Xenovoyance Do Stuff

Art & Design — 7 views— No comments
05
Nov 09

Radio by motion

In a world where everything need a touchscreen and finger swipes is the natural way of doing just everything comes a great conceptual product named R1. It is not good looking, it can not twitter, but still I so want one on my desk by some strange reason. The R1 is a radio which you control by moving it.

The pure aesthetic design of this product is not why I choose to write about it. This is an analog radio with nothing really fancy except the fact you can manage and use it even if completely blind. This is also the purpose of the radio according to the designer Il-Gu Cha, to make the radio more available for blind people. To turn it on you simply place it on a surface and move it away from you, he further away you move it and louder the volume. When the volume is correct you can move it sideways to change the tuning and to find a station.

The simplicity of this device do show that design is more then a shiny outer of a product. It can consist of a productified thought made into something which is made to work more then just to look good.

Resources:

http://dvice.com/archives/2009/11/r1-radio-has-a.php

Entertainment — 5 views— No comments
04
Nov 09

Outsourced

In a time where allot of companies choose to outsource their workforce comes this romantic comedy by fairly unknown John Jeffcoat. The story is set around a man who find himself being outsourced to an Indian company and we get to follow him on his adventures in being an American in Asia. What really made this movie interesting was that I could set it in perspective from my own stay in India a while ago.

Todd is a call-center manager who quite frankly do not like his job. Nevertheless he get upset when he find out that his company is outsourcing him and his team to an Indian company. He even get the task of learning his own replacement about what to do. All from his first views of the Indian society to the clash of cultures is coated in a warm and fuzzy feeling as it is a romantic comedy.

So how does the movie compare to my own observations then? Well first of all, there is more people – everywhere. In Outsourced all that was shown was these calm suburban streets found in the US, and those was not the case in the India I was located in. What was perfectly shown though was the amazing warmth and kindness of the Indian people. You did see smiles and colors almost where ever you went which was an amazing experience for me, coming from the cold and a bit reserved Scandinavia.

If you are ot for a general feel-good movie with no real surprises this is a movie for you. Eventhough the movie can be a bit predictable in parts it will deliver a couple of smiles.

Resources:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425326/

Lifehack — 37 views— No comments
03
Nov 09

Whiteboard can now be everywhere

Whiteboards have become a standard today in schools, conference-rooms and even in private personal work spaces. Big glossy surfaces in cheap framing nailed to walls is a great way of improvising productivity and creativity because it makes the process of brainstorming so much easier. Still they have remained glossy surfaces sitting in cheap frames. Well that has been the case up until now – let’s pain a whiteboard everywhere.

You have most likely seen chalkboard-paint before, to make every wall a painting in the making. However these boards have also a great negative aspect of bringing allot of dirt into the room where they are located. The whiteboard do not do this and can also be in higher contrast using multiple colors and so forth. And this weekend I found out about a company called Ideapaint who sell whiteboard-paint on the gallon so that you can actually make every wall in your home a surface on which you can draw, brainstorm or write a novel on.

The great pros of whiteboard-paint does not end there. When we have the ability to pain everything in this manner we can create tables, kitchens or even bedrooms where we have surfaces just waiting to get scribbled upon with great ideas.

Lifestyle — 4 views— No comments
02
Nov 09

Hot or cold water?

Since I was young I’ve always been told to wash my hands in hot water because it’s more hygienic then to wash in cold water. I can’t remember who told me this the first time but I know for a fact that I have been raised with this claim. I even asked my mother last weekend if she remembered if she was the one telling me this as a fact but she denied that she was the one given me this claim. So if not form my parents it must have come from school. But really, is hot water really better then cold when it comes to washing you hands?

I was quite surprised when I read an article in NY Times some days ago about the fact that cold water is just as good as hot when it comes to wash my hands. It might me more comfortable to put your hands in but you will not be more clean afterwards then it you had splashed those hands with cold water. Hot water can even be less good as cold water due to the fact that the heat from the water might increase the possibility of irritations on the skin from the soap.

So there you have it. Hot or cold water wont really make any difference, as long as you mix it with soap and put your hands into it you will get the effect you wish.

Lifehack — 5 views— No comments
01
Nov 09

No more tears from cutting that onion

Onions is both a source of great flavour and healthy contents for our body. For quite allot of people the handling of these beautiful vegetables is a pain though due to the burning sensation they might cause on the eyes. So is there actually a way of stopping your eyes from burning while chopping onions? I though I’d put some time and effort in using ye old friend – Internet, so see if there is any ways out there which do the trick. For simplicity I collected a bunch and created a list of my findings for easy access.

Icy water – Start by filling a container with ice and cold water. Cut the onion in two parts and let both parts lay in the icy water for a few minutes and then do what you need to do with them.
Flowing water – Chop your onion next to the flowing stream of water from the water-tap.
Boiling water – Chop your onion next to the flowing stream of water steam from a pot of boiling water.
Freezer – Put the onion in the freezer for five or ten minutes and then take it out and cut directly.
Shaper knife – By using a sharper knife you minimze the cells being crushed when cutting the onion.
And of course for a last resort, put on your scuba-gear and cut that onion away like there was no tomorrow.

If you ever wondered why it is that the onions do irritate your eyes by the way it is due to the enzymes released when you collapse the cells of the onion. These enzymes react with the rest of the onion and release a gas that together with water becomes an acid. And due to the fact our eyes is watery, the gas when it reaches our eyes become acid and the eyes begin to get irritated. This is why a pair of swim-goggles or scuba-gear will prevent your eyes from burning.

Technology — 2 views— No comments
28
Oct 09

3d movies at home

For quite a while now the cinemas have been pushing 3D-movies again. I remember when I was a child and 3D-glasses were shipped with comic books and I sat and watched images with these really bad glasses made of paper and plastic-film and I was amazed on how cool it was. So when I read about 3D-movie on the rise I was really on my feet and eagerly awaited to see my first movie in full 3D. The though actually did slip my mind; How can this fail?

So last weekend I were down at one of the local video-rentals and rented a movie to be seen at home – in 3D! The movie was “The journey to the center of the earth“, the re-make which included glasses for all who were to see it. I remembered these bad glasses in paper from my childhood and though that I would get something better. But when I opened up the case they met my eyes once again. Those lousy paper-goggles was there and mocked my enthusiasm as if they knew I had high hopes.

After my first disappointment I started to watch the movie. And *BAM* there was the second disappointment right in my face. The actual color of the glasses in the box was not balanced at all and the green one (for my left eye) was really do strong which made everything in the entire movie to come out in a green soft light. Everything. Green.

About two hours later the movie ended and my eyes was totally destroyed by the colors and I didn’t manage to see a complete color scale until the day after. So, there you have it – my first experience with movies in 3D. If if had not been for the really bad glasses I think it would be really neat. But as of now, they did ruin it all by shipping the movie with the worst kind of budget solution in a long time.

I think I have to see a movie at the cinema before I can really bury this entire idea because the effect of things flying against you is really interesting and if there exist glasses which makes the colors come out flawless I really do think it will be great. So to sum up I must say that movies in 3D will be awesome, if they do fix the really bad glasses once and for all.