Vector graphics are back!

Vector graphics are back!

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Remember the arcade game Asteroids or the vector-based Star Wars arcade game? How about the vector-graphics based Vectrix game console?

Say hello to LaserOS. It that allows you build really cool, high quality vector graphics dreams – on real laser projectors. You can build visual laser shows, visualizations, control and create musical compositions, and play some great old games.

Here’s a developer that re-created Asteroids with a high-quality laser system (bonus points for talking about the difficulty of the traveling salesman problem):

Here’s one reviewer giving LaserOS a go on his laser projector:

What all the markings on ocean-faring ships mean

What all the markings on ocean-faring ships mean

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Tugboat crews easily read a vessel’s size, shape, function, and features, while deciphering at a glance the mysterious numbers, letters, and symbols on a ship’s hull. To non-mariners, the markings look like hieroglyphs.

Hakai magazine on coastal science published a really cool article that helps you decode all the interesting markings, paint schemes, and functions of the interesting and strange things you see on big ocean-going vessles. I had no idea there was so much interesting information – and that paint schemes are far, FAR more complicated than marking water lines. Give it a read.

plimsoll lines on the side of a ship

How much info does Facebook have on you? It’s creepier than you know.

How much info does Facebook have on you? It’s creepier than you know.

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Thrillist did a great article on all the ways your information, every detail about every place you’ve been and what events you’ve gone too, every photo you’ve liked or commented on, and all your personal information – even if it’s been listed as ‘private’.

My favorite is stalkscan. Pretty terrifying fun.

Give it a read and realize Google, Apple, and all your other favorite companies and online sites collect all this information and more – using it for marketing, selling it to other companies, and eventually all of it gets leaked when the inevitable hack or employee steals it.

The wise person

The wise person

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The greater our knowledge increases,
the greater our ignorance unfolds.
-John F Kennedy

So, by this measure, the greatest and most dangerous fool is the one that posits they are intelligent. Even worse, when they do not have the wisdom to admit they are probably ignorant on the subject or could be wrong. In other words, just about 99% of all conversations on social media.

So lets all do each other a favor. Let us agree that spending 30-60 minutes a day reading articles on a topic from your favorite biased news sources does not make you ‘an expert’ or even ‘well informed’. Let us also take a step back from so self-assuredly believing and asserting everything we think.

Better yet, how about we love and respect each other – discussing our differences while respecting the person. Maybe, while we’re at it, we’ll all learn how not to be controlled by our outrage driven social agenda pushers.

 

 

Hebocon

Hebocon

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Hebocon is a robot contest for people with no skill. It’s a 32 player contest in which people are penalized for trying too hard or using proper technology. One of the previous year’s winners actually apologized for winning because the thought maybe he tried ‘too hard to win’.

Check out these amazingly horrible, but hilarious robots:

Lenten ashes to Easter fire

Lenten ashes to Easter fire

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“The ashes we wear on Ash Wednesday are like the coals in a campfire at dawn. Perhaps the fire in our hearts has burned down or even appears to have gone out. Yet, as any seasoned camper will tell you, the blackest coals are often more than hot enough to restart a blaze.

Lent is a special time to take stock of the campfire of our heart and we start with the ashes. Maybe its grown cold and we need to tend it: removing things that are smothering it or adding more fuel to feed it. Maybe it’s burning but needs tending, or maybe it’s ready for larger blocks of fuel. When we start doing the physical tending of our heart via fasting and works of charity, the Holy Spirit will be gently blowing on our work, coaxing a fire to kindle from our work.

Wherever the fire is in your heart, Christ stands ready with forgiveness and healing in Lent. Calling us each back – no matter where we have fallen or become lost. Let us avail ourselves of the graces so our inner fires may be a blaze at Easter – joining the Easter fire lit on Easter vigil and spread by the faithful to light the darkness of our world.”

 

Oregon as a Ghibli film

Oregon as a Ghibli film

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Wow – just wow!!! Amazing job Travel Oregon! Apparently the paired with Psyop who brought on an additional studio Sun Creature to assist in this ad campaign called ‘Only Slightly Exaggerated’

Almost everything in the video is a real place/thing in Oregon. Here’s a breakdown – let me know if I missed anything, or you think I got it wrong. Click on the images for larger versions!

1. Ramona Falls:

2. Could be any lake near Mt Hood, but likely is Trillium Lake:

3. Woodburn Tulip Festival:

4. Willamette Valley:

5. Willamette Valley Wineries:

6. Willamette Valley Wine & Balloon tours:

7. Cannon Beach – Haystack rock:

8. Cannon Beach from Ecola Park:

9. Crater Lake:

10. Black Rock Mountainbiking trails near Falls City:

11. Portland:

12. Dragon Boat Racing in Portland:

11. The Wallowas – almost exactly this shot:

12. Kiger Mustangs – Steens Mountains/Kiger Creek:

13. Whitewater Rafting is many places, but it looks like it might be the Rogue River (top). It might also be the Deschutes (bottom pic). Some have suggested it is the White Salmon River (but that is in Washington):


14. Think this is Tom McCall Preserve (top picture). Or it might be a from Dog Mountain(bottom pic), but that is on the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge:

15. Three Sister’s from around Sisters, OR: