At CES, Chaotic Moon showed off their appropriately named Board of Awesomeness. It’s the result of hooking up a skateboard, a Kinect and a Samsung tablet to control the board’s speed through hand motions.
It’s an excellent example of the kind of unexpected, quirky, wonderfully playful bottom up innovation you only get when you open up technology for experimentation.
There’s a good write-up over at WIRED.
[permalink]Over the holidays, I had quite an interesting experience: My smartphone was bricked. I hadn’t jailbroken it and screwed up along the way or anything. The only thing I did was go on a brief vacation, in a tiny remote town in the eastern part of Germany.
The town had practically no data coverage at all. It also had no ATM, but that’s a different matter altogether.
My smartphone was a brick – it could only make phone calls, and allowed me to play chess. And let’s be frank, making calls is the tiniest part of how I use my phone these days. Even tinier than playing chess.
Just think about this for a second: If you live there, in this small vacation town, owning a smartphone doesn’t really make any sense. You’d be wasting a few hundred bucks for some apps, and for surfing at home in your own wireless network.
So that happened in Germany, one of the richest, most industrialized countries worldwide. The effect is much more common in other, less industrialized parts of the world.
That offline weekend serves as a valuable reminder. It’s important to remember that not everybody has a smartphone, and not every smartphone owner has network access all the time.
We need to take that into account when designing mobile services. Allow for offline sync where possible, reduce data transfer as much as you can. Design your apps and mobile sites to degrade gracefully. You might thank yourself later, when you’re on vacation.
[permalink]I’m trying to find out more about these watches that I’ve stumbled upon. While I lack the appropriate terminology, I’ll try to describe them as best as I can and let the photos do the rest of the talking.
As far as I can tell, they’re from my grandfather. If they were his, or his dad’s or if he acquired them elsewhere I don’t know, and I have no way of finding out. He died more than 30 years ago just after I was born, and the watches have been in our household since, but there’s no documentation or anything.
You’ll note that most of them don’t work, and aren’t in the best shape. So this isn’t about finding any monetary value, but rather to learn more about where they come from, how old they are and if there’s anything to know about.
Below I’ll provide the best descriptions I can, plus the little I could dig up so far. If you have any pointers for me, please let me know (in the comments, or via contact form). Much appreciated!
The watch is gold and has a closing lid that’s operated by pressing the release button on top. On the outside it looks like it’s in a fairly decent state, on the inside the minute hand is slightly twisted. Winding the watch up produces a bit of a hollow sound and has no apparent effect. The watch won’t run.
The face is labeled with Arabic numerals. Bottom center, where the 6 would be, there’s what seems to be a stop watch, or an indicator of seconds.
There is an inscription on the inside of the lid: Monopol, and a logo of a star with the letter D in the middle, meaning the piece is the brand Monopol by Dürrstein. The logo looks something like this:
Below the logo it says 388, which indicates the quality of the gold, and three intricate letters, MAO. It looks like there’s a tiny letter P written inside the A.
Inside the lid there was a round piece of paper with some hand writing in pen. It’s hard to read. As far as I can tell it says, top to bottom:
281388 8Kg (or 8Ka) 2/7 glr (or similar) as well as several letters I can’t read.
The back lid can be opened, too. Inside engravings show the Monopol D mark as well as the MAO again, plus a six-digit number: 281388.
This timepiece is also gold (0,585) and heavily decorated, especially on the back. It’s in very bad repair. The front glass protector is missing, and the hour hand is broken off. The windup mechanism didn’t seem to work, however when I turned it a little into the other direction the clock would start ticking for a few moments, with the seconds hand moving.
The back of the watch shows a detailed image of maybe a coat of arms, a squire and a dog, as well as plenty of floral patterns.
The face is inscribed with large Roman numerals as well as much smaller Arabic numerals. Bottom center there’s the seconds indicator. The seconds hand is quite plain, but the minutes hand is very, very intricate.
Both the front and back lid can be opened. The front once held a glass pane that’s missing now. The back is heavily inscribed on the inside.
