Cool “2013 Snake” painted with a single brush stroke!

The top picture shown here is painted with a SINGLE BRUSH stroke! How awesome is that?!?

Watch the video to see it actually happen (the video is 2 minutes, 19 seconds).


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This is the (nearly) final picture as the artists brings the single, long brush-stroke to it’s conclusion…


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He prepares the brush with two types of paint (one might be an ink of some sort)…


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Then he starts on the left side of a blank sheet of paper, begins with the tongue, and paints a single stroke to end up with the snake above!


  - Original Page on Make -

Tags: Multimedia, Reference, Make, Weird, Virtual, Art / Visual, Just Cool, General by Jai
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Now THAT is a LOT of CUBES!

The pictures below are all part of a large mural done entirely in Rubic’s Cubes by Toranto based Cubeworks Studio.

The mural, which is just outside of Hong Kong, uses more than 85,000 cubes and is 13 feet high by 200 feet long!


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Here’s a kind of a side view that shows how long this thing is - keep in mind, it’s 13 feet tall too!

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Here’s a shot of a guy presumably working on part of the mural.  

 

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And finally, here’s a wide shot (that STILL doesn’t show the whole thing!) to give better idea of scale.

 

 

Tags: Reference, Real World, Make, Current Events, Just Cool, Geek Stuff, Art / Visual, General by Jai
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I’ve Found My Druthers!

I don’t know what “druthers” are, but since this site seems to have EVERYTHING I want, they must be here!

Tindie.com is sort of like the Etsy.com or Ebay.com for (unusual) gadget lovers.

Basically, people who build custom gadgets put them up for sale on Tindie.com, and people who want unusual or rare gadgets shop and buy them there… 

And there is a LOT of VERY COOL STUFF!


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Suppose you were interested in learning to program an Arduino, but you didn’t want to futz with the electronics stuff. Robotic minion Starter Kit has you covered (and is only $55, ready to code!)

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Or maybe you just really dig this AWESOME, ready-to-use, meter-based clock that just isn’t available in stores…

 

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Can’t beat that ONE level of Angry Birds?  You can get a robot on Tindie to do it for you!


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With this many categories, and that many items in each, I would think my druthers would be in there somewhere, whatever they are!

 


Tags: Retro, Reference, Make, Geek, Collections, Gadgets, Geek Stuff, Software, Cool Sites, General by Jai
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Portable Hotspots too expensive? Would you settle for… Free?

FreedomPop, while still in “beta” is already making waves in the internet service industry!

For the (refundable) deposit cost of the router hardware ($50 - $100), you can have free internet access whenever you’re in a supported area (mostly bigger cities). Later this year, they’re adding LTE which should extend their coverage dramatically!

Including the just-announced LTE clip, there are 4 router types to choose from.


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The blue markers indicate coverage areas in the continental U.S., but the story is a little better than the map makes it look from this view!

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Notice that, on this map of the Chicago coverage, the area covered actually touches both Michigan to the north and Indiana to the southeast! That’s WAY bigger than “just Chicago”!

 

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This is what the Photon router (the one I chose) looks like. It’s only 2.6 x 2.6 x 0.5 inches and allows up to eight devices to connect!

 




Tags: Current Events, Reference, Real World, Geek, Gadgets, Net Life, Geek Stuff, Gaming, Life Tips, General by Jai
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Proof that Humans Are Capable of Working Magic…

This comic isn’t the kind of thing I usually share, but it struck an awesome cord with me (and is based on a quote by Carl Sagan!), so I wanted to share.


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RIP, Carl, for Billions and Billions of years…

-The Comic (an episode of the ZenPencils comic) -

Tags: Collections, Reference, Geek, Just Cool, Art / Visual, Geek Stuff, Cool Sites, Life Tips, General by Jai
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[Make] Change PVC to a better color for your projects!

This is a slightly unusual post for this blog, but it was such a great article that I wanted to share. To be honest, I might like to start adding in more MAKE kinds of articles anyway.

If you use PVC for any of your DIY projects, this could be very useful - this (simple) technique allows you to permanently change the color of any PVC. Unlike painting, there’s nothing to flake / scrape off! 

Plus, the colors look GREAT!


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This is what the final colors look like - they have a very “fun” look to them!

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Another view of the colors in use (hey, it’s a post on changing the color of PVC, what pictures am I SUPPOSED to post?!?).

