thoughts

Wowzers! This is some crazy cool Non-newtonian Fluid(Cornstarch and Water)! Basically, it’s a liquid that hardens on impact and softens when idle! Run across a pool of it, or stand still and sink! A must watch video!

Reminds me of Liquid Armour(Shear Thickening Fluid), which stiffens upon impact as well. It also reminds me of Magneto-Rheological Fluid Technology, which doesn’t harden upon impact, but hardens when a magnetic field is present. They have a video on their site, and I’ve played around with this stuff which is pretty cool!

One last hardening type material is spyders soft futuristic and flexible d30 material clothing which instantly hardens like armour upon impact, protecting this years winter olympians. Check out their webiste for more! I want one!(d30, or spyder) This is such an awesome new material for kick-butt brain storms!

world usability day 2006

It’s World Usability Day, so take the day to think about everything that you use, touch, see, or hear and ask, how can I make it better? Is something broken, confusing, too complex, or just not working?

Whys: You should ask why is the VCR clock never right, why are instructions manual so dang complex to understand, why must batteries switch directions each time, why does some packaging require scissors to open, why does my phone have a ton of feature I can’t use, why are nutrition labels so small, Why is the wireless router such a pain to set up, and why don’t public bathroom doors have foot knobs.

Hows: You should ask yourself how can a grocery bag handle be better, how can cleaning be easier, how can road signs be more useful, how can parking meters be better, how can webpages be easier to navigate, how can driving directions be easily understood, how can emails be easier to sort, how can keyboards improve, or simply, how can I reduce the steps it takes to do something.

Woohoooo for usability!!

mfa mba

Here’s an article about the ever going question of designers becoming business leaders in our future. Personally, I think the picture above says it all, but if your interested, read the article via core77. Otherwise, if you want to hear an enlightening and inspiring lecture about creativity in our education system, watch this incredible video by Sir Ken Robinson.

toms shoes

You buy a pair of these comfy espadrilles inspired shoes, and TOMS matches every pair purchased with a donated pair to a child in need on your behalf in South America!

I love this idea! Not only are these stylish comfy slip-ons great, but they represent a great cause! Sure there are those brands that donate 5% of profits to some fund, but it’s a very different feeling when the very product you purchased is also the donated item! These shoes now represent a much more connected feeling and understanding of the cause. Founder, designer, and “Chief Shoe Giver” Blake Mycoskie has a great story and video you should watch!

Quick thoughts: Brands are becoming such a huge part of our future. They represent a lifestyle and status of life, but they are also icons in solving global issues. Sure there are the ones that do small stunts to satisfy the PR world, but most companies don’t care unless they can profit from it with money. Brands must now echo real global solutions, such as sustainability, poverty, disease, hunger, education, or even as simple as providing footwear to the needed. Losing some profits to gain a much stronger brand experience is not a need, but a must! Our informational society is in the know, and small things can really destroy a brands loyalty.

I’ve been influenced by Greenpeaces “guide to greener electronics“, the Corporate Fallout Detector project, a great deal by William McDonough & Michael Braungarts book Cradle to Cradle, the exhibit and book Massive Change, and the new must buy book WorldChanging!

via Springwise

A few more pics after the jump!

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victor and rolf store upsidedown

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to walk around the ceiling, but never thought I’d be able to experience it, besides a few instances in amusement parks. Well, not exactly everything is upside down, but the Viktor & Rolf Store in Milan does just this. Check out some other great pics here or here. This also reminds me of a great prank I once saw here!

via apartmenttherapy 

Just to note, sometimes when you turn things, ideas, plans, etc up-side down, it sometimes makes things better!

like.com

Here’s a pretty nifty idea for a new visual search engine. “Like.com” creates results from both text and image matches! Take for example, a silver watch you saw in a magazine, but you had no clue which brand it was. If you had an image of it, you would pop that image in, and ask the service to look for things that, well, looked “like” it! (They call it “likeness” technology) In most cases, people would go to Google Image or Froogle, but as we all know, not everything pops up in those searches, especially the ones you were looking for, mainly because not everything is indexed with the right meta tags.

Like.com is from the creators of Riya.com,which in short, is a photo sharing storage system with some smart AI(artificail intelligence). You dump in a thousand plus images in, tag a few, and riya starts to recognize images of people, puts them in groups, and automatically tags them over time. Riya recognizes colors, images, text, faces, and much more. The more people that do this and share their images, the better. Imagine seeing all those pictures of yourself from other peoples cameras during those holiday vacations you walked into!

Anyhoots, I tried out riya fro some time and enjoyed it, but never found those many tourists pics of my smiling in the mysterious background which I try to do often. Hopefully like.com will change and improve the image/product search world quickly.

via TechCrunch

Just a reminder from Seth Godin:

“Normally, people just show up. They show up at work, or at a conference. They show up on vacation or even sometimes they show up at home.