On the back of the body itself it says, top to bottom and in a variety of fonts:
REMONTOIR ANCRE Ligne Droite Spiral Breguet Châton 15 RUBIS (or RUBES)
On the inside of the back lid the engravings are:
a logo of a crown inside a circle a stylized icon of what seems to be a squirrel the gold quality marker 0,585 a tiny image of something too small to make out even with a looking glass, maybe a swan? a 5-digit number: 39977 below, turned sideways, the number 6
In the tiniest, tiniest writing, there are some more characters along the rim, so small that my eyes literally started watering trying to decipher it. As far as I can tell it says:
D241024T (or F) 211031 19631 and a cross in a circle and (in what appears to be engraved hand writing) 82720 and (maybe) the letter J. Potentially the last two characters are the initials OJ, maybe the watchmaker’s?
There’s a second, inner lid at the back that can be opened to access the mechanics of the watch. The inside of the lid has another engraving:
METAL 39977 and the initals “J.F.”
In the clock work, there’s two engraved words “avance” and “retard”, as well as an intricate little picture that seems to feature the letter B and a parrot.
This one is probably the oldest of the bunch, and not complete anymore as some of the body is missing. It’s relatively small and labeled as Moretton London.
The face shows big Roman numerals for the hours and smaller Arabic numerals. Further towards the center, the Arabic numerals 1 to 31 tell the day (only the uneven numbers are shown, the even numbers are spared). The hands show just a little decoration, and the minutes hand is twisted.
Since the body is missing, the backshows parts of the mechanics, which are quite intricately designed. The maker is engraved on the back, too: “Moretton London No 416″, as well as on a darker disk the numbers 1 to 4. Also, you can look inside from the side.
A first internet search brought up next to nothing about watch maker “Moretton”.
The probably newest of the bunch doesn’t seem to be marked by the maker, or at least not by a prominently featured brand. It’s silver, and much more modern and simple than the other ones. The font on the face is somewhat more playful and features Arabic numerals only.
Out of the whole lot, this one is by far in the best state of repair. When I wound up the clock it started ticking right away, and for the few minutes I’ve been checking it seems to keep the time.
The front lid holds a glass pane for protection, the hands are quite intricate.
The back lid shows a simple pattern with a blank coat of arms in the center.
The inside of the back lid has just a few small engravings spread out across the lid:
AD a tiny image of maybe a peacock, an ostrich or some other animal (too small to tell) a silver mark (0,800) an image of some sort that’s too tiny to distinguish a logo of crescent and crown the number 165473
Then, in even finer engraved hand writing:
10129 R(67/7) 15402 23490
Inside the inner back lid, the mechanics looks much simpler and more modern than the other watches, with only minimal decoration and engravings. (F S and A R)
That’s all I have so far. If there’s any good resource that I could dig into, any recommendations are welcome.
Update: A big thank you to John Biggs, who helped me out with some background on the watches. They seem to be pretty basic turn-of-the-century watches. Also, before I hadn’t known that they used to sell the cases separate from the movements, so you could buy cheap movement and put it in a more expensive case.
[permalink]While visiting my family over the holidays, I happened upon some old (as in very old) watches that have been in the household for as long as I can think. As it sometimes happens, I hadn’t really paid any attention to them, but had a closer look just now.
I’m going to investigate further, and try to find out where they come from. Are they old family pieces, from my grandfather or even his grandfather? Or did someone pick them up at a flea market at some point?
I don’t know much about these watches at this point. What I know is that they’re in relatively bad repair, and seem to be of very different age as well as build quality. But that’s all I could tell from a quick glance. If anyone here knows about this kind of pocket watches, let me know. I’ll collect more photos in this Flickr set.
The second thing I know is that I’m absolutely fascinated by the design, the intricate details and the working of these timepieces. Can’t wait to dig deeper.
A screenshot of our freshly launched website (www.thirdwaveberlin.com). Thanks and big props to Yourneighbours for the design and Fabian Mürmann for the development!
It’s official: We just launched the website for our company. As is usual, work kind of got in the way of launching earlier, but we wanted to get it really right before launching something half-finished. So, some four months after we got to work for our clients we now have a website, and it turns out to be quite the beauty I think – thanks to our friends and neighbors Yourneighbours (design) and Fabian Mürmann (development)!
Judging by the attention from design blogs the site has gotten already, it seems like we’re on to something there. (Yay!)
So what is it all about? You’ll find important announcements (highlighted blog posts) on top. At the time I’m writing this it shows the very first highlighted post, a quote by William Gibson. The photograph, believe it or not, shows Mr Gibson at very young age. Yes, we’re that nerdy. And I love it.
