Sunday, February 22, 2009

Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity



What we discussed in the class about the copyright and the intellectual property reminded me the book which I read before.  
It' s called " Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity"
That book lead me into the controversial and conspiratorial world of the law of the intellectual property which usually made  by (or for) the big companies or as the i.e. the writer frequently uses in the books, the big labels record companies.  

Here's rom Publishers Weekly:
From Stanford law professor Lessig (Code; The Future of Ideas) comes this expertly argued, alarming and surprisingly entertaining look at the current copyright wars. Copyright law in the digital age has become a hot topic, thanks to millions of music downloaders and the controversial, high-profile legal efforts of the music industry to stop them. Here Lessig argues that copyright as designed by the Framers has become dangerously unbalanced, favoring the interests of corporate giants over the interests of citizens and would-be innovators. In clear, well-paced prose, Lessig illustrates how corporations attempt to stifle innovations, from FM radio and the instant camera to peer-to-peer technology. He debunks the myth that draconian new copyright enforcement is needed to combat the entertainment industry's expanded definition of piracy, and chillingly assesses the direct and collateral damage of the copyright war. Information technology student Jesse Jordan, for example, was forced to hand over his life savings to settle a lawsuit brought by the music industry—for merely fixing a glitch in an Internet search engine. Lessig also offers a very personal look into his failed Supreme Court bid to overturn the Copyright Term Extension Act, a law that added 20 years to copyright protections largely to protect Mickey Mouse from the public domain. In addition to offering a brilliant argument, Lessig also suggests a few solutions, including the Creative Commons licensing venture (an online licensing venture that streamlines the rights process for creators), as well as legislative solutions. This is an important book. "Free Cultures are cultures that leave a great deal open for others to build upon," he writes. "Ours was a free culture. It is becoming less so."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


Idea spreading




This site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. More than 200 talks from our archive are now available, with more added each week. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.



here's the link for TED: 
http://www.ted.com/index.php/

Sunday, February 15, 2009

The Hottest building



The project of the Central Chinese Television CCTV headquarters in Beijing is currently under construction. It has an estimated construction cost of $600 million, and it should be completed in time for the Beijing Olympics this year. However, rumors annouce it will not be ready before summer 2009.
The project is being executed by a combined Arup team from East Asia and Europe Divisions.
Arup provides the engineering design services for the structure. It is a sub-consultant to the Office for Metroplitan Architecture (OMA) led by Rem Koolhaas, which was awarded the design contract at the end of 2002 after an international architectural design competition. The construction began in December 2004.
The building is formed by two leaning towers, which are bent 90ยบ at the top and bottom to meet in the air forming a continuous ‘tube’. As you can imagine, this is the biggest challenge for the engineers. An apparent diagrid system is used on the external faces of the building in order to make a tubular structure that resists well the important torsion and flexion. You can see that the pattern of diagonals reflects well the distribution of forces on the building’s surface.

Two other engineering challenger were that the skyscraper is built in a seismic region, and that the Chinese design codes could not be applied to such a design. It needs a resistance to intensity 8 with peak ground acceleration of 0.2g.
The standard systems for engineering gravity and lateral loads in buildings didn’t apply to the CCTV building, which is formed by two leaning towers, each bent 90 degrees at the top and bottom to form a continuous loop.


Resource from: Edibek.com


I've been noticing this building for a long time since the first time i went to Beijing.
They were just doing the digging for the site.
It was usually been taken as the icon of the "New China", not only because of it's unique design, it also will be the new headquarter of the CCTV, the national broadcasting media in China. However, the locals compare this building ,which they think is like a person keening down with one leg on the ground, with the Olympic stadium, the BirdNest, together and says it's the worst project ever in the ancient historical city.

A not fantasy Balloon



Ford's Balloon Car

With the auto industry failing, major companies can ill afford to constantly destroy their own cars in collision-avoidance system tests... but these tests must be run. Ford's solution: a giant balloon that reads as a car to the collision-avoidance system. Should the test fail, neither the real car nor the balloon is really hurt.

Like that scene in The Matrix where Neo falls of the building and bounces off the pavement.

I thought this was stupid until I read more about it: the purpose of the balloon isn't to be crashed into, but to be not crashed into: unlike traditional crash tests, the optimum outcome here is no crash at all. naturally, with testing, you get a great many failures before you start hitting those successes.




Resource from: NowPublic

Monday, February 9, 2009

Digital2

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Saturday, February 7, 2009

ShowStudio


http://www.showstudio.com/blog/

Cool site for creative people.
Lots of crazy ideas and project which seems like no budget limitation!!!!

no matter you are in the field of graphic, fashion, or interactive, it is a good place for you to find ideas and accumulate
your sense.

Anonymous Content

http://www.anonymouscontent.com/about

Resource from: Anonymous Content

Anonymous Content is an industry-leading production and management firm that leverages its unrivaled reach and access to talent to create and produce innovative content across all its divisions: Film, Integrated, Commercials, Music Video, Television, and Talent.
Anonymous Content was formed in 1999 by a collaboration of business and creative minds responsible for developing some of the industry's most respected entertainment and branded content. In launching the firm, the founders combined their unique talents, distinct vision for the future of content creation, and unmatched industry access. Since then, Anonymous has been able to extend its reach across entertainment, exercising its capacity to package talent and mine literary material from deep and powerful resources.

