Now that 2012 has finally arrived, it’s time to start getting revved up for the Olympics (not so far away now), actually start visiting the gym and start tackling some of those resolutions on your list. One of them is bound to be ‘Have a lovely, stylish and geekified home’, so I’ve out together ten great gadget accessories to let you live a lovely geeky life at home.
1. Geek Wall Stickers from Bouf
I’m a big fan of wall decals (easy to apply and remove= no landlord surcharge) and Bouf has an amazing selection. My favourite would have to be the Super Mario wall stickers, which would be amazing for a games room- heck, any room, but they also have a more muted space invader version if you want to class it up.
2.The iPod Duvet set
Show your love for Apple (and your single status) with this super cute coverlet. I wish you could custom order it with your favourite Apps- mine would come complete with Dropbox, TripAdvisor and Byline. Read more…
ReCaptcha codes are one of those necessary evils that inhabit everyday life, as filling them in for security reasons equates to emptying the bins or picking up dry cleaning- useful and important, but hardly fun. If you’re anything like me you may have even uttered a curse word or two as the lovely ReCaptcha code popped up onto the screen, as sometimes the words they give you are so faded and hard to decipher that you feel like you’re decoding some ancient text.
Perhaps it will make you feel a little better if you know that’s actually the truth and your squinty eyed keyboard stabbing at the latest frustrating ReCaptcha code actually IS DECODING an ancient text. Seriously.
So, how did this come about, and what does interpreting those ReCaptcha scrawls actually mean?
Well, we know why we use these codes- it’s so we don’t end up spammed with adverts for Nubian princes and cheap designer deals, and that we can securely login to our social networks when we’re travelling. The text you see when you enter is very distorted and it has been proven that humans can decipher this way better than computers can, so you’re unlikely to have a spambot filling in your email for you (1 point to humans!).
However, the strange pieces of text that we actually decode (estimated at around 200 million Captchas a day worldwide) actually have a benefit to us. All our hard work (collectively) adds up to around 150,000 hours of work a day and reCaptcha has utilized this to help digitize books. Yes, by effectively crowd sourcing a whole lot of Captcha codes worldwide, you are helping translate old books and make them available to the public in a recognizable format. Read more…
It’s well documented that I’m a massive fan of eReaders, but I still have a place in my heart for the humble paperback novel. Occasionally a book comes along that makes you think that eReaders don’t deserve their acclaim, as though you might be able to get a video onto a Kindle Fire (if it’s ever in the UK) you certainly couldn’t created a 3D wonderland such as abc3D by Marion Bataille.
Educational AND a work of art! Bataille has created a beautifully styled pop up book that teaches children the alphabet in a clever and innovative way and the attention to detail is amazing. It really takes the notion of pop up books to a whole new level and I love how seamlessly the letters flow into eachother.
The red, white and black colour palette is striking and gives the book a sense of maturity, whilst still being suitable for a younger audience and she has even made the cover lenticular, for added coffee table nous.
Though it can often seem like a one way stream, blogging is far more complex than that- every blog post I write is researched and involves checking sources online and speaking to people- and in return, I get comments and respond to them. Through researching what I write I end up on a lot of different blogs- some science, some lifestyle and through this all I get a general picture of what other people are writing and thinking about. Problem is, for every blog that contains poorly placed graphics and bad spelling I’ll find one amazingly lucid and eloquent one written buy a fourteen year old with photographic skills which are far more advanced then mine.
For every event I go to or party I discuss someone else will have been to a better one in a cuter outfit doing something zanier- and I get serious green faced blog envy. My flat is a not a showroom, I haven’t dusted in a long-time and my photos aren’t arranged in cutesy artistic spreads on the wall- they’re placed wherever I managed to find some Blu tac. My life is not a showcase of aspirations, it’s comprised of mundane things like getting Boots Advantage points and moaning about excess Easyjet charges. My real life doesn’t compare to all these whimsical day in the life blogs, and don’t even get me started on ‘Outfit of the day’ posts as sites like Chictiopia and LookBook lead to massive feelings of inadequacy.
When you add to this the amount of blogs which enormously emotionally over share, you’re bound to feel a little bit stressed whenever you venture online.
