Designed By Logic

Jazz FC @ Singapore National Stadium

2010-03-31T12:04:00.001-07:00

dikb, originally uploaded by linyou.

We finally played at SIngapore's National Stadium. This is our first and probably will be our last time playing in this stadium. Even so, we find it hard to attract any spectators down to support us lol.

Content Aware Fill : Amazing Photoshop features to be available soon!

2010-03-24T22:02:00.000-07:00

People who use photoshop will find this so so useful! Obviously there will be all the old schoolers photographers who will be disgusted by what this will lead to. Well i think in the end it's still your sense of aesthetic and creativity that counts. So they shouldn't be too worried about it.

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

2010-03-24T19:47:00.001-07:00

Playing Game to save the world

2010-03-19T03:02:00.000-07:00

Go IFTF for more info.

Bell by Industrial Facility

2010-03-19T01:07:00.000-07:00

I really like this Bell alarm clock by Industrial Facility. I am a fan of what people call minimalist design, however it's not the styling but the thinking behind it that interest me. The way we can minimize unnecessary materials, components and styling that result in better communication and function. That to me is the right way to design something.

Still do not understand why is it call Bell? Take a look below and you will immediately understand. (click on image for larger view)

Now do you get it? Isn't it interesting? Other then taking on the profile of outline of a bell, it actually holds another sort of bell at it's back, the alarm bell. Even the choice of colour is aptly chosen (by the way this is fire bell red, the other 2 colours are bicycle bell chrome and door bell black). Immediately you know this alarm clock will be pretty loud. By choosing to expose the bell, we get better (louder) alarm, yet there is no need for an additional cover just to cover it up. All i can say is that it is really a nice and smart idea. Looking at the clock face, you can notice that the numbers aren't immediately noticeable. This obviously is intended so as to minimize distractions. As we do not usually need precise knowledge of time, doing so allows quick and easy time telling. Various thickness of the hands allows differentiation and also reflect on the "value" (thicker hand = bigger value) of the figure it is pointing to.

However it always is disappointing how these designs always end up way more expensive when it is supposed to use less. This clock is selling for around 50 euros.

Head on to Industrial Facility's site to find out more.

Fujifilm HS10

2010-03-18T22:04:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of useless gimmicky features now in the new cameras out there today as various companies try to out do one another in gaining market shares. However in this case, i really think the function of removing moving subjects is really cool! Taking a step back, if you are taking pictures of a popular destination, i think you will expect the others to be staying put, trying to take their own pictures as well.

Still a really nice idea if you want to take photos of yourself without people moving behind you!

VIV Mag Featurette: A Digital Magazine Motion Cover and Feature for the iPad

2010-03-18T00:50:00.000-07:00

VIV Mag Featurette: A Digital Magazine Motion Cover and Feature for the iPad from Alexx Henry on Vimeo.

Many people do not understand what iPad or even Apple is about. This is what it is about! Empowering people to do great things! Some narrow minded companies will just set out to develop their own contents so they keep all the profits, they do not understand that by allowing everyone to have a slice of the cake, your cake will end up bigger than if you try to stomach it all on your own.

Sony 360°

2010-03-17T23:26:00.000-07:00

Ha isn't it a bit ironic that's it's called Sony 360? Anyway i think this product is really interesting, I'm still trying to figure out how they actually managed to do it. How did the display stay flat regardless of where you were to view it?

Embrace Life

2010-03-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

Pretty nice advert. Somehow this actor and videography remind me of Dr House.

OBJECTIFIED

2010-03-05T22:17:00.001-08:00

Daniel Kahneman: The riddle of experience vs. memory

2010-03-02T00:40:00.001-08:00

Paradoxymoron

2010-03-01T23:38:00.001-08:00

Paradoxymoron, originally uploaded by mariachi2006.

Cool "painting"

Bloom Energy

2010-02-26T00:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we witness the unveiling of an eco-friendly fuel cell. It's a product that got a lot of people excited as it generates electricity with only by products like water, heat and some carbon dioxide. To be exact, they operate using Solid Oxide Fuel Cell.

A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is an electrochemical conversion device that produces electricity directly from oxidizing a fuel. Fuel cells are characterized by their electrolyte material and, as the name implies, the SOFC has a solid oxide, or ceramic, electrolyte. Advantages of this class of fuel cells include high efficiencies, long term stability, fuel flexibility, low emissions, and cost. The largest disadvantage is the high operating temperature which results in longer start up times and mechanical/chemical compatibility issues.

Via Wiki

Watch out for this company, they have already been providing these energy servers to big companies like google, ebay etc. Visit their website for more informations.

Apple

2010-02-03T21:53:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about blogging about Apple for a long long time, the bashing of Apple's product by supposedly "smart" people constantly fuel my intention to talk about what i think apple is about. By the way, I do not think i'm smart, i'm just wondering how those people got there (associated with intelligent) in the first place.

To be continued . . .

The Third & The Seventh

2010-01-24T22:19:00.000-08:00

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

If what's going through your mind now is "wow amazing photography/videography!", you better think again! Take a look at the video below and you shall be enlightened.

Compositing Breakdown (T&S) from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Coconut carrying Octopus!

2009-12-11T18:36:00.000-08:00

Improvisation at it's best! But if you think a little further, this is happening because they do not have any more coral reefs and sea plants to hide under anymore. Another interesting thing to note is that the use of coconut actually screws up their camouflaging ability i think. They should be blending with the sand, not the coconut. Blending with the coconut makes them so much more obvious to enemies.

Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice

2009-12-08T23:43:00.000-08:00

I posted this as a juxtapose to the previous one by MalcolmGladwell. Is more choice always good? I'm a strong believer that it's not. You really only need a few or 1 good one (food like i said can be exempted from this statement). However people around the world probably saw what happened to the food industry and copied it to apply to their own industry. This resulted in the explosion of choices we have today. Most of which are rubbish.

Malcolm Gladwell: What we can learn from spaghetti sauce

2009-12-08T22:55:00.000-08:00

If you have been following this blog, you would have known that Malcolm Gladwell is an author that i really like. He's the author of "The Tipping Point","Blink" and "Outlier". Once again in this TED talk, he talked about interesting findings of some researcher around.

In the talk, he made a point about the food industry trying to find one single solution to fit everyone in. That point caught my attention as i remembered in one of my research done in my University days where I looked at advertisements in various countries and their implications. I noted that globalization has in fact resulted in the possibility of creating a product for everyone. This is especially true for gadgets etc, however the only thing that is not affected by globalization is the area of food. They are still very much dominated by cultural influence.

BooneOakley's advert

2009-12-07T22:13:00.000-08:00

Love the way they actually considered YouTube's environment into this work!

Objectified - Interview with Jonathan Ive

2009-11-30T17:58:00.001-08:00

Icsid World Design Congress 2009

2009-11-23T08:54:00.000-08:00

I've just came back from Icsid World Design Congress 2009. It is the first of 3 days of this congress and i must say there are some pretty good discussions going about among the studio leaders. Bruce Nussbaum of businessweek and Singapore Minister of Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam got the day started with some really good discussions. Both of them obviously really know their stuffs. I've always appreciated people who speaks because he does have a point rather than someone who does that for a statement or just to grab some attention. Unfortunately congress like this often is a magnet for attention seekers as well, as the day went on, you start getting people who will grab any chance to stand up, have the cameras on him and ask the most out of point questions ever. Somehow it's always that few people asking the same few questions.

