Archive for February, 2007

Zach Tatum

Zach Tatum has a collection of really stunning photographs… and he’s still in highschool. Very impressive.

My ideal car

I’ve found my ideal car: the new BMW 3-Series hard-top convertible. What a beautiful design. Interestingly, the M3 might still come with a soft-top because of weight considerations. Of course, they’re both out of my price range for now, but I can still dream.

Laser Tag Graffiti

The Graffiti Research Lab’s latest project: Laser Tag Graffiti. Photos on flickr, video on YouTube.

Plastics and metals

WorldChanging has a couple of interesting articles on the choice of plastics and metals in product design.

Update: fixed broken link (thanks Diede!)

Kodak to disrupt printer industry?

Here’s a bold move from Kodak: they’re launching a printer with cheap ink cartridges. Just like the razor industry, the printer industry is based on the lucrative scheme of selling cheap machines at a loss and recouping the cost on outrageously expensive supplies. This has obviously been a pain point for consumers, but no one has had the incentive to change this model. Kodak needs to do something disruptive to gain share in a crowded market — sometimes all it takes is one dissident to bring down the system.

Stereographic projections

Stereographic projection is a really interesting way to display panoramas. Also see the Wee Planets photoset, as well as some more info about panoramic projections.

Tech support

This tech support video highlights some usability problems with a common product.

Route 66

Ken Rockwell has posted some nice shots of Route 66 … nice enough to excuse his blatant abuse of the wide-angle ‘wow’ effect!

Insect flight control

New Scientist writes about a robotic helicopter inspired by insects:

This allowed the tethered micro-copter to take off gracefully, maintain altitude over varying terrain and land, all without any means of directly measuring its speed or height.

Read more about optical flow.

Windows Vista packaging

The FrogBlog posts about the new Windows Vista packaging. Most interesting however are the comments questioning its environmental friendliness.

Update: link added. Doh!