Rob Beschizza

The cracktop cometh

There is a brewing engineering problem with the next generation of ultra-thin netbooks: cheap plastic cracks after a while when it is molded into the required shapes. Brooke Crothers writes:

"Early production units being built in plastic, with the bottom case being plastic, are cracking," said Broadpoint AmTech analyst Doug Freedman, in a phone interview, referring to discussions he had with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and and original design manufacturers (ODMs). Typically ODMs don't market under their brand name but supply devices to OEMs, which then slap on their own brand.

To upgrade them means they won't be cheap anymore: nice plastic and metal is expensive, resulting in Vaios and Adamos and MacBook Airs.

Steven Leckart

Byte Magazine, August 1981

Steven Leckart

Sputnik: Videos of Interconnected Ideas, Thinkers

Info architect Jonathan Harris explains his latest work, which launched today:

The central premise of the Sputnik project is that everything is connected to everything else, and that topics and ideas that may seem fringe and even heretical to the mainstream world are in fact being investigated by leading thinkers working in fields as diverse as quantum physics, mathematics, neuroscience, biology, economics, architecture, digital art, video games, computer science and music...

Conducted over more than ten years and previously unavailable to the public, the interviews within the site chronicle some of the most provocative human ideas to have emerged in the last few decades. The site itself aims to highlight the interconnections between seemingly disparate thinkers and ideas, using a simple navigational system with no dead ends, where every thought leads to another thought, akin to swimming the stream of consciousness.

200 videos are already on the site, with more to come. File under: major time suck.

Steven Leckart

PARC: What's w/the Shagadelic Carpet & Beanbag Chairs?

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Rob Beschizza

PSP Phone mockup challenge furrows internet's brow

Mockup designs for Sony's rumored PSP Phone are nearly are unappetizing as the pre-iPhone iPhone mockups were.Take this one, for instance, published in foreign-language "Phone Mag." It went for the "boring enough to be convincing" cachet.

The mushrooms kicked in long before T3 found its way to this next idea's awful D-pad -- it's based on a patent Sony itself filed.

It isn't clear where the next one came from. My hunch is that the artist isn't going to be around any time soon to request attribution...

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Joel Johnson

Michael Jackson's patented "Smooth Criminal" leaning shoes

Patent number 5255452, filed in 1992, shows how Michael Jackson and his dancers could lean at 45-degree angles during live performances of the song "Smooth Criminal".

1. A system for engaging shoes with a hitch mans to permit a person standing on a stage surface to lean forwardly beyond his or her center of gravity, comprising:

at least one shoe having a heel with a first engagement means, said first engagement means comprising a recess formed in a heel of said shoe covered with a heel slot plane located at a bottom region of said heel, said heel slot plate having a slot formed therein with a relatively wide opening at a leading edge of said heel and a narrower terminal end rearward of said leading edge, said recess being larger in size above said terminal end of said slot than is said terminal end of said slot; and
a second engagement means, detachably engageable with said first engagement means, comprising a hitch member having an enlarged head portion connected by a narrower shank portion to a means for raising and lowering said head of said hitch member above and substantially level with or below said stage surface, said head portion being larger in size than said terminal end of said slot and said shank portion being narrower than said terminal end of said slot, wherein said hitch member can be moved through apertures in said stage surface between a projecting position raised above said stage surface and a retracted position at or below the stage surface, and when said head portion of said hitch member is raised above said stage surface, said first engagement means can be detachably engaged with said projecting hitch member, thereby allowing a person wearing the shoes to lean forwardly with his or her normal center of gravity beyond a front region of said shoes, and maintain said forward lean.

You can see them perform the move in the below video; watch the guy on the right, as he has trouble disengaging his loafers after the move.

Joel Johnson

Video: Clever woman designs a better British power plug

While North American electrical plugs aren't exactly tiny, our poor Ukensian brothers and sisters have to deal with horrible three-pronged knobs that turn British power cords into injection molded bolas. (Are they so big because there's a fuse in the plug itself as standard?)