Think of it this way-when I read certain blogs I expect certain things. I love the twee cat stories, boyfriend drama, casual sex flings and then- bam. A bloggers mother dies, their dad gets cancer,they try BDSM, all fine and above board for you to write about should you wish to, but when it’s very out of tone with your blog* it throws me. I don’t know what to do. My light reading has unexpectedly had a heavy veneer placed over it and though I want to comment I’m out of my depth. You own the blog- you can put whatever you wish on it, but as a reader it sometimes feel like you’ve overblogged- shared too much with the anonymous public and we don’t know what to do. I cried over someone’s blog post last week- in context**-and though that was understandable, I don’t want that to happen when I’m expecting a discussion on the merits of tea cosies versus towels (note: I don’t actually care about this topic). Read more…
Rock Paper Scissors is a game many people are familiar with. It’s used to solve arguments, make decisions and while away time whilst waiting for the bus. The more talented lucky may argue that there’s a stratgey to performing well at this game, and the lack of any props other than ones own body makes it universally acceptable. This humble game has moved beyond mere decision making and is now celebrated worldwide, with heats held in different countries, where only those with a fist of steel can win the coveted title of Rock Paper Scissors Champion. The UK Rock Paper Scissors Championship took place last week on the 22nd October 2011 and over 200 people gathered to try and gain a UK ranking in this sport. I decided to try my hand at gaining the trophy and this is my tale…
Training
Athletes warm up before games, so I embarked on some serious finger exercises. I practised moving my fingers to my thumb very quickly and used some stress balls to really help release the tension in my hand. I also practised a deadpan stare in the mirror- flat eyes, no smile- you’ll never know what’s coming next…
Strategy
To ensure I had the utmost advantage in my Rock Paper Scissors UK Championship event, I researched the sport thoroughly. I discovered that those in the know call it RPS or Roshambo (slightly less of a mouthful) and that it dates back to the Chinese Dynasty in 206 BCE (well, according to Wiki anyways) and that it has been used in court to settle a case (seriously). In terms of strategy there seemed to be dissenting points however- no one could tell me exactly what combo of rock paper scissors would always win. I learnt that three stones in a row is called an ‘Avalanche’ and this is commonly favoured by men, so I might have an advantage doing this version as a lady. It’s also reported that men traditionally open with stone, whilst women prefer paper- interesting. There’s also the notion of gambits- such as PPSPP which can be used to throw someone off guard. A traditional tournament game consists of two people over a table with a Referee in the middle. They call 1,2,3 and on 3 you open your palm. If you both have the same you repeat- and on and on till there’s a best of three win. Read more…
New Era is known for their caps, producing approximately 35 million per year, and they supply all the Major League baseball teams. New Era Introducing is their global way of nurturing new talent with a competition based around created a statement using the New Era 59FIFTY caps as the starting point. They’ve just announced the inner of this years competition and there are some pretty amazing New Era hats to feast your eyes on.
Entrants came from all over the world, as the participating countries were the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Sweden, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. Students from all these nations have spent the last few months creating unusual hat designs, and now the judges have finally chosen a winner.
To be honest, I think every entrant is a winner, and not in a ‘it’s the taking part that counts’, soppy way, but more, ‘would you look at the talent these kids have?’. Two of my favourite designs are featured above, a cute teddy bear cap, designed by UK artist Matt Saunders and a geek chic typewriter hat created by Spanish artist Pol.
I love it when people create work that is not only visually attractive but also makes a statement, and the Patterns of Science project by Ian Addison Hall fits this remit. Inspired by the similarities between human DNA and retro imagery, Ian created a series of pictures that used catalogues from the 50′s as a starting point. You get to see a large amount of nostalgic prints with a twist, as Addison Hall has re-imagined classic images by extending the print of the clothes to cover the whole of the models body. He says this is because ‘Using vintage catalogue imagery, each piece in this series explores the relationship between the patterns that exist in fashion and the patterns that comprise human genetic’.
The idea is that by replacing the models skin with textile prints, you get to re-imagine the models whole body as if looking at their genetic makeup, and there is a certain resemblance between DNA prints and the way that these retro flowers cover up the female forms. Read more…