Most of the speakers are really people with substance, however I find the rest to be too idealistic in their views. They seem to be like they have just rejoined civilization after a really long period out. I'm very sure anyone who reads the newspaper and watches TV (someone who's not out of touch with society) will be able to say, "Yeah i think we should cut down on our spending and move away from this consumption driven society." The question is then how do u propose that happening? Yes rat is a stable in some developing society, but that's because those rats are feeding on natural grains and etc. I don't think rats in cities are safe for consumption really. Even the pigeons in Singapore are known to spread disease with their droppings. Even if we get pass that fact, i do not see the human race moving pass this habit of consumption easily. The consequences are unimaginable.

To be really frank, design and the green movements are really so huge because they push sales. People spend money thus the economy thrive. If people stop consuming, companies will basically go bust, workers lose their jobs and the economy go bust. I think the key is to educate the world to cut down on unnecessary spendings. Products to reduce unnecessary parts and styling, with gimmicks totally taken out. I think we already are moving towards that, although most of the time still really superficially.

Another observation I've made on the first day, is that most designers are really pessimists. Maybe they are just jumping on the bandwagon, but most of their visions of the future are really really dark. I really hope they are bad prophets. Anyway visions of the future have always been more about the present than anything else so that really shows the confidence those designers have of today's world. Bruce Nussbaum made a comment which i totally agree as he said (after a long contemplation) that he had gone through a lot of really dark period, and it always turn out fine. Personally i think what he really wanted to say is that he do not think the earth is as bad as what the media has made of it, but obviously that's not really politically correct thus he decided to rephrase his reply. Anyway to be really frank, i'm wondering, other than the forest fires and pollutions that we're so responsible for, can anyone be sure the change in climate is really our fault? If the scientists have been right to say that the earth has gone through the ice age to the present date, hasn't the earth been constantly heating up then? Maybe the dinosaurs have been producing too much carbon dioxide then. Many scientists also agree that the earth plates have been shifting since its existence. They hypothesize that all the land are joint and the shifting of the crust resulted in our landscape today. If the land area remained about the same, while area covered by the ocean increased dramatically, isn't it to say the earth actually expanded? That alone will result in major errors to our calculations, the poles melting may simply because it is shifting or even earth trajectory have shifted. Anyway we now know that the space is actually expanding, and that by itself also results in shifting of path of the earth...

What i am trying to get across is that with so many other possibilities that we can't prove, why we are so dead on on that possibility that we are the cause? However, on the other hand, i do believe that there's no harm on cutting down on mindless expenditures.

"Barefoot" Running

2009-11-16T04:38:00.000-08:00

I've hardly been blogging for a period of time, partly because of my reservist and partly because i decided to spend my free time running rather than gaining weight LOL. With the view that Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2009 is coming up, i decided to talk about running in this post.

Having seen the title to this post, you should have already guessed that i'll be talking about "barefoot" running. Basically the idea is that researchers have discovered that people in more developed country seem to suffer more from running related injuries as compared to citizens of less well off countries. There are in fact published researches that show runners wearing "better" pairs of running shoes to suffer more from injuries associated to running compared to runners who are wearing poorly cushioned and supported shoes.

Picture taken from http://www.barefootrunner.com/barefoot-101/

The image above explains the reason behind it pretty well. Our feet have evolved to the present form for a reason. By introducing cushioned shoes to our feet, we're changing the way we run. Without padded heels support from shoes, no one in the right frame of mind would have tried to run by landing on their heels (what everyone's doing now with shoes). This action will result in a very sore heel that will inevitably lead to the runner trying other method of landing their feet. They will finally settled down to landing on their forefoot, which is "designed" to flex and cushions such impact. This change in landing method will prevent the locking of your knees and back while you run, the impact thus doesn't get transferred to them. In fact we tend to land way heavier when we are wearing shoes as we can't feel the pain and the ground with the thick cushion in between. The pain from the heel in this case is a signal to tell you that you are running the wrong way!

Running shoes are also design to prevents your feet from working too much. In the long run, your feet start losing their ability to work to their best of ability without the shoes. With less than fully developed feet, we will start getting too dependent on shoes. We then get injured easily in the absence of them.

Thus recently, I've been running with Nike Cortez Flywire shoes below.

You can see the slits on the soles that allows it to flex. To be frank, i'm not even sure if they are designed to be ran in. The arch support is almost non-existence, but as I've always been a forefoot runner, I've not have much problem running in these (My friends have always commented that i look more like bouncing than running as a result of my running style). I've since progress from running in them from 5km to about 12km per run to date and so far everything pretty ok. The only problem is that it feels too flimsy to sprint while wearing them. Thus i will wear another pair of shoes if i know i'm gonna do circuit training.

From a design viewpoint, I've always struggle between creating a product that helps and improves people's life or should we design to really benefit users without making them suffer in the long run. As a result of technologies, we become over reliant on technologies such as handphone and personal computers. I'm sure most of us can remember that we used to be able to recall telephone numbers of all our friends by heart, now how many can still claim to do that? Thus i'm a strong believer of "too much help is no help" and hopefully there are many more designers out there who share my view on this. This case also shows that conventional wisdom may not be always correct, by understanding deeper issues and how things works, we tend to get really useful insights.

12th Man

2009-11-09T19:29:00.000-08:00

LOL, now everything make sense.

Adidas Predator X Absolion 2

2009-11-07T10:54:00.001-08:00

Adidas X Absolion Floor, originally uploaded by linyou.

Adidas Predator X Absolion

2009-11-07T10:51:00.001-08:00

Adidas X Absolion B/W, originally uploaded by linyou.

My new Adidas Predator X Absolion Boots. Yes they are not the top of the range Predator X as i've already stated that it's Absolion. I do not see the need to get the top end model. Anyway these boots fit really well, feel right the moment you wear them on. Adidas has made a few changes to this new design, and they are all welcome changes in my opinion.

One of the changes is that the "Predator area (P area)" have been reduced so that the toe end area is free from it. This brings your feet closer to the ball itself, allowing players to feel the ball better. Personally I have always believe that the P area should be at the area where the ball touches just before leaving the boots, that's when the spin gets transferred to the ball. The new position of the P area does just that, so i'm really happy with it. This version of Predator X is amazingly flexible and this allows the real use of your feet to either control the ball or change direction on the field.

I've play in a match so far using this pair of boots and i must say i'm really happy with them. The ball goes where ever i'm intending to send it, i've even tried blasting from 2/5 of the field away and the ball flies right into goal. Seriously so far i'm very impress by it. The best part of this shoe is that is just feels correct, the fit is perfect! It really just wrap around your feet. However i also feel my feet gets pretty tired after a while because of the flexible sole. This could be due to the fact that i'm trying out barefoot running during my weekdays run. But generally i'm happy to have a really flexible boots.

Survival Technique of a Caterpillar

2009-11-03T02:00:00.000-08:00

Meet The Super Cow

2009-10-28T02:55:00.001-07:00

This is pretty cool!

2009-10-24T21:54:00.001-07:00

Click here to see GIF image.

Archer Fish Water Pistol - Weird Nature - BBC wildlife

2009-08-19T11:17:00.000-07:00

Nature is amazing!

Ants create a lifeboat in the Amazon jungle - BBC wildlife

2009-08-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

Wow, nature never cease to amaze me. Anyway came across this site (Ask Nature) today, which promotes learning and taking hints from nature. The believe is that we will be able to design more effecient and better products if we can do that. Pretty interesting resources can be found there, simply key in what you like to find out about how nature will do certain thing and the results will be shown. Have a look at it! I'm sure you will find a lot of interesting knowledge there.

