Archive for August, 2009

James May’s Lego house is looking great. You saw the interior already, but from the outside—sitting on the lustful landscape of the Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking, Surrey—it just looks absolutely bricktastic.

As you can see, it’s not entirely made of Lego bricks. The frame is made of wood. But that doesn’t make it any less stunning. I can’t wait to see it finished. This is definitely going to be the biggest Lego model ever built. Until I manage to grab enough bricks to get my dream three floor house in the woods of upstate New York, that is. With a Lego swimming pool.

Head to Geek Sugar to see a lot more photos of this architectural wonder. [Geek Sugar and Daily Mail via DesignBoom]

I love architecture. And art too. That’s why I like this gallery of sketches by Sir Norman Foster. It’s fascinating to see his evolution, and how his art turns into formidable buildings, which seem to come from The Future.

[El País—Thanks Waleska]

“The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.”

“There are no whole truths; all truths are half- truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil.”

MIPS Technologies with Sigma Designs demonstrated an Android-based set-top box capable of 1080p video. The development is being touted as “a major milestone toward the creation of a reference platform” that will allow Android-based devices to enter the living room.

The set-top box utilizes Sigma's hardware graphics acceleration, the MIPS architecture and improvements to Android's library to display high-definition video on full sized screens. While the demonstration was merely a proof of concept modeled around a television, MIPS envisions MIDs and digital picture frames based on the platform as well. There are no plans to commercialize the prototype yet, but having a standard developer friendly operating system behind all the miscellaneous living room gadgets is a pretty exciting prospect—I can't wait until my phone is able to be both my media center at home and media player when I'm away. [Engadget and Slash Gear]

Android: If the GPS mapping and performance analysis of apps like RunKeeper give your Android phone iPhone envy, Google’s got a geeky alternative. My Tracks plots runs, cycles, and other fitness forays to custom Google Maps or a Google spreadsheet.

You get far more than just a line showing where you went on your last trip with My Tracks. While running or in front of your My Maps account, can see your elevation profile over time or distance, check your speeds, set up waypoints for longer sojourns, and share your GPX or KML output over email, Twitter via Twidroid, or export the data to your SD card.

Google recommends Android users download a few “sister applications” to make My Tracks more useful, including the aforementioned Twidroid, the Power Manager app to keep My Tracks from completely dousing your (admittedly spare) battery reserves, and the My Maps Editor to view and share your exercise maps. My Tracks still lacks the slick looks of RunKeeper or Nike+, but if you’re really impressed by raw data and beautiful statistics, you can get a whole lot of them, as evidenced in the example here (not mine, believe me).

My Tracks is a free download for Android-based phones.

The Secretary of Defense is briefing President Bush on Iraq. “Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed.”

“Oh no!” exclaims the president, “That’s terrible!”

His staff is stunned at this unprecedented display of emotion, watching as Bush sits, head in hands.

Finally, he looks up and asks, “How many is a brazillion?”

Steve Thomas Rooney, convicted of having sex with one student and molesting three others, agreed to be sentenced next month to eight years in state prison.

A former assistant principal who L.A. Unified officials knew was under suspicion of having sex with a student but was transferred to another campus where he found more victims, pleaded no contest Thursday to molesting three teenage girls and having unlawful sex with a fourth minor.

It’s comfortable. I promise. Really. OK, fine, be that way. If don’t believe me, just click and see for yourself.

These portable stools can be completely disassembled, packed anywhere for easy transportation, and then reassembled so your super-ass can take a rest. [Evil Mad Scientist]

I don't like gimmicky typefaces but—in the case of Chris Labrooy—I can make an exception. He designed three architectural typeface landscapes based on the work of three of his design heroes. His classic typeface buildings are great too:

Of the three designers—Frank Gehry, Ettore Sottsass and Toyo Ito—my favorite is Toyo. However, my absolute favorites are the Helvetica buildings. [Chris Labrooy via Dezeen]