In 1913, Italian painter and composer Luigi Russolo created a new type of musical instruments he dubbed the “Intonarumori”, or “noise intoners”. The sounds produced by these devices were definitely unusual for his era and you’d be hard pressed to find anything similar to it today. An explanation of intonarumori construction via Wikipedia – Although there were several varieties of intonarumori, they each were created with the same basic structure
At the risk of playing Captain Obvious here—it’s easy to see why people would want to go online for more information after big events—I’ll conclude that feltron’s research into CNN.com’s traffic over the last 13 years is proof that historic events drive pageviews and unique visits. At least that’s true if you’re a well-known baseline news source like CNN. Feltron’s graph below, aside from plotting the site traffic’s steady rise, also points out the 10 busiest weeks, shows how much of the traffic each part of the site enjoys, and marks important events in recent (American) history
It’s time for Rick and Jason’s annual Holiday Gift Ideas episode! Sit back and relax as the “doctors” fill your head with photographic pleasantries. Download The Image Doctors #104 (NPC-ID-2009-11-12.m4a; 52:47; 12.9 MB; MP4 format)
Russian Math, the Poincare Conjecture and Perelman…
Russia’s Conquering Zeros, The strength of post-Soviet math stems from decades of lonely productivity @ the WSJ… It may be no accident that, while some of the best American mathematical minds worked to solve one of the century’s hardest problems—the Poincaré Conjecture—it was a Russian mathematician working in Russia who, early in this decade, finally triumphed. Decades before, in the Soviet Union, math placed a premium on logic and consistency in a culture that thrived on rhetoric and fear; it required highly specialized knowledge to understand; and, worst of all, mathematics lay claim to singular and knowable truths—when the regime had staked its own legitimacy on its own singular truth.
Psystar founders claim they cracked OS X, hackintosh scene is ‘all wrong’
Psystar founders claim they cracked OS X, hackintosh scene is ‘all wrong’ Okay, so we’re reading this puff piece in the Miami New Times about would-be Mac cloner Psystar , and while we’re somewhat willing to dismiss author Tim Elfrink’s various mischaracterizations of the law and what Psystar is actually doing as just laziness and / or ignorance, there’s a quote here from Psystar founder Rudy Pedraza that simply leaps off the page: Rudy scoffs at the idea he borrowed from the Hackintosh scene. “The first thing you have to do is unlearn everything you’ve read online about how to make this work,” Rudy says, “because it’s all wrong.” Really?
9h: The Luxury Capsule Hotel [Architecture] If you go to Tokyo, you may want to check into 9h—Nainawasu in Japanese—a luxury capsule hotel that is 9 stories tall, storing 125 capsules that use Panasonic’s environmental and lighting control system. According to Panasonic, their system controls lighting to guarantee “good sleeping.” I don’t know about you but, to me, “good sleeping” means a large bed, a good duvet, and someone special to spoon with all night
ASUS’ $1,500 Core i7-equipped G51J gaming laptop gets reviewed Here’s hoping you held off on purchasing that Core 2 Duo G51 just a few months ago, ’cause ASUS has just pushed out the exact same laptop with a Core i7 within and a price tag that’s $200 skimpier. The G51J-A1 was launched alongside Windows 7, and the crew over at Hot Hardware managed to toss it on the test bench to find out what kind of gains could be expected when going from Intel’s last-gen CPU to the newly-announced Core i7-720QM . The long and short of it is this: the new CPU enabled this machine to smoke the C2D sibling in every test, with graphical performance being nothing short of astounding.
Nvidia CEO Reveals Tablet, Declares His Love for Apple [Tablet]
Nvidia CEO Reveals Tablet, Declares His Love for Apple [Tablet] In an interview yesterday, Nvidia CEO revealed two things: First, their sleek tablet prototype, which looks just like my wet dream Apple Tablet concept : Simple, thin, and omfgIwantone. Then, he declared his enraptured love for all things Apple: [In my home we are] all Apple. Apple uses the best technology for their [computers]
Things to do today that have nothing to do with Modern Warfare 2
I know that there’s a certain of percentage of people who want nothing to do with Modern Warfare 2 . It’s all meatheads and explosions, right? I’m inclined to agree to a degree—Opie and Anthony were talking about the game this morning, and a real life member of the military called in and complained, “If you want to play war, why not join the Army?”—but no matter
In this second Nikonians News Flash Extra, Ray interviews Nikonians Academy faculty member Michael Mariant : Download Nikonians News Flash Extra #2 (NPC-NF-2009-11-11.mp3; 16:33; 15.1MB; MP3 format)
Fridge Locker Secures Your Snacks From Crappy Roommates and Co-Workers [Food]
Fridge Locker Secures Your Snacks From Crappy Roommates and Co-Workers [Food] Tired of your lunch being stolen by your roommates and co-workers? Instead of hiding your snacks, get serious about security with the fridge locker . Essentially, it’s a polyurethane cage full of goodies that you store in the fridge and secure with a combination lock (included).
