Miss the comfy chairs and endless aisles of knowledge your local bookstore offers? Zoomii knows the feeling, and it brings the wandering back to shopping Amazon's shelves.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Fizy Finds and Plays MP3s on the Web Quickly
from livehacker.com
For those moments when you're just looking to dig up a certain song and play it for friends or your nagging memory, Fizy is just about perfect. If there's a video to be found on YouTube or other sites, you can pop it open to play alongside the song, or close it down without skipping a beat. It's small, simple, fast, and it covers a lot of MP3s floating around on the web. For a more robust interface to queue up and play the web's MP3s, try Adam's own Mixtape.me. Fizy is free to use, no sign-up required.fizy.com
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
National Anthem
wow.
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Tom Cobble
Do not let your heart be troubled, There is hope for the future........
Tom-----Original Message-----
From: Robin Blankenship
This was at a Texas Tech basketball game on February 9th. The National Anthem is sung by five young girls (ages 6-8). The two young ladies on the right are six years old. The two in the middle are seven and the one on the left is eight. LIKE YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD IT BEFORE!!! An entire arena remains completely silent throughout the song. You could hear a pin drop. Take a moment to listen to this. You will enjoy it...
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The Designer Cardboard Office: Not Just a Concept Anymore
I like the idea of being able to write on my walls with no repercussions . . .
Offices that look like cubicles are terrible. I know, I've worked in plenty. They always feel very cramped and getting a window is not always a blessing. If there are no drapes or shutters, you get a lot of sun. I love how new offices are coming up with new ideas for their workspaces. The cardboard office isn't something new. We've already featured one in the past. However, this is one that's actually being used right now in Amsterdam, making it really interesting. Corrugated cardboard can be made fireproof and waterproof, so health and safety aren't an issue. 
Nothing is a commercial creative agency from Amsterdam that was formed by Michael Jansen and Bas Korsten. They used the idea from the company name to come up with something to furnish their office. Taking nothing and turning it into something. This included creating walls, signage, beams, tables, shelving and a small set of stairs that are all made exclusively out of cardboard. 
The actual design was done by Joost van Bleiswijk and Alrik Koudenburg. The walls will also double as blank canvas. Visitors are encouraged to leave their mark on the surfaces. Illustrator Fiodor Sumkin was the first to liven up Nothing's brown color scheme with some nice penmanship. Once they get bored, the studio can replace individual sections of the workspace cheaply, basically for nothing at all. Makes a lot of sense. 
Even though you'd think that a cardboard office would look temporary and disposable, it actually looks quite homely. Maybe it's the brown, but I've also noticed some great additions to the whole design, like a conference room and a cafeteria, which are all made out of cardboard. [via core77, photos by Joachim Baan] 
MORE CARDBOARD The Incredible Cardboard Office
Offices that look like cubicles are terrible. I know, I've worked in plenty. They always feel very cramped and getting a window is not always a blessing. If there are no drapes or shutters, you get a lot of sun. I love how new offices are coming up with new ideas for their workspaces. The cardboard office isn't something new. We've already featured one in the past. However, this is one that's actually being used right now in Amsterdam, making it really interesting. Corrugated cardboard can be made fireproof and waterproof, so health and safety aren't an issue. Nothing is a commercial creative agency from Amsterdam that was formed by Michael Jansen and Bas Korsten. They used the idea from the company name to come up with something to furnish their office. Taking nothing and turning it into something. This included creating walls, signage, beams, tables, shelving and a small set of stairs that are all made exclusively out of cardboard. The actual design was done by Joost van Bleiswijk and Alrik Koudenburg. The walls will also double as blank canvas. Visitors are encouraged to leave their mark on the surfaces. Illustrator Fiodor Sumkin was the first to liven up Nothing's brown color scheme with some nice penmanship. Once they get bored, the studio can replace individual sections of the workspace cheaply, basically for nothing at all. Makes a lot of sense. Even though you'd think that a cardboard office would look temporary and disposable, it actually looks quite homely. Maybe it's the brown, but I've also noticed some great additions to the whole design, like a conference room and a cafeteria, which are all made out of cardboard. [via core77, photos by Joachim Baan] MORE CARDBOARD The Incredible Cardboard Office
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Create a Color Palette from a Single Image
