Strangers off a Train

High speed camera, moving at high speed. SO PRETTY.



via aphotoeditor



This reminds me a little of one of my favorite bodies of work:
RFK Funeral Train by Paul Fusco

...as well as the moment in teen comedies when the viewer is introduced to the hottest girl in school.

Etch A Sketch Ipad Case

$39.99 from Headcase
Via New York Times

Eye-Fi

Oh. Em. Gee.
Camera memory cards with built-in wi-fi.
You can set up the pro cards to upload directly to your own FTP! Holy crap!

http://www.eye.fi/

Marty Markowitz Taps That

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is gettin' techie wit it, nanananananana

IP Freely

Alright folks, Things I Like is gonna play a slow jam. Go ask that cutie in the corner to dance, because it's about to get serious up in here. That's right -- I'm blogging about a dry b2b article. Jiggawhaaaaat? No pickshurs? Don't worry. Imma break it down for you like your mom's favorite magazine -- real simple.

So this company RPX (which totally sounds like a rapper's name) has this crazy business model, in which they "buy up patents that could be potentially used in infringement suits and then, instead of suing, license the patents to those companies that had agreed to pay its annual membership fee." Bling-bling! How baller-illiant is that?!

So then there was this case between 20 defendants and Acacia Research Corp. RPX rolls up to the gang fight outside da club in its Escalade and is all, "Yo, Acacia, get in my car!" RPX makes a licensing deal with Acacia, then licenses the patents to the 20 defendants to avoid litigation. Bling-bling-BLING! RPX has now signed Microsoft, MacAfee and Symantec. That is one major label!

But it's bad news bears for patent owners (and litigators). As Litigation Daily reports, "Right now, litigation is a tried-and-true way for patent owners to squeeze value from their intellectual property. Trolls, NPEs, and patent holding companies--which continue to bring a big percentage of all patent infringement claims--bet that they can use the leverage of litigation to get returns on their investments in patent portfolios. But Amster argues that RPX could conceivably put patent trolls out of business--and thus put a serious dent in patent litigation."

JK, here's a picture:




Via Litigation Daily.

I Know What You're Wondering

The autogenerated list of questions when you type "why" into Google.
Good questions, America. I'd certainly like to know why I can't own a Canadian.

Passive-Aggressive Wi-Fi

via Gizmodo

I See White People

Street View Fame

Musician Nate Heagy of the band Fear Salesman promoted his band by stalking the Google Street View car in Saskatoon, Canada.

via Gizmodo

Unfriend

Unfriended :(

The Oxford English Dictionary declares "unfriend" the Word of the Year 2009.

unfriend – verb – To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.

“'It has both currency and potential longevity,' notes Christine Lindberg, Senior Lexicographer for Oxford’s US dictionary program. 'In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year. Most 'un-' prefixed words are adjectives (unacceptable, unpleasant), and there are certainly some familiar 'un-' verbs (uncap, unpack), but 'unfriend' is different from the norm. It assumes a verb sense of 'friend' that is really not used (at least not since maybe the 17th century!). Unfriend has real lex-appeal.'"

Via the Oxford University Press Blog

EyeWriter

A paralyzed man draws with his eye!

More about EyeWriter here.

Can you spell "bacteria?"

"Van Abbema created the font by stamping bacteria into paper, and then placing the paper in a jury-rigged incubator, which provided the right humdity and warmth for the organisms. As they multiplied and died, the resulting fonts changed color and shape. As van Abbema says, bacteria 'transforms the image to something new,' creating something that is literally alive, changing every minute without ever being tended."

Via Fast Company*

*where, btw, I had a really bad job interview once.

Happiness Hat

I certainly could have used this while working in food service.

.

"Lauren McCarthy created the Happiness Hat – a gadget that detects whether or not you’re smiling. If you’re not, it drives a small metal spike into the back of your head to encourage to you resolve that problem quickly:
'An enclosed bend sensor attaches to the cheek and measures smile size, a servo motor moves a metal spike into the head inversely proportional to the degree of smile. Through repeated use of this conditioning device you can train your brain to smile all the time. The device runs on Arduino.'"

via neatorama, via geekologie

Stefan Sagmeister

From his Ted Talk, a coffee table surfaced with compasses and matching coffee mugs fitted with magnets.

View the whole Ted Talk here.

Piano Stairs

While we're on the subject of piano videos on youtube...

Talking Piano

Eyedropper Pen

"korean designer jinsu park designed a concept pen that adopts the eyedropper tool of photoshop for real life. the color picker pen enables colors in the environment to be scanned and instantly used for drawing. the sensor detects the color and matches it to the color display. then the RGB cartridge located within the pen mixes the inks together to create the color that has been scanned. "

via designboom

Palpable Holographs!

Ink Calendar

Diaz Oscar designed this ink-and-paper calendar. A continuous paper cutout of day numbers is dipped into a month's supply of ink. The paper then absorbs the ink at a rate corresponding to the passing of days, such that the calendar darkens as the days pass.



Via Fubiz (translated from French)

140 Characters Good Enough for God

Are you there, God? It's me, http://twitter.com/Margaret_Schwartz

According to this article in the Huffington Post, in addition to emailing and faxing them in, you can now tweet prayers to the Western Wall.