iconolith

RISD Alumni Art Sale

This Saturday, 03 May 2008, is the Rhode Island School of Design’s Spring Alumni Art Sale (whew, say that 10 times). Since I live in Alaska I won’t be going, but am delighted to be able to look through some of the work that will be for sale by visiting their Flickr set. The great thing is that each item on Flickr links out the the artists’ web sites.

There are a couple pieces that definitely catch my eye:

Joel Greeb’s Illuminated Ballistic lamp. [more info on his site]
Mike Libby’s clockwork beetle [visit the InsectLab gallery]

Robot Nixon

“All hail robot Nixon”, and other similarly inspiring quotes are shining example as to why Futurama is infinitely entertaining. (No, I shouldn’t be working - I’m on lunch).

Lisa Stevens’ Ceramics

I follow Lisa (aka c-urchin) on Flickr for her tiny ceramic creations that take their inspiration from sea creatures, but from time to time she posts a photo of something that is truly stunning. This time it is this amazing vessel from day 141. The texture is gorgeous:

You can see more of her work at Flickr or see what is available on Etsy.

Imaginary Instrument

Though this video was released quite some time ago I totally missed it until now. The funny thing is that the site I saw it on first didn’t say anything about the instrument being real or fake and I thought it was pretty convincing at first.

As a sidenote, searching for “most amazing” anything on YouTube can be pretty distracting.

Coasters From Sesame Letterpress

Sesame has a collection of letterpress printed coasters that would make me sacrifice the finish on my table to save these beautiful coasters from the swelling ravages of water. Gorgeous. You can view their creations in their Flickr photoset.

Super Happy Fun Time Friday

Actually on a Friday this time. Hell just might freeze over today.

• Piwik - Weird to say, but cool in concept. This is a web statistics tracking project aimed to develop a open source competitor to Google Analytics.
• jQuery Tutorial - Think jQuery can do cool things, but don’t think you’re up to par? This tutorial is a good place to get started if haven’t yet gotten the hang of it (like me).
• Custom laser engraved stuff from moleskines to laptops. The laptops are particularly beautiful. Too bad these Flickr photos aren’t organized into a set of all this guys engraving or I would link directly to it. [via Brian Faust - who also has an awesome Friday list]
• The wiki dictionary of Obsolete Skills
• GlassBox - Vista-style api with translucent borders and fade transitions. Released under the MIT license. Might try this for presentations.

Photophlow: Flickr’s Live Community

Around Christmas time I received an invite to Photophlow and had such a fun time chatting with other Flickr users there that I really wanted to blog about it. I was swamped back then and am finally getting around to it. Terrible, I know.

So what is Photophlow? The short version is that it is a way to connect with other Flickr users in real time and chat, but Photophlow has some amazing features that are pretty impressive. When you log in you’re taken to the anteroom - a place where you can configure your account and access rooms.

Group Rooms: Aside from the Main Room and a private room connected to your user, you also have access to rooms for each Flickr group you belong to (created automatically), active rooms that belong to your Flickr contacts, and the most active rooms on the server.

Inside a group room

Browse Flickr Photos: In each room you can browse the photos of each Flickr user in the room with you.Clicking a photo posts it to the room for everyone to see. You can also browse manually if the room is busy and you don’t want to disturb others, or browse privately which is like a “covert” mode.

Inside the Main Room

Send Comments, Tweets, and Tumbls: While viewing a photo in a room you can send a comment on it back to Flickr, Send a link and blurb to Twitter, send it to your Tumblr blog or do all three at the same time - very slick. Definitely something to check out if you love photos, have a photography class, or like chatting it up.

Viewing photo details with links to comment, and tweet

Inappropriate Touching?

Is it possible to enjoy the feel of a web site too much? You know, in a way that is flattering it at first, but then you can’t stop because of one overly-gratifying, sexy feature it has? Is there a line there to be crossed? I think maybe there is, because I can’t stop rolling over the navigation on this site to the point that I kinda feel dirty. Check it out:

Lipsum Cuffs

I’d really like to have one of these - but I would LOVE to have two so I could run around like Wonder Woman deflecting poorly set type with my giant bracelets. You know, like a sort of anal-retentive super hero.

Wacom Cintiq 12WX

Yes, yes, yes!