JetLev

2009-08-05T02:36:00.000-07:00

Wow this looks pretty fun. You can see that the water is sent to the pack by an accompanying device which probably house the battery and most of the components needed for this to function. This is a very good idea as it allows freedom of movement while freeing up unnecessary weight to be carried. You get an endless supply of water because of this and not need to worry about running out of water halfway in mid air. The pipe also can act as a safety feature to prevent rider from flying too high and ending up injuring themselves. Lastly if it really runs out of battery, you will at most be landing on water (as compared to a jet pack on land). Personally i think this is a really good product base on the context it's suppose to be used in.

My only concern is the amount of disturbance it will create to the eco system, but well one can always argue that a jet ski does as much damage as well.

Click to JetLev's Site

圬木不可雕也

2009-08-04T20:32:00.000-07:00

出处《论语·公冶长》

宰予昼寝。子曰：“朽木不可雕也，粪土之墙不可污也。”

释义:这个成语也称“朽木粪土，比喻人已经败坏到不可救药的地步。

故事:孔子的弟子宰予，言辞美好，说起话来娓娓动听。起初，孔子很喜欢这个弟子，以为他一定很有出息。可是不久，宰子暴露出懒 惰的毛病。 一天，孔子给弟子讲课，发现宰予没有来听课，就派弟子去找。 一会儿，去找的弟子回来报告说，宰予在房里睡大觉。 孔子听了伤感他说： “腐烂的木头不能雕刻，粪土一样的墙壁不能粉刷。最初我听到别人的话，就相信他的行为一定与他说的一样；现在我听别人的话后，要考察一下他的行为。就从宰予起，我改变了态度。”

This is basically a famous proverb by Confucius. Upon getting disappointed by one of his favorite  student, he made the comment of ," Rotten logs aren't suitable for craving, walls that are like waste matter can't be painted". In short it's use to describe cases of hopelessness. As a continuation of my views on Alain de Botton's TED talk, personally i think if someone (who is not doing very well) do not blame themselves for their fault, if someone thinks he/she is born to behave a certain way and only chose to listen to the good things people comment about, then they are as good as hopeless.

What makes a good designer?

2009-08-04T19:00:00.000-07:00

I remember attending this talk by Dick Powell and one of the audience asked the usual question like what do you think makes a good designer. He paused for a while and hesitantly replied, "A good designer is one who can draw very well". A person's answer often tells you a lot about himself/herself, in this case i can know for sure Dick Powell is definitely someone who can draw damn well. However i'm very disappointed with that answer as he probably should just go get any comic artist out there to be designer and surprised that he actually doesn't already have an answer to this question.

Personally i think he's partly right to make that statement because a person who can draw well is usually someone who has observed the things around him/her to an certain extent. This together with their visualizing skills allow them to represent their ideas in their drawings. When you are drawing, you are really picking out features, hint, semantics and etc to communicate an idea of what you are trying to represent. Depending on your style of drawing, you almost certain to practice a form of minimizing (keeping the essence while taking away the unnecessary). Thus you are more sensitive to curves and lines etc. Some people call this intuition, and because they do not really know why they feel certain way, they also call it an art. But really, i think it is something that can be and should be understood.

To me what makes a good designer will be someone who's observant to things around them. He/she understands why people react a certain way, how trends are started, why a certain lines doesn't complement another. They can turn a sub conscious decision into a conscious effort.

Lastly to design a good product, I really think a designer needs a good rational mind and critical thinking skills. This is because when faced with factors coming from technology, environment, psychology, manufacturing etc you are almost certain to have many clashes of ideas. This is when you have to weigh what is necessary and what's not and trade them off in a well thought out manner. This is a key point that differentiate a good designer from an comic/art artist. While an artist maybe able to create beautiful object, they may not be able to be realistic enough to do something that's manufacturable and functional. They may be too drawn into their own world to realize people in the real world doesn't behave the way they imagine them to be.

The Ideal designer will probably have all these skills, however i'm sure most of you have seen sketches of famous designers (1,2) that are oh no so inspiring, but still their final products are works of "arts". So i will put good observation and critical thinking skills as the most important point a designer should set out to attain.

Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success

2009-08-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

I like what this guy talked about here. Something which I have always believe in is how the people have been influence (by movies, advertisement, news) to believe in what they want. The TED talk by Dan Ariely has shown how our decisions are easily influenced by our options. There are people who want to do well in every single thing in order to be happy. These people often end up to be really miserable.

However I know there's a paradox in this belief as well because the whole human race may stop progressing if this level of competition is gone. If everyone just accept failure as something not due to himself/herself then we may find ourselves living in a totally different (maybe worst?) world. The key i think is to be able to make a mark and say yes this is enough, not in the barely enough sense but to be comfortable enough.

EF-535SP-1AV

2009-08-03T09:38:00.001-07:00

EF-535SP-1AV, originally uploaded by linyou.

A watch i got for myself. Casio is making some pretty nice watch that's pretty affordable. This is the choice of watch of Sebastian Vettel from RedBull's F1 team. The watch is designed with a hint of old school style in it but given more youth and energy with it's angular treatment of it's band and cross hatch of it's dial. In fact you can notice they did not have 3 full rings you normally see from Chronograph watches, the designers actually tried to introduce the semantics of a car speedometer in here. The carbon fiber (a material often found in F1 car) face completes the look.

Golan Levin makes art that looks back at you

2009-08-03T00:57:00.000-07:00

Wow this guy does pretty interesting stuff.

EFE-500D-1AV

2009-08-02T08:22:00.001-07:00

EFE-500D-1AV, originally uploaded by linyou.

A watch that we bought for my friend's birthday. This watch comes with lotsa functions like international time, alarm, and Anti-Reflective Sapphire glass. This cost about 2 times the price of EF-535SP-1AV.

Design is

2009-07-29T01:21:00.000-07:00

People think that design is styling. Design is not style. It’s not about giving shape to the shell and not giving a damn about the guts. Good design is a renaissance attitude that combines technology, cognitive science, human need, and beauty to produce something that the world didn’t know it was missing. — PAOLA ANTONELLI

Yes i cannot stand people who talks about design as styling, especially when they are supposed (self proclaimed) to be a design thinker.

MV-22 Osprey

2009-07-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

Just as i was saying on the previous post, it probably will become a hybrid of plane and helicopter because of the wing span needed for clearing both rotor blades, i found MV-22 Osprey. The motor tilt in the axis perpendicular to the body rather than parallel to it, allowing it to gain speed while losing it's hovering ability. For the size and use of this, agility is not it's main concern so it's justified. However for an aggressor they may want to look at sideway tilts or better still a ball joint?

Yeah it's easier said than done. They took more than 20 years to make this happen. They probably started with an ideal vision of a free rotating rotor blade, but after a many setbacks and disasters, reached a compromise of functions and abilities. Anyway it looks really cool.

Go to here for part 1

Sky Armor

2009-07-22T23:25:00.000-07:00

What caught my eyes is the unique way the propellers are placed and positioned. By aligning them at an angle, it allows the toy to change directions without the need to tilt like normal helicopters do. This could be a very good function for real life helicopters.

However before you get too excited and go design another concept helicopter, this is not a realistic way of doing things because it results in the blade ending lower than normal. As a result it

(1) needs bigger open area to land

(2) the propellors have to stop moving before anyone can get in and out of the helicopter.

I can think of a couple more points but just these 2 points are enough to make this a stupid idea for real life applications. Obviously we can solve the problem by simply placing it taller, this results in a helicopters becoming much taller itself, resulting in

(1) more materials needed

(2) more weight

(3) increase air resistance?

