tomatolounge

As rich and robust our IT department is, we may have to open a spot for 11-year old Jon Penn, who manages his elementary school’s 60-machine network. This all started when the previous network administrator at his Sherwood, Arkansas school simply got up and left (just like Jason), leaving the IT systems in shambles and in the hands of the school librarian. Turns out though that the librarian is actually Jon’s mom, so she handed the duties over to him. Jon has since scrubbed the aging Windows 98 machines of their accumulated viruses and spyware, and he’s installed a firewall and virus/spam filter to keep things clean while he works out a plan to move to Windows 2000 and centralized system management.

Currently Jon is handling a variety of IT requests like fixing paper jams to revising server configurations, but this summer he hopes to obtain his A+ Certification, a computer-technician certification. Aside from that, he is hoping to make time to train our very own Jorge Q.

By now, you should have already seen the numerous “IV” ads wheat-pasted around the city – they’ve been up for the past year or so. All they show is the roman number for four, and the words “coming soon”.

I came across an article today about a robot babysitter. My first reaction was that if I were a 5 yr old kid, I would initially be pretty amused and then I would try to take the thing down. Here’s the write up:

Inhuman babysitters aren’t all that uncommon around the world, but a new creature recently placed in a Japanese department store is a godsend for shopaholics with rugrats in tow. Developed by Tmsuk, the 1.4-meter tall bot is employed at a Fukuoka retailer in order to keep watch over rambunctious youngsters that are dropped off by their overworked parents. Reportedly, said critter boasts an integrated projector and camera, a colorful yellow / white outfit and the ability to identify children by name based on a special tag that each kiddo wears while playing. Of course, the manufacturer isn’t looking to just shove one or two of these into every store in Japan — oh no, it’s hoping to create similar robots that could one day “guide customers through the aisles of a store,” fill their carts or whisper the joke of the day in a French accent into their ears.

I came across an article today about a new exhibit at the MoMA entitled “Design and the Elastic Mind”, however one particular piece of it attracted my attention. Some researchers from MIT created a project that takes a look at how New York communicates with the rest of the world. The project, called New York Talk Exchange (NYTE), is based around an analysis of telecommunications traffic flowing to and from New York City.

“It is like showing how the heart of New York pulsates in real time and how it connects with the global network of cities,” said Carlo Ratti, director of the senseable city laboratory and associate professor of the practice of urban technologies at MIT.

“We are interested in visualizing and exploring the connections that New York entertains with the rest of the world, how they change over the course of a day, and how the city’s neighborhoods differ from each other by maintaining special and distinct relationships with particular cities and countries,” said Kristian Kloeckl, project leader at the senseable city laboratory

You can read more about it here

Parallel Strokes is a collection of interviews with twenty-plus contemporary typeface designers, graffiti writers, and lettering artists around the world. The book is introduced with a comprehensive essay charting the history of graffiti, its relation to type design, and how the two practices relate in the wider context of lettering.

Interviews within include conversations with pan-European type design collecitve Underware, Japanese type designer Akira Kobayashi, American graffiti writer and fine artist Barry McGee/Twist, German graffiti writers Daim and Seak, American lettering artist, graphic designer and design eductor Ed Fella, among others. Parallel Strokes is an enquiry into the history, context, and development of lettering today, both culturally approved and illicit.

I think Mac fans will like this. Dave Veloz from SteamPunkWorkshop transformed a standard Mac Mini into a steampunk-style computer. This Mac Mini features a custom paint job and engraving, and comes complete with a custom keyboard and monitor with granite base.

Apparently he made this for his wife on their wedding day.

Quite a few artists have been putting their touches on spongebob lately. I’m not sure why they picked on this particular guy, but it is pretty cool.

Here are versions from Kaws, Bathing Ape and WrongWroks (who combined Doramon and SpongeBob to create DoraBob):

Hi!! I am a newbie to blogging! (Cheers/Applause) thank you – thank you…

Here is a smart trick that your mobile phone can do – (thanks to GOOGLE) – provide an address, directions or number for a restaurant you’ve been meaning to try..

Simply text the restaurant name and the city it is in, example Blue Smoke, NY to Google
at 466-453 – in about a minute you will get the address and phone number..(for free!)

Or you call Dial Directions at 347-328-4667 (call is free) and say the restaurants address when prompted and a text with directions from your home to the restaurant from door arrives before you even hang up.

Wait there is more — you can translate words “text translate english to french”.
You can ask for movies and forecast (even internationally)..

Dial a Direction can also tell you what “type” of restuarant you are looking for…
Say you want Thai simply ask! They will give you a list of local restaurants…

There is still a few wrinkles but all in all it is pretty snazzy –
So try it out…

Perhaps Vietnam Airlines should look into getting some well-skilled PR professionals to fix this for them…

“Ton of Snakes Seized on Plane”

Bored of the single page 1-face portraits?

Inspired by the STC squares and cubes, we felt a strange desire to cube ourselves…