martoon

28.6.05

TECH - iTunes now podcast ready

  • iTunes now podcast ready


  • Today is the first day of the last day of radio, then tv, then movies. A select group of dedicated people have been quietly developing the pieces which comprise the pocasting universe outside the earholes of the general public via pod-content creation and pod-content wrangling. Apple is bringing all that to the masses with it's "no brainer" implementation of podcasting into the newest version of iTunes. The new version adds a button that automatically links you to a listing of thousands of pre-recorded audio shows. Some are professional grade like NPR's "On The Media", but most are of the home-brew variety that will cater to the tens of lucky listeners that have finally found others speaking their language. Micro casting to the extreme. Keep your eyes peeled for video-casting. It's just around the corner.

    27.6.05

    GAMES - doom for your mobile phone :)

  • mobile doom


  • Put that Tetris away! Here's a man's game for ya... id Software and Pulse Interactive announced today that Quake is coming to 3D-enabled mobile phones later this year. The original title released on the PC 1996, where it was heralded for its advanced 3D graphics at the time. Now id is attempting to push the envelop for mobile games with this title and Doom RPG. Bare Naked Productions will be handling the development of Quake Mobile.

    TECH - Nine Inch Nails offers 'Only' as GarageBand project

  • remix reznor, again


  • Trent Reznor has offered a multitrack version of “Only” from the album With Teeth for download from the Nine Inch Nails Web site. Like the previously released “The Hand That Feeds,” you can remix “Only” yourself using Apple’s GarageBand and other music-making software. The music file requires you to register before you can download it. ...downloading now... I'm gonna try this and see if it works with Apple's "Soundtrack". BTW, when I first listened to the new ablum, I wasn't really into it. Not at all, but after a couple of tries. It's really starting to grow on me. I'm curious to hear it in 5.1.

    25.6.05

    TECH - ultra-high-resolution photos

  • massivly detailed pictures


  • "A large Gigapxl™ print provides an experience wherein, starting at the normal distance, a viewer can move to a small fraction of that distance without encountering an apparent loss of sharpness." There are samples with a close-up view of each photo. It's pretty amazing to see the amount of detail in these images.

    TECH - free 32 meg USB drive

  • 32 megs


  • fill out the form with "real" info and a valid address, and they will supposedly send you a 32 meg thumb drive. My friend said, "32 megs, that's nothing!" True, but it's still 32 more than 0.

    CULTURE - Explanation of l33t zp34k

  • An Explanation of l33t Speak


  • I'm n00b when it comes to l337, so I looked it up, and it seems it's been around forever and it's much more main-stream than I thought

    22.6.05

    ROBOT - Robosapian V3

  • Robosapian V3


  • T3 has a good mention on the next-next generation Robosapian "Art Janis, Vice President and National Sales Manager at WowWee told T3 that “as Robosapien grows we want to add the ability for it do tasks around the house, help a person and live with them… he can help a mother around the home, help a guy pick up things, maybe turn on the television, maybe wake you up in the morning.”


    To accommodate such tasks he also reveals “Robosapien V3 has to be bigger. You’re looking at maybe a foot taller.” So considering that the current Robosapien is 24-inches tall..." coming to your living room in 2007

    GAME -fighting games for your browser

  • 2FLASHgames.com


  • Ahhhh, who doesn't enjoy the fine art of fightin'? Looks like this site has enough fighting games to make you fingers bleed. About 100 of them. They got the White House Joust, (use George Bush or Others and joust your way through the competition to get the vote) and T.U.S.F.G.E. The ultimate stick fighting game just to name exactly two.

    21.6.05

    ROBOT - Alaskan 20' Mecha

  • neogentronyx


  • Here I was thinking I was all bad-ass making a tree swing in my back yard for Sonia's nieces and nephews, then I find this guy in Alaska making his own twenty foot tall exoskeleton. Why is he building it? For the military? To rob banks? No. He want's to bring it to the local race track and smash things! This guy is my hero.

    TECH - surf the web from the neighbors back yard - home made WIFI extender

  • Popular Science


  • Using nothing more than an old shoe box, tape, aluminum foil and about 30 minutes, you can double or triple the range (in a single direction) of just about any wireless access point with an external stick antenna.

    CULTURE - Study Says Future Workers Will Have More Flexibility, More Hours at Work -YAY!!

  • Brighthand


  • "In the future, workers will have more flexibility to do their jobs from wherever they want, but, at the same time, jobs will increasingly encroach into people's private lives."
    Sweet, that means we'll get to "play on the computer" all freakin' day long.

    ANIMATION - Barely alive with technology - Citroen spoof

  • XBAM Citroen spoof


  • "Those talented chaps over at X-Bam have been up to no good again with this hilarious spoof Citroen ad. It's pure genius!
    Update: Rumour has it the spoof has made it as far as the people who do Citroen's web site!
    Update2: Citroen themselves have asked for the logos to be removed - this version is now the 'legally ok' version! Top kudos to them for allowing it!"
    via xania.org godboltblog

    TECH - Interview with Scott Sigler: Author of "Earthcore" podcast novel

  • INTERVIEW


  • "Business Thoughts: Tell us about you and the "world's first podcast
    book" EarthCore!

