de sus objetivo, y el ayuntamiento ya tiene uno.

[Upload de VSG71]

[Via Techeblog]

File this under civilization, society, human race evolution. It’s the next Windows OS

Media Alert: Microsoft unveils official name of “Longhorn”, the next-generation Windows. It’s Windows Vista, and you can forget it now if you want: you’ll be hearing it every day for the next 5 or 10 years. How big is that? You can watch the video and imagine me as one of the sectarians attending to the presentation. The slogan? Clear, Confident, Connected. Bringing Clarity To Your World. Fuck clarity, just bring Vista A.S.A.P.

Please Microsoft, integrate this in Longhorn (XP2). A research project to make overlapping windows foldable just as they were papers

First time heard about this I thought it was a clone of Sensiva, a software my Wacom and I couldn’t live without to perform common actions like minimize, maximize, close, open programs, etc. But no, the Fold n’Drop project would be a perfect complement for Sensiva and for a nearer Minority Report hand-gesture-driven computing. Also especially useful for those who don’t know you can drag a file from one window to a hidden one by activating the hidden one in the taskbar, these foldable windows behave exactly like paper, and your finger is the mouse. Do watch the video before you go mad blaspheming against my ineptitude in describing stuff…

So hot. Not exactly “pocketable” but small enough to fit in your laptop/gadget bag, this DLP front projector can create a 20″ screen

It weighs just 400 grams and the picture below speaks for itself. With a maximum resolution of 800 x 600 pixels, Mitsubishi’s PocketProjector, the first in the new breed of tiny projectors, may still not be very powerful for working or even surfing the net, but with VGA, S-Video and composite video input connectors, I do see myself using it as the standard screen for portable video players like my Archos Gmini400. $700 (or 540€ I should say) is not a bad price for 20.000 hours of lamp life (thanks to the triple-led lamp), but I’m waiting for the 1024×768 version. [Via Engadget]

A website referral search tool using Google’s engine to present the surroundings of a given site in a diagram-like graph

I’m not sure this is the future of searching or anything similar, but it certainly provides a curious —one of many, only this is visual— point of view of the network that relates a website with others. The fact that the way the links between sites are shown is drawn randomnly and that you can even move them around quite reinforces the “curious but useless tool” theory. Useles in the sense that, like, are you really going to add this to favourites? You have to check it out anyway. [Via Josh Spear]

Forget about Corel Painter, Photoshop or Tablet PCs’ Windows Journal, this is the best tool for digital drawing

I never managed to get my Wacom tablet nor my Tablet PC touchscreen to work right with Corel Photopaint or Photoshop. Pen-drawing is much more natural with Corel Painter but none of this software resembles a real paper sketchbook so well than Alias Sketchbook Pro. It has most drawing tools (the airbrush is impressive) and the original interface just helps you want to draw more. The sketch below was my first one, done in half an hour just to test the program.

The world needs a hassle-free truly customizable personal website service. Oh, Microsoft just released it

The fact that it censors certain s-words seems very secondary to me. That you can have your very own personal web page without the need of any special knowledge or web space is what really counts. The first person I know with an MSN Space has difficulties using interfaces like Hotmail but is already enjoying adding content to her virtual corner. I’ve seen some others’ and it looks like it offers some decent level of structural and visual customization. Photo albums, lists of favourite stuff, mobile publishing, ease of management, MSN Messenger integration and you have all your non-geek friends setting up sites. http://spaces.msn.com.

A website shows a regular map of Spain that turns photographic when you zoom in

The SIGPAC (Agricultural Plot Geographical Identification System) has photographies of all the spanish territory taken from several different heights, which show on a map once you zoom enough. This organization may not be interested in photographying from even higher altitudes but I can imagine a photographic map being photographic all the zoom way. If you know something similar for other country or even the whole planet, that would be great to know so don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

The jewel in the crown of the new breed of living room PCs where the computer and home entertainment worlds meet

The $1400-2800 Alienware DHS2 is a computer that looks just like a DVD or VCR player… and replaces it. Squeeze a Pentium 4/PCI Express graphics card core, up to 250gb hard drive, up to 4gb ram USB 2.0, Firewire, Ethernet ports, WiFi 802.11g in a traditional component-sized DVD/RW box with dual TV tuner, 5 different video inputs, 9 different audio outputs, infrared remote and several wise software and hardware functions and you’ll think you’ve really gone crazily geeky. Only that your mom enjoys it as much as you do, even though the Windows XP Media Center Edition software and wireless keyboard/mouse still remind that we’re talking about a PC here. Anyway I really think this is one of those few “next big things”. [Via eHomeUpgrade]

5 women have designed a Volvo for women, and it’s more than just beautiful

Apart from having invented some innovative design lines for the front and back optic groups (the part of the cars which receives less creative input since Audi revolutionized it with the A6) and in general having designed a very good looking machine, these women have included many new concepts and gadgets in the YCC to make their lifes (and ours) more comfortable. Check out the photos of the press release and a couple of videos.

This is technology XD

BargainPDA.com’s exclusive review of the Bluetooth Pen from the Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group).

World’s smallest and slimmest high quality digital camera

What can I tell about the Casio Exilim series of wearable credit card-sized digital cameras. Aluminium
case; dephts from just 1 to 2 centimeters; resolutions from 2 to 4 megapixel; zoom from 2x digital to 3x optical / 4x digital; fast power-on
and ultra short shutter lag; mp3 playing; SD/MMC memory card storage up to 512mbytes… always with you in your back pocket.

Communication over-the-air for devices that are close to each other will free us from annoying cables forever someday

Bluetooth is the evolution of narrowband wireless communication between small devices or between small devices and bigger devices (Infrared).
The 802 standards, more commonly known as “The Wireless LAN” is as simple as traditional Local Area Network, wire less.
Wire free your home audio/video experience with wireless headphones or speakers.
You could also charge your mobile phone or PDA wirelessly!.

P800 P800 P800. Everyone’s talking about this amazing Sony Ericsson phone-pda-camera-mp3player

If you haven’t heard about it yet, it’s time you are aware of the concept that has revolutionized the mobile world. I encourage you to read this article I wrote before putting my hands on one of these.

Computers have been using the desktop metaphor for 20 years

Steve Berlin Johnson explains how the traditional “files in folders in a desktop” system might be obsolete. Aren’t we using computers as much more than just intelligent versions of a desktop? Definetly: music, movies, communications, entertainment, hundreds of photos… Microsoft and Apple have already thought of two different ways of understanding how the 21st century people’s interactivity with computers should be. To be honest, I think they’re not radical enough. Minority Report was about life in 50 years time. Sadly, too much time for many of us. Read the whole article

Alternative to the usual computer with touch-screen that never works in Asian Society and Museum, NYC

A General Information System at the Asia Society and Museum, based on a fascinating organic design, where the decorative object becomes the technological instrument, designed itself to give information about the different countries in the Asiatic continent. A mixture of design technology and Asian talent.

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