David Lidsky's Blog, page 4808

Friday Fun: QR Code Cupcakes

Geekiness never tasted so sweet.

Okay, so we've seen buildings embedded with QR codes that tell you about the occupants; and read about why QR codes might soon replace business cards. So why shouldn't we also be able to have our QR codes, and eat them too?

Clevercupcakes, a bakery based in Montreal, have created what looks like the world's first cupcake embedded with a working, edible QR code. If you take a picture of it on your smartphone (and have a scanning app installed), you'll end up...

Infographic of the Day: All Music Should Look Like This

A French animator's soundtrack visualization brings to mind the Kaossilator.

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So, this video by animator Renaud Hallée isn't quite a pure infographic--but as you'll see, it's pretty damn close. Titled Sonar, the short film basically visualizes the sound track. Now, we've previously covered such projects, but this one's interesting because of how much information about the song Hallée manages to squeeze into the image. It quickly gets crazy complicated:

The one element that's purely...

Renaming Digital Piracy: A Smokescreen to Hide Movie's True Worth?

"Oh ar, oi'm a movie pirate, I am. Oh arrrr!"...does that sound sexy to you? Does it bring visions of a be-hatted Johnny Depp to mind? According to some content providers it might, and they want to rename online piracy. Losers.

This idea is being discussed over at ArsTechnica, and it stems from some words by Agnete Haaland, the president of the International Actors Federation. She was speaking in a press conference after the International Chamber of Commerce revealed the results of a new...

Apple's iPad Secrecy Obsession Comes With Blacked-Out Windows

Every company envies the buzz that accompanies new products released by Apple. How do they do it, time and again? One secret to their product launch success is secrecy itself. When details do leak about new Apple products, they are often false--and you never see a major Apple product leak the way Microsoft's
Courier
tablet did last year.

But now, for the first time, sketchy details of the non-disclosure agreements that the company insists on its
partners signing, are emerging. And it...

Test Driving RandomDorm: Collegiate, Dude-Heavy Version of ChatRoulette

As the spotlight beams brightly on ChatRoulette and its attendant lumps, humps, and hairy backs, there is another, more wholesome, site that's just debuted. It promises all the thrill of videochatting with strangers with the protection that comes from limiting the audience to college coeds in possession of an .edu email address. Behold RandomDorm.com.

How It Started

RandomDorm.com grew out of another recently launched site that cheekily claims to "connect student bodies." Called GoodCrush, the...

Four Ways to Keep the Museum Experience Relevant

Ziba Design helped create the massive exhibition, China Design Now which recently closed in Portland, Oregon. Steve McCallion files his last report on how the experience transformed the city and what museums can learn from it.

After walking though the China Design Now exhibition, the youngest member of the Portland Art Museum's board proclaimed to executive director Brian Ferriso, "The museum is relevant again!" From Oct. 10 to Jan. 17, the Portland Art Museum hosted a conversation...

WANTED: Bodum's Bistro Kitchen Appliances

Danish kitchenware maker Bodum may be best known for their simple coffee makers. Their clean design, perfect functionality, and ability to make an amazing cup of coffee on the cheap has made the name Bodum synonymous with the French Press. But they actually have a much broader spectrum of products than the classic glass plunger-carafe, and their new rugged-ish Bistro line looks fantastic.

Catering to Scandinavians and those who wish their kitchens were Scandinavian, the Bistro line is bright...

The Long, Strange History of Prussian Blue

Everyone's favorite color--from Cezanne to rhesus monkeys- started out as a chemistry experiment gone wrong, according to Joshua Cohen's history of the pigment.

What's your favorite color? Probably blue, right? Everyone like it--five of Pantone's last 11 colors of the year have been shades of blue, including this year's pick, turquoise. A Cambridge psychological study showed even rhesus monkeys pick blue as their favorite (green was second). According to Pantone, blues are calming, inviting...

New Sky Energy Turns Waste Water Into Clean Water, Green Chemicals

Ever heard of California's Central Valley? You might soon--the region, known as the nation's breadbasket for its agricultural plenitude, is facing severe droughts for a number of reasons. But now One Sky, a former Cleantech Open winner, is swooping in to hopefully save the day by providing a new source of clean water for the region.

New Sky is teaming up with the Westlands Water District to build a drainage water treatment facility in the Central Valley that uses New Sky's proprietary salt...

HDTV Is Good Enough for the Octopuses

Forget 3-D television; HDTV is good enough for discerning octopuses, so it must be good enough for us. Researchers at Macquarie University in Australia found that gloomy octopuses (Octopus tetricus) placed in a tank and exposed to HDTV of predators, prey, and other other octopuses became very excited. Images broadcast in standard definition TV elicited minimal response.

The reason for the octopuses love of HDTV is simple: they have extremely good eyesight. The high definition and high frame...