One Final Blog

Well...this will be my final post on this blog. Sorry my insights haven't exactly been the most exciting! I wanna say thanks to Peter for a great year, I learned a lot and had a great time. Can't wait for next semester! Hope everyone has a great summer. Adios!

-Nate Dawg

How Lazy Can We Get?

Have you ever thought, "my mouse is just too darn far away from my keyboard! I wish I didn't have to reach all the stink in' way over to the other side of my desk to reach it!" If you have thought this, you are beyond lazy, and this ridiculous invention is perfect for you. Someone went along and invented the "Combimouse" which mixes the mouse and keyboard together and splits the keyboard in two. Look at this ridiculous thing:

Waste of time and money? I think so. I've seen a lot of ridiculous inventions in my life, but I do believe this one is one of the most pointless.

Link here.

Another Website Creation

As a final project for Doug's FA332 class, we were required to create a website. I decided to create a fake electronics company known as "Bapple." I'm not sure how good of an idea it is to show this website to Peter, and hopefully he won't dock me down for making fun of Apple products. Anyway, here is the link:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/156607226/FA332/indexpage.html

Enjoy!

The Curly Phone

I don't understand why humanity is always trying to make things that are completely pointless. Spending money on research for something that doesn't matter. Here is one example...a phone the curls when you have an incoming call. Yup, that's right. Some people with too much time and money at Queen's University have invented a prototype phone that curls up a little bit to indicate an incoming call. It has other notification features as well, such as bending corners to indicate a message.
OR........
You could have the phone vibrate or ring to let you know. I guess it's just a matter of opinion?

Link to article here.

Website

Well....here it is. The incredibly unawesome website that I created for the "Insta-Fridge," an automatic instant refrigerator. I really wish this was a real thing...oh well, I suppose I'll live. Here ya go:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/156607226/index.html

NOTE: This is the first time I have ever even came close to attempting to create a website. Ever. So don't judge too harshly, eh?

The Super Toilet

I have talked about a lot of crazy inventions on this blog...but I think this one takes the cake. A super-ultra-mega fancy expensive toilet has been created by Kholer. This thing has it all...Bluetooth compatibility to play your favorite songs, an SD card slot for prerecorded messages or songs, a fancy LED lighting system with 7 different colors, battery power that is good for around 100 flushes, and a USB port for when the toilet needs an update (who new toilets could need updates?). This is absolutely ridiculous. No one needs this toilet. Not now, not ever. This is invention is stupid, and people need to learn to simply do their business and get out. It does't need to be this complicated! Here is a picture of the $6500 porcelain throne:

And a link to the article here. 

A New Drumset...That You Can Wear?

Yep, that's right. Someone has gone and came up with idea of a wearable vest that, when smacked in the correct place, will make a prerecorded sound similar to that of part of a drum set. Once the person wearing the vest figures our where all the right places to hit are, they can make some awesome beats just by smacking themselves in the chest. Pretty cool right? While I do find this little invention pretty useless, I do see it as pretty cool. I am one of those obnoxious people that everyone hates because I am constantly slapping and hitting tables and walls in an attempt to make a beat. Maybe if I had one of these, I could plug some headphones in (which I am unsure if that is actually available for this musical vest, and if it is added later I want my cut of the profits) and make a beat all to myself without bothering anyone else. I kind of like the idea.

Article can be found by clicking this part of the sentence that is a different color than the rest. This one. Right here.

Let the Mind Reading Begin!

Now...this is just weird. Apparently, Samsung has just developed and tested a device that allows you to run apps on your tablet...just by thinking about them. This crazy machine hooks up to your cranium and  somehow detects your brainwaves, causing it to do stuff on the tablet such as pick an app to run. This is kinda creepy to me, and seems way, way, WAY beyond absolutely useless. Let's see here...we can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars doing research on a product that saps your brain for information, relays it through a computer, and sends it to a tablet which then opens up the desired application, or...we could press it with our finger. I guess either way works, right? New inventions are cool and all, but I think maybe we should be focusing on something a little more useful. Where's our flying cars, huh?

Link to the article here.

