Tech

Feb 23, 2010
Blog, Tech, Workshop

Finding Value in a Non-Monetary Economy

In October of 2009 we released a customizable Tumblr theme entitled M82. My intentions at the time were motivated by a desire to learn the Tumblr theme engine, polish my CSS skills, and rework the look of my personal blog. The theme was one of the first to integrate the then-new Appearance option tags, allowing for customizable fonts and images, as well as Twitter, Streampad, Disqus and Google Analytics integration directly from the Tumblr Dashboard.

M82 has been available in the Tumblr Theme Garden for about five months, and during that time the theme has organically grown an installation base of 5,150 users (and counting), including some popular sites with a significant number of followers. What I did not realize five months ago, was the important lesson I would learn regarding the value of social capital. [Continue...]

Jan 26, 2010
Tech, Workshop

M82 Themed “Letterheady” Featured on Tumblr Tuesday

Every Tuesday Tumblr selects a handful of blogs from their 3,123,301 (and counting) users to highlight, and today Letterheady led the pack. Aside from being an inspirational resource to corporate identity designers, Letterheady is using the M82 Tumblr Theme we designed. Sweet!

You can see the theme in action on the M82 demo page, or if you’re already Tumbling, you can one-click install it directly from the Tumblr theme garden.

Dec 14, 2009
Media, Tech, Workshop

The Real-Time Web & Tweeting Objects

The theme of the recent Le Web conference in Paris was “Real-Time Web”, and given the multitude of “live” distribution channels emerging across the Internet, this is definitely a hot topic. LeWeb founder Loic Le Meur’s current endeavor Seesmic seeks to enhance user experiences within the real-time web via online and mobile applications.

The real-time web is indeed an exciting new online ecosystem, and thousands of entrepreneurs are scrambling to lay claim to a piece of the pie. What a surprise to find a mention of Buoy Alarm amongst the real-time chatter! With so many other robust applications attempting to tackle much larger issues, such as real-time search, it’s neat to see our humble little idea pop up in the discussion.

Follow Buoy Alarm on Twitter, or my personal favorites Buoy 51001 and Buoy 51201, for real-time swell information.

Nov 10, 2009
Tech

Street View

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Will nothing be a mystery? Speaking of mystery, spot the ASWS mystery mobile, it’ll have good parking forever.

Oct 6, 2009
Airspace Workshop, Design, Interactive, Tech, Workshop

M82 – A Customizable Tumblr Theme

Took a bit of time this past weekend to polish up my CSS/XHTML skills by creating a customizable Tumblr theme, M82. The theme was accepted earlier this morning into the Tumblr Theme Garden, and I’ve been impressed with the current response, considering it’s only been a little over 12 hours and already over 100 users have already installed it.

For more details regarding the theme, it’s features, and how to customizing, please view the M82 Theme Demo, especially this post regarding its feature set.

Sep 24, 2009
Photography, Tech

Photography in 2019

esper

In the movie Bladerunner, Detective Rick Deckard uses a machine to analyze a photo at extreme depths, reviewing parts of the image not present to the eye. I’ve always wondered how this machine could know what was in the room beyond what the lens could see. Nothing has really reached that level of intelligence in photography until now. Earlier this year, Microsoft demoed their Photosynth software which allowed thousands of independent images taken of a subject (Obama’s Inauguration) to be stitched together to create a master image which is navigable in almost all three planes (up, down, forward & back). Two similar projects lead me to believe that I’ll be able to play drunk-robot-detective in no time flat. We’ll look back at hires images like they’re Polaroids, black & white TV or AM radio. Can’t wait!

Standford’s open-source camera

Sony’s crazy image embedding technology

You will dictate all your actions in the future.

Aug 5, 2009
Book, Event, Tech, Workshop

Wanna Join A Book Club?

I’ve been reading a number of excellent books recently on crowdsourcing, new marketing trends, and the value of brands in the digital age. I’ve begun to actively read, underlining passages for reference, noting sources for future reading, and blabbing on about my findings to anyone who will listen. I’ve realized that the blabbing part is perhaps the most valuable, since it forces me to summarize and defend my findings, which inherently strengthens my understanding of them. So why not find some other interested parties, and we can get together and blab all at once?

This is an open invitation to anyone who is interested. I’m setting a date and time of Thursday, September 17th, 6:00 p.m. at our office in Kaimuki. The book is Chris Anderson’s Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Here’s how it’s done: (1) Read the book. (2) Show up on the 17th and we’ll talk about it. (3) Leave with a renewed appreciation for your ability to read.

If you’re so inclined, you can RSVP by posting a comment to this post, otherwise just show up. I figure two things may happen. Either (A) we’ll run out of chairs and it will be quite embarrassing or (B) I’ll be blabbing to myself.

Apr 27, 2009
Art, Tech, Travel

Dynamic 3-D Light Cube

This 3-D art piece was near the Sahara tent at Coachella. The individual lights looked like ping-pong balls, but they were individually controlled and each could fluidly change color independently. The entire thing was computer driven, and would produce unique displays across the array. To sum it up, the thing was bad ass. Even more bad ass for the twenty-something glow-stick crowd.

Jan 20, 2009
Art, Design, Tech, Video

Forever

Forever is a videowall installation created by Universal Everything currently at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Forever also has an accompanying online component that generates an endless series of video podcasts. On display until February 1st, 2009 at which point the installation will tour additional venues worldwide.

Jan 14, 2009
Sports, Tech, Workshop

On Its Way…

The largest Northwest swell of the season is starting to hit buoy 51001. Figure the swell will be here by noon or so. Live buoy updates for buoy 51001 are available at buoyalarm.com.

** January 15th Update **

Buoy 51001 - January 15, 2009

Last night I watched a report on KITV entitled Big Surf Threatens Oahu’s North Shore, which used “Team Coverage” to hype up the swell and promote Haleiwa’s small business revenue.

Aside from learning the swell, surprise surprise, did not reach the predicted 35 feet, I also discovered what Bryan Cheplic looks like. I see his name all the time but never made the connection… the last time I saw that dude was in a Half-Point barrel. We all grow up someday I suppose.

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