Company principals have developed longstanding direct relationships with talent, talent agencies, advertising agencies, domestic and international distributors, and broadcasters, reinforcing their ability to assemble the right team for any project. They create compelling and entertaining content while facilitating the development, production, and distribution of programming through both traditional and emerging media channels. The firm is currently in production of an impressive slate of highly-anticipated feature films and is responsible for producing films such as Babel and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Its commercial arm has been part of many of the industry's most successful campaigns, as well being at the forefront of the evolution of brand integration campaigns such as BMW Films. The Anonymous team now consists of more than 100 full-time employees at its Culver City, New York, and London offices, with day-to-day operations handled by President, Paul Green and Chief Financial Officer, Diane Janicki.

This cite i've watching for years,

It is s great reference and collection for the ideas and concepts inspiring.

Step into the next Generation of the next generation





Put on your gloves... it's time to rumble! We are happy to present to you the first official photos of the Kindle 2. Yes, we are now pretty much absolutely sure that this is what Amazon is going to present to the world next Monday.

And here is another news for you: The Kindle 2 costs you $359 USD and is going to be available for sale on February 24th, 2009 (edit: unconfirmed, that is).
















Resource from 
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38108


finally the Second Generation is going to come out.
I am really curious that if this will really like the iPod change the way people read.

But it is still an Electronic device, the touch and the using experience is totally different from the feeling of holding a bunch of paper in hand.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Good or Goofy Design


Think Frank Gehry meets Michael Dell! The Recompute Sustainable Desktop Computer submitted by Brenden Macaluso forgoes the typical injection-molded plastic housing in favor of a layup of corrugated cardboard die-cut slices. Here's the pitch:

Rather than making a large tower constructed from numerous materials (ABS plastic, aluminum, steel, etc.), hundreds of manufacturing processes, and dozens of individual components, the Recompute case is made of corrugated cardboard (recyclable and renewable). There are four low-impact manufacturing processes to assemble Recompute: Die cutting, gluing (with non-toxic white glue), printing and electronic assembly. Recompute uses only three major electronic components: A motherboard with processor & memory, power supply, and a hard drive.
Worried that it'll get too hot in there? Brenden's got a snappy answer for you: "The corrugation works as the ventilation for Recompute." Cleh-ver.

Like this design? Wanna vote for it or leave a comment? Check out this entry or the entire Greener Gadgets TOP 50 Gallery and help determine the TOP 10 for live judging at the upcoming Greener Gadgets Conference.

Source from: Core77.com

This is the most "terrific" idea that I have ever seen.....

Although the sustainable issue is so hot right now, you still can not take your data for risks.
The paper case looks cool and green,however, it will turn red or even "burn" your data when it's over heated!!

Good looking but a little bit too deliberated.


The hottie from Taiwan (but not that hot as iphone)















In an interview with FierceWireless, T-Mobile USA's senior VP of engineering and operations (and newly-minted chairman of 3G Americas' board) Neville Ray has slipped a couple juicy morsels in the process of talking up his carrier's ongoing 3G rollout. Besides mentioning that T-Mobile wants to double its 3G footprint in 2009, Ray says that "we will be launching more G series phones and other products... in the coming weeks and months." If we had to guess, this probably (hopefully) has something to do with that HTC Sapphire we've seen floating around lately. What's more, you'll see T-Mobile start to ramp up peripheral support this year -- gotta monetize that multi-billion-dollar network somehow -- with a modem launch. All told, these guys still have a long way to catch up in the 3G race with Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint -- but if you want bleeding-edge Android stuff, looks like they'll continue to be your best bet for a while.

From Engadget

sourse: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/30/t-mobile-dude-promises-more-g-series-phones-this-year/

HTC had really done something last year. During the downturn of the economic, the stock price of the HTC was lift up by their wide product line and also their "main weapon", G1.

Their archenemy, iphone, did a good job too. But being a taiwanese, I'm pretty that our own brand can hit the market and being competitive.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Ubiquitous Computing

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:



With "ubiquitous computing," the world becomes your darling! Bites seduce and jucily mingle with atoms! The cold clay witches, opens camera eyes and microphone ears!
What once a distance, glassy"interface"became a hands-on, fleshy, sexy "interaction."

Theme: The electronic action and reaction in the cyberspace replace the real people interaction. The realm of real and surreal become blur and undefinable.

Theme2:The technology will help you to get through all the impossible which restricted by
your physical or intellectual condition


from the "Tomorrow Now-envisioning the next 50 years" by Bruce Ststerling


Now Public




Material and shape



I knew this website cause someone wrote me message form Flickr.
He said he need my photos for their articles. 

Then I think "Why not".

After i gave the access for the photos, I browed the site.
It's like a huge blog but anyone can have the access  to write any comment about that news or 
add photos or video which is related to that. 

I've read some article about this concept which has been done in South Korea
and it did have the influence not only in the cyberspace but spread out in the real world.