+ general discussion +
+ general discussion +
Making anything and everything
Originally written: Sat, Apr 16, 2005
Last modified: Sat, Apr 16, 2005
On the heels of my last post about rapid prototyping machines, an excellent new audio clip of Neil Gershenfeld's talk at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference is up now at ITConversations.
Gershenfeld (of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms and author of FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop--From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication and When Things Start to Think) claims that the next wave of innovation is not of computation but instead fabrication.
I've always been a DIY kind of gal myself but it's hard not to ignore the rising popularity of people wanting to make their own things using every day, accessible objects: ReadyMade magazine, Make magazine, Hack a Day, etc.
And it's so interesting that Gershenfeld talks about how his students consistently document their own work via blogs for personal learning every year. (Hey, that sounds familiar...)
So in effect, they turn around and teach each other; a peer-to-peer, open source learning network.
Around town
Originally written: Tue, Apr 12, 2005
Last modified: Tue, Apr 12, 2005
Now that school is (almost) over and spring is overtaking Toronto, I got the itch to go gallery hopping today. Rumour had it that there was a bubble wrap tv at InterAccess and I was dying to check it out in person. But alas, the shipping of it got held up somewhere and the show is either going to be extremely postponed or permanently cancelled.
But take a look at the artist's website for VSSTV (Very Slow Scan Television). Brilliant! I love the mix of very technological systems with low-fi results.
I attempted to check out Jamie's robots on the rooftop patio of 401 Richmond (where InterAccess is located) and found the patio doors locked. Already 5pm? Dang!
Wednesdays are usually a better day for checking out art galleries so now I've got a laundry list of things to see/do:
1) PUBLICity @ Toronto Free Gallery
2) Dedicated to you but you weren't listening @ the Power Plant
3) and tons and tons of Images Festival installations, video screenings, and performances. I tried making a list of them but it kept on getting longer and longer... there are so many good ones to check out this year! wow! I'm already sorry that the timing of FITC had to conflict with so many of the Images panel discussion.
(Note to self: go to Active Surplus and see if they have any more handheld scanners left so I can make this friggin' awesome scanner camera).
3d cameras in Flash (via ActionScript)
Originally written: Sun, Feb 6, 2005
Last modified: Sun, Feb 6, 2005
...are going to be everywhere soon. Backwards account of where I remember seeing them:
Soft-spoken but a genius -- Eric Natzke's coming soon page.
Toronto's iamstatic feature 3D cameras as the base for their online Growth Pattern exibition.
Jared Tarbell is always computing beautiful things. (It also looks like levitated.net now has his presentation notes online!)
And, Thomas Glyn has been working on 'Flash meets The Matrix' since forever.
Got more examples?
The motion graphics / ActionScript hybrids shall revel when the new Flash Player comes out.
Top 5s
Originally written: Tue, Jan 18, 2005
Last modified: Tue, Jan 18, 2005
I got an odd request from someone the other day for my top 5s. So here they are below, to keep you amused as I go into workoholic hibernation for a week in order to make a work-in-progress presentation next week. ;)
(Yes, I realize that I can't count properly....)
WEBSITES
1. ITConversations (be sure to check out the Pop!Tech conference clips)
2. del.icio.us
3. computerlove.net (the only design portal I follow though their server is having some problems right now... as in going bankrupt so you'll have to get on this site some other time)
4. CBC's justconcerts.ca
BOOKS
1. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
2. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
3. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (okay, I haven't actually read this one yet but it's been ordered and I have high hopes!)
MAGAZINES (I'm including BLOGS here too)
1. Spacing
2. ReadyMade
3. CBC Radio 3
4. Design Observer
5. Topic
PEOPLE / ORGANIZATION
1. Malcolm Gladwell
2. Ben Fry
3. Mozilla
4. Jonathon J. Harris
5. Rhizome
6. Group94
ALBUMS
1. LAL - Warm Belly High Power
MOVIES
1. Napolean Dynamite
PLACES
I'm sure I know of some but I can't remember....