    Scott Sigler: I've been writing for about seven years. I originally landed EarthCore with AOL/TimeWarner and the book was due in stores in April of 2002. Unfortunately, the 9/11 recession hit AOL/TW pretty hard and they scrapped a lot of projects, including EarthCore. The book was tied up contractually for a couple of years - AOL/TW didn't want it, and didn't have the staff to process all the legal work, so it kind of languished in limbo until my agent could get it free and clear. Since then, we haven't been able to find a publisher. So when I discovered Podcasting, it seemed like a great way to create a brand name as a writer and entertain some people. I had no idea it would get as big as it has; it's been a ball...


    I've been listening while commuting for a couple of weeks and I'm hooked. It's about a mysterious mountain that hides a deadly secret that no one can seem to stay away from, at least until they get hacked into little pieces. Scary and entertaining, and surprisingly, full of tech.

    18.6.05

    TECH - free ring tones

  • Freeloader


  • I've been hearing that ringtones is a HUGE business now. So popular, that a ringtone has recently topped the music charts.( Ring Tone Tops UK Singles Chart ) I also heard that the only way to get a ringtone into your phone is to purchase one. Not according to the folks at Freeloader. They supply you with the tools to not only download ringtones into your celly, but to actually create your own too.

    ANIMATION - popping robot transformer car commercial

  • Alive with technology - Citroen


  • Rob says, "Best. Commercial. Ever." This commercial has been circulating the web for a while now but it's popularity has resurfaced since a cable program recently aired a short expose on the company behind it. It's a Citroen transforming into a dancing robot on the rooftop of a Canadian city building. The cool part about it is not only does the realism of the dancing car look flawless but the fact that they actually digitally reconstructed the environment that the car is dancing in. The Canadian based FX company behind it is called "The Embassy" and other cool stuff they've made can be found here The Emabassy

    GAME - gamers blog for the NEW systems

  • The Console Wars


  • Description: "The source for all next-generation console news, including: PlayStation 3, Revolution, Xbox 360 & More!"

    ANIMATION - Flash auto site with video

  • Suburu (De)Forester


  • This Japanese Suburu site incorporates some pretty seamless video footage of people hanging out and walking around the car in this Flash based website. Watching the people walk around the car and behind the text It breaks up the popular monotony of having content and motion separated in their own distinct buckets.

    ROBOT - Ultra-Lifelike Robot Debuts in Japan

  • Repliee Q1 article
  • Repliee Q1 homepage


  • "We developed Repliee Q1 in collaboration with KOKORO, Inc. Repliee Q1 has a humanlike appearance and 31 degrees of freedom in the upper body, so the android is able to reproduce humanlike motion. Repliee Q1 Expo has been upgraded to 41 degrees of freedom, allowing for a greater number of humanlike motions. All of the joints are controlled by air actuators. An air actuator has the damping characteristic, so we can control the android softly without compliance control. "

    "...An android needs to possess the same motion mechanisms as a human to perform humanlike motion. If an android has such mechanisms, however, it is difficult to balance with humanlike appearance." In other words, the more lifelike you make a robot, the more creepy it gets. They see this in computer animation too. When they made the movie "The incredibles", although they wanted a more realistic looking representation of the main characters, they made a conscious decision not to make the characters too realistic looking, they didn't want to spook the little kiddies. One of the biggest complaints of the Computer Generated movie "Final Fantasy" was that although it was some of the most advanced computer animation of it's time, the characters looked like walking dead people. They were awfully realistic, but still missing the massive amount of facial detail and movements found in real life faces. That's because our brain is hard-wired to pick out unconsciously perceived details in other people. When making computer animation and robotics, no matter how realistic the construction of the robot or the graphic detail of the CG character, it's not enough detail to capture the subtleties a real living breathing person. Recreating tiny body movements like minute balance correction and breathing or the the muscles below the skin surface effecting the surface still eludes the artists and engineers of our time.

    17.6.05

    GAME -point and click software for making 2d sidescroller games

  • Sawblade


  • Stop playing games and start making them! "Power Game Factory applies the latest technologies to the proven 2D platformer game genre. Games made with Power Game Factory can combine high resolution sprite graphics and realistic physics with authentic old school gameplay, making this the ideal system for constructing compelling, truly playable Macintosh games."

    ANIMATION - Pulp Fiction in 30 Seconds and re-enacted by bunnies

  • Pulp Bunnnies


  • From the animators that brought you The Exorcist in 30 seconds re-enacted by bunnies, The Shining in 30 seconds re-enacted by bunnies, Titanic in 30 seconds re-enacted by bunnies, comes Pulp Fiction in 30 Seconds re-enacted by bunnies.

