Book N Tech

Saturday, August 3, 2013

The Future of Homes

     I have thought about this and you probably have too if you are in to movies like Iron Man or Star Trek. It makes you think about what homes and buildings will be like in the future. I've watched all the videos of Microsoft's insane, futuristic technology inside of homes and buildings. A big inspiration coming from Kinect, where virtual touchscreens and many other things are now possible. Illumiroom, Light Space, and all that cool Microsoft stuff are all pretty interesting and also thanks to Microsoft Research (MSR).
     PFSK is doing there part in the future of homes. Here is a cool one, an interactive mirror. I don't think it is that helpful for the ladies but this mirror can display a lot more important stuff than your looks!

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Windows 8.1 native 3D Printing

     You know, it wasn't too long ago when I thought that 3D printing was stupid or uncool. Now a days, I am hearing more and more people talking about it. I always thought it as an "unnecessary thing " or "something you can borrow at school" or something. Good grief, it is becoming more of a reality and in more homes than I ever thought.
     In class at school once, we watched a company called Z Corp use powder to make any kind of plastic shape you could think of. They even made a bike! Those machines they made used lasers and designed it in the powder, then once It was done, you reach your hand in the powder and that object is just there! So I guess we'll just make our design and print it, I don't know. Crazy stuff. What will we design our design with? Autodesk Inventor?
     Microsoft's On The Whiteboard shows you more about this stuff. So, I guess one of these days, I'll print off a sandwich.


Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Good Design

Clean
Simple
Modern
Fast
Content First
Unique
    
     I know I am a UI/UX design freak but that's ok. When the average person thinks about design or UI, they tend to want shiny or chromic crap. That is why when Microsoft presented to the world MDL (Microsoft Design Language), there were mixed reactions. For me the reaction was, "Genius, making it look good without all the décor and it's simple!".
     As you can see, many websites are now adopting the design. It is a new era for a lot of things but especially in technology. I hope you too will see the beauty of the new design language!
     Remember, add a comment if you are interested in this kind of stuff. Here is the source code of the above if you would like a sample of the design -
<body>
<style>
.fontfamily {
font-family: Segoe UI Light, Calibri Light, Calibri;
}
.colorwhite {
color: white;
}
.fs32px {
font-size: 32px;
}
.lineheight {
line-height: 90px;
}
.centertext {
text-align: center;
}
.greendiv {
background-color: limegreen;
}
.bluediv {
background-color: dodgerblue;
}
.purplediv {
background-color: #68217a;
}
.inlineblock {
display: inline-block;
}
.margintop10px {
margin-top: 10px;
}
.marginright10px {
margin-right: 10px;
}
.hundredsquare {
height: 100px;
width: 100px;
}
.twohundredrectangle {
height: 100px;
width: 210px;
}
</style>
<div class="fs32px fontfamily">
<div class="greendiv lineheight hundredsquare colorwhite inlineblock centertext">Clean</div>
<div class="purplediv lineheight hundredsquare colorwhite inlineblock centertext">Simple</div>
<div class="bluediv lineheight twohundredrectangle colorwhite inlineblock centertext">Modern</div>
<div></div>
<div class="bluediv lineheight hundredsquare colorwhite centertext inlineblock margintop10px">Fast</div>
<div class="greendiv lineheight twohundredrectangle colorwhite centertext inlineblock">Content First</div>
<div class="purplediv lineheight hundredsquare colorwhite centertext inlineblock">Unique</div>
</div>
</body>

Monday, July 29, 2013

NSA


Have you ever felt that you were being watched while your working, playing, etc on the internet?  Well the NSA is a United States government agency that has the capability to get into anyone’s computer, cell phone, or any device in the world. The NSA was recently shown by leaker/whistleblower Edward Snowden to have all of your metadata from phone calls. The NSA is essentially a big brother agency something like the Iluminati. Do your research, google/bing it, etc. 

Street Eats: App review

Overview
      Food trucks have become a phenomenon in many major cities like NYC, Austin, and Los Angeles. The average Food truck owner has a well-equipped social media “weapon” that lets everyone know where they are, how long they’ll be there, and other things. The food truck has been a foodies dream a restaurant on wheels featuring cheap food and drinks. The Street Eats app has decided to tackle the issue of finding a food truck by making a searchable index of the major cities with a featured truck section and an ability to add trucks.
Functionality
    The app has a straightforward layout with everything in hands reach. The app does have a cookie cutter template look, design, but it has all of the major features for an app of this caliber. The one thing I didn’t like was that it only showed food trucks of major cities. The closest city populated by food trucks is Greenville boasting two: Asada and Neue Southern. I did click the add food trucks button but so far no response. The app has some other cool features like a start up horn blast (truck horn) which gives it some flair. Overall functionality is nice if you live in a big city.
Design
       The app does have a Metro design that appears clutters but provides a lot of content first. The app design isn’t bad and isn’t a standout making it so so.
Rating

3/5 The limited amount of cities and lackluster design doesn’t cater to the entire potential market that the Street Eats team could have but the feature set it does have make it a good app nothing worthy of an Editor Choice award but nothing that deserves a stay away sign. Considering it is about the only Modern app that relates to food trucks if you do live in one of the cities by all means get it. 

Sunday, July 28, 2013

The Weight of Reason: Review

Overview
      The Weight of reason is a short story/novella written by MG. Mason featuring a detective cyborg in a futuristic London filled with criminals and hard times. Apparently crime is rampant in Skara Brae Oceanic so Private Detective Trant a cyborg (half human half robot) is called to the scene of a crime where a person was nearly beheaded. The crime is followed by several other “otters” or people who are enhanced to work underwater who speak of a type of climate change.

Review
      The book has wonderful scenes vividly depicting a single Private Detective trying to get by and rather well in a place otherwise riddled with crime and illegal selling of goods. It shows how corporation after corporation try to fix the poverty that befell London with only the opposite effects. The read was quick (took me about 20 minutes) and formatting was good to excellent. My only quirks of the novella was the undertones that all corporations are big and evil. It did show a very accurate description of the average “commoner” inhabiting London.

Rating

4.5/5 Despite the liberal undertones I fairly enjoyed the sci-fi crime plot that read smooth and wasn’t “cookie cutter.” Well done Mr. MG. Mason.
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