Titan Descent with Bells and Whistles

Like the Radiohead video above, this is pretty abstract and weird, but totally captivating. The video shows data collected from a space probe that landed on Saturn’s moon Titan almost three years ago. What you’re seeing is the “descent imager and spectral radiometer” readings, but what I see is a bunch of pretty colors and sounds. What the cameras are doing are piecing together smaler images to create a whole image. As you watch you can see the moon coming into focus, until finally the probe crashes right into it. Pretty amazing stuff.

Check out the official NASA page to get the more scientific explanation of what you’re seeing exactly.

Found through Gorilla vs. Bear

Bobby

Bobby Solomon

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January 1, 2008 - See more posts by Bobby

Optimus Tactus Concept Keyboard by Art Lebedev

First off, welcome to 2008! I hope everyone’s had a good first day so far.

Next up, Art Lebedev has revealed his new concept called the Optimus Tactus, a key-less keyboard. The whole deal would be nothing but touch screen, and if it ever does come to fruition, could certainly give your iPhone quite a case of screen envy. The idea seems solid enough now that touch screens are becoming so vogue, but the price tag on something like this would certainly be hefty.

On the site they show examples like picking your color palette (above) and watching video on your keyboard (not shown), though a feature like that would mostly be for getting laid by chicks with a computer fetish. Nonetheless, this is yet another stupendous idea by the awesome inventor.

Found through Computerlove

Bobby

Bobby Solomon

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January 1, 2008 - See more posts by Bobby

My New iPhone

Thursday night I had planned on meeting up with friend Garrett after he had left work. He called me around 9 and I grabbed my phone and answered. I flipped open the 2.5 year old RAZR, and noticed immediately that the screen didn’t come on. I sat there kind of confused at first, and closed it again to look at the back screen. It too was not glowing.

Cut to me doing all those tricks people do when their phone dies; I took the battery out, cleaned the pocket lint from the corners, shook and screamed at it. I opened and pressed the buttons, and the tiny light behind them lit up, they made noises, yet still the screen didn’t respond. I realized that the time had finally come that I needed a new phone, out of pure necessity.
Friday morning I woke up excited, knowing that I was heading to the Apple store promptly at 10 am when they opened, knowing full and well I was going to be buying the iPhone I have so dearly wanted for the last six months.

After about 3 days with it, I can honestly say it’s the best phone I’ve ever owned. Earlier today, I got lost trying to meet up with some friends. But I had Google Maps ready to help me, which I definitely needed. The location was set near an overpass that had at least six ways you could before you took it. It didn’t make a bit of sense. But one look at the tiny electronic map and I knew what to do.

I’ve also been able to text faster then I ever could. I thought it would take me a while to get the hang of it, but the iPhone senses where you’ve been typing, by magic or jedi powers I’m sure, and automatically sticks in the word you were trying to spell, even if you only managed to type three of the six letters correctly.

Going from a RAZR to the iPhone is an amazing step, like I’ve been thrown into the future. And for anyone who thinks differently than I do, I’d say you need to actually have it on you for a few days to truly enjoy it. Pretending to play with in the Apple store, when you’ve already cursed it, certainly doesn’t count.

Bobby

Bobby Solomon

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December 17, 2007 - See more posts by Bobby

Daft Punk’s Secret Set-Up

Top Photo: The view from the outside / Bottom Photo: The view from inside

By now, most people have seen Daft Punk’s iconic pyramid set-up, they’ve been playing in at all of their shows pretty much since Coachella. It’s got lights all over the side that respond to the music as well as fog and lasers and any other high-tech thing you can think of. But I’d always wondered what the inside of their crazy pyramid looked like.

Well I stumbled across a photo a couple days ago over at Crackers United, and had to post it. It was taken by the folks over at Mixmag, who also got descriptions of what all that stuff is as well, from half of Daft, Thomas Banghalter:

1 ABLETON
The show revolves around Ableton Live software on custom made super-computers, which we remotely access and control with Behringer BCR2000 midi controllers.

2 SCREENS
Next to the ethernet remote computer screens there are four Minimoog Voyagers, the classic analog synthesizers. They’re a 30-year old design.

3 MOOGS
We can mix, shuffle, trigger loops, filter, distort samples, EQ in and out, transpose or destroy and deconstruct synth lines. We keep some surprises on the side too!

4 VISUALS
There’s a direct connection between our rig and the lights and visuals of the show. The light and video engineers can also add or control layers during the show.

5 SYNTHS
Inside the pyramid are synthesizers and remote controls connected to the rest of the music equipment and computers, which are in rack-mounted towers off stage.

6 TEAMWORK
Working the music equipment, lighting and video equipment, and building the pyramid for each show takes around 10 people, including both of us.

I know what little of that means, but I think it’s so amazing that they can fiddle with all of that shit in masks and leather suits. Daft Punk also has a new live album out on Tuesday called Alive, but it’s kind of boring and filled with same things we’ve all been hearing for the last 5 years. Make new music and stop making crappy movies!

Bobby

Bobby Solomon

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December 2, 2007 - See more posts by Bobby

The Amazon Kindle

I’ve been trying to read as much as I can about Amazon’s new Kindle electronic book-reader before I posted about it. When I first read about it, I thought it was a cool idea. I watched the fancy demo video and was wooed by the simple side clicking, the dictionary, being able to read websites. But then I really read about it, read reviews on other sites, and the thing is pretty dumb.

Admittedly, I don’t read a lot of books. But I did buy Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk to read on the plane back to LA. Having it in my backpack, reading it on the plane, carrying it around… these are not things that would be made easier by having a reading device. How many books can you read at a time anyhow? I’m sure there are crazy people out there who read like 7 books a day, but would the Kindle really be a benefit?

I’d also like to talk about the price, which is just as much as an iPhone. People gave Apple so much shit for charging so much, so what’s the difference here? The screen isn’t even in color! It’s silly looking! I think Apple needs to figure out a way to make PDFs of books, which would make it a standard format for all, and let people buy them that way. Yes, people will share the book PDFs, but isn’t that what people do anyhow? If I buy a book, you can’t stop me from letting someone borrow it for free.

My favorite response was from Chip Kidd, who writes:

On Monday November 19th, Amazon released something called Kindle, the latest “e-book” reading device. I’ve been asked to comment on what effect I think this will have, if any, on book design as we know it. Here goes.

None.

Sincerely,
Chip Kidd

He also goes on to say:

The reason the iPod took off is that music was never meant to be a “thing” in the first place. It was born as pure sound, and pure sound is what it has returned to. But books were always physical objects, and the printed book as a piece of technology has yet to be improved upon. And won’t. Certainly not by something that looks like a prop from Charlie’s Angels and has, are you ready, a whopping ONE typeface. For everything! Yay!

Here, here! Books are just fine the way they are. Leave them alone Amazon.

Bobby

Bobby Solomon

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November 28, 2007 - See more posts by Bobby

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