Grad School and Kindergarten
Another brilliant illustration of graduate school by phdcomics.com. Amusing. (click the image to enlarge)
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What’s in my bag?
I stumbled upon this interesting project of “what’s in my bag?” where random people around the world take a snapshot of their bag contents and collate it in a slideshow. Interesting!
From the creator of this project:
Its intriguing what people have in their bags. Use your discretion to veil sensitive info. Please join in, and you don’t have to just be creative individual that takes part. Anyone can do it and take part.
Interested to take part? Get your bag, camera, and head over to this page.
Electric cars and charge challenge
Japanese giant manufacturer Mitsubishi motor sell its first mass-market electric car in showrooms today. This electric-powered vehicle technology is one of the key answers to international calls for emission reduction in the automobile industry. And the great thing in 2010 is the affordability of this technology to reach the mass.
The electric car can travel 160 km in a single charge which takes about 14 hours using household electrical outlet or a quick 30 minutes charge using designated charging station at public places. Presently, there are about sixty public charging stations in Japan and the government is planning to increase the number in the coming years as more electrical cars hit the road and demand for such charging station increases.
Other car manufacturers like Nissan, Toyota, and Ford are preparing their electric cars for sale in the next 1-2 years. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Ford are collaborating to develop smart technology to manage and tackle the charging challenge which is likely to happen when there’s a surge of electric car ownership in a neighborhood.
Certainly, the automobile industry, electrical and utilities board, information-technology player, and our society in general are progressing towards a cleaner transportation mode which put less strain on our planet.
The iPad paradox
A recent (hmm.. not so recent actually) seminar I attended discussed what it means to formulate and sculpt an experience. The answers encompassed broad spectrum of perspective ranging from those closer to psychology, to ethnology, to art, and everything else in between. It is certainly not a concept which comprised of identifiable discrete factors, nor an easily formulated recipe that works for everyone. If it’s that complicated, then what it means to design the experience that people wants nowadays?
Observing design-scape in the recent years, since I delved into visual design that is, one branch of the trends is going deeper into minimalism where plain, basic, simple design is treasured as much as a heavily adorned piece of artwork. Minimalism sprouted in interior design, architecture, product design, visual design, and everywhere else in design-scape. Do people appreciating these plain and bare designs try to escape from hurdles and complexities in their life? Perhaps. Well, at least that’s what works for me.
I ditched the operating system that bog me down with weekly and monthly maintenance.
I pass on a feature-packed organizer which gave me an overly complicated synchronization problems.
I tossed away that overly confusing scientific calculator, packed with arrays of buttons, opting for a less scientific version.
All those overly complicated but feature-packed devices were replaced with something simpler. Less features, less bells and whistles, but works like a charm. Hey that works better for me! Relating this back to the minimalism, designing something with less feature can possibly be a must-have feature!
Recently, I stumbled upon this iPad paradox which echoed my thoughts! Have a look at it if you have five minutes to spare; it’s a nice article.
Customizable friendster profile page, low-level customization of WindowsMobile-based smartphones, and feature-packed MP3 players are some of the things of yesteryear.
Now I’m pretty sure there are plenty of people out there who are hungry for products with less feature, locked-down services, and minimalism in general. Yes, one size doesn’t fit all. Minimalism isn’t the only way to go. But the popularity of twitter, facebook, and Apple’s “i” products certainly show a sound trend towards simplicity.
Tips: Writing a paper
Ha! I found this brilliant tips in writing a paper from phdcomics.com. Certainly useful for my due-soon paper! (click to enlarge the comic)
Wiggle Stereoscopy
Martin Sutherland wrote a step-by-step guide on a new approach to produce 3D image without the need to wear red-blue glasses or other form of 3D glasses. His approach can be applied to most scenery, particularly those with one or two dominant subjects at the foreground, and a fairly far background. The 3D image is produced by flashing two images of the same scene taken from two angles. The result is pretty cool. Check out the 3D image below.
The first image wiggles as it flashes two similar images continuously, making the monster and the toddler appear far apart from the row of houses at the back. The second image is just one of the two images shown in the previous wiggling scene. You can compare how the second image looks so much flatter than the first wiggling image.
If you’re interested in the details of the making, read Martin’s post at his blog.
While waiting for the experiment…
A comic strip from phdcomics.com about several things to do while waiting for the experiment to finish:
And we know there are plenty of choices to get a quick bite when the tummy growls.. but somehow we’re ended up at the same place. This graph brilliantly explains why it is so.
Hilariously true!
Ukulele Kid
Another web sensation. I smiled throughout the clip watching him playing Mraz’s “I’m Yours” his way.
gBuzz
This Buzz announcement page greeted me a few days ago when I sign in to my Gmail. This Buzz and Gmail hybrid is akin to the feeling of gWave I tried a couple of months ago.
Leon wrote how to link Buzz with blogs and I thought it’s great, so why not give it a try. So I followed the steps; one of it is to update my Google profile and link it to this blog. So there you go. Let’s see if this works.
Upular
Lovely remix of bits and pieces from Pixar’s Up. A treat to your ears!
Discover more lovely remixes at the artist’s page at last.fm, mostly available as free download.