Sip your coffee deep then, as did I, so you may properly choke when this woman shows her idea for a folding plug that is as thin as a MacBook Air, but fully compliant with the UK plug standard, fuse and all. Screaming downstairs about how awesome it is when she shows the extra design for a multi-port plug when you mistake the sound of your dog for your girlfriend, then experiencing terrifying vertigo when the ceiling screams back, is—as always—completely optional. (Thanks, Charlie!)

Rob Beschizza

Node, the power outlet of tomorrow

Plug is as many things as your circuit can amp up, and power them all on or off with two taps of your toe. I can think of one good reason this would be much safer as a power strip than a wall outlet, however.

Making of the node [Metaphys]

Joel Johnson

Radio Valerie

Joel Johnson

Video Exclusive: Schematic's multi-meter, multi-touch, multi-user Touchwall

Trevor Kaufman of design haus Schematic passed along this shiny, produced video showing off their new "Touchwall" project that's the sequel to a previous multitouch panel they built. As it happens, we're the first to get a look at it.

Multitouch is in a weird spot. It's in our phones. It's in big projects like the Touchwall. But it's not in our home machines yet (for the most part, excepting Tablet PC users and a few HP and Asus customers). So kinks are still there for the working out, and that's a lot of what Schematic has been working on.

For instance, how do you type in a username and password on a big public wall? For Touchwall, you don't—you swipe an RFID badge on the screen.

What about letting multiple users access the system at once? Schematic solved that problem by letting that be possible.

Because Schematic is a design and special projects group, they aren't shy to crow about their fancy acheivents. (Kaufman said we should think of the Touchwall "not as a standalone device, but as a new technology paradigm", which implies a unique technical challenge: What does the Touchwall do when you get sick all over it?) But these are really interesting problems they're solving, and if these sort of interfaces really are the public access terminals of our future airports and Cinnabons, I look forward to greasing them up.

Joel Johnson

What will phones look like in a decade?

...asks Alissa Walker of three smarty designer types:

⌦ "People will design their own phones, picking the size, weight, battery life, materials, screen: Built to order." Doubt it! Standardized forms are necessary for people to write software that provides a consistent experience.

⌦ "The earpiece ring is worn on the thumb, the mic on the pinky." Ha ha, no.

⌦ "I can access all of my communications data from the cloud--from any phone or device that is convenient." Here we go.

Gosh I am so smart.

At this point, imagining phones ten years out seems pretty pointless. The phones we use today are not fundamentally different than the smartphones of a decade ago in conception, but we hadn't anticipated exactly when the touchscreens and the processors would become good enough for programmers and designers to finally crack the user interface issues in a way that worked for the mass market. But if you think about it, many of the things that make the iPhone, Pre, and Android phones work—the gestures, the integration with cloud data services, app repositories—were totally possible at least in modest form ten years back. It just took a while to get everything lined up.

I guess what I'm thinking is that imagining phones ten years ahead isn't nearly as difficult as building the phones in two-year intervals that get us to where that vision may be. We know what we could be doing with phones for several years; now it's up to the creators to add more capability in salable ways. (It would be fantastic if every phone had a barometer and a thermometer to act as weather stations, but until the sensor package is essentially free, it's too specialized of a function to justify the cost. But that does make me realize that phones could stand to incorporate more of the capability of sports watches, including especially water resistance. Tough nut to crack, but maybe Casio is onto something there with their line of "toughphones".)

Xeni Jardin

Video: Polite Umbrella Contracts To Avoid Poking Others In The Eye

Video Link. This This cleverly-designed umbrella allows you shrink to fit the sidewalk.. (Thanks, Stephen Lenz)

Rob Beschizza

How a case modder tricked Intel and made a PR competition interesting

In 2007, top case modder Jeffrey Stephenson sneakily entered Intel's Core Challenge design contest. The competition seemed mostly about promoting mass-produced "Viiv" machines from Intel's partners, and wasn't open to individuals. But Stephenson very nearly won it with the Art Deco-styled Decomatic HTPC.

