You have probably seen the grey, no doubt you have heard of or read about the red. But have you ever heard of a black squirriel? The subgroup is on the rise. If an animal was a meme, this would probably be it. A real one, that is. The Black Squirrel, coming to a back garden near you soon(ish)…. and it may have dandruff.
This is the black squirrel. Out of the squirrel population of the United States and Canada perhaps only one in ten thousand is black. However, this is not a separate species in itself. It is in fact a sub-group of the grey squirrel and, little by little their numbers are growing. In fact in some areas they outnumber the greys. However, this black coloring is not a recent trend among the squirrel community - research indicates that in the days before the European settlement of the America the black squirrel was probably much more numerous than the grey.
From the Upcoming 
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The web has been abuzz lately over Apple’s awesome Matrix-style app wall at WWDC, which displays 20,000 of the platform’s most popular applications in a dense, moving grid. It’s certainly a sight to behold, but while it’s been covered pretty extensively across the web, some iPhone app developers who missed WWDC are still left asking, “I wonder if I’m on there”. Here’s your chance to check.
Developers Andres Douglas and Greg Pascale (who was behind the iSynth application) have taken a whopping 273 photos of the App Wall and used them to build a virtual recreation using Microsoft Photosynth. Photosynth was one of the cooler things to come out of Microsoft Live Labs, allowing users to stich together hundreds (or more) of photos to build virtual worlds out of static photographs.
The Synth works pretty well — you can zoom in and get an up close view of much of the wall so you should be able to check if your app is on there, and zipping through the different zoom levels is fun. But it isn’t quite perfect, as all of the photos were taken using an iPhone’s relatively low resolution camera, and there are some chunks missing.
To remedy this issue, Douglas and Pascale are asking for high-res photos from other developers who attended the conference, which they’ll use to create a much higher quality version of the synth, hopefully with every single application visible on it. If you’ve got photos of the wall, head over to this Drop.io account and upload your images. Don’t worry if you’ve only taken a shot of a portion of the wall, as Photosynth can stitch pieces from other photos together.
You can find embeds the of the synth on the iSynth website here, or a larger version at the Silverlight Photosynth viewer here.
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Although I am a fairly adventurous cook, I find that I repeatedly reach for the same utensils, pots, pans, and ingredients in my kitchen. You probably do, too. We’re creatures of habit.
A friend who is getting married recently asked me what I think are the essential items in my kitchen. I first directed her to the “Creating a multi-tasking wedding registry” post I wrote last year. Then, I made a list of the 10 things I can’t live without in my space.
Making “essentials” lists is a risky endeavor. Obviously, the items I turn to every day aren’t going to be what other people use. It was still a fun experiment and I created my list by answering the question: “If my home were destroyed in a disaster, what 10 items would I replace first?”
The minimalist kitchen:
- 10″ cast iron skillet. The Lodge version and the Le Creuset enamel-coated version both get the job done extremely well. I prefer the enamel coated version because I don’t have to season it and can throw it in the dishwasher, but both are excellent and the Lodge price tag is unbeatable. They work on the stove top, in the oven, and on the grill.
- 12 qt. stock pot with lid. The best and cheapest way to get one of these is to head to your local restaurant supply store and pick up a well-made aluminum one for under $30. You can make soups, pasta, and sauces, as well as using it for frying and soaking. It also works in the oven and on the grill.
- 9 qt. cast iron Dutch oven. Roast or braise in this amazing product. You can fit an entire chicken in this bad boy. Plus, it can go on the grill or directly over an open flame. Expensive, but it will last you a lifetime.
- Two silicone oven mitts. I use an Orka brand, but there are many others out there. Because they’re silicone, I can reach into boiling water and grab things without risking burns (the way you do with fabric oven mitts).
- A good knife set. I’m a big fan of the Cutco 5-Piece Set because they’re durable, can go in the dishwasher, and come with a solid warranty. Plus, since there are so many dealers around, it’s always easy to find where to have them sharpened.
