Our friend Greg Leppert is, in his own words, “a curious thinker and tinkerer”. We couldn’t describe him any better. He’s an example of someone who began their career in graphic design, and through curiosity and experimentation has successfully branched out into many other facets of design.
Phillip Warren, pictured above, has spent the last 62 years building an entire armada of the Royal Navy. The grand total of his productivity comes to 432 separate ships.
Using matchsticks, matchstick boxes and balsa wood he started when he was 17 and recently finished. People my age rarely do anything for more than a couple of years at best, so seeing stories like this is a nice reminder that not everyone on this planet has Dr. Pepper and iPhone induced A.D.D..
NASA yesterday test fired their DM-2 rocket this week, which is their biggest-ever solid rocket engine. The video is a little slow to start with the long countdown, but turn down your speakers for the firing, because I’m not playing when I say biggest-ever.
I kid you not. This is a fully self sufficient water powered jet pack for all of your lake-based travel needs. As fun as this thing looks, it is easily going to be the item at the top of my Christmas list this year.
A couple of months back I found out that Lego was releasing a set called 10213 Shuttle Adventure. I was excited on too many levels to name. Basically the point of this post is to let you know that at PUBLIC SCHOOL my newest toy disguised as a desk decoration is this set. It’s pretty friggin’ cool.
An important shift has been occurring in the digital world, the move from the wide-open Web to semi-closed platforms known as apps. The gentlemen over at Wired have done some research on the topic, and cranked a few articles chock full of relevant info. It may sound trivial, but the shift is quite pertinent, especially for those of us working in the fields of web, design, and digital media. I recommend you take a look… via wired.
I stumbled across the Vintage Technology website yesterday while surfing Reddit. It’s a wonderful resource if you’re into retro design. I’m loving the vintage calculators section. The Casio H1 pictured above is still sitting somewhere in a drawer in my parents house, next to this TI-33.
The next time you receive a request for help from a Nigerian Prince or an offer to buy some \/I4GR4 you may wonder where that message is coming from. Google’s got a great map listing where all of those messages are coming from. It’s all kind of interactive, so head over and check it out.
We just stumbled across this 2007 post on the Kodak Blog describing how the first digital camera ever made came to be.
Made from spare parts and a variety of digital circuits, the camera captured images using a CCD imager, storing the digital information on cassette tapes. Crazy talk!
An awesome photo of the image playback device in action after the jump…
I’d like to throw a quick shout out to the new company my buddy co-founded and that is hosting PUBLIC SCHOOL. It is called WP Engine and is a new WordPress hosting platform that is more advanced and configurable than WordPress.com but a hell of a lot cheaper than WordPress’ enterprise solutions. They’re publicly launching and opening up the waiting list for signups this week but over the last two months we’ve been lucky enough to be given some of the first access to the platform.
My buddy Cullen had complained to me for a while that there were no cheap solutions for WordPress hosting that handled backups, security, and scalability for blogs. Your options were limited to WordPress.com which only allows for a tiny bit of customization, a self hosted installation with which you have to handle all of the backups and upgrades, or a full on WordPress enterprise solution which costs several thousands of dollars a month. Faced with that problem he and his partner decided to build a company around solving that problem.
Turns out you CAN buy happiness.
Invisible Creature cures the first day of school suspense.
It’s the little things that count.
Just when you think they can’t get any worse.
Dinner problems solved. Never ask again!
Thanks for the great videos Yewknee!
Multiplicity, not starring Michael Keaton.
This dog loves a classic boat shoe.
Looking for a new school backpack?
Annals of Americus: essays, reportage, and commentary on life in post-millennial America.
August 2010 Mix by Gorilla Vs Bear!
Everyone do the Ugly Dance!
Check out this sneak peek at the custom Gowalla Pin for tomorrow’s Pep Rally event.
Vegan Yacht is good if you’re a vegetarian. But if you’re like me and like some smoked briquet, Ruby’s on Guadalupe is the place to be. Try the mustard potato salad.
This looks like a job for Shep Ramsey
If you’re in Austin, try the Vegan Yacht. Really good stuff.