Category Archives: The Rooster

The News Feed #008 | The Rooster – Spareparts

By tristan | Published May 29, 2012

Facebook’s IPO last week was a huge clusterfuck, complete with technical glitches at NASDAQ and concerns that “Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and other banks involved in the I.P.O…shared a negative outlook about Facebook with a select group of clients, rather than broadly with all investors.”

Notwithstanding the IPO disaster, Zuckerberg and the gang did manage to release a (very Instagramy) slick new dedicated Facebook Camera app a few days later.

Facebook Camera strips the Facebook experience down to a steady stream of your friend’s photos. The app has a number of filter effects and supports batch uploads.  It had reportedly been in development for almost a year and will be run seperately from Instagram (for now, at least). While I welcome most things that make it easier for people to see my photos and vice versa, I’m not sure if I really need a direct link to people’s mirror self portraits and latest vegan organic local quinoa Acai berry wheatgrass lattes.

read the rest @ The News Feed #008 | The Rooster – Spareparts.

The News Feed #007 | The Rooster – Spareparts

By tristan | Published May 21, 2012

For my weekly round-up of news, culture, and T-rex skeletons head over to  The News Feed #007 @ The Rooster.  Here’s a preview:

There was an eclipse yesterday and in case you missed it, the In Focus blog over at the Atlantic magazine has you covered with a collection of photos of the event.  It was an annular eclipse wherein the apparent diameter of the moon is slightly smaller than the Suns, resulting in a “ring of fire” in the sky.  I love some of the shadows and projections that this ring of fire created.  More photos here.

 

The News Feed #006 | The Rooster – Spareparts

By tristan | Published May 18, 2012

Check out my weekly post at the community magazine The Rooster:

What if materials could defy gravity?  Jinha Lee from MIT’s Media Lab asked himself that question and came up with the ZeroN “Levitated Interaction Element.”  ZeroN is a “physical/digital interaction element that can be levitated and moved freely by computer in a three dimensional space.”  The system uses electromagnets, cameras for optical tracking, and a display system that projects images onto the levitating object.  Once you’ve grabbed and moved the sphere along a certain path, the computer which controls the levitation can replay your movements with eerie precision.  Watch the video of Lee’s levitation system and check out his site here.

more @ The News Feed #006 | The Rooster – Spareparts.