Actually i've thought of a better solution by making the motors tiltable, but it meant that it probably will be more of a hybrid of a plane and helicopter as it requires clearance between the 2 blades.

Anyway this robot needed this because it is standing up and way harder to make it change direction by tilting.

Pink (Gay) Gundam

2009-07-21T21:14:00.001-07:00

The broken wrist pose completes the look.

Via Jandan

SUSHI tutorial!!!

2009-07-21T09:28:00.001-07:00

This video is for fun and laughter, please do not think it's teaching the real thing.

New Video for BMW GINA Concept car

2009-07-20T22:47:00.000-07:00

BMW Concept Car: GINA from 12FRAMES on Vimeo.

This is the kind of design that i like, one that ask questions on conventional wisdom (in this case the need for full metal housing). New possibilities arises when you find existence of these irrelevant acts.

The Hangover

2009-07-19T09:25:00.000-07:00

Watched this movie without any expectations, i didn't even know a single actor in this movie, but somehow looking at the poster of the movie, i kinda have a good feeling about it. This is sounding very weird because i have never ever decided to watch a movie just by looking at the posters.

Turn out it is a very good show! I totally enjoy watching it. Maybe it is because of the zero expectation, but i really like the way the story was being told. How it allows the viewers to experience the chaos the characters were in.

Seriously go catch it, it's worth your money! Probably knowing nothing about it will make it even more entertaining so i shall not talk about the story.

Let's go get this T Shirt!

2009-07-18T09:05:00.001-07:00

I think this is Resident Evil 4 promo T-Shirt. Ha pretty good idea!

Doride Lamp by Karim Rashid

2009-07-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

When i first saw this lamp, i'm thinking this looks like some concept done by students. Sounds a lot like some ideas my classmates came up with. Then i realised it's by Karim Rashid! I never like his stuff, because they are always stylist to a point it's not functional anymore. In other words, i find them superficial ,shallow and most importantly, for the fact that he's a stylist, i find his design ugly.

However the thing is, i actually quite like this lamp. It's supposely inspired by a leaf blowing in the wind. Although a leaf has no relation to light (ok unless you want to give some crap reason of photosynthesis etc), the form actually communicate the idea of a articulated stem. Diffuser are added in the pattern of leaf veins to complete the look while also blocking glare. Finally, yes according to him, he came up with this idea while he's still studying. No wonder it's better than the rest of his design and that explains why it seems like a student's work.

There are too many things I need to do

2009-07-14T09:01:00.001-07:00

Thus i got myself a MUJI To Do List notebook! I really like how the cover tells you about what to expect inside and how because the graphic on the exterior is embossed, it is very subtle and can only be seen when light falls on it.

Good Design is all about the Attention to Details!

2009-07-12T10:11:00.000-07:00

I'm not a fan of big revolutionary ideas. Thus most of the time i do not really see the value in coming up with concepts that can't be made. When you try to change the world, the world has to change and that is a big problem.

Very often i see people coming up with a new (sometimes better) way of doing things, it may cost the same as it's competitors, but it has a big problem, everything else needs to change. People gotta reinvest in infrastructures, send people for training and throw away their old equipments that cost a fortune.

What happened is nothing will happen. Unless it's benefits are really significant. This is why certain things just never change, like how you hope self assembling PC can be much easier, why electric plugs still looks the same after so many years.

I prefer design that pays attention to details, small little things that people do not think matter. These small little things often create irritation for the user in the long run. One example is this medicine bottle designed by Deborah Adler. A medicine bottle with a label that's easy to read. Small idea big benefits. (I can totally imagine some guy proposing using some OLED sorta display for something like this and fitted with solar panels so it's earth friendly and finally the hospital will have a system to update all the display through wireless technology). In this case, it's the execution, the attention to details that's key to its success. Good execution is the key to any success. So please do not dream about big ideas only, pay more attention to the detailings of the design.

moving

2009-07-06T09:00:00.001-07:00

moving, originally uploaded by linyou.

Is the world moving or me on the escalator? I sure hope i'm the one moving, but it looks like the world is.

crossroad

2009-07-06T08:59:00.001-07:00

crossroad, originally uploaded by linyou.

2 paths that's lit with opportunities. One straight forward and leads you straight out of the building, but you can only admire the sky from ground level. The other is tougher and full of unknowns but promises more, you will get closer to the sky if only you can find the route to the roof. Which to take?

I took the stairs, and am starting to wonder if there's a sky.

Chimpanzees learn from video demo

2009-07-03T00:16:00.000-07:00

Just saw this post on BBC News, that talks about Chimps building their own tools after watching video demostrations. The Chimps were broken up into several groups and shown progressively shorter video of less information. To their findings, the group of chimps who had see the full video can easily replicate what they had seen and build the tools easily, while a handful of those exposed to less information can build the tool. Then the reseachers noticed an interesting phenomenon.

"What was interesting about this group was that, when we presented them with the grape at different distances from the cage, they made the appropriate tool to reach it. Those that had been shown the full demonstration, and had socially learned to make the longer tool, continued to make it even when the grape was so close that it was more awkward to use."

"It could be that social learning is such a strong force for the chimps that they apply a blanket rule of 'go with what you've seen' (rather than work out what's most appropriate for the task)."

They are now trying to test their findings on young children and personally i think they're just going to get the same results. I think the chimps are totally demostrating what human beings will do if they are exposed to the same thing. We quickly accept and settle on a single solution that was taught by others, usually without questioning why was it done in that way. We are usually lazy to think so we will just follow what has proven to be useful. Very often when i questioned why certain friends did something, they will answer ,"I never think so much la". This answer never fails to irritate me. The group of chimps that built their own tools have thought through the process and understand what needs to be done and why, thus able to come up with the more efficient method.

In fact there were some research done that asked participants to draw what they were shown on the screen. They will be shown pictures of a real kitten and the outcome of their drawings will be a caricature of a kitten, simple line works that most easily represents a cat. They were then hypnotized or using some scientific method (i do not know how) to temporary clear their memories, this time round, the same participants dutifully drew out what they seen on screen, rather than some caricatures of it. This experiment shows how what we have seen and learnt affect what we will do in the future. How when we faced with different task on hand that we may end up using the same solution even when they may not match.

I often hear people commenting that if you want to design only functional things (things people really need), then you do not need to design anything because we already have everything. Well they are right and wrong, because of the reason stated above, a lot of things around us are done without much thoughts, we call those conventional wisdoms. As the world progress, people changed, technology improved but many things still remain. By spotting these, we can surely find opportunities for new products/ design that makes sense.

Henderson Wave

2009-06-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

A picture i took of Henderson Wave, located at Henderson road i think. Played with some effects. Usually I will just try all sorts of effects and settle on one that i like. The process is so random that I usually do not know how to recreate back the same effects even if i really like it.

Manchester United Jersey 09/10 (By Nike)

2009-06-27T22:13:00.001-07:00

Pictures taken from Manchester United Official Site

Frankly speaking i'm very disappointed from what i've seen from the pictures so far. Most of the jersey of the other clubs (like arsenal's Nike away kit. England's Umbro tailored jersey looks especially sweet) i've seen so far are all pretty nice, but this so far doesn't excite me. Hopefully in real it will be much better.