- Cutting board. I love my Epicurean Cutting Surface because it’s nice on my knives, can be tossed in the dishwasher, and can be used as a trivet (up to 350 degrees F). I’ve had mine for a number of years and it is as good as new.
- Tongs. Not a lot to say about them, but love that they lock closed for easy storage. Long-handled stainless steel ones can be used for items in the oven as well as on the grill.
- Food turner. I grew up calling these things spatulas, but apparently that is not their official name. Again, you can use them on the stove, grill, or in the oven. They also do nicely in the dishwasher.
- Infrared thermometer. Simply point it at your food and know the temperature. Nothing to clean, and really cool.
- Baking pans. All you’ll need to get started are anodized aluminum sheet cake, loaf, and jelly roll pans.
I believe anyone can make fantastic meals with only these items. Do I have more in my kitchen? Definitely. This is just a basics list and nothing more. If I were to add five more items, I’d throw in a long-handled ladle, heavy-duty stand mixer, bread machine (I use mine twice a week minimum), coffee pot, and tea kettle.
Are there essentials that I have forgotten from my list? Do you think any of these items are unnecessary? Give your opinion in the comments.
Cast in black matte rubber and featuring alien power sockets, "HomePlug" could easily be mistaken for a recharging base station for up to six vibrating buttplugs. It is in fact a British power strip with powerline ethernet. [Solwise via Red Ferret Journal]
If you switch between systems frequently, or just have a lousy memory for special character codes, CopyPasteCharacter.com is an ingenious little page that automatically copies special characters you click on to your clipboard.
For most people, that's good enough—click the "trademark" logo (™), the funky double S thing (§), or any other HTML-compliant special character, and it's automatically copied and ready for pasting. Two other links clear out your copied character and switch to HTML coding for those characters. If you're looking for a non-web helper, you could try the previously mentioned Special Characters Menu hotkey app, a printable list, or our own Texter app to make Windows insert, say, the ☟ symbol when you type #fingerdown.
Digital technology has the power to transmit information more efficiently, to make the invisible visible, and to express new things. It can also be pushed so far to the limits of actually transmitting information to be meaningless. It can push well beyond what we can even perceive in a useful way. What’s bizarre and wonderful about Johannes Kreidler’s work is that he’s not afraid of pushing toward that boundary. The results may have only a shred of remaining meaning, or be intentionally, comically meaningless. But he’s nothing if not inventive.
Compression Sound Art (2009) [“Comments on Music – Musical Zip-Files … Time is relative!”
The video above, politically speaking, is Not Safe For Anything – where else can you bring up Hitler and Britney Spears and condoms? But the only visually tantalizing information is the brief view of a condom speaker membrane and a chest with pasties.
The creations range from:
An oven pipe imported in 1972 from Alaska to New Zealand, vibrated at 574 cycles per second using a gasoline motor. Then, in 2003, this recording was manipulated and filtered on an old atari computer using hacked software.
…to:
Immanuel Kant: Critique of Pure Reason, played 22,000 times in one second (audible only to bats).
The controversial nods and humor aside, I think this really does say something about time and data. I could tell you, but I’d need a microsecond. Let’s just avoid any mention of datamosh.
Johannes Kreidler does know how to encode information in useful, accessible ways, too, however. He’s done just that with a terrific book on Pd (Pure Data), the open source, visual programming environment in which he created works like the one above. Can’t dance to it? You can do other things with Pd, too. You can dance to it? Then, by all means, go for it:
Be a Music Geek Ninja with Electronic Music Programming in Pd: New Book
Previous Kreidler sightings:
A song made from 70,2000 samples
The stock market declines, as a song
Geeks, as a general rule, are pretty easy-going. We like to think things through, so passionate confrontations aren’t commonplace for us. When we get well and properly provoked, though, watch out! We won’t stop talking until every last point that we can think of has been made at least twice. So, what do you say to provoke a geek? Glad you asked!