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Rob Beschizza

HP Artist Edition 2 Notebook PC

This is the $949 Pavilion dvoz Artist Edition 2 notebook PC, with a design inspired by the surroundings in Okinawa. It won first place in a HP design contest, but the press release doesn't identify the artist.

Rob Beschizza

Steampunk Flash Drive

Beautiful, and one of a kind! And $165. [Etsy via CrunchGear]

Rob Beschizza

Ithaca Pub Game Table full of surprises

Designed by Ty Pennington, Howard Miller's $1,500 Ithaca Pub Table seats for and conceals a snack and beverage drawer for each, as well as a central hollow column fitted with shelves to hold games, curios and guns. [via Born Rich]

Rob Beschizza

Show us your wonderful laptop case art, win an arty laptop case

Be.Ez makes simple, svelte laptop cases in a variety of gorgeous designs, cut to fit all sorts of laptops, netbooks and other form factors. They've got one to give away, and all you have to do is post a picture of your customized laptop to the comments, or to our Flickr Pool. Bonus marks go to extraordinary artistry or tastelessness!

The Boing Boing Gadgets Cabal will review entries after a safe interval and pick a winner.

Rob Beschizza

Color Picker

Jinsun Park's design for a color-picking pen, hypothetically featuring a sensor and RGB ink tanks, carries well that quiet background hum of "Hmmm. So why doesn't this exist, then?"

Source [Tuvie via RGS]

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Rob Beschizza

PSP Go echoes U101 design

A few people say that the leaked PSP Go doesn't look like something Sony would design. But those odd white circles are characteristic of an older Sony portable released in Japan: the 5-inch U101, which now looks like some kind of delicious netbook-PSP hybrid. If nothing else, it seems more the Go's spiritual predecessor than the Mylo tween-phone that everyone keeps comparing it to. It even had a D-pad! (Sort of. On the wrong side)

Steven Leckart

What Tech/Slang Should Disney Choose to Represent the '00s?

Disney decided on Pac-Man iconography and the word "Radical" to represent the 1980s wing of their Pop Century Resort in Florida. Obvious, sensible choices.

Any ideas for what they should use for the '00s icon and slang?

I'm going to offer up the iPhone + "Totes."*

*Disney's 80s wing also utilizes the phrase "totally awesome," which helps support the case for "totes." If Disney manages to work online shorthand and/or leet speak into the hotel, I'll be thoroughly impressed.

photo by Linda Leckart

Steven Leckart

Q&A: Donald MacDonald, Architect

Donald MacDonald has designed more than a dozen bridges since establishing his architectural firm in 1966. Today, he has bridges scheduled for construction in Dubai and Portland, OR, and he's in the midst of building the world's largest self-anchored suspension bridge: the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge's eastern span (due to be completed in 2013). We visited MacDonald's San Francisco offices to find out what it's like to build a $6.3 billion bridge, how things have changed since the "old days", and why young architects should learn to just "Draw the bloody thing!"

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Steven Leckart

Get This Guy To Finish His Laser-Cut Gingerbread Bridge

Instructables user rstraugh is building a kick-ass model of the Oberbaum Bridge in Berlin out of gingerbread, using an Epilog Laser. So far, the project looks awesome, but he says he probably won't finish it until next Christmas. :(

Steven Leckart

HOWTO Build a Rope Bridge

A small rope bridge can be assembled in 30-45 minutes. I've never built one, but I sure want to try. Glenn Cockwell's Scouting Bridge guide seems like enough to get a beginner going. If you have any tips, suggestions or resources of your own, let me know.

[photo by Antonio Jiménez Alonso via Kees Jan Koster NEW image via Sir Garlichad]

Steven Leckart

Bridges: Monuments To Progress

Steven Leckart

HOWTO Build a Model Bridge

It's harder than it looks, especially if you want a mini-bridge that is structurally sound. Garrett Boon's "5 Steps to Building a Model Bridge" is a terrific resource (available as a free PDF, but donations are welcome). He explains everything from choosing wood, glue and tools to drawing plans.

So who is Garrett Boon?

