The Brightest Venus

Venus:

A 1979 Pioneer Venus image of Venus’ clouds seen in ultraviolet.

Venus and Earth are similar in size, mass, density, composition and gravity. There, however, the similarities end. Venus is covered by a thick, rapidly spinning atmosphere, creating a scorched world with temperatures hot enough to melt lead and surface pressure 90 times that of Earth.

3D printer creates ice sculptures

Engadget • by Sean Hollister •

Paper-mache, candy, and human cells have all been seen flowing through 3D printers for custom fabrication work, but students and faculty at Canada’s McGill University have a cheaper prototyping material: plain ol’ H2O. They recently modified this Fab@Home Model 1 by replacing the soft goo extruders with a temperature-controlled water delivery system, and set about making decorative ice sculptures and a large beer mug for good measure. While the academic project is officially supposed to explore “economic alternatives to intricate 3D models of architectural objects,” we’re not sure architects will want much to do with prototypes that drip… but tourism might well get a boost from liquor sold in frosty custom containers. We’re thirsty just looking at them.

Home | About | Blogging | Daily Life | Insights | News | Videos | SEO

What Free Software Do You Use?

The Simple Dollar • by Trent •

On Sunday, I reviewed the worthwhile book Getting Organized in the Google Era by Douglas C. Merrill, during which I mentioned that most of the productivity software I use for my work is free. A few people emailed me and asked about them, including this one (which made me smile) from Dot:

As much writing as you do I can’t believe you don’t use lots of expensive software! Good for you! (What do you use?)

Although I’ve mentioned my free software list a few times before, I figured there was no time better than the present to update this list.

The most remarkable airplane of the 20th century

Signal vs. Noise • by Matt •

Recently saw this Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird in person at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. Gorgeous lines on it. More photos/details and a video.

CSS3 Solutions for Internet Explorer

Smashing Magazine Feed • by Louis Lazaris •

CSS3 is probably the hottest trend in web design right now, allowing developers the opportunity to implement a number of solutions into their projects with some very straightforward CSS while avoiding having to resort to nonsemantic markup, extra images, and complex JavaScript. Unfortunately, it’s not a surprise that Internet Explorer, even in its most recent version, still does not support the majority of the properties and features introduced in CSS3.

Scenes We Love: Sherlock Holmes

Cinematical • by Todd Gilchrist •

With the exceptions of the comments left on articles, comments from colleagues, and occasionally, weekend box office receipts, I spend the majority of my time blissfully unaware that people don’t share the same feelings as I do about movies. I don’t mean to suggest that my feelings are correct; I’m merely observing that I’m surprised when people respond in a particularly strong way to a film, either when it’s released or some time after the fact. On my Iron Man 2 review, for example, there was a preponderance of comments from readers in which they dismantled The Dark Knight, a film which to my knowledge was almost universally beloved.

The elements of videogames

Boing Boing • by Brandon Boyer • 10 hours ago • keep as unread • preview • copy link

Above, artist Liselore Goedhart‘s unbelievably adorable illustration of the basic elements of all games, itself part of a card game meant to help designers “bring new characters and game ideas to life”, from the Utrecht School of the Arts (the program that brought you indie-cum-commercial hit de Blob), Monobanda and Metagama. Click through for a larger view, while I try to figure out how to get my hot little hands on a deck of these.

One millionth iPad Sold

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) • by Aron Trimble

Filed under: Apple Corporate, iPad

Apple announced today that on Friday the one millionth iPad was sold. The figure does not break out Wi-Fi vs. 3G iPads, yet the number is still staggering considering it only took 28 days. For the original iPhone, the million unit milestone was not hit until 74 days after release.