003 — January 17, 2017
Light Pillars, A Phone for Minimalists, A Mac Pro 2 Concept, Russian Superhero Bears +
Apologies for the delay — I’m pushing this out slightly later than usual due to a family emergency. Aside from that, last week was certainly eventful.
I’ve been asked by my friends about the Nintendo Switch. Here are some quick thoughts:
- The hardware isn’t compelling…but it’s not about that
- It’s about the games…and they look like fun!
- For my work travel, I think this could be a great device — I‘d love to develop a game for the platform…already have a few ideas in mind 🤔
OK — let’s jump into this week’s issue!
Light Pillars
A light pillar is an atmospheric optical phenomenon, which is an interaction of light with ice crystals. When the temperature drops and these crystals position themselves horizontally as they fall through the air, they act as “vessels” for light, shooting it upwards.
Beautiful captures. It’s nice to see that you can get a light pillar shot without having to go to a completely remote location.
The Light Phone
Designed to be used as little as possible, the Light Phone is your phone away from phone. Whether it be an afternoon stroll, coffee break, night on the town, or a dinner date with someone you love, going light affords us the space we need to spend quality time free of distractions or notifications.
In theory, I’m a fan. In reality, I don’t know if work/life will allow me to drop text messaging. It sounds like this could be a great secondary device in the event of battery failure of my primary device (Nexus 5X).
I enjoy watching “making of” videos. This manufacturing video above is no exception. I dig the personal feel.
Blossom
The object was designed in the form of a beautifully blossomed flower that’s been simplified into geometric shapes of a cone and a cylinder. The speaker is both aesthetic and functional. The audio which is produced from the bottom-up is projected in all directions by the cone shape, which allows putting all the constructional elements inside the shape.
Slick. I’d take this over a Google Home or Amazon Echo any day.
ELLI•Q is an active aging companion that keeps older adults active and engaged. ELLI•Q seamlessly enables older adults to use a vast array of technologies, including video chats, online games and social media to connect with families and friends and overcome the complexity of the digital world.
As someone with aging grandparents, I love this concept. Quick feedback: they build bluetooth and hearing aid integrations.
The dream of Ara: Inside the rise and fall of the world’s most revolutionary phone
That’s how Project Ara got its first name; before it was Ara, a name inspired by the project’s eventual electrical, mechanical, and software engineering lead, Ara Knaian, Makoski had called it Esprimo — Esperanto for “expression.”
Like many others, I was all in on Ara. I truly hope this project gets resurrected or picked up by another company. VentureBeat did a great job conducting these interviews and putting a timeline like this together. It’s not everyday that we get to see a timeline like this in the technology industry.
Mac Pro 2 Concept
German designer Pascal Eggert put together a Mac Pro 2 concept. With the help of Reddit, he was able to refine his vision.
Pascal spent a lot of time putting this together and refining his vision. You can view higher resolution photos and other beautiful concepts on his portfolio, linked below.
NFL Coaches Yell At Refs Because It Freakin’ Works
Refs are faced with a near-impossible task. They make judgment calls in real time, relying on just their eyes and their experience. Deprived of the advantages, like instant replay, that we enjoy from the couch, refs have less information to help them resist the normal subconscious urge to draw on external cues for assistance in making borderline calls.
The bias is real.
Kodak was forced to stop production of many of its film brands, including the iconic Kodachrome in 2009 — the world’s first successful color film. The sister brand of Ektachrome had become a cultural touchstone, responsible for capturing family moments, events and friendships on film in the country’s post-war boom.
I haven’t played with Ektachrome in decades. My wife recently helped me restore my grandfather’s old Konica from the 1960’s. I’m looking forward to putting a roll of Ektachrome through it.
George Lucas’ narrative arts museum will be located in Los Angeles
Another nice win for downtown Los Angeles. The Expo Park area is really turning into fun location. Looks like a great weekend when combined with the Natural History Museum and the California Science Center.
I discovered Elia’s work 3 years ago. Together with his wife, the couple has a nomadic lifestyle that I envy.
To be a nomad, you must believe that: experiences > things
To make animated movies these days, movie studios need to solve, or nearly solve, partial differential equations. Stomakhin, Teran and their colleagues build the code that solves the partial differential equations. More accurately, they write algorithms that closely approximate the partial differential equations because they cannot be solved perfectly. “We try to come up with new algorithms that have the highest-quality metrics in all possible categories, including preserving angular momentum perfectly and preserving energy perfectly. Many algorithms don’t have these properties,” Teran said.
I haven’t seen Moana but have heard great things from a few friends from my local SIGGRAPH group.
I laughed. I cried. I got scared.
Russia is stepping it up on the superhero front. I had to check out Wikipedia to figure out what’s going on with this movie:
Set during the Cold War, a secret organization named “Patriot” gathered a team of Soviet superheroes, altering and augmenting the DNA of four individuals, in order to defend the Homeland from supernatural threats. The team includes representatives of the different nationalities of the Soviet Union, while each one of them have long been hiding their true identity. In hard times, they settled down to business and gather to defend their homeland.
This looks absurd but that’s not stopping me from watching it.
We’re going to close this week with two great musical performances.
First up, we’ve got Sampha.
Finally, we’ve got Phantogram covering Radiohead’s Weird Fishes.
Thanks for reading issue 003. DLD is currently happening and we’ve got a lot of tech companies reporting earnings this week. This upcoming weekend should be fun for NFL fans.
See you next week! 🐨
