How to take your Self Portrait - the long way

You have got to see what these guys have done with their photographic equipment. And I thought those at the Domino Toppling championships were very elaborate!



It's called the Photography-themed Rube Goldberg Machine by 2D Photography Inc. You can also see the video explaining the process behind making it. Found through Guy Kawasaki in Google+

3D printing with the sun, fuel efficient cars, BMW logo history and guitar strings movement (just varied news)

This is an incredible project by Markus Kayser, who built a 3D printer that heats up sand using concentrated solar rays and solar energy. It doesn’t get more “enviromentally friendly” than this. Check out the video below, although I think that it is not very precise, just imagine what could be done if you concentrate further the rays and improve its precision.

Markus Kayser - Solar Sinter Project from Markus Kayser on Vimeo.

How cool is it that kids are nowadays building cars that do over 1,000 mpg (that’s about 425 km/l)? That’s pretty impressive specially when I think that at that age most people dreamed of only going to the YMCA car races.

“In the UK, students from regional schools and universities took part in the annual Mileage Marathon Challenge near Leicester, England, each team vying to set new gas mileage efficiency records in a race around a track. Cars were allowed to coast, but had to maintain a minimum speed of 15 miles per hour. Students worked on the vehicle prototypes, many in partnership with design and engineering firms.“ via BBC.

 

For those of you that heard the story that the BMW logo represents a moving propeler over the blue sky, here below is a short video of how the logo was developed and how it came to be the symbol for the company that has remained mainly unchanged since its inception.

You have got to see the video below that shows how the strings of a guitar oscillate. Of course it shows as if some of waves were standing waves, but it is all due to the rolling shutter effect in the camera, but definitely an interesting experiment. See how each cord is almost transformed into an oscillator, really good stuff.

Photography related posts

CameraSim is an online SLR simulator which allows you to edit variables like distance to subject, focal length, ISO, Aperture and shutter speed and see in real time how they affect your end result. It’s quite ingenious and interesting to play around. It would be a great tool to showcase how all these items come together and affect your pictures. Via John Nack

Stolencamerafinder lets you check online for pictures taken with your camera. Although I have tried it with my camera serial number and couldn’t locate any pictures at all

TIME has a very interesting Behind the scenes photo gallery from the original Jaws movie, below are a couple of pics that I really liked, but feel free to go to the gallery to learn more about how they shipped and maintained the shark that was hanged in the dock and tons of other details.

HDR (High Dynamic Range) has been brought a step closer to the motion picture with AMP, a new camera that records HDR realtime through a single lens by using a two beam-splitter and directing that light to 3 different sensors. Have a look at the video below for more information about it.

AMP Digital Video from Mike Tocci on Vimeo.

The Atlantic has a very interesting set of pictures that show Bonfires of Saint John and Corpus Christi celebrations in different parts of the world, it’s great to see some of the are from Venezuela!! Here below are some that I really liked

A long-exposure image shows light trails, produced by faithful carrying candles as they walk past the Cathedral during a Corpus Christi procession in Brasilia, Brazil, on Thursday, June 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

 

 

 

People dressed as dancing devils walk down a hill during a traditional dance celebration in Naiguata, Venezuela, Wednesday June 22, 2011. Spanish conquerors and Catholic priests presented dancing devils ceremonies to Latin America's African slave population 200 years ago, who adopted it and incorporated drums into the ritual. The dancing devil ceremony comes the day before the Catholic holiday of Corpus Christi. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)#

Chinelo dancers prepare to perform during Corpus Christi celebrations near the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City, on Thursday, June 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Miguel Tovar) #

New future of planes

How do you envision the planes of the future to be? Well even though I consider myself creative, this video below goes beyond my imagination. It’s good to see the engineers looking at what can be done for the near future, and well we will have to wait to see what the future brings in reality and how that gap between current reality and concepts is filled with final products.

If you want you can always look at the original video on airbus website at http://videos.airbus.com/video/iLyROoafzfJ5.html but it surely is an interesting take and approach on current airplane design.

Videos from around the net

Check out the short animated film below, it’s the thesis of a Senior Student of Ringling College of Art and Design, you can see many more at vimeo.com/​channels/​ringling2011

Hunted - Gordon Pinkerton - Ringling Thesis 2011 from Gordon Pinkerton on Vimeo.