Image: Walt Disney Pictures
10. “No real programmer would ever use PHP.” - This won’t work for every geek, of course, but for those it works on, it should work really well.
9. “Comic books are just for kids!” - I’m sure you’ve heard this one before—I know I certainly heard it often enough in high school, and even though it’s even less true now than it was then, I’m sure comic book afficionados still hear it today.
8. “Role-playing games are just for people who can’t deal with real life.” - There are, sadly, still a lot of people who think anyone who plays D&D must live in his parents’ basement and bathe once a month. Such people must be put straight, and immediately!
7. “The Pirates of the Caribbean movies are so realistic!” - I doubt many people actually believe this, but there are an awful lot of misconceptions about pirates out there, so you never know.
6. “Yeah, I got an Xbox 360 so my daughter could play Hello Kitty games. Is it really good for anything else?” - We’ve hit the ones that are hard for me even to type, now…
Image: Lucasfilm Ltd.
5. “Mac, Windows, or Linux? Does it really make a difference?” - An argument so old its original form was probably first written down in hieroglyphs, I know, but I don’t know a single geek it wouldn’t work on—myself included.
4. “The Ewoks were the best thing about the original Star Wars trilogy.” / “Greedo shot first!” - I couldn’t decide between the two. If one doesn’t work, I’ll bet the other one would.
3. “Tolkein? Ehhh, I prefer Terry Brooks!” - I almost feel like I should argue with myself just for writing that. I’m going to let the top two stand for themselves.
2. “Joss Whedon is a hack!”
1. “I don’t see what’s so bad about DRM!”
Any other good ones come to mind for you? Please share it in a comment!
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- Blake Caldwell said: I've used #9 & #10 on a certain someone I work with, and he bites every time :)
- Convoluted said: So True
- ej said: This is more for reference
- DigDoug said: Hah.
- Joe said: I would've thrown in the word "pretentious" in there somewhere. Probably after "a" and before "hack." But maybe between "Joss" and "Whedon."
- Jon said: I guess #10 and #1 would be the best for me - I have gotten into "vigorous fellowship" (Doug McGlynn's term) over #10...
- DCFemella said: hahahaha hilarious
Where's the love for the truck selling Sponge Bob ice cream?
Street food has definitely entered a new era, maybe even reaching the faddish extremes of bacon. Last week the Wall Street Journal was yet another publication to notice that the new breed of street food "is aggressively gourmet, tech-savvy and politically correct."
While I'm all for crème brûlée from a kitchen next to a steering wheel, it's hard not to wonder how this new-agey mobile food culture will affect the old guard. What about the non-organic, questionably hygienic vendors without Blackberrys or Facebook accounts? Are they going to survive this moment?
In some cities it's not an issue. Chicago, for example, doesn't have a truck selling quiche Lorraine or hormone-free gelato. In fact, the city is still pretty limited to vendors selling elotes (roasted corn on the cob), hot dogs, ice cream, and sno-cones. According to Chuck Sudo of Chicagoist, "the city may never experience the same cutting-edge street food culture because the aldermen regulate and legislate anything they don't understand to excess." Compounding that, the vendors cannot afford wireless service or don't want to draw attention to their residency status.
But in other regions, especially Northern and Southern California, and New York City, the trend is on fire. In fact, tonight in Rockefeller Center, leading chefs will prepare "gourmet street food" for a Citymeals-on-Wheels fundraiser where tickets were $600 a pop. On the menu: funnel cake with orange blossom honey, Nova Scotia lobster rolls, and grilled lamb with black cardamom dressing in homemade pita.
While I like the fact that more entrepreneurs are doing innovative things with food on sidewalks, part of me is a little nervous that, some day, a sno-cone with bright blue syrup might not be good enough.
