I first heard about Bloom from some co-workers when we were exchanging App ideas. I heard Brian Eno was involved with it and became very interested. I like some of his early work, especially Ambient 1: Music for Airports.

The program doesn't take any musical talent to play (although it might help some). You just pluck the screen where-ever and whenever and hear some ambient tones. The tones are almost like wind chimes, not quite piano, rather synth-y. There's an ever-present underlying Eno-esque score of light synth playing which is nice. The notes evolve over time if you leave them alone.

At $4 it's not going to break the bank but it might be on the pricey end of the scale for what it does. Overall I'm pleased I have it and play it every once in a while to zone out.

Link to iTunes Music Store, $3.99

This site is great because it two RSS/Twitter feeds that you can follow. One to alert you when there are new apps in the App Store (read: possibly free or low cost to drum up interest). The other alerts when an existing app drops the price on sale (“This weekend only!” ploy). Why “148Apps”? That's the maximum number of apps you can store at the moment on the device.

Link to new apps. | Link to price dops.

Meet the Danger Shield. It was created by Zach Smith and demoed first at NYC Resistor.

What is it for? Whatever you want to do with it!

No, but seriously, it's a shield (meaning it fits on top of the Arduino, connecting to every pin) and provides a multitude of input and output options for writing code against. The biggest portion are the three slide potentiometers with built in LEDs in them. They are handy for relaying analog data back to the Arduino which can then be sent to the computer for further processing (say, Ableton live for performing music live or to a MIDI device).
See Zach tell you for himself.

Link to MakerSHED, $44.95 unassembled

This picture of a MINI and a Tahoe (on it's side!) are just amazing. The physics of the accident seem to have been in the MINI's favor, but still. I enjoy the first comment, “Is this some kind of metaphor for the domestic auto industry?” After the not-so-big three's performance in front of Congress, maybe it is.

Link.

Yikes, last post was in August. Didn't think anyone still was reading (is this thing on?) but apparently you are. I'll try to dig up some more stuff and post it here.

I've been waiting for this one a long time. Now you can view PDF documents inside the Firefox 3 window. The old solution, Schubert's PDF plugin, works with PowerPC machines only.

Link.

Take a look at this picture of a post-accident MINI Cooper. The car ended up on it's roof after unknown circumstances. Apparently all occupants walked away. Who says that small can't be safe too?

Link via Motoring File.
More pictures via Vancover MINI Cooper Club message board.

Here's a link to a great PDF document from a Purdue University professor. It details how to connect certain sensors such as different switches, serial communication and analog sensors to an Arduino board. Highly informative reading.

PDF Link.

I don't know why, but this video cracks me up on a consistent basis so I thought I'd share it. I love the song, and Rex The Dog's style (check out the remix he did of Depeche Mode's Photographic). Maybe you'll get it too.

Link.

I found this last night while searching for the hilarious outtakes of Colonel Sanders recording a commercial. I remember it as originally just an audio recording but someone added a slideshow to it and this picture was in it. Since Crawford was a Pepsi mouthpiece, maybe this is when KFC becomes part of Pepsico?

Whats up with the hat? Reminds me of the flight attendants from 2001: A Space Odyssey.