A new way to interact with fiction from Jonathan M. Guberman on Vimeo.
Okay, this is officially the best use of an Arduino board to date. In case you are unsure of what’s going on in the video, you are seeing a typewriter being used to create the text of Zork, my favorite text-based adventure game from the 80s. What a delightful mix of old and slightly less-old via the entirely new.
(Thanks, Engadget!)
Bigfoot and me: A visit to the International Cryptozoology Museum
It’s posts like this that make me want to work for the mad geniuses at io9. I’ll go to the International Cryptozoology Museum and take pictures. Seriously I don’t mind one bit!
A keen-eyed Jalopnik reader caught this flatbed full of forbidden Alfa-Romeo Giuliettas barreling down a Michigan freeway! After being told that the US shan’t have the little Alfa hatch (until at least after 2012), I declare this truck to be the most sought after vehicle on the road. Find it! I must have it!
Did you know there is a punctuation that represents verbal irony? It looks like a tilde (~) over a period and it’s called the snark. I want to find a font that includes this keycap because I would use it more than any other person, I am sure. There’s even a website devoted to it: thesnark.org
(Thanks to ElectricLit for tweeting about this earth-changing bit of typography last night.)
The Fits.me mannequin may be the most cleverly futuristic piece of hardware I have ever seen. It is a torso equipped with motorized panels that can approximate a wide range of male body shapes. Clothing retailers can use this to create a database of photos of their garments and when a customer enters in their measurements, the correct photos is culled up. It works like this:
See? Genius. Never wonder what size is going to look best on you again! As someone who is often let down by unnecessarily boxy menswear, this could save my ass while internet shopping.
I love Douglas Coupland, having read Microserfs more times than I can count since middle school. I love Canada, having visited Toronto all throughout college (how I miss being just a few hours from Canada!) And, of course, I love both telecommunications and fashion in equal measure. So reading the following in an article on Alt.Engadget was like watching worlds collide:
Douglas Coupland may be best known as the author that popularized the term “Generation X,” but he’s also an artist, a designer, and a Canadian, so it makes a bit of sense that he would team up with that most iconically Canadian clothing retailer, Roots, for a new clothing line […] inspired in part by Canada’s history in telecommunications, and by Coupland’s idea that “what really links Canadians together is that we’re all far apart.”
Brilliant! The collection can be preordered via Facebook and features lots of tech-prints like television test patterns and matrices. There are also wireframe beavers on t-shirts and more than a few shopping totes in loud neon colors. My favorite item of all, the motherboard scarf, doesn’t seem to be available online (I hope just “yet.”) Prices for everything else are reasonable – gift, anyone?
…sitting in a fantastic old factory-conversion in a city somewhere, I would totally do my stay-at-home freelance jobs inside an antique steamer trunk. Like this:
Of course, I’d have to be a very successful blogger/designer/what have you because this monster costs $3,000 (and doesn’t even include the coordinating chair.) Damn you, Restoration Hardware!
And how are you today? If anything could end an eight year German streak, it could be this lovely little Italian number:
There is still quite a lot of speculation as to whether Alfa-Romeo’s return to the States in 2012 will see the Giulietta‘s arrival. After watching the launch video, I do hope that it is so:
Even if those in the camp of “we wish, but it’s unlikely” are correct, the sure to be arriving older sister, Giulia is an excellent alternative. Especially if the rendered shots are to be judged.
Whether I can work up the nerve to walk into even a former Chrysler dealership is another matter entirely…
Now, if I’ve registered to win a 2011 Audi A1 (which I have) as a US citizen (which I was able to do) and the car doesn’t go on sale here (as we’ve been told it won’t,) will Audi send one from abroad? Who covers that shipping?
You may have noticed that I’ve been entirely mum on the topic of the iPad over the last few days. Well, the truth is, I desperately want one and will probably early-adopt a brand spanking new iPad into the house as soon as I can. However, I haven’t really said much on the topic because I’ve been disappointed with a) the number of iPad hate posts that have been flooding my favorite blogs and news sources and b) the creativity of demonstrated apps from the Apple keynote presenters to developers in general. The iPad has the potential to be THE electronic reading device and I was promised truly revolutionary, mind-rattling content that was just not delivered
However, digital comic book publisher, PanelFly seems to have its head in the game in a big way. I’ve enjoyed their iPhone app thoroughly and I think the business model of comic sales in-app on a mobile device is brilliant. I mean, it’s the perfect thing to sell someone who is probably looking for something to tide them over on the train, in the car (not driving) or in queue for the next cashier. (I’ve talked about this in relation to iVerse, a similar idea, at my work blog, too.)
What makes PanelFly’s move to the iPad so delicious (and logical) will not only be the same things that make the iPhone app great: backlighting, control of reading experience, flexibility of reading experience, animation and a beautiful display for art. Instead, it will be the innovations only possible with a large screen, fast processor and slant towards sexed-up traditional media consumption (vs. its sidebar position on the iPhone.)
If Gizmodo’s preview of the technology – and the collection of screenshots from PanelFly – are any indication, this will be huge. And hopefully a preview of what the rest of a race of dying dead-tree publications will look like as they rise from the ashes. I’ll own the iPad anyway…