Related: A List of Street Food Vendors Using Twitter
[Via Trusted Reviews]
Continue reading Miffy MP3 player is so cute, it breaks our evil, black hearts
Filed under: Portable Audio
Miffy MP3 player is so cute, it breaks our evil, black hearts originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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...for your most beloved ottoman, the sky's the limit on your design possibilites; color, pattern, and texture will be at your disposal. A change of legs can convert a little floor stool into a pull up seat or vanity stool and will make a splash in any room of the house. The trick is to get as much work from one piece of furniture as you can.
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Tools and Resources:
- 1 1/2 yard of plain fabric
- 3/4 yard of contrasting felt
- craft/applique iron on paper
- fusible hem tape
- velcro
- desired pattern
- iron
- sharp scissors
- sewing machine
- measuring tape
- fabric glue
- button kit (not shown)
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Step by Step:
- Place your ottoman on top of a piece of paper or fabric and trace around it adding 1/2" all around
- Measure the circumference of your ottoman and add 3 extra inches
- Determine the desired depth of the slipcover and add 1"
- Cut out the fabric top
- Cut out the fabric that will be the side band of the slipcover
- Fold 1/2" of the long side of the fabric over and press with a hot iron, slip fusible hem tape inside of the fold and press until fabric is fused, forming a hem
- Fold over 1" of the short end of the fabric band and then fold over another 1", inserting fusible hem tape to fuse the folds in place
- With a hot iron, press the craft/applique paper on top of the felt until it's fused together
- Trace and cut out the desired shapes from the felt
- Peel off the paper backing and press the felt designs in an attractive pattern on the top and sides of the slipcover pieces
- Pin and stitch the slipcover side to the top of the slipcover
- Pin and stitch the velcro on the two short ends of the slipcover side where they overlap so the slipcover side will stay closed and you won't see the velcro.
- Make three covered buttons and handstitch them in place next to the fold of the side
- Add a set of angled metal leg brackets on the bottom of the ottoman so you can change out different sets of legs
- Stain a set of wood legs with your desired color, let them dry and smooth off with steel wool
- Make many slipcovers using the same pattern but change some details to make it different
- Get some extra sets of legs that will fit into the angled metal let plates and you can change the appearance of your favorite ottoman
Menubar applications are sometimes more favorable than normal applications because not only these menubar applications can run seamlessly on background but also they can save most of our valuable dock space.
Most importantly, in this article you will see some variations of useful, free menubar applications. Let's try them out!
Caffeine
Caffeine is used to prevent our Mac from automatically going to sleep mode and especially useful for watching movie. Using this, we won't be worried that our Mac accidentally going to sleep mode.
Delibar
A simple del.icio.us desktop client for Mac OS X, to help collects all of our bookmarks in the menubar. It's way simpler to access our bookmarks this way.
iStat Menus
With iStat Menus, monitoring our system stats is just a glance away, which is by looking at our menubar. iStat Menus can display various system stats, ranging from CPU Speed and Memory Usage, up to Fans Speed.
Many have known and used this, but I believe it's important to re-emphasize it again.
SpaceControl
SpaceControl is used to track down used and available disk space to let you set alerts based on certain used space thresholds.
Another way to see our remaining space is to use Get Info panel, but that will be much slower than this.
ClipMenu
ClipMenu can assist us in managing clipboard history. With ClipMenu, we can store up to 8 clipboard types, from plain text to image. This is very useful if you've different tasks at hand that need more than 1 clipboards.
DiggUpdate
DiggUpdate is the fastest and easiest way to receive updates from Digg. When a new stories hit the front page or friends digg a story, we will be presented with a gorgeous notification window.
Check Off
Check Off is a to-do list that calmly sits on Mac's menubar. Though it's just a simple interface, but with this we can easily keep track of our tasks.
BwanaDik
BwanaDik is a menubar app that monitors network for a good connection. It can also quickly copy WAN and LAN IP address to the menubar.
Eigenclock
Eigenclock is a menubar clock that features a fully customizable menubar display format, as well as a nice-looking calendar in a pop-up menu.
FMenu
FMenu is a menu extra providing customizable Growl notifications about various Facebook events, a menu to easily access common Facebook pages.