The Tutorials of Evan Eckard

A few weeks ago, I posted a blog about a new media artist by the name of Evan Eckard. However, I simply went over his artwork and not much else of what he does. The way I found him was through YouTube, and more specifically through his tutorial videos. His videos mostly consist of quick (between 5 and 15 minutes) tutorials in which he shares some of his tricks that he uses in Photoshop or Illustrator. These can range from text alterations to shading techniques, as well as creative ways to make things from scratch. I have learned a lot from these videos, and thought I might share them. Here are a few examples, as well as a link to Evan's YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/EvanEckard

"Metal Texture" tutorial

"Monster" text tutorial

"Great Gatsby" poster tutorial (Part 1)

New Video Game Teaches Java

The University of California, San Diego has released a mini video game which is designed to teach people how to read and understand the Java programming language. In their initial study, they had 40 people between the ages of 10 and 12 play the game for a little over an hour. Within this short time, the group began to grasp some of the basic elements of Java programming.
I love hearing these kinds of stories. I have always loved video games, but they have begun to get a bit of a bad rap recently. They are blamed for acts of violence and called a bad influence. But its stories like this that help prove their potential. Video games can be used as an excellent medium for education, as well as for developing other skills such as hand-eye coordination, communication, or teamwork. I look forward to seeing where the future of video games is heading, whether it be for entertainment or education.

Article can be found here.

A Small Invention That is Rather Awesome

Everyone has to shave. Well...everyone should shave, at some point (in my opinion). A new little electric razor has been created, know as the "ShaveTech." This mini razor is USB powered and has a battery life of about 30 minutes of constant use. The razor is no bigger than the average smartphone, and about the same weight. This seems like a fairly unexciting little innovation, but I see it as a pretty awesome example of other future innovations. Things are becoming smaller and more efficient, and who knows what could be next? It excites me to see the possibilities of what is to come. Here is a picture of the ShaveTech. Looks kinda like a mix of a lighter and an iPhone, huh?

Review of the ShaveTech can be found right....about..................

here.

The "S" Stands for "Stupid"

Looks like Apple is starting to develop the "NEW" iPhone 5S this quarter. Surprise surprise! That's basically like telling someone the sun is planning on rising tomorrow morning. Apple always has the "next new thing" on it's way sometime soon, but it never seems to arrive. As soon as it does arrive, everyone wants to know what features are going to be on the next one coming out. Well, just like clockwork, Apple has started working on the newer, pointless version of the iPhone 5, plastering a fancy "S" to the end of the name so they can jack the price up a few hundred dollars again. What kind of features will there be this time? We don't know for sure yet...but I have my suspicions it will be a great big bunch of nothing.

The article that got me onto this rant can be found here.

Incredibly Life-Like Game Graphics

This past week at the Game Developer's Conference, the game company Activision revealed some examples of character development possibilities in the next generation of gaming consoles (particularly the PlayStation 4 and whatever the new Xbox console will be). They showed multiple pictures of gaming character's faces as well as an example of a moving face making random facial expressions. These pictures are unbelievably detailed in their texturing, as well as other features. The fact that these faces aren't that of a real person is almost creepy, considering how realistic and life-like they are. I find this very incredible, and it excites me to see what the next generation of gaming consoles are going to bring. Here are some of the examples that Activision gave:

Article with more information here, which includes a video showcasing some of the possible facial movements.

3D Printing is Awesome

I read an article today (which can be found here) tailing about a company that has made a useable snowboard from a 3D printer. This, to me, is pretty awesome. The ability to "print" solid objects seems like it could have many different benefits in our society. While the whole idea still seems science-fictiony and a little weird, it seems to be becoming more and more practical and possible to print more useful things. I also found a video here which shows a company that can actually take a real-world item (even if it has complex moving parts!), scan it, and copy it using their 3D printer. Crazy!

"Starvation" Propaganda Poster

Here is  my propaganda poster for our project. It is titled "Starvation."