I'm not sure why but i always prefer jersey with elastic band on sleeves. Somehow Manchester United's jersey always doesn't come with it, leaving the sleeves flare. Maybe it's a request by people of Manchester United that Nike excludes it. Nike also always use a different fabric for Man U's jersey, often using the "air vents" to form some pattern, and they do not always turn out in a nice way. One thing about this jersey that will surely irritate me is how small the crew neck is, but the long sleeve version's detailing at the neck line looks different and on the whole the the long sleeve version looks more retro and nicer than the short sleeve one.

Yes it looks like Mexico's jersey by Nike here.

The Hawthorne Effect

2009-06-23T22:56:00.000-07:00

I am not someone who believes in all the stats and research readily, because you need to know how and why the research was being done in the first place. Poorly conducted research will only generate results that researches hoped for. Research funded by certain company normally will yield result that is of advantage to the company itself.

Now i just read about another effect that may alter research result. The Hawthorne effect.

The Hawthorne effect is a form of reactivity whereby subjects improve an aspect of their behavior being experimentally measured simply in response to the fact that they are being studied,^[1]^[2] not in response to any particular experimental manipulation.taken from wikipedia

Click on the link above to read more about this effect. Basically it noted that regardless of what changes the researchers did, they posted positive results in the experiment. Actually it is pretty straight forward, when you are being viewed, you always behave better. This is why breadtalk and other restaurants adopted an open kitchen concept and artist only do stupid things when they do not know they are being watched.

This is why good experiments conducted do not allow subjects to know what they are being tested for. Personally i feel asking subjects direct questions on scenario based questions will normally yield a different answer to what they normally do.

LX3 Leather Casing

2009-06-21T07:04:00.001-07:00

lx3casing, originally uploaded by linyou.

Just got this casing from MS Colour. A bit expensive, but feels really solid and well made. Initially i thought it's just some flimsy leather casing, but between the layers of leather and soft fabric is some rigid material (probably cardboard) that allows it to hold shape and provides added protection by spreading impact. This casing definitely completes the vintage look of LX3! Like my Fossil vintage messenger bag, this case is made to look exactly like those from olden days. The worksmanship is top notch and to my surprise, they managed to produce pretty consistent looking case. One of the things i noted in my review of Fossil bag is that they did not use the same cut of leather in all their bags, thus resulting in the bags of same model looking pretty different from one another. After going through a couple of cases in the shop, i realised they all look pretty similar. But obviously this camera case needed smaller pieces of leather and thus easier to maintain consistency.

One of the reasons I got LX3 in place of G10 is the fact that it takes up less volume (not because thinner as the maximum width of the lens is actually slightly thicker i think), so it doesn't really make sense to me in getting a rectangular hard case which will make the whole camera super bulky.

Anyway this leather casing match my vintage leather messenger bag (background) perfectly. The problem? You may now have to find another case to protect this beautiful leather case.

Samsung DJ

2009-06-17T07:07:00.001-07:00

dj, originally uploaded by linyou.

light cubes

2009-06-17T07:06:00.001-07:00

light cubes, originally uploaded by linyou.

Question

2009-06-10T19:44:00.000-07:00

This is pretty ermmmmm clever. Hahha someone should make this into a Tee. Think i got this from FFFFOUND.

Pixar's short film : Partly Cloudy

2009-06-10T19:23:00.000-07:00

(Via Fubiz)

Peltzman Effect

2009-06-09T07:44:00.000-07:00

Personally i have always wonder about how we should really be designing. Should we be making everything easier and safer? During my thesis I kept wondering should i design a product that is impact resistance and communicate it by adding bolts, exposing o-rings, chamfer edges etc or should i design such that it is impact resistance but look really precious so that people will not mishandle it. I went for the 2nd option. In my mind i know that if i make it look tough, user will inevitably offset the impact resistance features by being less cautious with it. I just found out there's actually a name for such an effect.

The Peltzman effect is the hypothesized tendency of people to react to a safety regulation by increasing other risky behavior, offsetting some or all of the benefit of the regulation. It is named after Sam Peltzman, a professor of Economics at University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

This will help explain why certain countries can survive with almost non existence traffic regulations. In fact i remember reading a book which mentioned that a certain town actually removed all it's traffic lights to deal with it's rising traffic accident rate and it worked.

I hope you recognise this behavior doesn't only applies to area of traffic or transport, but in general, the safer you feel, the more risk you are willing to take. And this will inevitably offset or over compensate the safety features provided.

Harbourfront Mrt

2009-06-08T23:49:00.001-07:00

harbourfront4, originally uploaded by linyou.

Harbourfront1

2009-06-08T23:48:00.001-07:00

Harbourfront1, originally uploaded by linyou.

Harbourfront

2009-06-08T23:47:00.001-07:00

harbourfront2, originally uploaded by linyou.

Number8

2009-06-08T23:45:00.001-07:00

Number8, originally uploaded by linyou.

Me

2009-06-08T23:42:00.001-07:00

me, originally uploaded by linyou.

Sunset

2009-06-08T23:40:00.001-07:00

sunset, originally uploaded by linyou.

Seats

2009-06-08T23:35:00.001-07:00

seats2, originally uploaded by linyou.

Taken with my new LX3. I really like how the light fall on the seats.

Terminator Salvation Movie Review

2009-06-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

There're a lot of bad reviews (basically from high expectations) around for this film, but i still decided to try my luck and have a look at it. I've said before that this is one of the must watch movie of the year and now i still think it's not that bad a movie. One thing i can't stand about (serious)movies are those with tons of loopholes in their story, this in my opinion is not one of those.

One main criticism of T4 is that the terminators looked so outdated and inferior compaired to those in T1 and T2. These critics obviously didn't spend too much time thinking. Those that traveled back are T-800 and T-1000, supposely the machines' best models. So how can they design/make models before them to be better? That is the director's restriction here. Knowing that viewers are such suckers for cool robots gadget etc, he worked around the restriction by introducing other kind of robots (such as motor terminator).

In "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles", the lastest judgement date is on April 19 2011, about 2 years from now. That is why the resistance forces are still using weapons and tools familiar to us (like usb, sony viao etc). You simply can't expect things to become so advance when you are stripped of your labs and resources. Anyway if you are wondering why the base of the terminator is so human like, skynet was built by human and so is their base.

This is really an all action war film, with the usual questions on morality with infightings etc and quotes like "human beings like to believe what they want to believe", "when people are desperate, they believe anything you throw at them" (not word for word but along these line). Well this movie was filmed when Bush was still president of America, thus explaining their choice of quotes.

What i really like is how they understood that it's been a long time since T1 and T2 made their debut, we would have forgotten most of it. The movie helped refresh our memories by having John listening to tapes made by his mom, Sarah Conner, on what John must do (basically save his dad and send him back). Take note of what was said and you will not be lost.

The Secret Life of Plants

2009-05-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

This video was obviously made pretty long ago, talks about plants having a state of consciousness, that they react to events around them. I'm sure many gardeners can attest to this claim, but i wonder how will the act of trimming plants have an effect on them. I mean the intention is good, but the plants will surely be in pain if it's cut.

This is a bit freaky if it's true. Maybe we should just wire up our plants the next time to act as a sensor sort of device. Ha.

Yamaha Desktop Audio System TSX-130

2009-05-28T06:23:00.000-07:00

I just saw this sweet looking audio system at the electronic store in Takashimaya. Didn't really get to test the sound but i think it looks really well designed and built. The generous radius and choice of colour gives it a very retro feel.The design looks really clean and buttons look well organise and unobtrusive. The top of the player is made of real wood and kept flat so user can use it as a plate for placing their keys, spectacles etc. The use of wood have always been associated with good speakers, this is because of their dampening or resonance qualities. I'm not sure if the wood does play a part in sound reproduction here as the design includes two bass reflex ports on the back that enhance bass sound dispersion, but it is a good touch as it adds class and perception of quality here. However i wonder will your keys etc on the wooden plate be affected by the vibration and starts creating buzzing sound when music are playing. That will really be a big turn off.

back view showing bass reflex ports

Anyway it's retailing for $599 and features includes iPod docking, USB port, FM radio, CD player and alarm clock.

