cool stuff

lyricwiki

stuart updegrave — Tue, 02 May 2006 10:25:00 GMT

LyricWiki is a free site which is a single source where anyone can go to get reliable lyrics for any song from any artist without being hammered by invasive ads.

Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes

stuart updegrave — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 23:05:00 GMT

2X4 Landscape

last night i went to the opening, at the Henry Art Gallery on UW campus, of a new exhibit by Maya Lin. she's probably most well known for the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC.

the following is an excerpt from the program:

Systematic Landscapes is centered around three large-scale installations, each of which puts the viewer into a distinctive relationship to the scale and shapes of the land. "2x4 Landscape", a hill or wave form built of 50,000 boards set on end, is both a familiar fragment of landscape and a model expanded to massive scale. "Water Line", a floating wire-frame topographic "drawing" of an immense undersea formation, can either be walked under or viewed from above. "Blue Lake Pass", a 3D translation of a Coloroado mountain range, is made of layers of particle board, segmented into a grid and then pulled apart to create walkways through the landscape strata.

The show also includes several other pieces, including a beautifully simple rendering of the entire Columbia River system formed entirely of straight pins stuck into the wall, a set of three pieces from a collection called "Bodies of Water", and an entire room dedicated to a series of environmental art installations throughout Washington state, installed over the last two years, called The Confluence Project. It is described online as "a grand collaboration between Lin, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla, the Nez Perce Tribe, the Lewis and Clark Commemorative Committee of Vancouver/Clark County, and the Friends of Lewis and Clark of Pacific County. The models and designs on view mark sites of contact along the Columbia River between Native Americans and the Lewis and Clark Expedition."

It was a really powerful show -- "Water Line", in particular, really floored me when I first saw it. The pin-rendering of the Columbia slowly drew delightful laughter from me, and I'm now inspired for a new motorcycle trip to experience the Confluence Project.

The show officially opened today (Earth Day, how fitting) and runs until Labor Day. I strongly encourage anyone who appreciates maps, earth shapes and/or environmental art to attend. it's well worth it.

Dogtown and Z-Boys

stuart updegrave — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 09:43:00 GMT

On Thursday, Kat and Kay came over to the house to join me in watching Dogtown and Z-Boys. I've been wanting to see it for some time, based on a few great reviews I'd seen, and my brief stint with skateboarding when I was a wee lad. I *really* enjoyed this movie. It was super-cool to see this band of surfer punks take a different sport, apply all the crazy tricks they knew from surfing (and moves from their surf idols of the day) and totally transform the public perception of what skateboarding was all about.

I thought the film style was great -- well shot, pretty transitions, and it totally served the story in my eyes.

Those guys were really lucky to have a photog along for the ride back in the day -- I doubt this project would have been possible (without a lot of cheesy re-enactments) otherwise.

The IMDB summary is as follows:

Sub-titled "The Birth of Extreme", this documetary takes a look at the transformation of skateboarding from its former image as a land-bound pastime for surfers to its status today as an extreme and acrobatic sport in its own right. Starting from the California surf community of Dogtown, the film follows the evolution of modern skateboarding through it's 70's heyday, its decline during the 80's, and its eventual (and highly lucrative) return in the 90's.

Check it out!

new toy! HP z540 Media Center

stuart updegrave — Thu, 06 Jan 2005 12:53:00 GMT

i've been wanting to get a Windows Media Center PC for some time now to put in the basement. bev hasn't really seen the need for one, so it's been a waiting game for a while. given the recent cash influx i received from MSFT's one-time $3 dividend on stock, i decided that i was just gonna get one, and that's that. ;)

i shopped around a bit, and decided on the HP z540. i didn't opt for the higher-end model since it essentially adds two things: an extra TV tuner card (would have gotten this if we had cable), and more storage (uh, i think we're pushing a terabyte in total at burly estate already ... )

it came a few days before we headed back to NC for christmas, so i unfortunately didn't have much time to play with it until we got back. but now, i've been tinkering for a while, and i gotta say, it's a pretty neat product.

before MCE, we had a DVD player and Audiotron (networked music device) in the entertainment room; eventually, these will end up in the bedroom. the MCE box has replaced the functionality of both, as well as giving us a full WinXP box downstairs, the ability to watch live TV and record TV (should've pulled down the season premiere of Alias las night!), watch other digital video, photo slideshows, etc.

i'm happy with my new toy. i suspect i'll write more about it as time goes on.

oh, and thanks to ethan for working on the product, evangelizing it so nicely, and being such a good showcase (there are at least 3 MCE boxen at uphill).

can i get a 'w00t'?!

PV / battery in one

stuart updegrave — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 13:07:00 GMT

This is cool:

Solar cell doubles as battery

A practical solar energy system usually includes solar cells that convert light to electricity and batteries that store the energy for later use.

Scientists from Toin University of Yokohama in Japan have designed a single, compact device that can both convert solar energy to electricity and store the electricity. "We succeeded in incorporating both photovoltaic and storage functions in a single cell with a thin, sandwich-type structure," said Tsutomu Miyasaka, a researcher at the University.

The researchers' photocapacitor is also efficient at capturing energy from weak light sources like sunlight on cloudy or rainy days and indoor lighting.

The light-driven, self-charging capacitor could eventually be used to power portable electronic devices like phones, cameras, and PDAs, said Miyasaka. "Users can just bring the device anywhere and expose it to indoor and outdoor ambient light whether they need power or not [then] release the stored electricity anytime they want," he said.

thanks to taylor for pointing this out to me ...

cool stuff : bluetooth motorcycle helmets!

stuart updegrave — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 05:12:00 GMT

you know, i should have seen this coming. several manufacturers have recently started producing BlueTooth-capable motorcycle helmets, that are able to communicate with either another helmet, or with BT-enabled devices such as cell phones.

here's a link with a roundup:

http://blogs.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/11162004084544MWEB56.htm

i did just get a new helmet last year, but i might have to look into these ...

in related motorcycle news, i got to watch my odomoter turn over 50k last week! of course, only a little less than 10k of those miles are mine, but still. it's surprising to realize i've put almost 10k on my bike in the two-ish years i've owned it. and also, that it's got at least 50k more in it if i take good care ...

zoomquilt

stuart updegrave — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 07:48:00 GMT

Many thanks to NY Kat for alerting me to this amazing link:

http://public.hbk-bs.de/~baumgarn/zoomquilt/zoom.htm

Flash animation, super psychedelic perma-zoom visualizations. Pretty!