Traditional electric coil tattoo machines have barely evolved since their invention in the late 1800's. Still in wide use today, these machines are heavy, awkward, loud, temperamental, and, worst of all, they can't be sterilized in medical grade autoclave machines. This significantly increases chances of spreading blood-borne disease.Dissatisfied with traditional coil machines, award-winning tattoo artist and inventor Carson Hill set out to create a completely new kind of tattoo technology--the first air-powered tattoo machine.
Iphone pic test
Testing out the wordpress app for the iPhone. This is a shot from Monday up on mt tabor. Nice bike ride...
Future May Be Brighter, but It's Apocalypse Now
Garfield: 'Chaos Scenario' Has Arrived for Media, Marketing - Advertising Age - News
The post-advertising age is under way.This isn't about the end of commerce or the end of marketing or news or entertainment. All of the above are finding new expressions online, and in time will flourish thanks to the very digital revolution that is now ravaging them. The future is bright. But the present is apocalyptic. Any hope for a seamless transition -- or any transition at all -- from mass media and marketing to micro media and marketing are absurd.
The sky is falling, the frog in the pot has come to a boil and, oh yeah, we are, most of us, exquisitely, irretrievably fucked.
Me want
New Derringer Motorized Bicycles
Derringer is the neo-classical interpretation of a 1920's era board track racing motorcycle, but that's not all.This revolutionary moto-hybrid was conceived as an exciting new option in highly-efficient transportation. Derringers can be pedaled as a traditional bicycle, propelled via engine power, or pedaled with the assistance of engine power. While under power, the pedals can also remain stationary, allowing you to operate in the style of a traditional motorcycle. Capable of fuel economy ratings that can exceed 150 mpg, Derringers are the first product to take the compromise out of environmentalism, clearly evidenced by the number of customers who purchase a Derringer along with an in-home display stand.
Derringers were specially designed to conform with the legal classification of a motorized bicycle and, in their standard configuration, do not require the motorcycle license endorsement that is necessary to operate scooters and mopeds in most states. As long as the rider is over 16 years of age, no drivers license is required.*
Man, one of these would be cool as hell.
For future thought
It’s probably fair to say that because of CGI, traditional studio photography will begin to fade away in the next couple of years. But to make great ‘photographic’ images, as with retouching, a healthy relationship between the CGI studio and photographer still needs to be a part of the image creation process. The role of the photographer is simply evolving, as is ours from just a retouching studio to a full creative production facility. Whilst we have a strong grasp of photographic technique, it’s preferable in many cases to also have a photographer’s eye looking over an image, as they can often help define the lighting and camera angles and spot errors that the untrained eye can’t always see.
So I am on the fence about this one. I was one of the first to call out the end of Photo Labs back in the 90's, but I don't know if photography will go away. I saud all the labs around will go away and there will be a few custom labs left around to do high end art stuff and thats it. Which is pretty much where we are at.
But this discussion about the death of photography we hear now is based on two fronts:
One, video is killing photography. Everything will be motion based and print is dead.
Two, CGI is killing photography. Why have shoot a product when you can just 3d render it.
Here is my main thought on both of these discussions. MONEY.
It all begins and ends with money. You think a retoucher is expensive and time consuming? Have a 3d model built and see what that runs. You think renting a studio for a still shoot is expensive? Add on all the hot lights and grips you need for a motion shoot. Plus sound and video editing. These are more expensive by factors of two all around. Don't forget that all of this take way more time to produce as well and time is money. You are not walking away from the shoot with a rough edit of the commercial to show the client the next day. That is weeks away. Same with 3d for any kind of decent rendering.
So I do not really see photography going away really. but on higher end shoots I see these other aspects being incorporated in the bag of tricks one uses to achieve a final goal. Video for "Harry Potter Newpaper-esque" loops on websites and 3d for incorporating impossible to achieve effects.
Font maker?
Font Generator - Make Your Own Handwriting Font With Your Fonts
# Your own handwriting turned into your very own font for free # Optionally include your signature and digitally sign your contracts # You'll have your very own font within 15 minutes # Make as many fonts as you like # Use your fonts on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux # Personalize your digital scrapbook pages and invitations # Make your own "family handwriting history" # Use your fonts in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and every program that you own
So this is interesting. Blogging it here to come back and test so I don't lose the link. I'll let you know how the results come out.