This poster was not intended to be reminiscent of the classic "There are starving children in Africa, eat your vegetables!" although that is kind of the feeling it gives off. It was more intended as a  wake-up call for people who either A) don't realize the amount of starving people there are in the world, or B) don't know how little it would actually cost to support them. There are many organizations in which you can donate about $1 per day (or $30/month) to support a child with food, education, shelter, and things of that nature. $1 per day is nearly nothing to most of us, as we would rather spend $5 on a latte that we don't need and some probably don't even want. Food for thought, eh? 

New Super-Thin Flatscreen TV

Philips television company has released information and pictures on a new style of TV they have come up with, which they call the "DesignLine." This super-thin television eliminates the need of a stand or a wall mount to place it on, and can instead be simply leaned up against a wall. I find this awesome, but at the same time kind of stupid, too. I find it awesome because of the step forward in technology. This television is extremely thin and the first of its kind. It always excites me to see new and different types of things come out that I use every day. I like hearing about upgrades and things of that nature.
I do, however, find this invention a little stupid. Not the TV itself, but rather the whole leaning against the wall thing. Seems like a recipe for a broken TV if you ask me. Sounds like it could slip or slide on hardwood floors fairly easily (especially since the current design has no rubber stoppers on the bottom) or could be easily damaged from something else hitting it, due to it being so close to the floor. Overall I like the new invention, but think they could improve on how the product is supposedly supposed to be used.

Philip's "DesignLine" Television

Link to the article here.

The Awesomeness of the "Bean"

As I was flipping through the book, something of interest caught my eye. I noticed a picture of Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate on page 201. This is a picture of a large sculpture located at the entrance of Millennium Park in Chicago. It is a fairly simple looking design: a large bean-shaped sculpture with a reflective surface. That's about it. However, this simple design makes for quite an incredible experience. I have been to Chicago twice, and both times have visited this awesome landmark. The only way I can describe the sculpture is surreal. The reflection the mirror gives off is somewhat skewed due to the angles and rounded shape of the sculpture, giving a surreal image that is different than the usual reflection you're used to when you look into a regular mirror. But this one is different. It makes you think, and makes you wonder. As you look at your strangely distorted face with the rounded city in the background, it just makes you think.
I had known about this sculpture for a long time, but never really thought about how artistic it is until recently.

Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate

The Work of Vuk Cosic

For Doug's FA332 Print and Web class, we have been asked to do a presentation on an artist from one of our textbooks. For my presentation, I presented (or in the near future will present) a man named Vuk Cosic. I figured another new media artist would make a good blog post, right? Right.
Vuk Cosic was born on July 31st, 1966 in Yugoslavia. He graduated from the University of Belgrade with a BA in Archaeology. I find this very interesting, especially considering I couldn't find any other educational information, such as some sort of artistic degree. Apparently archaeologists like to make art with computer programs these days.
Cosic is most well known for his work with 3D ASCII art. For those who don't know, ASCII art (which stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is the positioning and manipulation of text to be put into an artistic form, such as a picture. Cosic, however, takes this a step farther and makes an actual 3D image that moves for about 5 to 10 seconds, and then repeats itself. He has remade some famous movie scenes, such as a scene from Hitchcock's "Psycho," a scene from "Star Trek," and even a scene from a pornographic film titled "Deep Throats." Here are a few examples of his ASCII art:

Along with ASCII art, another one of Cosic's famous works is known as "History of Art for Airports." In this work, Cosic takes different works of art (both famous and non) and simplifiers them down to the style of a bathroom pictogram. I find these to be the most interesting kind of work the Cosic does. Here are a few examples:

Cezanne's "Card Players" and Cosic's simplified version

Warhol's "Cambell's Soup" and Cosic's simplified version

Vuk Cosic's web page.

