http://www.allartburns.org It does, you know. You just have to get it hot enough. Sat, 19 Jul 2008 16:55:58 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A few days ago I finished Valentino Braitenberg's Vehicles, Experiments in Synthetic Psychology and I have been letting it gel while trying to figure out how to write about it. Vehicles is a short book written in plain English without a lot of fancy technical talk and yet I feel ... http://www.allartburns.org/2008/07/19/review-vehicles-experiments-in-synthetic-psychology/ The amateur radio crowd have been doing interesting things with the Internet and its precursors for awhile now. One of my favorite examples is the proliferation of online receivers, radios that have their audio out and controls connected to a web site. You can transmit on your radio, tune into ... http://www.allartburns.org/2008/07/15/spimewatch-mass-sensor-networks/ If you've ever played Team Fortress or TF2 or Half-Life or probably any major FPS, you're familiar with autonomous gun turrets. Some guy built one: [tags]DIY,gun turret,grim meathook future[/tags] http://www.allartburns.org/2008/07/12/the-future-of-diy/ Yesterday I threw away three ballpoint pens in a row. Normally I write with a fountain pen, but my workshop is grimy thanks to all the machine tools and no place for a schmancy fountain pen. I finally found a pen that worked, drew what I needed to draw and ... http://www.allartburns.org/2008/07/02/how-much-oil-did-you-destroy-today/ "Before I tell you that story, I have to tell you this one." -- Howard Waldrop Let me start by expressing my (probably unpopular) opinion: the vast majority of "conceptual art" has failed whatever purpose it was trying to serve. If I have to read a sign or a placard or ... http://www.allartburns.org/2008/06/18/review-hertzian-tales/ If you've been living under the same rock I hang out under, you might have missed that John Maeda is now President of RISD. Yes, that John Maeda and that RISD. So, pretty cool, huh? What's even cooler, is that Maeda is blogging regularly about RISD-related stuff at "Our RISD". I've never ... http://www.allartburns.org/2008/06/16/universities-and-the-21st-century/ I'm working on a few long-form posts right now, so there won't be as many short posts as usual. And if you're thinking, "man, most of what you write is long", then apologies in advance. Speaking of which, shameless plug for a tool I'm growing to love: Scrivener. After ... http://www.allartburns.org/2008/06/11/word-count-frequency-some-constant-k/ The day after the last class project was due we headed to Manhattan for a long weekend of museums and shows. The highlight for me was going to the student show for NYU's ITP school. ITP is a 2 year program in computational art and design, that is, integrating computers ... http://www.allartburns.org/2008/05/19/manhattan-museums-and-a-student-show/ Ok, so that's like an entire PhD thesis or book, and I'm not up for writing that just yet. What I am up for is explaining how desktop fabrication -- 3d printers, laser cutters, cnc -- is changing how I think about designing and making things. I'm making this bracelet/armband/forearm protector thing ... http://www.allartburns.org/2008/05/01/desktop-fabrication-vs-the-future-of-design/ Still doing the moderation thing over at the well, but here's something worth watching if you haven't yet: Why Design?, Philippe Starck at TED. [tags]design,starck[/tags] http://www.allartburns.org/2008/04/21/while-im-out/ No posts here for the next week or so, as I'll be moderating a discussion with Ann Thorpe, author of "The Designer's Atlas of Sustainability" [tags]design, sustainability[/tags] http://www.allartburns.org/2008/04/16/in-discussion-with-ann-thorpe/ Hugh Graham has an excellent essay on design and aspirational consumer culture. I think he's on to something and that his idea of artisanal design -- convincing people to buy ugly, flavorful heirloom tomatoes instead of perfect, bland grocery store tomatoes -- is going to be quite important ... http://www.allartburns.org/2008/04/13/hugh-graham-essay-on-aspirational-consumerism/ Way back in the day I had an AT&T 3b1 UNIX(tm) workstation. It wasn't just an amazingly useful desktop unix workstation, it was this wedge-shaped piece of white plastic that was quite pleasing to look at. Supercomputer companies like Cray and Thinking Machines also understood the ... http://www.allartburns.org/2008/04/08/back-when-we-used-to-care-about-the-form-of-computers/ Phillipe Starck, for reasons unclear, has thrown in the towel. He's not just quitting, he's describing all of his past work as, "Everything I designed was unnecessary." The original interview is in German, which I can't read; but there are a couple of English summaries, this ... http://www.allartburns.org/2008/04/01/philippe-starck-gives-two-years-notice/ I like simple things. While I often like gaudy, baroque, Victorian, overdone decoration, I like things I use to be as simple as possible. I don't feel the need to make arbitrary rules like, "no buttons anywhere on the product", but I try to make things ... http://www.allartburns.org/2008/03/26/simplicity-and-octopart/ Every now and then, I find a book that I wish I had discovered much earlier in my life. _Why Things Don't Work_ is such a book, but I think it's just as useful to read now as when it was published in 1977. Papanek and ... http://www.allartburns.org/2008/03/15/review-_why-things-dont-work_-papanek-and-hennessey/ I know I'm not breaking any new ground in design theory here, just noting something that's been on my mind for the past year or two and I feel the need to say something about it. Ages ago when I got my first degree, one of my photography instructors laid down ... http://www.allartburns.org/2008/02/24/you-will-not-speak-during-your-crit/ ... so time to start catching up on blog stuff. The PRK went well, I'm working on a nice write-up of the entire procedure and my recovery experiences. Doc says I'm 20/20, possibly 20/15 in the right light, I have no halos or other visual artifacts. I'm still ... http://www.allartburns.org/2008/02/08/back-in-the-saddle-sort-of/ Between work and school this semester, I really haven't had time for much personal writing in this design journal. However, I've got a stack of books I've read that want reviewing and a pile of notes on various topics and four weeks of winter break to do it in. However, ... http://www.allartburns.org/2007/12/12/radio-silence/ Last year, one of my professors completing this statement every year while limiting your answer to 15 words or less. So here I am a year later, doing it again. I want to be a designer because... ... I want to make things that will improve people's physical and emotional lives. There's ... http://www.allartburns.org/2007/10/28/i-want-to-be-a-designer-because-2007-edition/