New Wacoms.
Working Under PressureWith 2048 levels of pen pressure sensitivity, Intuos4 gives you the creative power to dynamically adjust exposure, brush size, line weight, opacity and more. The Keys To Success
Work smarter not harder. Set-up the Intuos4 ExpressKeys™ to activate your own unique, time-saving shortcuts and modifiers in each of your applications. With Intuos4, remembering your shortcut settings is now as easy as casting a quick glance at the tablet. Each ExpressKey is now equipped with an accompanying illuminated display providing a constant reminder of the key's application-specific function.*
Interesting....
I wonder how this effects the Cintiq line?
A good idea.
How to Test RAM Under Mac OS X | Command-Tab
Memtest Usage To run memtest on a new memory module, first shut down your computer and install the new chip. (Some helpful guides for doing this can be found at iFixit, if you’re unsure of the exact steps.) Ensure the chip is firmly in place, close up your machine (or don’t, if you’re a pessimist), and power it on while holding down the Command and S keys to force Mac OS X to boot into Single User Mode. Once you see a black screen with white text, you can release the key combination. After all the system logging is done scrolling past, type memtest all 2 to test ‘all’ memory ‘2′ times. Two passes should be enough to detect any blatant problems, but I wouldn’t hesitate to let it run for hours on end if I suspected an intermittent memory problem (memtest all). When complete, you should be greeted with “All tests passed” if your new RAM is in good condition. If your system locks up or freezes indefinitely during the test, you may have a bad memory module on your hands.
addicted to information
"And I do believe we are becoming addicted to information. You only need to look at those people who have hard drives filled with songs that they have never even listened to. They are not even collecting music. They are collecting information. And the more people become addicted to information and the faster they can obtain that information, the less they will be able to contemplate that information, and it is the contemplation of the information which makes it art."An argument I've heard advanced is that there's been a general devaluing of music in recent years - not merely in economic terms and expectations, but as a more central role or defining marker of what makes a person and who they are. What would be your take on this assertion?
BC: "I do believe that music is generally being devalued because of this addiction to information that I was speaking of. I like to compare it to a drive through the countryside. If you are driving at a comfortable pace then you are able to enjoy the sights of the countryside for yourself; the trees and the color of the sky and the sad-eyed cows, etc. If you are driving 100 miles per hour, there is no way you will be able to enjoy what the countryside has to offer. You will be too busy reacting to contemplate; the potholes, the corners, the lone farmer's truck.
Oh, I know the pain....
Me moaning about shoddy UI inconsistencies and mistakes in Adobe products and how they get shittier with every release.
For the record I can not use CS4 with my comp for unknown reasons. I have been on support calls with Adobe and they say I have a unique case after going through hell and back.
The Teenager Audio Test - Can you hear this sound?
Clicking the play button below will produce a tone that is generally only heard by people under the age of 25. It has been used as a deterrent device to keep teenagers from loitering in malls and shops, and sounds similar to a buzzing mosquito. Typically the longer you listen to it, the more annoying it gets.
This actually hurt my ears and I'm well into my 30's.
We are becoming a new species, we are becoming Homo Evolutis - Ars Technica
The day may come when we are able to take the best biology of the known animal kingdom and make it part of our own. This isn't just about being a bit stronger, or having perfect eyesight our whole lives. All of our organs and limbs have weaknesses that can be addressed, and there are also opportunities to go beyond basic fixes and perform more elaborate enhancements. At a private lunch on Thursday, Enriquez spoke of a young girl who, after suffering a knee injury, received tendon replacement therapy centered around tendons grown in a lab. It not only fixed her knee, but made it stronger than normal. Later in life as she pursued life as a professional skier, the coach actually asked that she have the same surgery on her other knee to increase her abilities.
