Design posts

Oh, hey, I just realized I’m an inconsiderate jerk, and never asked you how your Halloween was. How’d it go? Good haul? See more Batmans this year? You didn’t go as Heath Ledger’s Joker again, did you? Good, that would’ve just been stupid. Stupid though your costume may or mayn’t have been, though, it can’t have been more stupid than this guy’s. YouTube user DrWormsie decided to go all-out this year and spend 250 hours and over a thousand dollars constructing what isn’t so much a Halloween costume as a motor vehicle. As you’ve already seen the video, you know damn right that this is one serious chunk…

Soon, you may have an entirely new scapegoat for not attending all manner of functions: a printer jam. 3D printing gurus Stratasys took engineering company Kor Ecologic out to a couple fancy dinners, one thing led to another, and now we have the Urbee, the world’s first 3D-printed car. I guess I missed the memo; I had no idea 3D printing was coming along as blindingly fast as it is. For serious, the Urbee is a fully-functioning automobile, the parts of which are entirely fabricated via 3D printer, windows and everything. It’s only a two-seater, but it’s not the size of the 3D-printed car – it’s that…

Morning, all – or, afternoon, as it were. I trust your Halloween was both hollow and weeny? Mine sure was, but we won’t get into that. Instead, let’s hardcore gangsta rap about robots. Incidentally, yesterday was Asimo’s 10th birthday, and frankly, I don’t think the date could be more fitting – the little guy’s movements are so Uncanny Valley, it’s nothing short of spooky. You don’t agree? Let’s go to the tapes, then. To celebrate 10 years of creeptacular human motion emulation, Asimo’s team thrust the robot into the thick of a dance battle versus Japanese comedian Papaya Suzuki. Really, ‘battle’…

Better wash up your loins, guys, ‘cuz they ’bout to get blown. For all the readers out there who work in 3D, you may or may not love the crap out of this: the world’s first (as far as I’m aware, anyway) spherical mouse. Though it’s probably bullspit for anything other than 3D design, the Axsotic Spheric Mouse is a much-needed relief for those designers sick of holding three keys just to rotate the camera. The device pans and rotates along three of your favourite axes, and apparently can zoom, although that might require the holding of keys anyway. Guess you can’t win ‘em all. Whether this makes a real difference…

Everyone on this planet, especially those who frequent our sister blog Webdesigner Depot, could appreciate the awesomeness and creativity that Photoshop empowers people with on the Web. However, some people have an obsession with Photoshop — the Hyperakt group, which came up with the idea for the “I Have PSD” video short, is a perfect example….

Despite the fact that Wired Magazine has said that the web is dead, the browser-based internet is still thriving. And why shouldn’t it? The web is open, accessible to anyone with a browser and is also widely adaptable. A browser window is many things: a television screen, a newspaper, a chat window, a social network or a webcam display. But all of these uses of the web now compete with things that, instead of running through a browser, run in their own specific world: apps. Apps work through the internet, but not on the web proper. For that reason, they are less democratic and open than the web. While…

Oh, Japan. You’ll never cease coming up with the best stuff. Why, just last night I was regaling a friend about ‘head bath’, which is a bathtub. For the top of your head. It’s a hat, that– no, really, this exists. Don’t give me that lip. I’m not taking any guff today. Not from you. Guff-free Thursdays up in here. Anyway, I guess I was talking about something. We’ll get back to head bath later; right now, let’s rap about Smell-O-Vision. You may remember Smell-O-Vision – a technology from the 1960′s, Smell-O-Vision was a fad that was designed to release smells in sync with on-screen action. Of course,…

This is just downright threatening. Software engineer Will Gorman has seen fit to play god and create a robot out of Lego that can build things out of Lego. Really. The machine is essentially a robotic tank of Lego that is fed instructions from MLCad, a 3D modeling program. As of yet, it can only do up to 8×2 bricks (you know, the Lego brick), and can’t handle much more than simple structures. But imagine a Mk.2 that could work with NXT hardware? What about one that could 3D-print its own Lego bricks? “There is a recursiveness to this whole thing,” says Gorman of his brainchild. “I love the idea of…

I hang out with an awful lot of comic book dorks, and many of them have been cowering in fear since Disney’s fateful acquisition of Marvel, wondering what impact The Mouse will have on their favourite superheroes. Generally, I’ve told them not to worry – Warner Bros has owned DC for, what, like, thirty years, and if you ask me, that’s been nothing but good news for Dr. Bruce Batman and Friends. But I digress. Check this bizness out, as it’s the first Disney/Marvel tie-in I’ve seen since the acquisition, and it’s geek chic as hell. Do I really need to explain it? It’s Marvel heroes, done up TRON-style….

Pantone, the controllers of all things color have released a new product that brings color from the real world into your workflow. Pantone Capsure is a new handheld device from Pantone that allows you to sample a color anywhere, anytime and bring it back to your computer to use in your projects. The device picks the closest Pantone Matching System color and downloads it to your computer. This kind of technology has been available for some time in hardware stores, but now designers can use the technology directly. At $649 the device isn’t exactly cheap, but will be a godsend for those who aim to use…