Artist âNanofacturesâ Paintings Using a 3D Printer and Molecular Modelling Software

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5995293/artist-nanofactures-paintings-using-a-3d-printer-and-molecular-modelling-software

What does art look like in the age of "hacked matter," when anyone can print anything on-demand? That's the question Shane Hope, a California-based visual artist, is trying to answer. In "Nano-Nonobjective-Oriented Ontographs and Qubit-Built Quilts," his new show at Chelsea's Winkleman Gallery, Hope is showing a collection of amazingly intricate paintings, each containing thousands of individual 3D-printed models.

Hope's chosen medium is "nanofacture," a neologism that describes design at a molecular level. He builds his paintings using a cobbled-together toolkit of hard and softwares, starting with a molecular modeling software called PyMol and ending with a RepRap 3D printer. RepRap, if you'll recall, is an opensource DIY system that can print its own parts, meaning you can make more printers as long as you've got one. Hope has a slew of the things printing parts, like an army of mechanical studio assistants ready to do his bidding.

"Accelerating progress in nanometer-scale science and technology continues to expand the toolkit with which we can eventually assemble things from the atom up," Hope explains in an artist's statement. "This will potentially give rise to nearly costless systems for controlling the structure of matter itself." That's pretty far down the conceptual rabbit hole, but the paintings stand on their own. Each piece is an intricate universe of microscopic forms and generative patterns, woven into the canvas bit by bit. It's hard to describe the level of density and detail—in fact, Hope can't even talk about them without using a 210-word run-on sentence (read it here, but gird your loins).

So how does he know when to stop printing? In an interview with the Institute for Emerging Ethics and Technologies, he revealed his secret: "My pieces are finished when even I myself almost can't look away."

[Check out "Nano-Nonobjective-Oriented Ontographs and Qubit-Built Quilts" at Winkelman Gallery until May 4]

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CHART OF THE DAY: The Growth Of The iPhone Business Comes Crashing Down (AAPL)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-iphone-quarterly-growth-2013-4

There's no way around it: The iPhone business as currently constructed is slowing down significantly. In the March quarter, unit growth was just 7%, down from quarters in years past where it was up triple digits.

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Airwaves Plays Your Mac's Audio Over Multiple AirPlay Speakers

Source: http://lifehacker.com/airwaves-plays-your-macs-audio-over-multiple-airplay-s-477561013

OS X (10.8+): Playing music from your Mac to an AirPlay device is pretty easy, but Airwaves is a handy app that lets you broadcast your audio to any one or multiple AirPlay speakers all over your home, kind of like a poor-man's Sonos.

With AirPlay, you're often limited by whether or not the music or movie player you're using supports it, and even then you can only select one AirPlay target at a time. Airwaves gets around the problem by giving you a system-wide control that switches from your Mac's speakers to any AirPlay-compatible device on your home network. If you want to broadcast to multiple rooms and multiple devices, Airwaves can handle that with no issue. The app is available now, and will set you back $4 in the Mac App Store.

Airwaves ($4) | Mac App Store via Adam Pash

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Chinese Student Spends $1.5 Million On A 2-Year, 150-Country Vacation

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-man-buys-most-expensive-vacation-2013-4

When VeryFirstTo.com launched their £1m ($1.5 million) holiday last month, many dismissed it as a typical PR stunt.

Indeed, even the company offering it never expected anyone to take them up on the offer: a two-year, luxury holiday taking in the planet's 962 Unesco world heritage sites (an intense itinerary that would mean taking in more than one site every single day for two years).

Then the phone rang.

An unnamed man from China, with an undisclosed background but apparently studying for a PHD, has signed on the dotted line and is now preparing to begin his journey next year. His trip will include visiting more than 150 countries over in two years, staying in the most luxurious hotels and flying business class.

Although the phone was hardly ringing off the hook, the company said they have another tentative booking and have received 15 enquiries.