WD 2TB Caviar Green Monster Drive Preview - HotHardware
A quick glance at the numbers here show this new big-boy Caviar Green drive from WD offering more than competitive performance versus the likes of Samsung's Spinpoint F1 and Seagate's Barracuda 7200.11 -- both 7200RPM-based products. HD Tach shows an average read speed of 90MB/s and average writes at 80MB/s. We'll be digging into performance metrics with other tools like IOMeter in the days ahead but this early view certainly looks good for a disk with this sort of capacity. We'll be looking at power as well but WD claims this drive drops in somewhere around 7 Watts under read/write load and 5 Watts at idle. With the ever-increasing demand for bulk storage, this new WD drive offers a smaller carbon footprint as well, with a full 2TB available in a single 3.5" drive.MSRP for the new ginormous Caviar is set at $299.
CarnivorePE is inspired by DCS1000, a piece of software used by the FBI to perform electronic wiretaps. (Until recently, DCS1000 was known by its nickname "Carnivore.") Improving on the FBI software, CarnivorePE features new functionality including: artist-made diagnosic clients, remote access, full subject targetting, full data targetting, volume buffering, transport protocol filtering, and an open source software license. Carnivore is created by RSG.
Macintosh Performance Guide: Configuring Photoshop
1) Hide the Histogram panel when running actions or scripts (testing or not). Hiding it drops the diglloydMedium/Huge execution time by about 10%. Even in the middle of an multi-step action, Photoshop updates the histogram display after each step, which can be a time-consuming operation, especially with CacheLevels=3.2) Use the Bigger Tiles plugin in conjunction with DisableScratchCompress plugin. Failure to use these plugins results in a penalty of up to 50% on Mac OS X in any “decent” configuration (over 100% for Photoshop CS3). Download the Plugins. It’s bizarre that Adobe calls these “legacy” plugins, because they have a massive performance impact.
Contemplating the Consumerist sale and the adpocalypse
In short, both a TV program and a magazine represent a finite unit of (more or less) undivided attention. Each of these media objects is carefully designed to grab your attention and to hold it within a bounded space—with boundaries being the start and end times of the program for TV, or the two covers of a magazine.What advertisers buy when they purchase a magazine or TV ad is slice of the attention of some subset of that media object's audience. And the ads that they create for those purchased slices are attention-worthy objects in and of themselves, e.g., Angelina Jolie posing with a diamond watch, or a hilarious vignette centered around a brand of beer.
A web page, in contrast, is typically festooned with hyperlinked visual objects that fall all over themselves in competing to take you elsewhere immediately once you're done consuming whatever it is that you came to that page for. So the page itself is just one very small slice of an unbounded media experience in which a nearly infinite number of media objects are scrambling for a vanishingly small sliver of your attention.
Exclusive Trailer: The World's Best Gadget Designers Speak in Objectified
As he did for Helvetica's namesake typeface, Gary Hustwit gathered the world's top designers for his forthcoming documentary Objectified, telling the story of the magic behind the objects we use every day.
I agree. Fully.
Bad Technology: A Call for Revolution Against Beta Culture
I'm tired of this. This sense of permanent discomfort with the technology around me. The bugs. The compromises. The firmware upgrades. The "This will work in the next version." The "It's in our roadmap." The "Buy now and upgrade later." The patches. The new low development standards that make technology fail because it wasn't tested enough before reaching our hands. The feeling now extends to hardware: Everything is built to end up in the trash a year later, still half-baked, to make room for the next hardware revision. I'm tired of this beta culture that has spread like metastatic cancer in the last few years, starting with software from Google and others and ending up in almost every gadget and computer system around. We need a change.
On a similar note, I have CS 4 here which I simply can't run. It crashes at least 10 times a day. So I spent 600 bucks on a upgrade I don't use. Fuck you Adobe.
The Frontal Cortex : The Cognitive Benefits of Nature
Thoreau would have liked this study: interacting with nature (at least when compared to a hectic urban landscape) dramatically improves improve cognitive function. In particular, being in natural settings restores our ability to exercise directed attention and working memory, which are crucial mental talents. The basic idea is that nature, unlike a city, is filled with inherently interesting stimuli (like a sunset, or an unusual bird) that trigger our involuntary attention, but in a modest fashion. Because you can't help but stop and notice the reddish orange twilight sky - paying attention to the sunset doesn't take any extra work or cognitive control - our attentional circuits are able to refresh themselves. A walk in the woods is like a vacation for the prefrontal cortex.