Tecverse - Tech news, gadgets and smashing designs » Design

An Open Source Restaurant

admin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:35:28 +0000

Are you hungry for open source. Now you may literally eat it. A new restaurant called the Instructables Restaurant, in Amsterdam, has based it’s entire business on open source. We not talking about the systems or computer they use, but the actual food. Based on the ideology of the popular online magazine instructables.com, the restaurant will only cook and serve open source food. Open source food?? Open source or recipes that have been posted online and have been licensed with an open source license.

Open source food is a new concept not quite seen before, however it is sure to be a hit and pave the way for the open source philosophy to filter into other aspects of life. It is interesting to see how the open source concept can be easily applied to anything else besides software.

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3 Handy Temporary Email Services

admin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 11:29:24 +0000

Ever noticed how some sites require registration to view content or download files? With the ever increasing blight of spam and phishing scams online, handing out your email address is becoming an ever increasing risk. This is where the usefulness of a temporary email service come in hand, as it assigns you a ‘disposable’ email address to use on the internet, where your address may get sold or abused by spammers. There are several temporary email services online, however we have decided to comb through the masses and shortlist a few promising solutions.

Mailinator: requires no sign up which is a plus in convenience, however since there are no account services one should be careful with what this temporary address is used for as it could get your online accounts hijacked. Mailinator does provide an alternate address that is not shown publicly to protect prying eyes from from your real address. mailinator.com

Trashmail.net: Is a temporary email service that forwards incoming mail, that was sent to your temporary address, to your real email address. Therefore keeping your real address private and safe from the spamming lists. Trashmail.net might not have the most aesthetic interface, however it is quite feature packed as it offers a Firefox addon to make the service that much easier and quicker to use. The service allows you to choose the amount of recieved email of your temporary address before it expires, along with a host of other options. trashmail.net

Mailexpire: probably the most popular of the three, allows you to specify the time of expiry as apposed to the amount of messages of the temporary address. mailexpire.com

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Cellphone Penetration Worldwide

admin — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:18:18 +0000

An interesting set of visualized statistics outlining the global penetration of mobile devices. According to this data, and not surprisingly, Google owns just about 100% of mobile searches. Further more in Taiwan, according to these stats, there are more cellphones than people.

Source: ChartPorn.org

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How To Install Global Menu on Ubuntu

A Scientific Curiosity

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:13:33 +0000

Science inspired photography by Caleb Charland who combines his passion for photography and his interest in physics. “Wonder is a state of mind somewhere between knowledge and uncertainty. It is the basis of my practice and results in images that are simultaneously familiar and strange. I utilize everyday objects and fundamental forces to illustrate experiences of wonder. Each photograph begins with a simple question “How would this look? Is that possible? What would happen if…?” and develops through a sculptural process of experimentation. As I explore the garage and search through the basement to solve these pictures, I find ways to exploit the mysterious qualities of these everyday objects and familiar materials.” explain Caleb.

You may view more of Caleb’s work on his site

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10 Inspiring Wallpapers From National Geographic

A Rainbow in Your Hand

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:04:48 +0000

An ingenious ‘old tech’ method of creating a three dimensional rainbow in your hands. Rainbow in Your Hand is book published in Japan that makes use of old style animation to generate a rainbow. “This book started as a personal project in summer 2007, and was soon published from a Japanese bookstore “Utrecht”. It’s a flipbook, but rather than seeing animation, it creates a 3D rainbow in your hand. Since being published it has been featured on Japanese TV, Newspapers, major news & blogsites like yahoo news, coolhunting and found. This book won this years NY ADC silver cube.” explains the author.

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Ubuntu Identity Overhaul

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:58:58 +0000

A new logo, a new identity. The upcoming release of Ubuntu 10.04 and Ubuntu is set to receive a major identity upgrade, from it’s logo through to its design. “We’re drawn to Light because it denotes both warmth and clarity, and intrigued by the idea that “light” is a good value in software. Good software is “light” in the sense that it uses your resources efficiently, runs quickly, and can easily be reshaped as needed.” explains Mark Shuttle worth who along with a small team of designers who are behind the recent Ubuntu re branding.