They aren’t doing anything special, they’re just doing.

Well, I spent the day with several hundred enthusiastic people.

This group, led by Jennifer Young, didn’t just show up. They arrived. They were purposeful and positive and prepared and in a hurry… but in a good way.

It didn’t cost anything. It didn’t take any more effort (in fact, it probably ended up being less of an effort.) They got more out of me, more out of each other, more out of the day.

Enthusiasm has a lot to be said for it.”
via Seths Blog

This is soooooo true! I’ve been at several firms, corporations, conferences, parties, etc…and you know what, it’s a real turn off when people show no excitement in their work, their life, or just meeting new people. People or places that thrive with energy, excitement, and enthusiasm really makes any kind of experience better and usually more productive.

If your office space lacks this energy, try throwing a goofy day, some wild retreat, a few wacky toys around(airZooka)(or a handful of toys from Kidrobot), buy a few bean bags or a beanbag chair, add more jazz and color to your space, dress up for halloween, or pretty much anything that makes ya feel like a kid again. If ya work in a stressful environment, perhaps you can make some foam soccer heads for everyone to kick around. Perhaps just the soft lovable “living stone” pillows will do the trick. If you have a larger budget and a larger space, get a robocoaster, a kick butt slide, fun art on the walls, a kitchen full of goodies that change often, or a few razor scooters. Keep in mind, Work is play, play is work!

ted prize winners 2007

The TED crew recently announced the recipients of the TED Prize for 2007:

Photojournalist James Nachtwey
Biologist E.O. Wilson
Former President Bill Clinton

Each recipient receives $100,000 to make their one world-changing wish come true along with the help of the amazing power of the TED community filled with shakers and movers in positions to make HUGE changes. They also receive a pretty sweet floating sculpture by artist Tom Shannon.(I’ll post a pic after the jump of it)

Watch the video above for the TED 2007 announcement, otherwise, you can view all the TED videos here. Bonos speech for the first ever TED prize was a good one…watch it here, or after the jump.

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pittsburgh

I made a quick visit to Pittsburgh recently and found it to be a little hidden jewel bound for a boom in growth, a nice variety of food (though maybe not in the sushi department), tons of sports fans(tons!), big hills, many bars, a few great museums, and an eclectic crowd of students though they seemed to stay on the campus side of the city. The cost of living is low, and many developments seemed to be popping up. I originally thought the industrial town would be smoggy, but not much smog was to be seen. The locals were friendly, though I have this weird feeling if you did not watch football (Steelers) they would give you a grin.

The town is filled with fleets of commercial businesses in the health care, financial, and retail departments, and a spoof of tech companies crawling in. My journey was short, but a nice glimpse of a town I’d never known about besides the many movies that take place there. One local I spoke to said there were 3 things to do in Pittsburgh: Eat, Drink, and watch Sports. I have my own thoughts but I’ll just post up a few pics after the jump…

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3d sketch furniture

I’ve always wanted to sketch in 3D with a pen that dispensed ink that solidified into wires upon contact with air, but that dream is yet to come true, but for now, lighting tricks will work. I’ve seen this lighting trick many times in the past, but I’ve never seen people use that data and transform it into a physical object until now. Pretty cool, even though the end results seem more like blobjects or objects made from cans of shaving cream. Watch the video above, or go to the YouTube of it here.

More pics here! via blogs.pcnews.co

poptech2006

Pop!Tech 2006 was an amazing brain safari filled with big ideas, great conversations, and a gathering of curious open minded people from all disciplines and places. I’d usually post tons of pics and detailed descriptions, but other guru bloggers have done this timing favor, a very detailed textual blog by Ethan Zukerman, or a more visual dose by core77. Hopefully they’ll post all of the webcast lecture online much like TEDtalks soon. Pictured above is Rodrigo and Gabriela rockin out the house!!!

Read those blogs for the full details, and hit up Flickr for some images, otherwise, I’m going to post my experience outside of all the great lectures after the jump with a bunch of pics:
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living stones

How freaking awesome are these! SmarinDesigns Living Stone collection lets ya dive into these ultra-cool soft pillows, making ya feel like your a kid again or zapped by that laser in “Honey, I shrunk the Kids” movie! Very much like MoloDesigns Felt Rocks, these larger pebble like sibling comes in various sizes, colors, and textures to bring that kid out in you again even in your fancy living room space giving it a fun playful vibe to get inspired by.

Personally, I think all offices spaces or even grown up spaces need these along with fun slides, sushi pillows, an Isle lounge chair, carpet poofs, and maybe a robocoaster if you have a nice backyard and like jolts of energy!

Tons more pics after the jump!

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