[Design] 
Similar, although more sophisticated, than previously reviewed Colr, you can turn a selected image into a color scheme for your projects. You can upload any PNG, GIF or JPEG that is less than 1MB in size and Colors Palette Generator will extract colors from it. The application creates three basic palettes of the light, medium, and dark colors, as well as a grid of 49 shades from the image if you're not satisfied with the palettes it has created. Once you've got the look you like, you can export it as either a Photoshop swatches file or as a CSS stylesheet. Free to use, no sign-up required. Colors Palette Generator [via Download Squad]
Similar, although more sophisticated, than previously reviewed Colr, you can turn a selected image into a color scheme for your projects. You can upload any PNG, GIF or JPEG that is less than 1MB in size and Colors Palette Generator will extract colors from it. The application creates three basic palettes of the light, medium, and dark colors, as well as a grid of 49 shades from the image if you're not satisfied with the palettes it has created. Once you've got the look you like, you can export it as either a Photoshop swatches file or as a CSS stylesheet. Free to use, no sign-up required. Colors Palette Generator [via Download Squad]
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Three Plants that Give You Better Indoor Air
from Lifehacker.com
Kamal Meattle used three just three indoor plant species to increase oxygen, filter air, and boost general health at a a New Delhi business park. You can use them, too, in any indoor environment.
Meattle's presentation at the TED 2009 conference details a large-scale success, using thousands of plants for hundreds of workers. In any living or working space, though, the three plants—Areca palm, Mother-in-law's Tongue, and a "Money Plant"—can be used to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, remove organic compounds, and generally filter and freshen the ambient air. A single person looks to need a minimum of 11 total plants, and certain climates with less sunlight could require a bit of hydroponic growing, but Meattle swears by the health, productivity, and atmosphere benefits. Check out the detailed slides from his TED talk:
How to Grow Your Own Fresh Air - TED 2009 TalkFriday, January 23, 2009
Global Power Barometer
from the Washington Post:
In the 21st Century connected world, those with the greatest material power (e.g., powerful militaries, nuclear weapons or strong economies) aren't always the most powerful or successful at moving events in the way they desire. Players with less material power have learned to compensate for the imbalance in part by using smart strategies, making maximum use of the newly connected Internet world and/or forming unique alliances.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Ron Arad and Moroso: Pixels Make Beautiful Furniture
from apartmenttherapy:
There isn't really much to say about this piece. Practical in a residential setting? Not really. Would we be drawn to it and love to stretch out on it if we ever came upon it in person? But of course. Add this wallpaper and these lights and you've got one 8 bit room.
Read more here.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
Review From Powells.com
Do You Hear What I Hear?
A review by Doug Brown
Music is ubiquitous in our society. Films and television shows always have musical soundtracks, music plays in stores and shopping centers, and when you go out to eat or drink music will almost surely be playing. Parades and football games have marching bands, and most indoor sporting events have music playing over loudspeakers. If not, the crowd will provide their own, as with songs sung by UK football fans, or the omnipresent stomp stomp CLAP of Queen's "We Will Rock You." We even accompany our wars with music, both as a way of rousing our troops and demoralizing everyone else's. But what is music? Why does it move us so? What does it have to do with memory or emotion or language? Was music a precursor or antecedent of language? Are we wired for it, or is it completely socially acquired? Those subjects and more are the focus of This Is Your Brain on Music. . . .
Read the review online at: Powells.com
Do You Hear What I Hear?
A review by Doug Brown
Music is ubiquitous in our society. Films and television shows always have musical soundtracks, music plays in stores and shopping centers, and when you go out to eat or drink music will almost surely be playing. Parades and football games have marching bands, and most indoor sporting events have music playing over loudspeakers. If not, the crowd will provide their own, as with songs sung by UK football fans, or the omnipresent stomp stomp CLAP of Queen's "We Will Rock You." We even accompany our wars with music, both as a way of rousing our troops and demoralizing everyone else's. But what is music? Why does it move us so? What does it have to do with memory or emotion or language? Was music a precursor or antecedent of language? Are we wired for it, or is it completely socially acquired? Those subjects and more are the focus of This Is Your Brain on Music. . . .
Read the review online at: Powells.com
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