It's really really useful for Facebook addict.
Isolator
Isolator is a small menubar application that helps you concentrate. Upon turning it on, it will isolate you from other running applications by showing only one active application.
I love this! It really helps me concentrate on one thing.
WeatherDock
WeatherDock allows us to display weather information the way we want it. And it's sitting on our menubar, allowing us to easily update and show current weather status.
HimmelBar
HimmelBar provides an icon in the menu bar to quickly access your installed applications located under standard locations such as local, user, network and developer applications.
HimmelBar's behavior resembles that of our Dock List View, but by installing HimmelBar, we can save our precious Dock space.
ClipboardSharing
ClipboardSharing is a Mac OS X application that allows you to share the contents of your clipboard with other users, either across the network or locally.
I haven't really tried this, but I love the idea to share our clipboards.
PTH iTunes Notifier
PTH iTunes Notifier is a Mac OS X utility that gives you full control over iTunes from within the menubar. It gives you a simple controller on the menubar that allows you to forward/reverse/play/pause with a single mouse click.
IPMenulet
IPMenulet shows the current external IP address in the menubar.
URLWell
Easily save and access URLs from a drop-down list. You can also drag-n-drop URL from your web browser and the URL will be added to this URLWell.
MeNotes
With MeNotes, we can easily create a new note from menubar to capture our quick thoughts. I know we will need this, especially if we are not specially trained to crystallize our thoughts.
coconutWiFi
coconutWiFi displays you a small aqua-bubble at the top of your screen which indicates whether you're in range of a wireless network or not.
F.lux
F.lux makes the color of our computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.
Menubar Countdown
Menubar Countdown is a simple countdown timer that displays itself on the right side of the Mac OS X menu bar.
Temperature Monitor
Temperature Monitor is an application to read out all accessible temperature sensors in Macintosh computers. The program can visualize the history graphs of the readings, display measured values in a large variety of fashions, or announce readings by speech output.
SMARTReporter
SMARTReporter is an application that can warn you of some hard disk drive failures before they actually happen! It does so by periodically polling the S.M.A.R.T. status of your hard disk drive.
Spirited Away
Spirited Away checks each running application's activity, and if an application isn't active for a certain fixed time, Spirited Away hides the application automatically. It is, in effect, Spirited Away. *laugh*
I Love Stars
I Love Stars is my new freebie application that shows the rating of iTunes' currently playing song in the menu bar.
Anyway, half-star rating is not supported in this menubar application.
Process Wizard
Process Wizard is a menu hack that allows you to access to all the processes of your system (applications, background applications, user processes, non user processes) and to change their priority.
InstantShot!
InstantShot! offers classical screenshot functionality for capturing the whole screen, a portion of it or a window and also the option to make timed screenshots or to make delayed captures over time.
RSS Menu
RSS Menu is a systemwide menu that allows you to read and organize your favourite RSS or Atom feeds. The articles are automatically updated and you will get a notification when new articles are available or when some other event occurs.
WeatherBug
WeatherBug Alert for Mac helps you plan your day with confidence by putting severe weather alerts and your live temperature on your desktop.
AllBookmarks
AllBookmarks adds a new item to your Mac OS X menu bar giving you quick access to all your bookmarks. All your Safari, Firefox and Flock bookmarks are shown and can be selected.
Pauser
Pauser is a menubar application that allows you to pause and then continue any process running on your Mac OS X user account.
Nomu
Nomu is an application that helps you to quickly access your NeoOffice documents and templates.
Nocturne
Nocturne is a simple app for switching a computer to night vision mode.
Perhaps you've other kind of menubar applications to share with us, why don't you speak out in the comment box provided?
I received a message on Saturday morning from NPR about using one of my photos on their blog for a grilled dessert contest they were having. Seeing all of my photos are licensed through Creative Commons, I said sure. I also took the occasion to enter one of our go-to summer desserts, the inside out grilled banana split! This post first documents the impetus for the idea. I’ve taken it a little further with the sundae twist. In my opinion bananas are an ideal fruit to grill, and can be used in a number of different ways.