JAZZ FC Logo

2009-05-26T08:37:00.000-07:00

I came up with this logo for my team when we decided to take part in ESPZEN sunday league. A few names were thrown around but we decided to stick to JAZZ as it mirrors the diverse make up of our squad. Improvisation is a key element of Jazz and our team definitely fits that bill as most of us had to play in a makeshift positions every week due to voids created by missing members.

The style of logo was inspired by tribal tattoo, something very popular among our age group. Dragon was chosen as our mascot for the fact that it is impregnable and armed with great offensive ability. The logo actually spells the word JAZZ. "J" make up by the wing on the left and the head, they double up as a saxophone as well, linking back to Jazz as a music form. "A" is the soccer ball while "ZZ" is created using the right wing and the tail.

Panasonic LX3 or Canon G10?

2009-05-25T18:57:00.000-07:00

That is the question i have been asking myself recently. Both have the vintage look that totally appeal to me, G10 comes with SLR like dials that makes adjustment easy, LX3 equipped with 24mm wide angle fast lens....then i saw this video.

Words Don't Mean The Same Thing To You... from Ed Araquel on Vimeo.

It's totally shot by LX3, there's a couple more of videos taken using LX3 on Vimeo. Seriously, i'm very impressed. There's comparisons made between videos of LX3 and some branded camcorder around and LX3's output looks way better than what the camcorder managed. There's no zoom or auto focus while taking video using LX3 obviously, but it's still damn impressive. Check out the HD version on Vimeo itself.

Something to think about

2009-05-22T01:11:00.000-07:00

I always have this view concerning self help books. For example, who will buy a book about power of positive thinking? The answer, people who are willing to try new things and believe in trying. In short people who are positive. So why do they need to buy the book then? On the other hand the people who really need it are too negative about it's effect to buy them.

There's some books written by successful people on how to be successful. These people are normally motivational speakers, meaning they are salesmen. They speak to make you feel good..... Who in the right frame of mind will share with strangers the secrets of being successful? Unless the secrets are some obvious facts or their real secret is to sell people the idea that they can make you successful. Actually I'm still waiting for some guy to announce to the world that he became successful because he read this book. Anyway i'm just thinking for all the successful people out there, only a few wrote books about how to be successful, and most of them happened to be in the motivational business. What happened to the rest? The real success stories?

Anyway most of you should have known about or read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". I just found a link talking about all the lies that guy talked about. It's really amazing how many businesses that book generated. I personally had a teenager approach me on the street begging me for money so he can take cab to orchard, all of this part of the workshop inspired by RDPD. I wondered why don't they sell some service instead of begging. Till today i'm still very much disgusted by what i saw that day.

Are we in control of our decisions?

2009-05-20T22:47:00.000-07:00

A very very interesting talk by Dan Ariely, author of the book "Predictably Irrational". In this video he talks about how our decisions are influence by seemingly harmless options. This points to the fact that we cannot take results from questionnaires for granted. How lousy imitations of apple's product may in fact push apple's sales. To marketing people out there, you can make use of this knowledge to push your products in the next marketing effort.

What he talks about is kind of related to a book i've read, "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz. Very interesting book by the way. It basically talks about the fact that human beings always want more choices, but when given choices they tend not to know what to do.

*A friend commented that these videos are not really about design. To me, they are about how human beings behave, how the nature is designed, things we have to know to make better judgement during designing. Anyway be open and you can get insights from everything and everywhere, regardless of your field of profession/study.

'Ida' The Missing Link

2009-05-20T18:53:00.000-07:00

A monkey-like creature called an adapid is thought to be the missing link in human evolution. The documentary presented by Sir David Attenborough is expected to be screened later this month on BBC.

[ To read more ]

Eva Solo's Waste Bin

2009-05-20T05:01:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to design a rubbish bin because i do not really like the bins i've been seeing around me. In fact I've started listing down the brief and done some sketches about 2-3 years back.

Current Designs

Most current bins focus so much on designing of the lid that they even go all out to include electronic switches etc. Adding more to a bin carrying waste. They forgot all about what happens to something that holds waste, it gets dirty! So my focus is to design a bin that's really easy to clean with minimum or no edges, hinge (hinge traps the most dirt and it's impossible to clean) and other nonsensical details. It's side profile will be like a cone shaped as it is the shape that's easiest to clean and at the same time easiest to manufacture. It'll be made of stainless steel for the fact it's easiest to care for. I'm still trying to solve the problem of designing a lid without the hinge when i saw this brilliant design.

images taken from eva solo

Access from all Directions
It is everything i could thought of and more! I did not even attempt to pursue the possibility of a "hinge" that can be operated from all directions. A round shape is basically non directional, thus we normally have to add features like graphics etc to give it a direction. So that user knows how to approach it. In this case, it's not needed as you can open it from every direction. It is logical as well as a bin should always be accessible, meaning it's best position will be somewhere which is near to everywhere (center of the room). When something is placed in the center of a room, you can expect user to operate it from all directions.

Excellent attention to Details

The rubbish bag will be held by rubber coated ring that doesn't slide down the bin as the bin is cone shaped. My guess is that the lid actually rest on the rubber coated ring rather then one the bin, this prevents the lid from making a loud bang when it's pushed to close. The ring and "hinge" are rubber coated to minimise sound created during contact between themselves and cone shaped body. The bonus of the "hinge" design is that it can be used to collect your rubbish if needed. See the video below for how this brilliant design really work.

The bins come in 3 sizes (S,M,L). The problem? You gotta pay between USD 314-560 for one of them.

Hornets from Hell

2009-05-15T22:42:00.000-07:00

This is one of the coolest documentary i have ever seen. Amazing cinematography! If the term is suitable to be used in this case ha. I caught this on TV few years back, it's way cooler in high quality. Skip to 1.34 for the action to start. Ha can the end be considered a proof of evolution?

Body Invaders

2009-05-15T22:17:00.000-07:00

One thing we can never understand is how they screwed with the brains of these hosts.

Designed By Logic Logo is out!

2009-05-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

Haha just 5-10 mins of work involved and here it is.

It looks like someone in deep thoughts, haha look at my profile picture.

The worst laugh in the World!

2009-05-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad i do not have a friend who laugh like this!

The problem with anecdotes

2009-05-13T23:13:00.000-07:00

This is something designers constantly have to deal with in our line of work. Some tend to zoom in and focus on a single observation/experience and deem that as the problem/solution. Very often we hear people commenting, "my mum/friends..... so that must be true or something must be very wrong with it." However a single observation proves nothing, an experiment that's not controlled could be influenced by lots of factors.

Lucky spot?

People who bet like to believe something about lucky spot, or lucky betting shops. Mind you, these shops do in fact end up producing frequent winning tickets. Personally i do believe there are things around that can't be explained by science and logic. However in this case, i do believe it's a case of self fulfilling prophecy. If you were to take a look at the number of people queuing up for tickets at these booths, and then look at the percentage of winning 4D or toto entries they generated. My guess is you may and will be shocked, that these lucky shops have equal or worst ratio of hits. The reason they kept generating winning entries is because of the huge amount of tickets they sell.