Below, there are two blogposts (sticky), then a line of brief background info about what we do as well as some links to learn more about us. This is followed by another four blog posts (chronological), a cute bird announcing our most recent company tweet as well as the search form and (if you’re into that kind of thing) a newsletter registration form.
We try to keep the site as simple as possible and evolve it from here.
It’s official: our company has a home now. Like.
[permalink]Last night I had the chance to watch the press screening of TRON:Legacy. In case you’ve lived under a rock over the last six months, here’s the trailer – pure visual pr0n:
For you to compare, and to appreciate the eye candy it is, here’s the original Tron trailer from 1982:
First thing first: I’m a big fan of the Tron franchise, and I enjoyed Legacy tremendously. So whenever a question arose, I’d give the movie the benefit of the doubt. If you didn’t like the original Tron, you won’t enjoy this one either.
That said, let’s dive into some questions and thoughts, mostly on a meta level. (Warning: There are some plot spoilers in the text below. Read on at your own risk.)
The Open Theme Most notably is the pro Open Source & Sharing stance the movie takes. While awkward in it’s rhetoric at times (the movie is aimed at a mainstream audience after all), the message is clear: The turned-evil Encom Corporation, built on the legacy of Tron inventor Kevin Flynn, claims that “the era of sharing software and giving it away for free is over”. Flynn’s son Sam however, the heir and biggest shareholder, who’s lack of interest in the company allowed the evil board to take over, turns out to be a free software advocate: “You can’t steal what’s designed to be free”, he says while leaking the brand new proprietary operating system by Encom called “OS XII”, one of many nice swings at Apple.
This theme of Openness vs Closed (as software paradigms) is present throughout the movie, and the sides are clearly attributed: open = good, closed = bad. (Quite funny, given that the movie is produced by Disney, who aren’t exactly known for their openness.) It surfaces many times: “Users”, humans who move inside “the grid” (the internet), have no rights. Hacking is not encouraged, and the few who are able to access the system on a deeper level have to leave the slick & glossy user-interface and find themselves in rugged terrain, visualized as a rugged, black mountains not unlike Mordor in Lord of the Rings. The off-grid areas, i.e. the intestines of the net, are of course where the real action happens, whereas the user interface, on-grid areas are what makes the movie look so fantastic.
A set designer’s wet dream The look & feel of Tron:Legacy is fantastic; nothing short of it. It looks breathtaking, stunning, gorgeous. The whole setting is constructed and designed with a level of detail, and with a mix of both physical and plenty of CGI elements, that makes me want to watch it again and again.
What I found particularly interesting is the many elements it quotes from the physical world – in the way “vehicles” (which are of course just software metaphors) move, how the competitive games are held in what resembles a giant football stadium, how a character is using digital qigong balls: all these might be deeper metaphors, or maybe a hat tip that helps us associate certain characters or scenes with certain stereotypes. Sometimes it’s a bit painful to watch, often it works wonderfully. It’s definitely interesting to watch.
A handful of actors and a slab of wood Tron:Legacy features possibly the worst & weakest lead character of all times (or at least the most recent decade). Which is such a wasted opportunity, as the rest of the crew are doing a great job. But let me quote Wired UK, who phrased it better than I could:
Garrett Hedlund is the worst offender — coming across not as a gifted hacker, but as a bewildered meathead. At the start of the movie he’s portrayed as a young man who’s never really grown out of being a petulant child — an image that he utterly fails to shed when he’s called upon to be heroic. Hedlund’s supporting actors, Jeff Bridges and Olivia Wilde, do their best to prop him up, but they’re fighting a losing battle. Bridges, who starred in the original, reprises his role, but doesn’t bring the gravity to any scene that he ought to with that pedigree. At several points, a little bit too much of The Dude slips through instead. Wilde is the only cast member who really stands out. Her character initially appear to be a stereotypical “badass chick”, but you swiftly discover that she’s actually a mega-geek. A spark of delight comes when you realise that, in Tron’s universe, being a mega-geek involves a fascination with paper and books, rather than computers. Although she spends a little too much screen time in awe of Hedlund’s character, she brightens any scene with an infectious enthusiasm for the world around her.
The same sadly goes for the dialogs, too: they’re so wooden, so stiff, that at one point I had to double check in which language I was watching the movie: I had the creepy feeling I was watching it in a badly dubbed German version – but I wasn’t, it was the English original alright, the dialogs are just the way they are.
