February 2010

People aren’t looking for convenience; they’re looking for significance.

Creating Pandora

A fascinating view into the cameras and technology used in Avatar. The new technology included a virtual camera that lets you physically shoot a virtual scene, augmented reality that overlays live footage with CGI backgrounds, face-scanning cameras, and a combination 2D/3D camera. Another innovation was adding imperfections (camera movements, lens flares) to make a “perfect”…more

When the present trumps the future

Professional futurist Adam Gordon has a good post up exploring similar issues to my future/mindfulness post the other day, but focused on how the Haiti crisis focuses us on the present, while making us wish we had anticipated this kind of future ahead of time: In a foresight community we are, I think, rightly vociferous…more

My sabbatical is going slightly better than this

But with many similarities. “I actually would’ve gotten a lot of stuff done Friday if the whole universe hadn’t been against me,” Olson said. “I took my car in to get my tires rotated, but the guy said he couldn’t get to it until the following Tuesday, so I was like, ‘Screw that.’ I also…more

Get a life Bob

Was it the Wendell Berry quote? Image by Matt Davies

The REAL design process

Michael Beirut, partner at Pentagram, describes his *real* design process: “When I do a design project, I begin by listening carefully to you as you talk about your problem and read whatever background material I can find that relates to the issues you face. If you’re lucky, I have also accidentally acquired some firsthand experience…more