Dog POV

Dog slo-mo is always fun, especially from the pooch’s point of view.

NASA’s New Blue Marble

For those that say NASA doesn’t serve a community purpose, just glance at this stunning new photo composite of our earth. Amazing.

Via Colossal:

Blue Marble: NASAs Incredible New High Resolution Photograph of Earth photography Earth

Blue Marble: NASAs Incredible New High Resolution Photograph of Earth photography Earth

NASA has just published what it calls the “most amazing highest resolution image of Earth ever”, dubbed Blue Marble. The 64-megapixel image weighing in at 8000×8000 pixels is actually a composite photograph taken on January 4th of this year using a number of captures stitched together from NASA’s Earth-observing satellite Suomi NPP. Make sure to see this sucker full size to really appreciate the details. (via gizmodo via nick ulivieri)

Venn Diagram of the Day: How Would You Like Your Graphic Design?

For those of us in the design field, especially us freelancers, this hits home.

Via Tricia Chin and Colin Harman:

Endangered West Indian Manatees

These endangered creatures in Florida are quite graceful in the water.

I use Vimeo nearly everyday, and was excited to see it’s going through an entirely new redesign.  Via CoolHunting:

New Vimeo

Our favorite video sharing platform reveals a complete redesign

by Greg Stefano in Tech on 24 January 2012

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We have always been big supporters of Vimeo and their mission to provide a high quality, creatively focused platform for video sharing. We are super excited to announce that today Vimeo is launching it’s latest iteration with New Vimeo. The new platform entails a complete redesign from top to bottom. The new user interface was built with all new code, has brand-new features and a fantastic new look. The first redesign since 2007, this major overhaul marks Vimeo’s push to grow and reach a larger audience by making it more accessible and adding some great new features.

 

Vimeo_Feed.jpg

The basis for New Vimeo revolves are putting the video first. In lieu of the Inbox, when you log in you are now presented with your Feed, a streaming list of videos from all your contact and subscriptions. The feed allows you to watch and interact with those videos in place, including the ability to like, share or comment without having to visit the actual clip page. The feed is super clean and open, it has a very pleasing effect on the eye and incorporates the various buttons and tools in a subtle, intuitive manner.


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The language of the site has also changed. Adopting terminology more in line with social networks the site loses subscriptions and instead let’s users “Follow” each other. Anyone you follow will appear in your feed and act in the same manner as subscriptions and contacts did in the previous version. This simplification makes it much easier to manage your network on site and is more digestible for new users coming from other social platforms. The video still remains the focus of the experience, by keeping user interaction simple you can do more without straying from the content.

Content really is king in this new layout. Gone are the tabs upon tabs and long scrolling video lists with options layered one on top of the other. Videos are now presented front and center on clip pages, a drop down bar on the top of the site lets you browse other videos from your feed, more videos from that user or a wide variety of other filtering options. We spoke with Blake Whitman, Vimeo’s VP of Creative Development, who gave a walk through of the new site. The word “granular” came up often and it rings true, Vimeo managed to simplify their layout but the attention to detail and level of consideration that went into the new UI is outstanding.

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Over a year in the making New Vimeo has some new add-ons that are sure to gratify their faithful base. One of the most exciting new features is the ability to upload multiple videos simultaneously. To make sure you don’t choke your internet with your line up you can set throttles on your data usage when uploading which, while not earth shattering, is a very useful detail. It’s hard to pinpoint new features considering the metamorphosis everything seems pretty fresh but there is a new search criteria and filter that lets you sort by the license associated with the video. In line with this there is an entire category dedicated to the Creative Commons license in a push to educate users about this form of copyright and make it easier to track down royalty free content.

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Overall the Vimeo team did an excellent job moving the site into it’s next phase. A lot of user feedback was incorporated into the redesign making sure it will satisfy the faithful but it has a fresh enough look to draw in a new crowd. The focus on accessibility and keeping content center stage show a great deal of insight from the team and we are excited to see more new features are they role out. Head to the site to pre-register for New Vimeo, where you can migrate an existing account or sign up as a new user.

Tree Ring Music

Via my dear friend, Rambling Moonbat:

YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo.

Custom record player that plays slices of a tree. I love the sound.