I spent seven years participating in Science Olympiad building and technology events. I won 17 awards in the Bridge Building, Tower Building, & Boomilever events, including seven 1st places. In the spring of 2004, I took first place at the Georgia State Finals in Bridge Building, breaking a 4-year efficiency record with my bridge.

Garrett's web site is also a treasure trove of mini-bridge info with plenty of pics and tips on building with popsicle sticks, balsa wood, drinking straws, toothpicks, and spaghetti. He also sells plans and kits.

[image by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid]

Lisa Katayama

The longest arch bridge in the world will be in Dubai

Fxfowle, the NY architecture firm that built the NY Times Building and the Conde Nast Building, is now working on what will be the longest arch bridge in the world in Dubai. When &mdash and if &mdash completed in 2012, it will be a mile long, 670 feet tall, and have 12 lanes of traffic with train tracks dividing them in the middle. [via io9]

Lisa Katayama

Krämerbrücke is a bridge surrounded by houses

Krämerbrücke is one of my favorite bridges in the world. It's is in Erfurt, Germany, spans 86 yards, and has been around for about 1000 years. The walkway is an ordinary village street surrounded on both sides by houses that people live in, and every year they have a festival that celebrates the Middle Ages. It's a cool architectural idea that didn't catch on in a big way, but makes me think about what could have been if bridges hadn't evolved in a more minimalistic, function-oriented direction.

Steven Leckart

Aeroelasticity and the Incredible, Bendable Bridge

On November 7, 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge failed during a windstorm. During construction, workers had reported* a noticeable amount of "galloping" (some give is desirable), but nothing like what occurred on November 7. As 42 mph gusts pummeled the four-month-old suspension bridge, the road started to oscillate visibly. At one point, one side of the road was 28 feet higher than the other (at 05:03 you can see two folks stumbling across the bridge).

After an hour, a number of the bridge's cables snapped, forcing the center span to collapse. The cause: aeroelastic flutter. Essentially, the amplitude of the oscillations increased exponentially as the wind continued to hit the bridge. When the energy grew greater than what the bridge was naturally built to absorb (called "damping")... well, boom went the dynamite. This is why today's bridge designers put their models through wind tunnels.

Today, the old Tacoma Bridge's steel girders and half-mile of roadway comprise one of the world's largest human-made reefs in the waters of Puget Sound.

In 2004, Shawn Frayne used the concept of aeroelastic flutter to develop the "Windbelt", a small device that generates energy by placing magnets at the ends of a small fluttering belt. His company, Humdinger, is working to commercialize the devices. The Windbelt is not yet available for sale.

Humdinger's FAQ explains the difference between "resonance" and aeroelastic flutter: "While the effect of aeroelastic flutter is not necessarily a resonant effect, but rather a positive feedback loop that reaches a limit cycle, some variations of the Windbelt technology do use resonance between two or more components on the generators to increase efficiency."

*It's said they chewed lemons to combat nausea on the job.

Steven Leckart

Today on BBG: Bridges

Pretty sure Newton meant that metaphorically, but either way, since the father of gravity uttered those words some 250 years ago, we've taken his point to heart. Today on BBG, we'll be investigating bridges of all shapes, sizes and function. We'll examine a laser-cut gingerbread bridge, the longest natural vs. artificial arch bridges, how to build both model and rope bridges, bridge jumping (for sport), bridge jumping (for suicide), tiny natural water bridges, and more.

We'll also speak to the lead architect on the in-progress San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge, and find out why architecture schools are starting to favor hand drawing over software renderings.

Steven Leckart

Hands-On With A Whippit-Powered Travel Espresso Maker

Currently in production, the MyPressi TWIST has been generating enough buzz to get a trucker from Nashville to Reno (and back). Forget press and blog attention. The $129 portable espresso maker won the best new product award from the Specialty Coffee Association of America (it's sorta like the Oscars for coffee).

The product won't be available until this fall, but there are three prototypes in existence. We recently got to see one up close and personal, taste the fruits of its pressure-driven loins, and chat with the husband and wife team behind one of the most exciting things to happen to coffee since Baileys.

More after the jump...

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