Long distance runner is more likely to die?

I have a friend who once made the statement above. This is because of the constant report of people collapsing during long distance run. He said, " Have you ever heard of a splinter dying while running? But so many cases of people dying after or during long distance!".

Well here's my answer, first look at the amount of people taking part in marathon, long distance running, compared to sprinting! How many are well trained individuals? Doesn't appear in newspaper doesn't mean it didn't happen. Reporters tend to look for news that people are looking out for, so obviously there's more casual long distance runner compared to all sprinters. Thus the chance of one collapsing and being reported is way higher than if they're sprinters.

Anyway I'm not disagreeing with anything, more of stating possibilities of other reasoning. So please think critically before setting your mind on a single reason.

So who's really Open Minded?

2009-05-13T02:39:00.000-07:00

Ha very interesting video about open mindedness. Well it'll be better if the maker didn't focus on supernatural event as example. That surely will make a lot of people miss the point of the whole argument.

Majority Wins, but are they correct?

2009-05-11T23:55:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure I want popular opinion on my side -- I've noticed those with the most opinions often have the fewest facts.

Bethania McKenstry

Ha i have to say i kind of agree with this quote. During one of the design workshop i attended recently, they had a voting system to decide one what are the best ideas around. The outcome are pretty predictable. Ideas that are generally deem good and cool, ideas that's been around such that people started to accept it, ideas that's all in one are chosen by the majority.

So i decided to talk to the facilitator concerning this flawed method of choosing, to which he replied, "Oh yes! I almost forgotten about it. We normally allow people to vote just for the kick of it. The real decisions will be made after we (selected members) go through all the ideas."

Yeap so getting views from the general public will do you more harm then good. Well at least this statement is correct if you care to innovate.

[Quote taken from Quotations page]

Amazing Wall Climber

2009-05-09T19:27:00.000-07:00

Wow! He sat on a single hand at one point! But actually it's really just free climbing with style.

Font Smoothing

2009-05-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

Recently i'm thinking of switching to using Safari as my internet browser because of their font smoothing function that shows fonts as they should be seen. But now i realised something. After using Window XP for so many years, i do not know they actually have this function that allows usage of this effect call "cleartype". If you not using a Safari browser, and haven't activated this effect, i suggest you go do it. It improves legibility of fonts and obviously things looks better. You do not need to stress your eyes that much as well. I've attached a screen shot of how my fonts look like now below(click on it for a larger view).

Big improvement! However still not as good as what a Safari can do (see below).

Anyway to activate cleartype in window xp, do this.

Control Panel > Display > Appearance > Effects > ClearType > OK

*Remember to click apply after that

OBJECTIFIED

2009-05-09T05:51:00.000-07:00

Objectified is a feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the designers who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability.
Through vérité footage and in-depth conversations, the film documents the creative processes of some of the world’s most influential product designers, and looks at how the things they make impact our lives. What can we learn about who we are, and who we want to be, from the objects with which we surround ourselves?

What was said in the intro sounded exactly like what i wrote in my thesis ha. This point about user making many assumptions within a few seconds of seeing a product is exactly what the book "Blink" made me realised. How and why they made these assumptions are due to the environment they are in.

I hope they will screen this show in Singapore, but should be pretty impossible as their "Helvetica" film did not make it over here.

[Via Objectified]

Terminator Salvation

2009-05-08T22:36:00.000-07:00

One of the must watch movie of the year!!!!!

The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

2009-05-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

People who know me will know that I always believe in the power of subconscious mind. Since primary school, i have been playing this prank on my friends that plays on the influence your brain have on your body. Simply point your finger very very close to the face of your friends, but not to touch them actually. They will surely have a sensation of you actually touching them and thus feel very irritated and uncomfortable. Their brain is trick into believing you are touching them and thus provides a reaction. You cannot do it on yourself for the obvious reason that your brain cannot trick itself, very much like how you cannot tickle yourself. There have been reports of tests conducted where subjects are hypnotized into believing that they are scalded, and their skin ended up showing signs of actual scalding. Medically they refer to this phenomenon as placebo effect.

Thus i will like to recommend this book that i really enjoy reading. Blink - The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Personally i find it a very good read as it allows you to know more about yourself. How you do not need to be consciously aware of certain things for it to be registered in your mind. How simply reading a passage that suggest old age makes you move slower. How reading the word "yawn" makes you want to yawn. This from a designer's perspective is really priceless, because it means every detail matters, whether you think the users are consciously aware or not. Every feature, detail, colour will influence the behaviour of user and thus must be considered.

This sadly is not a point that everyone in the industry believe in.

Senator John McCain on David Letterman's show

2009-05-07T19:57:00.000-07:00

Ha i just spotted this. A little too late but ha i thought at the end of the campaign, Senator McCain could easily switch to become a comedian instead. This guy has got good comedy timing. Highly recommended also.

Watchmen Graffiti

2009-05-07T02:08:00.000-07:00

>

Wow!! Amazing street art by some groups of graffiti artist (Bleach, Probs, Busk and Zadok.) commissioned by Paramount. I guess the only reason they bear to paint over the previous work is because it's not done by them! Ha such waste! They should just do it on canvas and sell it off at the end. But then it'll not be graffiti anymore right?

Design Thinking

2009-05-06T23:52:00.000-07:00

This is a term that's gaining popularity nowadays, a term that i quite like as well (because it means designers do think!!haha). Yes in short it means the design way of thinking. But what do you really mean by that? Is "Design Thinking" a term that's a result of designers' ego? Is it any different from the way others think?

Sony Ericsson W902

2009-05-03T05:40:00.000-07:00

Well so far the pictures I've posted in this blog was taken using my newly acquired mobile phone, so i think i should talk about it for today's post.

Music Phone with 5Megapixel camera

W902 is a music phone that is pretty focus on having a "good camera" as well. Marketeers define a good camera by looking at the megapixels. In this case W902 comes with a 5mp camera. However in my opinion they are still way lousier than my super outdated Olympus C-720, which is only a 3mp shooter. The photo above is taken using C-720, photos in my flickr account are also taken using that. Photos taken using W902 suffers from excessive sharpening and purple fringing, noise level is amazingly high if pictures taken indoor. Colour rendering can be much better (that's why 2 photos so far are in black and retro coloured). Images are probably usable if you keep them at around 4R size. But why have a 5mp rated camera that can only images usable at 4R size? They should really focus on producing very good 3mp camera for mobile devices. ...anyway who still prints photos nowadays? That is why i agree with apple's decision to put a decent 2mp camera on their iPhone. The camera doesn't come with a dust cover thus the lens gets dirty easily and requires constant cleaning. Luckily the lens can be easily access and clean after removal of battery cover (refer to picture below). The positioning of camera should be shifted to where the LED flash light. This is because we tend to place our index finger right at where they place the camera now, and as a result the lens gets dirty every time we answer a call. Again this is what apple did correctly for iPhone.

Build and Design

The build quality of W902 is really top grade. The actual phone looks exactly like how it does in their marketing posters. The phone measures 110.0 x 49.0 x 11.7 mm and weigh 99.8 gram. Not the lightest of phone but it feels very good and sturdy when held. The battery cover is very shaky and is the main disappointment in the build quality of the phone. The screen is protected by scratch proof mineral glass and images looks really sharp and sweet. However it is disappointing that Sony Ericsson decided to use a different material for the other parts of the glossy surface (refer to image below).