Beno Saradzic, an Abu Dhabi-based filmmaker has produced a time-lapse movie capturing everyday scenes of some of the UAE capital’s iconic landmarks, in what he has described as a ‘labour of love’. The video is made of up to 21,000 images, from more than a dozen different locations across de city. Have a look at it below

ABU DHABI 2011 - time lapse film (Score by Vlad Persan) from Beno Saradzic on Vimeo.

How about a magician that uses technology to do his magic? You have got to see the below video of Marco Tempest using 3 ipods to create magic. It’s a very clever use of the technology and a great presentation.

How do you teach kids how to save? Well it’s good to see educational technology being developed to help parents to teach their kids how to save, share and manage their expenses. This is definitely something I should try with my daughter later on.

The news about Windows 8 has captured the web and the video below gives a bit of a preview of what we might get to expect from the new OS. I am sceptical that they will manage to build one OS that would work well for Desktop, Notebook, Tablet and phone, and work as well whether using keyboard and mouse, touchpad or touchscreen. Only time will tell but if this preview is any good, interesting times are coming ahead.

Education related news from around the net

How well are the newly graduates ready for the real world and how well is University preparing them for it, has been questions that I have always asked myself, specially when seeing the far gap between what my University taught me, what opportunities were in the market and what I am doing currently.

Therefore I have to admire and applaud initiatives such as what was called “The facebook Class”. The New York Times reported that in the fall of 2007 in Stanford, students were asked to Devise an app, get people to use it and do it several times, but that no one expected they would be getting millions of users and that it would fire up the careers and fortunes of more than 2 dozens students and teachers.

But by teaching students to build no-frills apps, distribute them quickly and worry about perfecting them later, the Facebook Class stumbled upon what has become standard operating procedure for a new generation of entrepreneurs and investors in Silicon Valley and beyond

“Working in teams of three, the 75 students created apps that collectively had 16 million users in just 10 weeks.” “during the term, the apps, free for users, generated roughly $1 million in advertising revenue”

“Four weeks into the quarter, he and his colleague, Rob Fan, set out to create an app that would let Facebook users send “hugs” to one another.

It took them all of five hours.

The app took off. So they moved on to apps for “kisses,” “pillow fights” and other digital interactions — 70 in all.

Their apps caught on with millions of people and were soon bringing in nearly $100,000 a month in ads. After the class ended, the two started a company, 750 Industries, named after the 750 Pub at Stanford where Mr. Greenberg and Mr. Fan where drinking when they decided to become business partners.”

How cool would it be to be taught entrepreneurism in that way, just get out there, get it done, and then perfect it into a viable business. Specially at that stage when creativity is at all times high and overhead costs normally at an all time low.

On another set of ideas: Even though my daughter is still several years away from reaching University age, it’s worrying to see the trend of students debt. According to the Wall Strett Journal (and reported also by Yahoo), the average student debt for those graduating in 2011 in the US is higher than ever and it is USD 22,900 in average.

“With tuition rising at an annual rate of about 5% and cash-strapped parents less able to help, the mean student-debt burden at graduation will reach nearly $18,000 this year, estimates Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of student-aid websites Fastweb.com and FinAid.org. Together with loans parents take on to finance their children’s college educations — loans that the students often pay themselves – the estimate comes to about $22,900. That’s 8% more than last year and, in inflation-adjusted terms, 47% more than a decade ago.”

On top of that Yahoo news talks about The Great Recession's Lost Generation (coming from CNNMoney).

About 60% of recent graduates have not been able to find a full-time job in their chosen profession, according to job placement firm Adecco.

Last year, the unemployment rate for college graduates age 24 and younger rose to 9.4%, the highest since the Labor Department began keeping records in 1985.

One reason is because recent hires with limited experience have the toughest time competing in a job market flooded with experienced candidates.

Adecco also found that 18% of recent grads have been forced to turn to full-time jobs outside their field of study, often jobs for which a college degree is not required.

About a third of recent graduates are still living with their parents, Adecco found, with 17% saying they are financially dependent on their parents. Almost one in four say they are in debt.

An how about the news that Peter Thiel awards $100,000 scholarships to teenagers and 20 year olds to not go to collegue? They are all getting this scholarship to chase their entrepreneurial dreams over the next two years, and as they say it “It seems like the perfect point in our lives to pursue this kind of project”. It might be a risky investment, but it’s the perfect moment to start lean and create a company from the ground up, don’t you think?

I see it as a great opportunity to have a really hands-on approach.