 

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Here’s a picture of the technique in process. Note that the can of “dye” shown here is actually a combination of the solvent and the dye mixed in the original solvent can.

 

-Source Article on MakeZine -

Tags: Make, Reference, Just Cool, Art / Visual by Jai
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The Island that Will Soon Fall Off the Map

A small island in the South Pacific that has been “on the maps” for over 115 years apparently doesn’t even exist!

Some scientists chose this island while seeking a remote work area, but when they reached the location, it wasn’t there; they sailed right through it.

There are other theories as to it’s “nonexistence”, of course, but the official word was that it was never there in the first place.


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This is the map picture included with the article to show the island’s location near New Caledonia.

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I decided to check it out on Google Maps myself, and here’s what I found. The island IS strangely empty looking…

 

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“So let’s take a look at the satellite view,” I thought. It was wholly unhopeful, if somewhat scary. Is it me, or does it look like something was (hastily) removed here?

 

-Source Article at ABC News -

Tags: Reference, Real World, Geek, Scary, Weird, Virtual, Current Events, Geek Stuff by Jai
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Finally, a FULL Graphing / Charting app (For Free!)

We’ve reviewed several flow-charting / diagramming apps, mostly web-based.

They’ve all had limitations, but what can you expect for free, right?

It turns out that you can expect a solid and professional diagramming app.

yEd is the app in question.

It’s a full-scale application designed to demonstrate what you can do in your own applications using the companies commercial libraries.

In many ways, it rivals Visio!


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Here are several (though by no means all!) of the example diagrams that come with it to show what you can do…

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Here’s a full-screen view of the Mac version just to show what the app looks like, it’s pretty standard stuff, but very well put together (Note: It’s also available for Windows and Linux).

 

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This is a view of the same diagram as the one in the full screen-shot. All I did was switch from the Organic layout to the Orthogonal (Compact) layout (there are several other options too!)

 

-Download from yWorks.com -

(For Windows, Mac, and Linux ) 

Tags: Reference, Make, Geek, Gadgets, Art / Visual, Geek Stuff, Software, General by Jai
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[Language] A topic near and dear to my heart (or at least the Wernecke’s area of my brain)

I’m kind of a linguistic’s fan. I can’t say “expert”, since I can barely speak my own native language, but that’s beside the point. Languages interest me!

When discussing languages, someone usually asks which languages are “hard” and which ones are “easy” to learn.

Voxy.com, a language learning site, has published an infographic to help answer that question.

Take a look!


110329 VOXY HARDLANGUAGES FINAL WIDE png 860×3 034 pixelsThis is a list of (some of) the languages that are easiest for English speakers to learn… 

110329 VOXY HARDLANGUAGES FINAL WIDE png 860×3 034 pixels 1These languages, and languages similar to these are kind of “middle of the road” in terms of difficulty for English learners…

110329 VOXY HARDLANGUAGES FINAL WIDE png 860×3 034 pixels 2And these languages (and their piers) are the most difficult for English speakers to learn from ground zero. 

 

- Original InfoGraphic on Voxy.com -

Tags: Reference, Science, Art / Visual, Geek Stuff, General by Jai
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Should I use the {xyz} FaceBook App?

I tend to avoid Facebook apps that ask for permissions that don’t seem necessary. This turns out to be a lot of apps!

http://apps.secure.me can help. They catalog and track over 500,000 Facebook apps by their permissions, and by their use (or misuse) of those permissions.

They provide several ways to look up the app in question.

One quick and easy check, and you can decide if an app is safe!


App Advisor by secure me

Something about the app icons marching across the main secure.me page with their “reputations” displayed is very comforting!

Flipboard App Advisor for Facebook by secure me
Flipboard (one of my all-time favorite apps on iOS) has a very good Facebook reputation, despite asking for permissions it doesn’t need (because it doesn’t misuse those permissions).

 

 Facebook
On any app that you’ve accessed on Facebook, you can remove some of the permissions it asks for. Go to the settings for that app and simply click the “X” next to the permission you don’t want it to have. Now you can access the app without the app accessing you!.

Note: 86Words will do a post in the near future specifically on the topic of changing Facebook app permissions for our users who need the assist!

 

http://apps.secure.me

Tags: Gadgets, Current Events, Collections, Reference, Net Life, Life Tips, Geek Stuff, Software, HowTo, General by Jai
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