    15.6.05

    ANIMATION - from comic book to movie, and it aint Batman

  • appleseed


  • A looooooong time ago, before I got into computers, I drew by hand, and I liked to look at other stuff drawn by hand. I picked up this comic book (manga) called Appleseed back in '88 and thought to myself "Self, this would be "gangsta" if they ever made a cartoon out of it. Well they did, and it turned out far beyond my expectations. The movie is total CG. The backgrounds are photo realistic and the characters are done in cell shading, which means they move like 3d but look hand drawn. It makes "the incredible" look like a saturday morning cartoon. The story? I couldn't tell ya, I was too blown away by the visuals.

    TECH - Make NES Pad work with a Pocket PC

  • Oscar's Bots


  • via MAKE - thanks Steve - "I use my Pocket PC quite a bit for games, mainly old NES titles on the PocketNester emulator. But the hardware buttons on the iPAQ are too small, and it can be hard to use certain combinations. My solution for this was to interface an original Nintendo controller to my PPC."

    10.6.05

    TECH - shape shifting nono-clay

  • the ultimate swiss army knife


  • "TINY robots that can turn into any shape - from a replica human to a banana to a mobile phone - are being developed by scientists in the United States.

    The new science of claytronics, which will use nanotechnology to create tiny robots called catoms, should enable three-dimensional copies of people to be "faxed" around the world for virtual meetings.

    A doctor could also consult with a patient over the phone, even taking their pulse by holding the wrist of the claytronic replica, reports New Scientist.

    And the nano "clay" could be carried around, shape-shifting into virtually anything when required. Your claytronic mobile phone could turn into a hammer for a spot of DIY and then a pair of shoes to go jogging. The creator, Dr Todd Mowry, director of Intel's research labs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said: "You could have a little lump of this stuff you carry around and it could be a million different things. It's like the world's ultimate Swiss army knife." His partner, Dr Seth Goldstein, of Carnegie "

    found a mpg video of the more-than-nano prototype.

    TECH - RSS reader for the PPC (get podcasts too!)

  • FeederReader


  • Since we're on a PPC theme this week, and since I gave away my evil windows laptop this week, I needed an easy way to get my blog and podcasts mobile-like. I downloaded FeederReader, "a full-featured RSS Aggregator with podcast listening ("podcasting" or "podcatching") and enclosure support, running on Windows Mobile. It is designed for downloading and reading RSS feeds on a Pocket PC run without the assistance of a host computer." It's in alpha, so it's not very polished, but it works well. And a big BONUS, I don't have to sync up to the craptop.

    9.6.05

    ANIMATION - free superman cartoons download

  • superman cartoons


  • I've found 3 superman cartoons from the early 40's that you can download and watch for free. One of them, "Superman: The Mechanical Monsters", has a shot that clearly shows where Kerry Conran got his idea for introducing the giant robots in "Sky Captain".

    TECH - turn your PPC into an iPod :)

  • pPod


  • I own a Dell. A Dell Axim PDA. I've used PDAs since the Newton and and I have to say that the Windows portable platform has only one thing going for it, it's connectivity to a desktop Windows machine. Syncing up to the work machine is pretty flawless when it comes to email, calendar and everything outlook. But that's it. I mean that's all. The writing recognition is awesome as long as you don't have to write V's and G's. Everything else pretty much blows. It's media player stinks to the point where it's almost unusable. It's browser is so bare bones that I can't even load a flash enabled site without having the browser crash. So you can imagine how happy I was when I found a bootleg iPod simulator that runs on the PDA. FINALLY, I can switch songs without having to use two hands and a stylus. It just goes to show how strong apple design is. It can even make a crappy windoze machine enjoyable to use.

    5.6.05

    TECH - LED signage for your wheels

  • Tire Tags!


  • Who doesn't need these? LED lights that attach to your wheels that, using the magic of persistence of vision, tricks your eye into thinking that there is a wheel sized image planted level on your rims. I'd get a set, but my biggest gripe is that you have to pay to download different images and they don't supply a way to create your own.

    TECH - custom chrome car lettering

  • your emblem


  • Kinda cool idea, self adhesive chrome car lettering to customize your car. Only one font though.

    CULTURE - All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Video Games, Part One

  • games net


  • Funniest tip out of the 10, #"2. Always, always be moving - This is a great technique to apply to the office. Walking around, everyone sees that you are there, but you always look busy, on your way to doing something else. " He uses these techniques to excel in the office environment.

    4.6.05

    HOUSE - art of splice the rope

  • SPLICING INSTRUCTIONS


  • I'm building a tree swing for the back yard. Trying to find the most effective way to attach the rope to everything was driving me crazy, until I found this nifty HOW-TO. 4 types-o rope and 19 ways to connect them all, just like a sailor!

    1.6.05

    CULTURE - batmobile-o-rama

  • Holy Bat Wheels


  • This page will lead you through a journey that spans over 50 years and 60 iterations of the Batmobile.

    GAME - altoids staxx

  • classic arcade games


  • Good online game that'll suck up some of your time. The object of the game is to stack the minty tins. what I like about it is the learning curve is pretty darn smooth. It starts you off with having to stack 3 vertical then as you level up, you have to stack horizontally and eventually diagonally which isn't as simple as it sounds.