Archive for the ‘Design’ Category

Different shades of grey... or not

19 hours ago by Connor Livingston | add comment

Optical illusions are often fanciful diversions that keep us keen to the fact that our own minds can not only be tricked, but often tricks itself. Some illusions are so mind-blowing that we try with all of our mental capacities to see reality, but we struggle to convince our minds that what we’re more »

iGEM makes science cool for students

Feb 20 by Connor Livingston | add comment

For nearly a decade, the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition has put the sharpest minds in high school and undergraduate institutions around the world into competitive and creative mode to find the next great mad scientist genius inventor. Students work during the summer more »

Microsoft simplifies Windows logo for 8

Feb 17 by Connor Livingston | 1 comment

Over the years as Microsoft Windows has evolved since the late 80s, the logo associated with each major release has changed. Initially, it was a very clean, horizontal look. It became progressively more intricate through Windows 2000 before simplifying with XP, then Vista, and finally Windows more »

A comprehensive comparison of online video players

Feb 15 by Connor Livingston | 1 comment

The online video world is dominated by YouTube with others such as Vimeo and Metacafe picking up the scraps. They are free, convenient, and practical for most website owners to use. Those who need more flexibility or something proprietary turn to self-hosted video players to fill their websites more »

Pinterest may be changing the social commerce game, but why?

Feb 13 by JD Rucker | 1 comment

Pinterest is starting to enter into the social media in ways that most sites only dream about. Other than Google+, it’s the fastest growing social site in the last year with 329% growth in the last 4 months of 2011 alone. We get more questions on our social media podcast about Pinterest the last month more »

The really quick evolution of Apple product designs

Feb 11 by Sal McCloskey | 2 comments

For the last three of decades, Apple has separated itself from the various competitors through company culture, innovative technologies, and stellar marketing efforts. They have built a passionate community around their products based upon a lifestyle-promise – owning an Apple makes the more »

Is this creepy android mannequin the future of retail merchandising?

Feb 11 by Rocco Penn | 1 comment

If this is the future of retail, I’ll be shopping online more often. Takashimaya, a department store in Tokyo, is working with Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro from Osaka University to demonstrate their concept of the next generation of retail merchandising. The timing couldn’t be better – the female mannequin is pushing their more »

Yelp users are easier to spot than most

Feb 9 by Rocco Penn | 1 comment

There are definite distinctions between users of various social sites. They’re often easy to spot based upon their look (Tumblr), activities (FourSquare), and attitude (Pinterest), but the combination of the three can help us identify Yelp users very easily. Our friends at Flowtown take a humorous more »

Corning expands its vision of a glass future

Feb 3 by JD Rucker | 2 comments

Nearly a year ago, Corning put out a video called “A Day Made of Glass.” In it, they showed a future that was enhanced by the use of touchscreens and other variations of glass products that seems less like “Minority Report” and more like a not-so-distant reality. This week, they’ve added to the video by releasing another more »

Making the internet more open... in education

Jan 30 by JD Rucker | 2 comments

Over the past few decades starting with the computer revolution and continuing through the digital age, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been a leader in cutting edge (and often bleeding edge) styles of educating the brightest minds around the world. It’s no wonder that in an atmosphere more »

Note to Startups: If you're going to steal from others... well, just don't steal from others

Jan 28 by Lorie Wimble | 6 comments

The internet is rife with theft. People take content and concepts from others on a regular basis and pawn it off as their own. It’s so common that many websites (including this one) have given up on fighting content-scrapers, spammers, and intellectual property thieves altogether. If you can more »

The Silicon Valleys... of the world

Jan 20 by Rocco Penn | 1 comment

Just as movies are made outside of Hollywood and cars are built outside of Detroit, entrepreneurs, startups, and venture capitalists are present in places other than Silicon Valley. Worldwide, there are business-friendly environments that are conducive to expansion of technological advancements. more »

Modern language wars: PHP vs python vs ruby

Jan 17 by Rocco Penn | 6 comments

There are several questions that programmers must answer when deciding on their language of choice. Depending on who you ask, the passions towards one language or another can spark debates, even “nerd fights” as can be found in some videos (we won’t like them here but you can find them on YouTube). more »

This cake is not a lie

Jan 14 by Scarlett Madison | 4 comments

We normally don’t look at cooking as a way to generate tech discussions or exemplify geek awesomeness, but this sort of cooking does the trick. Fans of the game Portal should be very familiar with the concept of “the cake’s a lie.” If you played the game, you probably cannot look at cake (or the promise more »