From the artist: “A tree’s year rings are analysed for their strength, thickness and rate of growth. This data serves as basis for a generative process that outputs piano music based on the year ring data. Those are analyzed for their thickness and growth rate and are then mapped to a scale which is again defined by the overall appeareance of the wood (ranging from dark to light and from strong texture to light texture). The foundation for the music is certainly found in the defined ruleset of programming and hardware setup, but the data acquired from every tree interprets this ruleset very differently.”

Amazing Undersea Life

Via io9:

Russian photographer Alexander Semenov creates photographs of marine life that just burst with color and energy. You may have understood, on some intellectual level, that the ocean depths are an ecosystem, teeming with life and all connected. But looking at these stunning photos will make you seeit in a new way.

Semenov is a diver and project manager at the White Sea Biological Station in Russia, and he studied zoology (particularly squid brains) as a college student. Semenov writes:

When I first began to experiment with sea life photography I tried shooting small invertebrates for fun with my own old camera and without any professional lights or lenses. I collected the invertebrates under water and then I’ve shot them in the lab. After two or three months of failure after failure I ended up with a few good pictures, which I’ve showed to the crew. It has inspired us to buy a semi-professional camera complete with underwater housing and strobes. Thus I’ve spent the following field season trying to shoot the same creatures, but this time in their environment. It was much more difficult, and I spent another two months without any significant results. But when you’re working at something every day, you inevitably get a lot of experience. Eventually I began to get interesting photos – one or two from each dive. Now after four years of practice I get a few good shots almost every time I dive but I still have a lot of things that need to be mastered in underwater photography.

Apple’s Big Push into Classrooms


The iPad is surely one of the biggest technology revolutions in the last few years. Today, Apple had an announcement related to the iPad in classrooms, and the way digital textbooks are going to change the way we learn, and teach.

Via MacRumors:
At its education-focused media event today, Apple introduced iBooks 2, an updated version of the company’s e-book software for iOS devices. The update comes as part of a push into interactive digital textbooks in partnership with a number of major publishers.

  • - Experience gorgeous Multi-Touch textbooks designed for iPad
    – iBooks textbooks are filled with interactive features, diagrams, photos, and videos
    – Tap to dive into images with interactive captions, rotate 3D objects, swipe through image galleries, watch videos in full screen, and more
    – Use a finger as a highlighter when swiping over text in a textbook
    – Take advantage of Study Cards to help you memorize important highlights, notes, and glossary terms
    – Tap glossary terms to see definitions of key topics and concepts without leaving the pageApple is partnering with McGraw-Hill, Pearson, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on the textbook front, with the three companies currently responsible for 90% of textbook sales in the United States. McGraw-Hill and Pearson are rolling out a handful of introductory titles today, with more coming soon.

Apple’s initial focus for its textbook effort is on high school textbooks, with books priced at $14.99 or less. Authors can continually update their content, and the students get to keep their copies indefinitely.

iBooks 2 is a free download from the App Store, available as an update to the existing iBooks app.

Here is a nice video showcasing the way iPads are being used in schools.

GM’s Backseat View into the Future


A pretty neat concept for people in a car’s backseat.

Via Leftlane News:

By Drew Johnson

Rear-seat entertainment systems have steadily improved over the last few years, but General Motors has developed a new technology that could revolutionize the entire industry.

Most rear-seat entertainment systems include a couple of screens and a DVD player, but General Motors has developed a new system that transforms a vehicle’s rear-windows into a virtual playground.

Developed through a partnership between General Motors Research and Development and the FUTURE LAB at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Israel, the new system – dubbed the Windows of Opportunity Project, or WOO for short – uses a vehicle’s rear windows as interactive displays. Students at Bezalel developed four different apps for the system, including Otto – an animated character that goes along for the ride – and Spindow, which lets the user see out of another user’s window anywhere in the world in real-time.

“Traditionally, the use of interactive displays in cars has been limited to the driver and front passenger, but we see an opportunity to provide a technology interface designed specifically for rear seat passengers,” said Tom Seder, GM R&D lab group manager for human-machine interface. “Advanced windows that are capable of responding to vehicle speed and location could augment real world views with interactive enhancements to provide entertainment and educational value.”

GM says WOO wasn’t developed with mass production in mind, but notes it could be made into a reality through the use of “ smart glass” technology. Smart glass is becoming common place in other industries, but has yet to make its debut in cars – outside of movies like Mission Impossible.

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