The “prize” for the contest is an interview on NPR. Now how cool is that? Get your recipes in here.
Inside Out Grilled Banana Splits
4 firm bananas
3 (or so) bars of your favorite chocolate (I’ve been told English chocolate is the best!)
1/4 cup crushed hazelnuts
ice cream
Take 4 firm bananas and slice a slit length-wise. Stuff the opening you just made with your favorite chocolate. Place the stuffed bananas over indirect medium heat for 10-15 minutes. When the banana peels have darkened and the chocolate melted, they are done.
Remove from the grill and top with ice cream and hazelnuts. You can eat them right out of the peel. No mess, no fuss, all good!
Can you imagine working in a place where the boss got rid of all the chairs and put in alarms which go off when you don't walk fast enough?
Well some of the folks who work at Canon don't need to imagine - its a reality for them.
The president of Canon Electronics Hisashi Sakamaki is also the author of a book called "A company will do well if you get rid of the chairs and computers" - available on Amazon.
According to his book, employees can concentrate on the meeting at hand without chairs and they have been able to half the number of meetings each year.
He also says that by standing at work, the employees develop a closer relationship with each other and that problems are solved much more quicker. The company also saves on the cost of buying chairs as you can see in the photo.
Also in the photo you can see a blue sign on the floor. When Nikkei went to interview the president, while walking in the corridor a siren and flashing lights went off.
The corridor was designed to detect whether employees were walking at least 5 meters for every 3.6 seconds.
The blue sign on the floor also says "Lets rush - if we don't then the company and world will perish."
The president says that the factory is huge and is foolish to waste time walking which is why he put those sensors in place to let the employees feel how fast they should be walking.
Folks at 2ch have put together a comparison between the employees work conditions and a few photos of the boss relaxing in his office ^^;
And what do folks at Itai News have to say about all this?
-Its like a prison
-Its old gits like this that cause damage to Japan
-Whats with the brain washing
-I feel despair for the employees. I'm not buying Canon
-Its like science fiction
-They are not treated like humans
-Hes got no sense - it should be 100 meters for every9.8 seconds
-Get rid of the tables too!
-This is why suicide rates don't drop
Next time you take a photo on your Canon - think about the employees ^^;
Via Itai News.
I feel all guilty as a Canon user sitting down at work.
The current office layout taken from this weeks A Week in Tokyo 39.
Good time to switch to Nikon ^^;
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Do you know someone that's tried out for Amazing Race and didn't make it? Of course you do. The show has a rabid following of fans that say, "We can do that!" Only actually getting on the show is near impossible.
We personally know three "teams" of people who've tried out, creating quirky audition videos to showcase their love of travel, sense of adventure, willingness to accept tough challenges and in some cases, a totally dysfunctional relationship.
But they never made it on the show, despite repeated submissions.
Fortunately for them, there's Competitours, a travel outfit that sends folks on adventures throughout European cities. Much like Amazing Race, Competitours are asked to complete different challenges and activities each day, depending on the city they are in. But unlike the travel tours your grandparents favor, there's no walking tours involved, no one's sitting through a boring bus tour and there's no rigid 8am to 8pm itinerary of things to do.
"This is for people who like sight-doing and not sight-seeing," said Steve Belkin, founder and president of Competitours.
And for those who love the competitive edge of Amazing Race, the Competitours trips allow teams to compete against one another for a grand prize that includes at least 25 nights in a Starwood hotel, airfare, and up to $3,500 in spending money.
- Plastikman – Are Friends Electrik
- Lichen – Marsaskala (Octagon Vertical S
- Duster – The Landing
- INO Hidefumi – Living Message
- Balinese Gamelan – Lullaby
- Nôze – Albert
- Sebadoh – Cuban
- Tortoise – Spiderwebbed
- Nôze – Outamimonclic
- Station Rose – Smoother Than Strange
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