There are a number of quotes, mostly by Bridges, that help break the tension – no doubt that’s what Wired mean when they say The Dude shows through Bridges’ performance – like when he ends a lengthy dialog about a philosophical conundrum with the line “Human form in a digital space. Heavy stuff.”
The Uncanney Valley is deep Speaking of actors: Jeff Bridges features in a double roll: As Kevin Flynn, the aged hacker who has resided inside the Grid for the last 20 years; and CLU, the program he developed “in his own image” to run the Grid, which looks like Flynn 20 years younger. This was done doing some massive CGi magic, and looks remarkably life like. Not quite enough though: this is total Uncanny Valley territory. This is particularly creepy (and interesting to watch) when the two differently aged versions of Jeff Bridges have a show down, engaging one another directly. Like so many times, it’s hard to tell if the crew just couldn’t get the CGI version of young Mr Bridges any better or if they allowed it to preserve a slightly creepy look because it makes sense in the context of the story. I tend to going with the latter.
Timeless or multi-dated? The Kevin Flynn that resides in the Grid is a pretty fascinating, or rather it’s fascinating how the character was designed. He’s portrayed as an aging electro hippie, living in his digital Bond villain’s penthouse lair, overlooking the Mordor-like sections of the Grid. His lodgings are glossy, slick and white, very minimalistic besides a few decor elements: some 19th century chairs, some 1960s chairs, a book shelf full of old books – tomes almost – and a large dinner table decorated with silver (silicone?) apples and the like. It’s both timeless and multi-dated, so to speak: minimalist style that could last ages, or a whole series of cultural references that make it look dated beyond its age. It creates a weird effect, I could never stop wondering if the designers were serious or pulling the viewers’ leg, challenging them to call that bluff.
A nice detail: the CLU, the almost fascist software ruler of the Grid, plans to leave the Grid and conquer the physical world (following word by word its programming that ordered it to “create the perfect world”), he assembles a massive army of (very Stormtrooper-looking) software soldiers – placing CLU clearly in a Cold War military mindset, totally consistent with when it was programmed in 1989. No asymmetrical warfare for CLU, no sir!
Clichés Galore It’s these references – often clichés, really – that also put this movie in our days: it’s a movie for the remix generation. It quotes, in wild order, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, the Fifth Element, all kinds of the more recent vampire movies, the Matrix and plenty of the original Tron. Like I mentioned before, I had a nagging feeling I might be tested here, quizzed almost, and at some point someone would pull up the curtain and say: “Gotcha! Now on to the real stuff!” But it’s actually quite consistent that way, and it works if you let it work for you. (Which is why I meant earlier that you need to like the Tron franchise, or you won’t enjoy it.)
Full integration If there is one lesson to learn from Tron:Legacy, then it’s about integration. The way the movie integrates all these references; but also how integrated the soundtrack is into the movie. The very atmospheric, dark OST by French electro duo Daft Punk (video for the track “Derezzed” below) holds the film together, but very much stays in the background. Then, in one longer, very prominent club scene, you see Daft Punk DJ-ing in the club, and the main character in the scene actually talks to them, asking for music to support the next scene. It works brilliantly; and that’s despite it being so totally blatant, in your face.
In short: It’s hard to imagine that the movie would sustain itself in the cinematic history. But if you like TRON, it’s a must see, and pure visual pr0n.
[permalink]“Recent Uploads” – Exhibition Opening from annika. on Vimeo.
My friend and extraordinary open designer Ronen Kadushin (see these blog posts) recently had a vernissage for his new exhibition called “Recent Uploads”.
Ronen says:
Each chair drawe its inspiration from different narratives: design references, emotional states, city life, and street art. (…) The chairs are laser cut from a 6mm aluminum sheet, and bent and assembled by hand. Bending a piece this thick is made easy using a hallmark detail I formulated a few years back; (…) The designs of the chairs were recently uploaded onto my website for anyone to copy, produce or experiment with.
In the video above, you can see how Ronen assembled (or rather: folded) a number of his open design chairs from a flat sheet of metal. It’s pretty amazing, really.
The designs are realeased under a Creative Commons license (by-nc-sa), so you can download and cut them yourself, or buy the complete pieces at Appel Design Gallery, Berlin.
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