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A recently funded Kickstarter project by the name of 3Doodler is boasting its capabilities as the world’s first 3D-printing pen, and based off of its video introduction, I have no reason to doubt them. As soon as you see the pen seeming molding plastic in mid-air, you immediately want to pick one up and start doodling. The only downside from my perspective is that there is a lack of interface with a computer to create these models, but a major plus is that you don’t need one, as you are the “computer” in this sense!
Found out about the news of Makerbot making a 3D scanner to go along with their 3D printers. As a user of a Makerbot Replicator, but with zero ability to build 3D models of my own, all I have to say YES!!!
If it wasn’t for RJay, we’d never be able to print out anything at all. Looking at the pictures from Engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/08/makerbot-3d-scanner/), it follows the same basic balsa wood build as their 3D printers but they’ve attached lasers and a spinning platform.
Besides the price, the inability to create these 3D models to print out easily, is the biggest barrier to getting people to purchase and use these printers. Also, there’s still issues even printing, as the bigger the object you’re printing, the more likely it will fail. RJay has been working on getting better results with the printer and he’s found a few tips that have helped (I’ll see if I can get him to follow up with a blog post). It’s an exciting time as you can see the progression being made with these printers and as they become more stable, the more inexpensive prototyping and manufacturing there is. This leads to more choices and better solutions for various problems around the world.
It’s got LASERS!!!!
We got this in last week, and found this video I wanted to save so we can keep up with our makerbot.
Local Wisdom brought home two awards from this year’s annual competition held by The Art directors Club of NJ. This non-profit organization is comprised of professionals whose creative services bring excellence and knowledge to the design world. Since 1961, the goal of the ADCNJ has been to discover new ideas and techniques while providing an opportunity for local artists to showcase their work.
We are proud to say that this year Local Wisdom won honorable mentions within the categories of Self Promotion and User Interface Design for localwisdom.com. Internal projects work a bit differently, we are able to communicate openly and often to adjust architecture, design, and copywriting based on progress. This is how the concept of the “slices” of content came to be.
This is the second year in a row that Local Wisdom has been awarded distinction in the ADCNJ competition, last year for our mobile app Weatherwise, and we will continue to submit new projects in the future. Entering these competitions is important because it gives us the chance to show off our talents while being vetted against industry experts. We feel that winning these awards helps our company grow with confidence and notoriety.
We have great respect for what the Art Directors Club does for the design industry in New Jersey as well as what they do for the next generation of talent in educational institutions. To find out more information about the ADCNJ visit http://www.adcnj.org/.
To read about the awards Local Wisdom took home from last year’s competition visit Two Gold, Two Silver, One Bronze…Five Awards Line the Shelves at Local Wisdom!
We would like to thank Pinaki Kathiari (Architecture), RJay Haluko (designer), Tracy Severino (copyrighter) and Melissa Penta (developer) for their creative genius and hard work to make localwisdom.com a success.
Got this forwarded to me by Riti, thought it deserved some shine on our blog, thank you Jessica Hagy, for writing this: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessicahagy/2011/11/30/how-to-be-interesting/
How to be interesting (in 10 stupid-simple steps):
1.Go exploring.
Explore ideas, places, and opinions. The inside of the echo chamber is where all the boring people hang out.
2. Share what you discover.
And be generous when you do. Not everybody went exploring with you. Let them live vicariously through your adventures.
3. Do something. Anything.
Dance. Talk. Build. Network. Play. Help. Create. It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you’re doing it. Sitting around and complaining is not an acceptable form of ‘something,’ in case you were wondering.
4. Embrace your innate weirdness.
No one is normal. Everyone has quirks and insights unique to themselves. Don’t hide these things—they are what make you interesting.
5. Have a cause.
If you don’t give a damn about anything, no one will give a damn about you.
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6. Minimize the swagger.
Egos get in the way of ideas. If your arrogance is more obvious than your expertise, you are someone other people avoid.
7. Give it a shot.
Try it out. Play around with a new idea. Do something strange. If you never leave your comfort zone, you won’t grow.
