Netherlands To Get World's Largest Indoor Golf Complex [Golf]
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Google Launches Virtual World Called Lively
Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/330152519/
Worlds can be embedded int web pages, although only Windows users on IE or Firefox can view them, after an add-on download and installation. Mac and Linux users will have to wait for now.
Google has created a number of sample rooms that can be copied and altered, or users can start from scratch and build their own world. Furniture and other items can be added and moved around. Avatars can talk to each other, do things like dance and shake hands, and manipulate objects (in a demo, my avatar was able to blow up drums of toxic waste by double clicking on them. Users can also, of course, chat with each other - GTalk is the underlying chat engine.
This isn’t yet a full Second Life competitor. There’s no single world, for example, where users can move around. But it’s easy to see Google evolving this into a single online world. And then, of course, selling advertising into it. More screen shots:
The virtual world’s “Google Room” is embedded below.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Flat, black and all that
Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/yankodesign/~3/326773759/
Since Apple’s iPhone was such a runaway success, the entire mobile phone industry has been playing catch-up with the pocket wonder. Jonathan Ive’s (Apple’s Chief of Design) minimal flat black screen design has instantly become a gadget icon and seems to be the inevitable future of mobile phone designs for everyone looking to grab market share. The problem with this design direction is the very limited aesthetic potential. How many ways can you reinterpret the flat black touchscreen screen? Well designer Jaren Goh has done a pretty decent job of putting his own spin on this movement with his “Basic Tab” mobile phone design. He has masterfully taken softer side out of the iPhone silhouette and gave it a more edgy, masculine appearance. His clever use of red translucent materials mixed with chrome harkens more retro future funk sci-fi creations like 2001 A Space Odysseys “HAL 9000″ and the Cylons on Battlestar Gallactica.
Designer: Jaren Goh
Texts from the designer:
The heart of the design for this mobile phone does not lie on the technological advances it had in it. It lies on being a normal phone and was designed to complement our fashion and the way we dress and not to evoke too much technological gadget traits.
On the front lies a lush wide black screen and nothing else to steal anything away. The screen resides on a metal slab to add volume and a premium touch to it.
Perhaps a better way to show how this design correlates to fashion is the camera tab on the back. Instead of having it looking like camera shutter or lens cover. It was designed using features found on handbags and fashion accessories that is so everlasting.
World's Largest Fire Extinguisher Stands in for Fireworks, Does a July 4th Flyby [Science]
The retardant it's dropping consists of ammonium sulfate or ammonium polyphosphate with attapulgite clay thickener or diammonium phosphate with a guar gum derivative thickener, colored with ferric oxide to mark where it's been dispersed. Not only is it non-toxic, but after the fire is out it'll act as a fertilizer to promote new growth. Be thankful one doesn't have to buzz by your house, and be sure to visit The Big Picture for a lot more incredible photos from the recent CA wildfires. [The Big Picture; Wikipedia]
Wizard Rapid Descender Backpack Beats Taking the Stairs [Safety First]
If everyone living or working in precariously elevated positions could shoot Spidey-silk from their wrists in case of an unexpected fall, there would be no need for the Wizard rapid-descender concept from UK design shop HJC. But a sleek Dyson-esque backpack housing up to 250 meters of woven liquid polyester that can hold you and two tons worth of distressed damsels is a fair second option. If this thing comes to market, I think I've found my new treehouse-egress solution. [Yanko Design]
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