Looking at the reflections, only part 2 is made of mineral glass, probably due to costing issues. The screen sits approximately 0.5mm below the rest of the surface. The designers probably hope to further protect it from scratches. However, this together with the closely spaced buttons makes w902 a nightmare to clean. It will definitely be much better if the whole glossy surface is made out of one piece rather than 4.

Another positive part of this phone is how well the buttons feel. The tactile feedback of the keys are very reassuring, the D pad is one of the best I'm tried so far. Being a music phone, W902 comes with dedicated music keys. The music keys are very sturdy so accidental pressing of the keys rarely happens. W902 comes with gyroscope built in, this allows users to control volume and tracks through motion. However you will need to press and hold the walkman key for shake control to work. This brings the question of why don't i simply press skip or volume up button. This usage method is a totally illogical and nonsensical.

One other area i really like is their treatment of textures here. The juxtapose of glossy surface with matte, soft touch buttons and the cross hatching texturing of it's body really appeal to me. This phone is probably designed with guys in mind.

Earphone

The in canal earphone that came with the phone is pretty decent if you are not an audiophile. While definitely not as good as my MDR-EX300SL it is small and really comfortable. The chrome plating of the ear bud could have been better though, it's irregular and makes them look really cheap.

Conclusion

I'm pretty happy with this phone so far, the main irritating point of this phone being Sony Ericsson's insistence on not providing 3.5mm socket for earphone.

I really believe that once this phone gets dirty, i'll have a major problem trying to clean it up.

It is really one of the best looking phone out there in the market and the build quality is really impressive.

The interface is tried and tested other then the stupid Shake control they tried to implement here.

Lastly, yes it comes with a 8gb memory stick!

Humans! Creatures of relative.

2009-04-30T21:01:00.000-07:00

This is an old entry i made in MySpace about 3 years ago. I'm interested in how people think and approaches stuff and this is one of my conclusion.

I have always been amazed by our bodies’ ability to adapt to its’ surroundings. About 2 years ago I was still listening to my discman, complaining about the quality of sound of MP3 tracks. Today I listen to songs delivered by my MP3 player, without a single issue with the quality of sound. Is it due to better technology or that I am more relaxed in the area of sound quality? The answer is neither of them. My ears simply adapted to a lower quality reproduction of music. It simply sounds way better than my fm radio receiver. I have forgotten how good music played from cd sounds.

Have you ever found yourself stepping into a room filled with unpleasant smell, only to find the smell disappearing after some time? Or wonder why someone you knew with body odour can realized about the smell? What happened is that you become adapted to that smell that you are subjected to…so much so that it doesn’t register in your brain anymore. Now think about this….if this can really happen…then is air really without scent? Or we have been inhaling it so much that we simply are used to it? I still remembered the time when I had my wisdom tooth extracted, I never knew I could feel my face until one side got numbed. That’s human beings for you. Creatures of relative and everything to us are subjective. I only start feeling my face when I lost the feeling of the other side.

I always believe as a designer, the most important thing is to understand human beings, how they think, feel etc. If you do not understand the existence of relativity and therefore subjectivity, you probably will think everyone thinks, feels, works etc like you…and thus u start designing things based on yourself. When that happens, you cease designing as you become more of an artist. What is really hard is to find a design that a majority of targeted audience can associate with. And sometimes you yourself are not the target audience. With holding personal experience and principle in judging this situation will often result in less than idea results.

At the end of year 2004, I took part in a youth expedition trip to Yunnan. We wanted to the people go over and offer help to the less develop areas of the world. At the same time giving us insights on that part of the world. Our plan was to convert a vacant building into a community center like place where people can gather and relax. Most of the plans had to be finalized, proposed and given approval of when we are still in Singapore itself. Talk about 闭门造车! We basically decided what we wanted to do before knowing the situation over there! I still remembered how the locals basically removed all our decorations and work during a celebration at the last night of our stay. The “community center” was never their need at that point of time. All of us if not most of us knew of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but we still make that same mistake. We believe what they need is what we need!!!!!! We are designing for ourselves!!!!! In fact when I was there, I felt the kids I got in contact with are really happy and cheerful. I envy them for not being in this stupid rat race that we are in. I do not think we are better than them! I do not think we’re happier! For many days I tried to find an answer between the poorer of two people, a villager who had to work hard in the field and a low income family in Singapore trying to make ends meet. I’m still not sure…I felt a person struggling living in a city is worst off.

This is agreed by a tour guide I enjoyed talking to. He used to stay in one of the villages. Work hard and finally got his wish in working and living in a city. I can’t help but asked, “So how do you feel now that you have achieved your dream?”

He replied, “ When I was staying back there (in village) I always wanted to be living in a city. Now that I am here, looking back, I realized it wasn’t that bad back there (in the village).” He smiled, took a deep breath and continued with out tour.

Yes I agreed it ain’t too bad at all back there!

Retro Fossil Messenger Bag

2009-04-29T23:55:00.000-07:00

I really like this photo of the bag, because it accentuate the "retroness" of this leather bag. Ha sorry for having my legs in the picture.

I got this bag from fossil shop about 2 and a half years ago, I really like the way it look because fossil is said to produce these bags exactly like those you find in olden days. This unlike my Casio watch is pretty pricey. I paid about $300 for this bag i think. However i bought it as i know it can last me through the years. The stitches are strong and leather feels sturdy. The buckle looks like it's made of tin, thus will not rust like some chrome plated ones. After almost 3 years, they are still in good condition. Fossil somehow did not use the same cut of leather for all of these bags, thus you probably have to take a look at a couple of the same model before deciding on which you like best.

A friend who commented on this bag being too costly had since changed 3 bags because either the material are worn out or the buckle gave way. The cost of 3 bags together obviously cost more than this bag of mine. I believe this bag will last me a lot more longer so it is totally justifiable to pay more for quality product....well you first have to know are you paying for the brand, a fad or really the quality!

Some other leather bags that i really like are Hudson Leather Small bag, Ted Baker Renjo Leather Satchel and Belstaff Large Shoulder Bag.

Hmm ASOS should pay me for linking them up haha.

CASIO Watch

2009-04-29T23:06:00.000-07:00

I'll start this blog by posting on things i own that i really like. Well you can only really review on products that you've used right? Along the way i'll be posting on products/ gadgets etc that caught my attention as well.

FACE

I've own this Casio watch for about 1 year plus now and it's still looking pretty fine. No real scratches on the mineral (my guess) glass. I'm really a minimalist, vintage and sporty person all roll into one, thus you will find that things i own are normally incline towards those style. In this instance, i'll think this is pretty much a minimalist design. Very clean lines with minimal distractions. Ok the 3 date telling "chronograph" feature basically makes this watch a little more sophisticated while adding a bit of distraction, but i think they actually have one without the 3 circles. The hour markings and hour, minute hands are thicken so they become the most easily read lines on the watch. This allows quick and easy general time reading for the users. You have to make a little more effort to read the minutes markings if you are keen on telling the exact timing.

BODY

The chain is made of chrome plated stainless steel if i'm not wrong, they are hollow pieces thus feels light and a little cheap when held. I paid about $30 for this so i shall not complain about that haha. However i have to say on the looks department, this watch looks way better that the price i paid for it. I've received many compliments from people around me on this watch, people including designers! For around $30, i have to say this is the nicest watch i've seen around.

CONCLUSION

Stop buying those lousy pirated watches that cost around the same price but doesn't do its job well. This watch looks good and keeps time well, i haven't tune it since i've gotten it. However i've forgotten about the model number of this watch. Anyway just keep a look out for some Casio gems out there!