I'll be in New York from Thursday to Monday, so you won't be hearing from me. Enjoy your fourth of July, preferably with fireworks. Here are some fireworks notes and tips I've whipped up.



1. Fireworks are Manly:
You want to be manly, don't you? Unless you're a woman, but even then, you should be manly when it comes to fireworks. Allow me to summarize this for you: Fuck the law, fireworks are awesome.



2. No fireworks at the Olympics:
If you're one of the lucky people going to the Olympics this year (even though the winter ones are infinitely better), you won't be seeing any fireworks there, so soak it up, and enjoy them on Friday. I wouldn't try and sneak in your own fireworks to try and be a rebel, if 24 has taught me anything, it's that you don't fuck with the Chinese.



3. Get Awesome Fireworks Pictures:
Want to get pictures like the ones in this article? Well, #1 is dependent on there being a storm, but other than that one. Here are some excellent tips to get better pictures in general. Some of these are photography basics, but there are some ones in here that I had never heard.

Photo1: Flickr
Photo2: Flickr
Photo3: Flickr

Godspeed.

[Comments: 0] [Tags: art, events]

After creating my Purple Tentacle, I spent some time looking through Sporepedia, and found a lot of good ones. People have a lot more artistic talent than I do. Here's a batch of Zelda themed ones.



Deku Link:
Wow, he really got this one right. This is definitely my favorite of the batch, the details are perfect.



Deku Scrub:
Another guy who got the Deku look down really well. I especially like the drifted off, sleepy eyes look to it.



Uncolored Link Head:
There's really no way to color that to make it look right, but keeping it white looks cool; it's like a marble bust of link. Heh, there's even the elf ears; good stuff.



Goron:
Doesn't have quite the level of detail that the above ones do, but it's effective nonetheless. I like the choice of pose and the placement of the plating.



Navi:
A very simple idea, but well executed. There were a few similar ones, but I chose this one because of the awesome description: "HEY LISTEN". That's it; perfect representation.



Zora:
This seems like it would be a hard one to do, the Zoras have a lot of curves. Very well done.

I have other themed batches which I'll put up later, that's it for now.

Godspeed.

[Comments: 0] [Tags: art, spore, video games]

Yet another reason I wish I could be a photographer. Well, whenever I start earning some real money I'll take it up as a more serious hobby. My camera just doesn't quite have the kinda power to do really cool stuff.



The image above is one of 1500 'astrophotographs' that Trevor Paglen has taken. What is it? A satellite which doesn't officially exist. I'm not sure if I'm impressed that he's so cool or disappointed that 'black ops' could be picked up by a civilian with a camera. Granted, he seems to be pretty amazing, but a civilian nonetheless.

Definitely read the story off Wired, it's pretty amazing. I know that satellites have solar cells by which they are powered, and those are fairly reflective, but I had no idea it left it so brightly visible. That's star bright; well not really, because it's a hell of a lot closer, but nonetheless.

Astronomy is cool, that's another expensive hobby I'll pick up someday.

Godspeed.

[Comments: 0] [Tags: technology, space, art]

Over on Raisu.net, Jailu has embedded a video of one of Microsoft's projects, Photosynth. I recommend you go watch it, or else this idea will seem nowhere near as impressive.



What you see above is "Gyeongbokgung (Gyeongbok Palace) is one of South Korea's finest national treasures. Originally built in 1394, it is the largest palace of the Joseon Dynasty." That's the information that Photosynth gives about this 'collection'. Essentially they combine a ton of photos together and match them based on their orientation. You're able to zoom in, and if you want further zoom, you just switch to a photo that's was taken closer in. You can navigate with the arrow keys, or use your mouse to click on an area to select an image from there.



Above is a shot taken at Grassi Lakes up in Canada. The same idea applies. Here I left the panel on the left open for you to see. You're able to see a bunch of information about the collection. At the moment it's just information that Microsoft has provided, but as the video explains, when this is really implemented, the idea is that the program would search out metadata from all of the photos that compose the shot. As Blaise Aguera explains in the video, this could take data from Flickr - compile all of the images, then include data about the site from tags and descriptions. Alternatively it would search the web for these images, then take the metadata from surrounding text.



This is actually my favorite implementation. Photosynth is able to be used to take us on a tour through Gary Faigin's art studio in Seattle. Enough pictures were taken that you can go on a fairly seamless tour, and since the focus is on the art, you're able to click on some really nice, clear images of the art itself. This seems like a perfect application that galleries, museums, etc. could put to good use.

Again, if you didn't watch the video, here is the link again - watch it.

Godspeed.

[Comments: 0] [Tags: art, technology, techy tuesday]

A few months ago, I was doing some reading on The Daily Galaxy, and I came across an artist named Mike Libby. Below you see an example of one of his pieces of art. The specific piece you see here costs $700 and comes in a glass dome; but what is it?

"Insect Lab is an artist studio that customizes real insects with antique watch parts and mechanical components."
I love it. It's unfortunately outside of my price range as a graduate student, but someday... Even though I can't afford it, I'd still like to see it in person. He was at CRAFTBOSTON in (you guessed it) Boston a couple of weeks ago, but his News and Events pages doesn't have any other upcoming events. I'll keep an eye on it. (Though I'll have to remember to check manually, since there's no RSS feed....)



Photo: Insect Studio

Godspeed.

[Comments: 1] [Tags: art]