David Lidsky's Blog, page 4713

Where Work Is Play: The d.school's Play Class

Continuing our series peeking inside Stanford's new d.school building, a class that's all fun and games. No really, it's called Play Class.

Decoding the Pavilion Architecture of Shanghai World Expo 2010

Why did North Korea put clouds on its building? And what is America just dying to tell China ... via its pavilion?

Infographic of the Day: The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Will Be Bigger Than Valdez In 40 Days

Visualizing the clean-up effort, the size of the spill, and a disturbing historical comparison.

Here's an infographic detailing the main points of the current oil spill crisis, caused by a BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that exploded and sank, killing 11 workers aboard.

As you'll see, the graphs illustrate all the main points of the story, including the rate of the spill and the number of ships being deployed to fight it.

But the most alarming stat is at the bottom of this graphic, which...

Is H.264 Video Dangerous for Our Future Heritage?

The fuss about Flash on the iPad has now expanded to a serious discussion about Web video standards. Steve Jobs' missive about H.264 even garnered support from Microsoft. But the debate has spun on, and it's getting complicated.

Microsoft responds to its critics

The brief but strongly worded Microsoft blog posting revealing it would only support H.264 video codecs natively in Internet Explorer 9 brewed up a storm of response on the Web. So much of it was negative, it turned out, that MS was

Dallas: Culture, Front and Center [Fast Cities 2010]

[image error]

Photograph by Nigel Young/Foster + Partners

[image error]

Photograph by Nigel Young/Foster + Partners

[image error]

LONE STAR STYLE: oster + Partners' Winspear Opera House, the eye-catching "red drum" centerpiece of the district, has crimson-washed glass that glows at night. Outside, a solar canopy shades 4 acres and creates a cooled microclimate for al fresco performances. Inside, a chandelier made from 320 acrylic rods retracts into the ceiling during performances, creating the impression of a starry night.| Photograph ...

iPad Sales Officially Rocket Past One Million

Apple's announced the sale of its one millionth iPad since the launch of the device on April 3, and according to some estimates 300,000 iPad 3G units slipped off shelves this past weekend. These are big numbers, with big implications for the entire tablet/slate PC paradigm.

But first, some crowing from Apple today: "One million iPads in 28 days--that's less than half of the 74 days it
took to achieve this milestone with iPhone," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a press release. Plus, iPad users...

Transform iPad Into a Pluckable, 21st-Century Harp With Squiggle

A novel concept for new breed of musical instrument.

Given all the amazing musical-instrument apps on iPhone, it was only a matter of time until someone designed a truly novel instrument app for the iPad. Winner for the coolest among the crop of early entrants: Squiggle, an iPad app in development that allows you to draw lines across the screen, which then become strings that can be plucked like a futuristic harp.

Created by Henry Chu of pill
& pillow, a Hong Kong design studio, you lay the...

Storage Towers Show Innovation in All Its Messy Glory at Stanford d.school

[image error]Design students, who venerate the perfect objects created by their professional idols, forget that innovation is a messy, imperfect process, plagued with fits, starts, and failures.

A set of storage towers, custom-created for the new Stanford d.school, is designed to show off work in progress, and to invite passing observers to chime in with ways to make it better.

The towers, with feature open-sided shelves on wheels, can be lined up in the main studio area, to encourage viewing. "You can...

Google Buys 3-D Multitouch Desktop Software Maker BumpTop

BumpTop is a desktop replacement, used by both Windows and Mac--HP's convertible tablet computers like the TM2 use BumpTop as an easy way to make your computer's desktop more touchable. It turns files, folders, and software shortcuts into icons that can be manipulated more directly with fingers. For example, you might have a photo on your desktop. To post it on Twitter, you'd simply tap on the photo and fling it into the Twitter icon shortcut on the side of the screen. Here's a walkthrough...

Apple iPad 3G's Opening Weekend: Video Restrictions, Jailbreaking, and Shortages

Apple's iPad 3G's launch isn't nearly as big as that of the Wi-Fi-only iPad, a few weeks back. But that didn't stop Apple from crowing that the 1 millionth iPad was sold on Friday. That's half the time it took to achieve the same milestone with the iPhone, CEO Steve Jobs said in a press release. At the same time, iPad owners have downloaded 12 million apps from the store and over 1.5 million e-books. But not everything is rosy after the launch of the 3G version of the device.

The 3G is the...