8. Hop off the bandwagon.
If everyone else is doing it, you’re already late to the party. Do your own thing, and others will hop onto the spiffy wagon you built yourself. Besides, it’s more fun to drive than it is to get pulled around.
9. Grow a pair.
Bravery is needed to have contrary opinions and to take unexpected paths. If you’re not courageous, you’re going to be hanging around the water cooler, talking about the guy who actually is.
10. Ignore the scolds.
Boring is safe, and you will be told to behave yourself. The scolds could have, would have, should have. But they didn’t. And they resent you for your adventures.
It’s that time of year again, when allergies and Hackathons run rampant. This weekend Mike and I had the privilege of judging another hackathon, this time at Rutgers University, our Alma mater. Unlike the Hack Princeton hackathon we judged, the HackRU event lasted only 24 hours and included project submissions from 18 groups.
The hackathon started with API presentations from a number tech companies which allowed students to interact with the company representatives. Mike and I were thrilled to see such a diverse group of hackers with different ideas and a range of skill sets. You could definitely feel the air charged with creative electricity.
While a hackathon can be a great place to network and meet people from different areas and backgrounds we noticed that they also serve as a great opportunity to learn from one another. Sharing information about different platforms or software was a huge part of this weekend’s event and many of the participants, sponsors, and organizers knew a great deal about a number of different technologies.
Some of our greatest achievements at Local Wisdom are the apps we’ve created. Nothing feels better than seeing a final product that you’ve worked so hard to create come to life. Hackathons offer this same feeling because you not only develop the concept for your application, but you build it and present it. This puts your coding skills to the test and also encourages you to think outside the box both in the application’s creation and presentation. This type of thinking can only help in the future.
We were thrilled with the projects that the teams created. They ranged from a web app that helps a person learn a the definition of words to a mobile app that uses information from Nextbus and Google Maps to calculate whether the user will make it to class on time. The concepts for this hackathon were not only unique, but well thought-out and quite intuitive.
In the end, the project Get Mad Hipster Points Yo, an app that uses the accelerometers in smartphones as controllers over wifi to simulate a table tennis-like game, came in first place. Stereo Laser, used two Arduino boards to control laser light shows for left and right channel audio input and took second. Following closely in third place was FriendTrend that allows users to see what’s trending with only the people they follow rather than everyone on Twitter. See the full list of the projects we judged here.
Overall, we had a fantastic time and got to meet some awesome people. We can’t wait for the next one!
Home Depot is down for upgrades, check out their page, Awesome :
Found this on yahoo news. With the use of a Microsoft Kinect, some Grad students figured out how to project onto any surface and make that surface an input device, pretty impressive:
Thunder Cats is back baby! Found Thundercats as a trending topic off yahoo and it looks like it’s back on Cartoon Network. It’s look pretty good from what I’m seeing in this trailer:
Original article here: http://www.inquisitr.com/130291/thundercats-remake-cartoon-network/
It’s really no secret that I’m pretty obsessed with anything wedding related. (Ask my lovely co-workers who had a pool going as to when I would get an engaged.) Some call me a project manager of life, I just think I’m prepared at all times. I am equally pumped because I’ve finally found a way to tie my obsession with weddings into a blog post for LW. Here we go…
As I browse wedding websites collecting ideas and planning my upcoming nuptials, I have to give major kudos to TheKnot.com. The faceted search available on their website is second-to-none. In development speak, faceted search is simply “the ability for users to build their queries as they go, refining or expanding the current query, with results automatically reflecting the current query. ” In my world it’s “the ability for Tracy to run a search on wedding gowns from style (A-line, Mermaid, Fit-and-Flare) to price to gown length, with the search results showing me different dresses as I select and de-select these categories.” With so many wedding gown options, the faceted search is my new best friend! If your website contains a lot of information that can be separated into categories, I highly recommend installing a faceted search. Drupal, a favorite CMS tool of mine, offers an excellent module for installing such a search.
I did, in fact, say “Yes to the Dress” already…In case you’re wondering what I’ll be wearing on October 6, 2012, maybe you should try using the faceted search on TheKnot.com!
Shawn Organizing the Engagement Pool
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