RANDOM
1. Une Heure Cinq
2. World Changing
3. 640 480 video collective
I Heart Firefox
Originally written: Sun, Jan 16, 2005
Last modified: Sun, Jan 16, 2005
I don't know how it's possible to love a web browswer so much but I guess Firefox just has that kind of charm. And unlike other things in life that you get bored off because you spend too much time with it, Firefox becomes even more loveable the better you know it.
So today I was reading through the Firefox FAQ (okay, this doesn't really have to do with the browser itself but who cares) and picked up on this great tidbit:
Why do Adobe pdf files load slowly in Windows?Adobe Reader 6.0 for Windows loads lots of unused plugins on startup. The Inquirer has a great article explaining how you can disable those unneeded plugins and make Adobe Reader load faster. Basically, you need to do the following:
1. Install Adobe Reader 6.0 and notice where it is installed.
2. Navigate to that folder in Explorer, locate the plug_ins subfolder and rename this folder to plug_ins_disabled.
3. Create a new plug_ins folder.
4. Move the files EWH32.api, printme.api and search.api from plug_ins_disabled to plug_ins.
I did this on my computer and my PDFs load with blazin' speed now.
Another great thing about Firefox is its extensibility. And it's not hard either.... truly "Plug-in for Dummies" material.
Immediately upon installation and launching, you'll notice that Firefox has a built-in search engine box in the upper left hand corner. I use this feature exhaustively... In fact, I looked up "extensibility" not two seconds ago to make sure I spelled it right by using the dictionary.com engine.
You can add as many engines as you want by clicking on the little icon with the arrow. In the pull down menu that'll pop up, you'll see the option to "Add Engines..." which will send you to this page or go to the directory of all the search plugins here (there seems to be a huge blank gap on this page so remember to scroll down the page).
Installing a search plugin is as easy as clicking on a link.
Uninstalling, however, requires you to go to the directory that you installed Firefox in (say, C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins on a Windows machine) and just deleting the ones you don't want anymore. (Now if only I could figure out Ryerson's library catalouge... I wouldn't mind a search plugin for that.)
The geekdom doesn't stop there.
There are also plugin extensions (Tools > Extensions). Click on the "Get More Extensions" link and you'll end up on the extensions page. Once again, installing a plugin is as easy as clicking on a link and choosing "Install Now".
There's tons of little ones I like such as a color picker, image zoomer, del.icio.us, and search highlighter but any web developer would love the features the (what else?) web developer extension offers.
My work also switched to webDAV (which is kind of like the FTP protocol and it's used as a way to work on projects/files without stepping on each other toes and without the complexities of CVS). After a search on the web, my co-worker concluded that there were no webDAV clients for Windows that weren't "free to try, $29.95 (or more) to buy". "I bet there's probably a Firefox extension for that," I thought and (hurrah!) I found a webDAV extension for Mozilla.
Technically, you're suppose to install it for Mozilla and run it from the command line using
mozilla -chrome chrome://webdavclient/content/webdavclient.xul
but I tried installing it out in Firefox (seemed to work?) and then ran it with
firefox -chrome chrome://webdavclient/content/webdavclient.xul
(This seems to work too so I'll cross my fingers).
One last thing! Keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and Firefox the closest (in you pocket!). Err... or something like that.
There is a great little portable version of Firefox so you'll never have to use Internet Explorer again. Download it, unzip it to your USB Key, launch PortableFirefox.exe and you're good to go. (The first time you launch it, it might take a while but after that, it's quick.)
I find this perfect for when I have class in the computer lab. And because you can still install extensions with the portable version, I've got FireFTP installed on mine which is a great little FTP client that runs in the browser so I don't have to use the horrid WSFTP that the school has installed in the computer lab.
Okay that's it! Thanks for reading if you actually made it this far.
*subliminalmessage*Jointhefirefoxcult*endsubliminalmessage*