The Brand

Beginning with the logo the Ubuntu brand identity receives a remarkable upgrade, along with a brand new typeface.

Along with the Ubuntu community websites following the new look

Desktop

The new Ubuntu identity will also be carried into the upcoming release of 10.04’s desktop aesthetic. The lynx it set to receive a brand new default theme in both light and dark variations

Along with a brand new and fantastically stylish boot screen.

The Website

And last but not the least, the new Ubuntu website will also take on the new branding in a highly good looking manner.

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A Collection of Inspiring Workspaces

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 06:37:10 +0000

A workspace is is a key factor in productivity, an effectively planned workspace allows for a more pleasant working experience, specifically for those who have a desk job. Lifehacker.com has taken the initiative to showcase a selection of well created workspaces submitted by their users, who have taken a pride in their space of work.

A selection of 5 inspirational workspaces from the lifehacker.com archive

See more inspiring workspaces at Lifehacker.com

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Artistic Typography

admin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 13:52:18 +0000

Typography art, is perhaps one of the most beautiful ways to combine text and design into a beautiful composition. Deviant is treasure of artistic talent, out of the tons of outstanding typography artwork on deviant art, we have short listed these five as possibly the most creative and visually appealing pieces

All About hand by ~jasonwave – The anotomay of the human hand, entirely in text

Jimi In Type by ~icantreed – A portrait, created entirely out of text, using an array of different fonts

mos def lyric portrait by *DilsJ – A beautiful portrait with a lyrical theme

typography by ~mrtyn – A declaration of love for graphic design

Times New Roman by ~suckerhead – A tribute to the famous Times New Roman type face

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The Fail Whale Strikes

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:18:03 +0000

The Twitter Fail Whale Strikes again. It has been some time since the Fail Whale was spotted. For those who are unfamiliar with the Twitter Fail Whale, it is the whale that indacates Twitter’s servers are under strain from an overload in internet traffic or that the site is experiencing down time.In the early years of Twitter, the Fail Whale become a common occurance as Twitter was being run off under provisioned servers which couldn’t handle the emmense traffic that the site attracted. As a result the Fail Whale began developing a following of fans as it the Whale seemed to demonstrate a kind of personification of the Twitter service. The Twitter whale presently has become a rare sight as Twitter has already up scaled their infrastructure. However today’s sighting proved the Fail Whale is still alive and kicking!

The Fail Whale was designed by Yiying Lu, a relitively unknown artist (Before Twiiter). However with the power of the community and the intense surge in Twitter popularity the Fail Whale soon become a craze amongst web 2.0 junkies. Propelling Yiying’s name into the spotlight. Fail Whale fan clubs began to sprout up every where as the Twitter community began grew ever more fond of the Fail Whale.

However the Fail Whale makes few appearance nowadays, therefore a sighting, todays’s, is a rare but special occasion!

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The Breathing Earth

admin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 12:17:50 +0000

The Breathing Earth is an interesting web simulation that demonstrates quite clearly and impressively the human impact on our Earth. Designed by David Bleja, the simulation tracks the amount of CO2 in tonnes released be each nation and how often a death or a birth occurs. Bearing in mind that it is a simulation is not 100% percent accurate however the author states that the simulation was built using reputable data sources, further more the values generated by the simulation are more likely to by under estimated as apposed to being over estimated.

It surely is an eye opening simulation as we often turn a blind eye to the destructive effects our industry has on our planet. It is interesting to note, from the simulation, the large amounts of CO2 that is released every minute, especially from first world nations. According to this simulation China emmits 1000 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere every 6,2 seconds while the United States releases carbon dioxide at whopping rate of 1000 tonnes every 5,3 seconds. It surely brings the question up of how much longer can we as a race sustain our dirty industries before our planet begins to fail?

You may view the simulation here

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