Abstraction Text Art

Here is my submission for our abstract vector text art...thing. Originally, the text was in the font Brauhaus 93 and said "1 28 93," which is my date of birth. I chose this because of two reasons: 1. Because it is my birth day and therefore meaningful to me, and 2. because I had no idea what word I would want to use for this project, and thought using numbers would have more effect (which I believe they did). I used strokes, colors, and a lot of random clicking and dragging to get to what is now the final product. Enjoy

:

"1/28/93"

Playstation 4 Specs Announced

Last night, Sony announced the upcoming Playstation 4 and some of the new specs about it. They hosted a live stream of the announcement online last night at 6pm EST.
Some of the new details about this new system are awesome to me, some of them not so much, and some of them are just weird.
Sony's Playstation 4 will boast several new hardware specs, such as 8GB of memory, an AMD Radeon graphics processor, and an 8-core AMD "Jaguar" x86-84 to power the machine. I'm not exactly an expert on hardware, but these all sound like some purty fancy stuff!
Along with hardware, Sony announced a new way to play games with friends. This is what I found to be so strange. Apparently with the new Playstation 4, you will be able to virtually "hand" off the controller to a friend, from any distance. You have the ability to allow friends to pick up and play a game you are playing from across the world. This seems very strange to me, but who knows? It could be the next big thing in gaming.
Other new things announced included the new DualShock controller and the PS4 Eye. The controller looks similar to its ancestors, but has several new toys built in including a touch-sensitive sensor and a "share" button that allows you to post things such as game plays or screenshots from the Playstation to the internet with the click of a button. The PS4 Eye is similar to the Xbox 360's Kinect system, but with more FPS and 1280x800 pixel sensor (Kinect only has 640x480 and 30 FPS). Here are a few pictures as well as a link to an IGN article about the PS4's announcement:

The new "DualShock 4" controller for the PS4

The PS4 "Eye"

IGN's article about the PS4 here.

Evan Eckard

Today I did my presentation on my artist, Evan Eckard. Evan works as the Creative Director for a company known as Adchemy.com. He started out his career taking pictures for a county fire department in central California, but moved to northern California for his current job. He has worked in the graphic design industry for over 15 years, both for Adchemy.com and for his own personal business. He has two main websites that he uses to show and sell his work. His more professional work goes to his main website, evaneckard.com. For his work that is more personal or less formal, he posts them to his YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/evaneckard. He uses many different programs to achieve his work, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and Wacom tablets. Here are a few examples of his work (click the image title to see the video of it being made):

"Zombies"

"Assassin's Creed 3 Emblem"

"Lion (Syndicate Logo Reimagined)"

"Rusty the Robot"

www.evaneckard.com
Evan Eckard's YouTube channel

Montage Project

This is my picture for our montage project. Mostly just posting it so I can show it in class.

I call it... "Messy Room"

Water-Resistant Fabrics

First of all, watch this:

Now THIS is cool! Scientists have been able to use nanotechnology to create liquid-resistant surfaces, both hard and soft. This is incredible to me. I see this as a huge step toward the future of technology, particularly nanotechnology. This one itself has many practical uses, such as a water-resistant windshield or water-resistant work gloves. I look forward to seeing future variations and uses of this awesome technology.

The Importance of Context

On page 166 of our textbook, Stewart discusses context. She talks about how different works of art viewed in one context or another can drastically alter how the viewer perceives them. She gives the example of Winston Churchill giving the "V for Victory" sign in a picture. This hand gesture (generally) does not mean "V for Victory" anymore, but rather is a symbol for peace or, more simply, a way to represent the number two.
The importance of context is something that has always been smashed into my brain by my dad ever since I was little. He always wanted me to know how important it was. However, I never really thought about how important it is in art. Art is something that can have an infinite amount of meanings, depending on who the viewer is. By adding context to a picture, you can lessen those meanings and get closer to the artist's intended meaning of the picture.
Here are some examples from Google:

When Googling "V for Victory"

When Googling "Peace"

When Googling "Two"

To someone who did not know what this symbol meant, or if they only knew one of the meanings, any picture they saw of this gesture would only mean one thing to them. But with context, you get a deeper as well as more accurate meaning to the picture. Context is important!

$50 Ears for Your Android

Unfortunately, I have found another stupid invention to share. I was hoping to find one I like, but this is one I just had to share. Let's start with this: I really like video games. I like console games, hand held games, PC games, all of it. However, this is just ridiculous. I found an article today about a USB-connected controller that you stick onto your Android phone to make playing video games easier. Why would anyone do this? I know from experience that pretty much any "real" game (as in not just a simple app) on a phone is usually pretty lame. Adding a "controller" doesn't help take away its lameness, it just makes your phone look stupid as you play. I mean just look at this thing:

It looks like your phone has some creepy goblin ears or something. And what is it going to help you with? Shooting your Angry Birds a little more accurately? Probably not. It will most likely be the one of those things you buy, use once, and then put on a shelf for the rest of forever. 