"When we launched it, we didn't know if it would sell. Not all of our products do," says company founder Marcel Knobil, who launched Veryfirsto.com in November 2012, seemingly as a one-stop shop for those with so much money they need someone else to come up with ludicrous ways to spend it. Or, as they call it, "a haven for early adopters".

Knobil says the site now has 18,000 members and past products that h! ave fail ed to find a buyer include a 267-carat black diamond nail polish for £160,000 and the chance to star in your own marriage proposal TV commercial for £135,000. Perhaps even the super-rich are aware of YouTube.

The £1m trip was billed as "the world's most expensive holiday", in the same vein as the most expensive lunch/coffee/bacon sandwich phenomenon. ("There is nothing that pushes my 'rage' button more," wrote chef Luke Mackay about a recently unveiled £1,000 coq au vin.) The holiday package also includes the almost obligatory nod to charity: in this case, a £5,000 donation to Unesco.

In the same month that VeryFirstTo.com launched, Graham Hughes, 34 from Liverpool, completed his own epic round-the-world journey on a much smaller budget. His four-year trip – all overland, with no flights – took him to every UN member state in a bid to gain a Guinness World Record (a claim which is still being processed as Hughes presents various forms of written and photographic proof).

Hughes's trip cost an estimated £27,000, which he funded through various loans and by making travel documentaries along the way. What does he think of the "world's most expensive holiday"?

"If people have got the money, travel is a better way to spend it than drugs or yachts. Visiting all these places is absolutely feasible in two years [if flying], but it will be difficult. You can't get a limo to all these sites. Surely they'll have to be some bus travel involved. And it's a shame that they are spending all their time in five-star hotels. I imagine that could be very lonely."

It is not known whether the Chinese participant will be travelling alone, although the £990,000 fee does allow him to bring a partner or companion. And he won't be able to boast that he's been to every her itage site. The small print confirms that the itinerary will only cover sites that are safe and practical to visit.

Hughes wishes the participant well on their trip, but adds: "I hope they know what they are getting into."

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

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Inside The Flatiron School Of Coding, Where You Can Become A Developer With A $70,000 Salary

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/flatiron-school-coding-program-2013-4

The Flatiron School is a full-time, 12-week intensive coding program that teaches normal people how to code, no experience required.

At the end of the program, graduates are full fledged web developers.

In New York, the Flatiron School is known as the Harvard Business School of coding because of its very selective application process. Only 2% of applicants are admitted, but 100% of its students secured jobs after the inaugural semester. Flatiron School teaches coding like creative writing unlike traditional programs.

Click here to check out a behind the scenes look at the Flatiron School >

"We find great people and then teach them how to code, not the other way around," says Avi Flombaum, Flatiron School's dean.

The Flatiron School costs $10,000 but graduates typically net starting salaries upwards of $70,000, after the intensive 12-week program.

If a student accepts a position through Flatiron School's job placement program it will refund $4,000 of the tuition and there are also scholarships for underrepresented groups like females and minorities.

The Flatiron School was started in July 2012 by Avi Flombaum and Adam Enbar. Flombaum has a passion for teaching ot! hers to code. Before starting Flatiron School Enbar organized a ton of developer meet ups and held online classes in the New York City area. At just 20 years old he became the CTO of a hedge fund and his credentials go on and on from there.

"[Flatiron School is] totally bootstrapped," Flombaum said. "I don't think investment and education mix because investment is about scale the second you take money." 

Flombaum's goal for the Flatiron School is to create a talent pipeline of developers in New York City and he has already established a tight-knit community. Despite running a successful school, one of the biggest challenges facing the bootstrapped company is finding high-quality teaching talent. But this challenge is all right for now because Flombaum wants Flatiron School to grow slowly, "to ensure quality is tremendously better than all the other schools." 

Last week the Flatiron School held its second ever job fair where students showed off the projects they have been working on for the past 8 weeks. 

To kick off the job fair, Flatiron School Dean, Avi Flombaum, gave a presentation on the school's mission and an overview of projects the students have been working on.

Here's Flombaum explaining his teaching philosophy.

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to year for the vast and endless sea."

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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