Digital Tools

I don't know how you feel about getting up in the morning. Still this is one of the biggest problems for many people and countless solutions to that problem has manifested in creative product designs. We see the evolution from the bucket of water to robots, replaying your dreams, that technology is also moving along on that path.

It even looks good!

Alice Wang made a great concept, that combines technology with social factors in a very unique and innovative way. This alarm clock begins to call people from your mobile phone, if you don't manage to wake up. It puts peer pressure on you - if you don't like that noise in the morning, be sure that you will get into problems on that day, just because your friends once again got that call from your alarm clock. This concept also works, if you oversleep rarely. Your co-workers are alarmed and they can call you up, until everything is fine. Well, isn't this a Web 2.0 community then?

via Neuerdings

On a website of Max Pfisterer, a designer from lovely Stuttgart, I discovered this really, really beautiful pixel-icons. Made in 16x16. Since I love 16x16 so much I directly sensed, that this work of pixelart is far away from the world of icons we are facing every day on our computers, or that cute, cute, cute things we see on computing games.

The design of the pixels here called "Störk Tronic" is so rough and somehow special. Evidently it came from a source, that even designers are not concerned with on a daily basis. Almost instantly I wrote Max a mail. He told me, that this work was made for a customer. The icons are used for a "refrigerated display case" (Kühltheke). He said, and I can imagine, that it was not an easy task to design 256 pixels with one color each (ok, some are animated) to show things like "Messerabstreifer" or "Tropfschalenheizung". Just look on the icons and take the trip into exotica. Thank you so much!

I discovered the site from Max via the Glam Slam netlabel. He did the corporate design and some artworks for this netlabel. Maybe I should also join with my designing skills?

Ok, there is hardware and then there is software. Still lovely hardware has so much charm, that we like to spend hours and hours with that gadgetry. Much more irrational is to spend days, maybe weeks, in tweaking hardware together that normally would never meet in this universe. It then reads software for the other device, that normally would never find its way to the datadisk on that very device. To make things short: Some French people build a floppydrive ready connectable to a GameBoy Color.

With that floppy drive you can read files just right into the gameboy from 3,5" disks. At the moment it can't directly read and boot ROM-files, but they posted a possible way to do so. And maybe we will have that update one day. ROM-files normally require hardware-modules gameboy ready or emulator software. This here is the other way round.

There are lots of ways to play gameboy stuff completely emulated and software driven, meanwhile on almost any device with a screen and some keys. But this here made easy things complicated and then easy again in a very charming way. Sometimes I just love the homebrewers.

via boingboing

This time the roundup is a little but too late, but nevertheless it's there! I spent lots of time working for customers and also the European Soccer Championship is pulling at my nerves. There are also ongoing Netlabel activities here in Cologne, thanks to the initiative mo. from Phlow.net / Phlow Magazine. So here we go:

1.

The biggest highlight this month clearly was the Firefox 3 World Record attempt. Millions of people downloaded the browser and the servers were only the first two or three hours unavailable. At least there were over 8 million downloads and Europe, especially Germany seems to have many Firefox-fans on board. Here we had 1.1 million downloads, which comes second place right after the USA with 3.9 million. Right at the moment the people of Guinness review the World Record attempt.

2.

Over at the Independent Gaming Source Derek Yu made a report with many interesting links on game engines made with Microsoft Excel Sheets. This is really freaky stuff. Did you already know, that Microsoft developers itself did hide a secret proto-game in the 95-edition of Excel?

"Excel-native cell graphics"

Update: Lars from Gulli pointed me the link to this demo "Excellence", made in Excel. Thanks! (Video here).

3.

Just some minutes ago I discovered this brilliant video of an upcoming German artists Alexander Marcus. The video is really, really good. Low cost, but highly effective. If you don't speak German: He is singing about the land "Papaya", where everyone is happy. You know that story...

4.

Let's stay on that topic... Look at this beautiful screen- and user-interface design of this absolutely classic movie Dark Star! One of the best movies ever made.

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The Korg DS-10 slowly makes it steps into public. With that piece of software two of my very favorite hard- and software manufactures unite in one device. Some DS-10s will have a special concert tonight in London, according to Create Digital Music. I really can't wait to get my hands on this musictool, but the official release will be not until later this year. The only chance now is to enjoy great demonstration videos like this:

Natural evolution of something the Gameboyzz Orchestra.

Alva Noto - Unitxt

One of the most interesting labels for electronic music was and may ever will be Raster Noton. They started out as an "Archiv für Ton und Nicht-Ton" (Archive for sound and non-sound) and they still push sound-boundaries with their approach to merge sound, aesthetics and science. They really have good music on, plus in our so beloved digital age, they still make releases with a higher tangible quality. Funny, that from the beginning of Raster Noton digital aesthetics played a central role.

One of the most remarkable artists on this label is Alva Noto, with his very minimal, fragile and rhythmic soundwonders. You may know Alva Noto also under the name Carsten Nicolai and he is one of the people behind this label.

Byetone - Death of a Typographer

The freshest music released today is an intense atmospheric electronic trip. Feel free to listen to "Byetone - Death of a Typographer" at the Raster Noton site. Unfortunately you have to click you thought the website a little bit to get to the musicplayer.

The label will have a booth at the Sonar-festival this year, where they promote their recent showcase, as well as the labels archive. And since Raster Noton was always famous for their mindbending and clear visual and acoustic approach, don't forget to give them a visit if you meet the festival in Barcelona this year. The Sonar will be from 19.-21. June 2008.