Remainders – Stuff We Didn’t Post (and Why) [Remainders]
Remainders – Stuff We Didn’t Post (and Why) [Remainders] Insane Graphics Card Packs 2GB Memory and Six (Yes, Six) DisplayPort Ports…Volcano Prevention Efforts May Result in Volcano Eruption…Makeshift Bike Rack Attaches to Street Signs…PC Built Inside a Classy-as-Hell Leather and Wood Chest… Insane Graphics Card Packs 2GB Memory and Six (Yes, Six) DisplayPort Ports Rumor has it that AMD is set to announce a new, and 100% ridiculous, flagship card: The Radeon HD 5870 .
Driving a car with an iPhone. A freaking car. For reals.
John Boiles , who earlier this year showed us how to control an RC car using an iPod’s internal accelerometer (and also how to control the lights on a dance floor in more or less the same way), is a member of Austin, TX, based engineering collective Waterloo Labs , who have up-gunned his iPod technology to control steering, brakes, and acceleration on a full-size automobile . Definitely not the safest hack I’ve ever blogged, but probably the most impressive. Great work, lady and gents
Six hot ‘n fresh DisplayPorts on one video card, coming right up
When I first saw Eyefinity demoed, I thought “that’s pretty awesome, but aren’t you going to have to pull some shenanigans to get that many monitors hooked up? I mean, daisy-chaining monitors isn’t science of the rockets or anything, but it does mean certain restrictions need to be observed, and certain accessories bought. But what if your graphics card had as many outputs as you had monitors
NVIDIA CEO shoots down talk of Intel-compatible x86 chip, says his home is ‘all Apple’
NVIDIA CEO shoots down talk of Intel-compatible x86 chip, says his home is ‘all Apple’ NVIDIA’s feud with Intel may be at an all-time high these days, but it looks like the company isn’t about to go as far as to produce its own Intel-compatible x86 chip, despite persistent rumors to the contrary. That word comes straight from NVIDIA’s always talkative CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, who flatly said “no” when asked if there was any truth to the rumors.
Jake has posted pics and info on Steampunk Workshop of another maker’s build of his Wimshurst machine, a project featured in MAKE, Volume 17. Jake writes: …This is a very elegant machine and some of Bruce’s innovations make it superior to my own! Here’s what the builder, Bruce, says about his version: These are some differences in my machine from the construction article. The drive bands are 1/8″ black braided cord with white strands inside from an army surplus store with the ends melted together.
ASUS delivers Eee PC T91MT to Amazon.com, completes world tour
ASUS delivers Eee PC T91MT to Amazon.com, completes world tour It was only two weeks ago when the ASUS T91MT — the first-ever Windows 7 convertible netbook — dropped by Amazon’s German site , and now the Eastern wind from Taiwan has finally reached US soil. Amazon.com buyers are offered pretty much the same configuration as their European counterpart: Intel Atom Z520, 8.9-inch multitouch swivel screen, 1GB RAM and Windows 7 Home Premium
Bent 2010 Open Call for Performers, Artists, and Instructors
The Tank is already accepting submissions for Bent 2010 : The 7th Annual Circuit Bending Festival – Tentative Festival Dates: New York, NY Bent Festival – April 22, 23, and 24 Proposal Deadline: December 1, 2009 Participant Notification: December 11, 2009 In keeping with the expanding interests of the community, this year we are continuing to open the Bent Festival to performers and artists that create their own electronics as well as to those who hack, bend, modify and destroy them.
Rumor: Mirrorless Ricoh Camera, Interchangeable Lenses Coming November 10 [Cameras]
Rumor: Mirrorless Ricoh Camera, Interchangeable Lenses Coming November 10 [Cameras] From the aptly named Photo Rumors blog comes word today that Ricoh is all but ready to reveal a premium, mirror-less camera on or about November 10. Multiple sources hint that the camera will be a number of things, including “premium,” “compact” and that it will feature at least two interchangeable lenses at launch, possibly in December.
This week Ray passes along the latest photographic news pertaining to Nikon: -Coolpix S100PJ in top 10 products of 2009 -D300S prices take a dip -Photoshop releases mobile app -New ThinkTank bag released -Epson announces four new fine art papers -Free shipping from Blurb -PhotoProShop Thanksgiving Sale continues -Ray models his Nikonians attaire -Michael Mariant announces an extraordinary Nikonians Workshop experiance Download Nikonians News Flash #135 (NPC-NF-2009-11-08.mp3; 6:27; 5.91MB; MP3 format)