This "XOPAD" goes for about $50. If you want my advice, save up a little more and buy something like a DS for around $100, play some real games, and save your phone the embarrassment of giant, fake ears.

Link to the story here.

Asymmetrical Balance vs. The Rule of Thirds

As I was looking through our book, I came across a section titled "Asymmetrical Balance" (page 79). This section talks about how it is important to keep balance in a picture by having different sized objects or points of interest on either side of the photo you are taking. This all makes sense, but then I thought of something we learned in Doug's class (FA 332): the rule of thirds. This rule basically is a guideline for keeping objects out of the middle of a picture and keeping them closer to one of the corners of the picture, shown by this diagram:

My main question is how do the these two work together? Would it be better to have your focal object alone in a picture or have something on the other end to give it balance? Here are some more examples:

This picture obeys the rule of thirds, but not asymmetrical balance.

This one, however, has asymmetrical balance and has the rule of thirds, somewhat. I feel as if the pawns on the right kind of ruin the rule of thirds seeing as some of them are basically in the middle of the picture.

So, should you always follow the rule of thirds? Or should you always follow asymmetrical balance? Or should you try and always use both in a picture? I have no idea. This whole photography thing is still pretty new to me!

The World's Most Expensive (and Useless) Floor?

Now here's a good one.

Have you ever wished your floor could be a mirror? How about an electronic mirror, that can play games such as soccer or basketball? Well now you can!
This new "GravitySpace" floor uses your weight to monitor where and how you are standing, and creates an upside-down mirror image of yourself below you that copies the moves you make. You can play different games on this, such as kicking a soccer ball back and forth (sounds really fun, I know). And....that's about it. This thing is pointless. I really don't get it. Why wouldn't you just go kick a real soccer ball around? It would certainly be cheaper. Although I guess this fancy floor might be a little more useful for someone with no friends, but still doesn't quite seem worth the cash and hassle.

Hopefully next time I'll have an interesting or useful invention to blog about, rather than something that is stupid, useless, and unbelievably expensive. A guy can dream, right?



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Another Interesting Weight Loss Method...

To go along with my previous fork story, I seem to have found one that may not seem as ridiculous, but I assure you still is. This time we have a exercise bike machine planted underneath your desk at work. Yes folks, you can now work, work out, and have a fork sing at you, all at the same time!
Okay, so I know this idea isn't completely ridiculous, but you still have to think about it. What would you say if you showed up to work and found one of these under your colleague's desks? I think it may be a bit weird, not to mention distracting. But, I do suppose it is cheaper than a gym membership as well as it is a time-saver. Still seems ridiculous to me though.

Link to the story here.

Self Portrait

Here is my self portrait. I didn't turn out exactly as I had planned, but I actually still like the outcome. I would have preferred it to be a bit brighter, but I think the dark aspect gives it a good feel.
This portrait resembles me in one main way. If you ask anyone who knows me even fairly well, they would tell you that I am a fairly strange person. I act weird and make weird noises...that sort of thing. This picture represents this quite nicely. This picture is weird, just like me.

Weight Losing Fork? Please...

As I was wasting my time and derping around on the internets, I stumbled across this story about a fork the supposedly helps you lose weight. It obnoxiously buzzes and beeps at you if you eat too fast, reminding you to slow down.
Are you kidding me? You have to be kidding me. If you want to lose weight, you could go for a jog. Or eat healthier food. Or eat less food. Or something that would be more effective than spending an extra $100 on one stinking little fork. This idea seems beyond ridiculous to me, and just proves more and more that people want to be skinny but their massive laziness seems to always get in the way. Hopefully some of our world's greatest minds are working on something a little more useful than a fork alarm, such as a flying car or jetpack or something. But I guess we will just have to wait and see on those ones.

Link to the ridiculous fork story here.