xmac1

This is one amazing Lego model. Rendering deterioration with Lego is very difficult, and the level of detail here is incredible. Zooming in on the photos at the linked site reveals a few of the intricate techniques used.

TiltShift Maker

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 18:09:59 -0500

TiltShift Maker:

TiltShift Maker is a really fun site that gives your photos the tilt-shift effect, which basically makes them look like miniature scenes. It works best on pictures with a lot of buildings and/or people. You can either upload a picture from your library, or enter a URL.

Here is a tilt-shifted version of the Port of Long Beach.

Container Ships Are Awesome Even As They Destroy The World

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 20:59:01 -0500

Container Ships Are Awesome Even As They Destroy The World:

After reading this article, I want to find out where I can tour a container ship. Container ships and the ports they visit are completely awesome.

“Underneath, it’s a hyperalloy combat chassis.”

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:09:00 -0500

“Underneath, it’s a hyperalloy combat chassis.”:

I loved the Terminator movies in my youth, and still do. I also loved Lego as a child, and that love was rekindled as an adult by my own children. Well, this piece by Martin Latta is the perfect combination of both.

Tascam introduces Portastudio for iPad

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 18:15:00 -0500

Tascam introduces Portastudio for iPad:

Hey audio geek friends, remember these? Check out the Portastudio four track recorder app for iPad, cassette deck and all!

#ff @philthethrill

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 14:17:00 -0500

#ff @philthethrill:

If you like crime novels, movies, and tv shows as much as I do, check out these nitty gritty stories of a beat cop in 140 characters or less.

Momento

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 23:28:00 -0500

I’m not much of a writer, and I’ve never been able to keep a journal or diary. The few attempts I’ve made have been short-lived. Which is why Momento, an iPhone app, is perfect for a social networking technophile such as myself. Momento imports your posts from major social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, and presents them as a chronology of your digital life. You can of course manually enter text, photos, and tag people and places among other things. But what’s nice is that you don’t have to do anything. And it’s completely anti-social, it doesn’t post or send anything (though you can export or backup), it just ingests your Internet ramblings. If nothing else, it will be fun to look back years later and see what I was tweeting about back in the day.

Rebels Among the Harley-Davidson Mainstream

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:04:00 -0500

Many enthusiasts of European (and Japanese) motorcycles I know have a certain level of disdain for Harleys. Mostly this is due to the fact that technologically Harleys fall far behind their foreign counterparts, and tend to be customized by their riders with high “ape hanger” handlebars and long raked out forks, greatly reducing their handling and performance (and making them visually unappealing to those who favor sport bikes and cafe racers). This is precisely why I think the Harley Sportster makes a great basis for a cafe racer. Harley-Davidson apparently thought so too, and produced the XLCR in 1977, as shown in the image below.

Taking the smallest of the venerable V-Twin models and doing just the opposite of what most Harley riders would do is an appealing concept to me, and can produce some stunning custom bikes.

My own attempt at creating a Harley cafe racer, although not nearly as extensive or refined as those above, started in 1991, with a stock Sporster 883. Over the following nine years I continued to modify it, as shown below in it’s final incarnation.

Modifications include cylinders bored to 1200 cc’s, port and polished heads, 2 into 1 Supertrapp pipes, S&S carb, Stortz rear set foot pegs, custom made clip on handlebars, Super Glide tank, Corbin seat, quarter faring, paint, and a few others.

Unfortunately the bike burned to a crisp in a basement fire. : (

Why Life Is Physics, Not Chemistry

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 23:58:00 -0500

Why Life Is Physics, Not Chemistry:

Although I don’t have a deep understanding about the subject of the linked article above, and certainly only a very shallow grasp of the full paper it references, it raises interesting questions for a non-academic such as myself. As scientists continually search for the building blocks of the Universe, it seems that life may be nothing more than a complex mechanical process. Is emotion, consciousness, the very ‘soul’ itself comprised of something even more basic than chemical reactions? Simply matter organized in just the right manner? Are we the product of some process set in motion eons ago? Somehow, for me, life being physics is more Zen-like than life being chemistry. Less messy, more pure. I know only a little more about physics than I do about Zen, not a whole lot about either, but the idea of oneness, of all things being connected that I associate with Zen beliefs resonates with my understanding of physics (as has been put forth by a number of popular science books about quantum theory). This concept doesn’t leave me feeling despair that we are soulless automatons. Instead it leaves me feeling closer to the idea of a pure state of existence shared by everyone and everything.

What if we take it one step further, and imagine all life reduced to mathematics. Perhaps all we experience is simply the product of incredibly complex calculations, emanating from…?? Well, that depends on your own beliefs. I find there is no contradiction in a universe that is a completely physical (or conceptual) construct and the existence of divine forces, which perhaps are one and the same. Such are the advantages of being a spiritual atheist.

(Note: above illustration taken from http://xkcd.com/435)

Photos by Guido Mocafico

Sun, 21 Nov 2010 22:20:47 -0500

Photos by Guido Mocafico:

Beautiful pictures of deadly weapons.

Korg iMS20 for iPad

Sun, 21 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Korg iMS20 for iPad:

If your into creating electronic music, the iMS20 is a really cool app, but with a bit of a learning curve. It brings me back to my youth in the late 1970’s when one of my favorite pastimes was going down to the Sam Ash music store on W 48th St after school and playing with all the analog synthesizers they had. Though these days I doubt if I’ll have the time to come close to mastering this app.

Photos by Jim Kazanjian

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 20:56:00 -0500

Photos by Jim Kazanjian:

1,000 years in 5 minutes

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 00:14:02 -0500

1,000 years in 5 minutes:

Video of European borders over the last millennium.

RockMelt - Social Browser

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 22:55:00 -0500

Here are just a few of the good and not so good things I’ve found in RockMelt (odd name). Facebook login should not be required at launch, perhaps there could be a preference to stay logged in. RockMelt needs to support Twitter Lists and Saved Searches. That is how I (and many people) use Twitter since the main timeline is just too crowded to follow. So their Twitter ‘edge’ app is somewhat useless to me without those features. RockMelt does seem less cluttered and easier to navigate than Flock. And I like that I can hide the ‘edges’ and basically be left with the Chrome browser, which is nice and clean, yet still have easy access to post text and links. If anything, it is fun to play with as a first attempt at a social browser.

RockMelt is currently by invitation only.

http://www.rockmelt.com/

(I may have a few invitations, let me know if you want one.)

xmac1.com, a blog

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 22:56:47 -0500

Yeah, not a very cutting edge thing to do, but I started a new Tumblr blog. No exhaustive reviews or long winded opinions. Just some reposts and a few ideas on various subjects that will hopefully be helpful or interesting to someone.

Xserve EOL

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:25:22 -0500

Response to Apple’s decision to discontinue the Xserve from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Well put.

http://appleopenletter.org/