Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, April 17, 2009

I'm Officially a Fan of 'Light Art Performance Photography' [Art]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/z_mOtyx3vFw/im-officially-a-fan-of-light-art-performance-photography

At first, I misread the phenomenon as LARPing , the pastime for aspiring night elf mohawks. Now I've realized the acronym reads "LAPP."

These photographs were captured through what at least one group of awesome Germans are calling Light Art Performance Photography. Practically, all that means is long exposure photography capable of transforming a dot of light into a solid string when moved. The performance aspect is, presumably, that these photos are acted out in one continuous shot.

We've seen the same photographic phenomenon in Sprint commercials, or even in the recent Light Writer iPhone app. But the work we see here is exceptional—a stunning artistic statement with a remarkably analog sensibility. You can see lots more by following the link below.[LARP via Gearfuse]

SciPhone Dream G2+ adds WiFi to the Android KIRF madness

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/16/sciphone-dream-g2-adds-wifi-to-the-android-kirf-madness/

Months later we're still thrilled at the discovery that the original Dream G2 doesn't run the free and open Android OS, but instead a carefully built, stylus-driven clone. Well, SciPhone's Dream G2+ followup continues in that noble tradition, running with some tweaked looks and the addition of WiFi on top of what looks to be that same Android-cloning interface. It's pretty thrilling stuff, and not at all bad for the $185 asking price.

[Via PMP Today]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

SciPhone Dream G2+ adds WiFi to the Android KIRF madness originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AlloSphere three story virtual environment not available for birthday parties, Bat Mitzvahs

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/16/allosphere-three-story-virtual-environment-not-available-for-bir/

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara are developing an immense, wholly immersive VR environment that would allow groups of researchers the opportunity to explore their data aurally and visually on a scale never before seen. The AlloSphere is a three story metal sphere housed in an echo-free chamber, large enough that twenty researchers can stand on a bridge and take a walk through an atom, for instance, or a human brain. The project relies on a supercomputer for generating real-time, high-res 3D video and audio streams from a mountain of scientific data, and currently the team is hard at work building the bad boy's computing platform and interactive display. The project leader JoAnn Kuchera-Morin has yet to state whether or not the sense of smell would be incorporated into the finished product, but we sure hope not -- that would be rather distracting, don't you think? Check it out on video after the break.

[Via TED]

Continue reading AlloSphere three story virtual environment not available for birthday parties, Bat Mitzvahs

Filed under: Displays, Science

AlloSphere three story virtual environment not available for birthday parties, Bat Mitzvahs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Public rage stalls Time Warner trials of consumption-based internet

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/16/public-rage-stalls-time-warner-trials-of-consumption-based-inter/

Time Warner's new data capping broadband scheme was never expected to win any popularity contests, and the details of its plans are so frustrating, that this probably should not come as a surprise. Regardless, it looks like the company's plan to further roll out testing of the consumption-based billing method has been foiled, or at least stalled, because it couldn't find enough customers to participate in the testing. TWC had planned to test in several locations, including San Antonio and Austin, Texas, but the response has apparently been so negative, and there were so many complaints, that the company has "delayed" the trials until October. So... maybe if we keep moaning about it the plan will be abandoned altogether? Here's to hoping, anyway.

[Via The Register]

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Networking

Public rage stalls Time Warner trials of consumption-based internet originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer AspireRevo: the Ion-infused unboxing

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/16/acer-apire-revo-the-ion-infused-unboxing/

We just tore the packaging off of Acer's new AspireRevo nettop and dove into its Ion-powered goodness. The computer is in many ways a product of NVIDIA's designs, since the Ion-powered nettop reference platform has been a part of the Ion ecosystem for a while, and this Revo apple doesn't fall from the NVIDIA tree. Still, Acer had to go ahead and build the thing, and it's a pretty great package all-in-all. We're still in the preliminaries -- the HDMI didn't work out of the gate, but after swapping back and forth a few times with the VGA plug we were in business -- and we're playing with a potentially buggy "engineering sample," but hopefully we'll be able to pull together some cohesive impressions on the thing, and play a bit of Spore while we're at it. It's already obviously the fastest Atom-powered device we've played with, and while it still pretty much chokes on Hulu and that whole "multitasking" concept, we're pretty pleased so far.

Gallery: Acer Apire Revo: the Ion-infused unboxing