A blog by Rob Cruickshank.

 
Electric Pinecone.
via Adorablog

posted 10:41 PM

 
I teach electronics workshops for artists, using simple CMOS chips. I always point out that these sorts of little logic gates were what put people on the moon. If you need proof of that, here it is.
(via boing boing)

posted 1:27 PM

 
What if Karl Blossfeldt had got his hands on a usb cable?
(via kottke.org)

posted 3:57 PM

 
Natural Phenomena Named after Frank Zappa.
The gene "ZapA" is the perfect tribute to the man who wrote "Why Does it Hurt when I Pee?".
(via bifurcated rivets)

posted 1:21 PM

 
There is a new video clip up on the Spiral Inscriber page, which gives a better idea of what the piece actually looks like in action. Thanks to Bravo! News for that.
posted 1:59 PM

 
Compare your height to famous people. I'm as tall as Michael J. Fox and Joan Crawford.
(How come they left out Prince?)

(via boing boing)

posted 11:35 AM

 
5% of the traffic on the internet is pictures of kittens. (windows media file, sorry)

posted 11:24 AM

 
Radio Disease Killer. As cool as the RDK is, it's sad that people are still falling for this sort of crap.

posted 1:47 PM

 
If you are suffering from Katamari Damacy flashbacks, you might not want to build the paper cat, even though it "...will look amazingly cool on your desk!" Now, where did I put that glue stick?

posted 10:39 AM

 
Last word on the Nancy Davolio mystery. Mike Gunderloy was kind enough to write in, and explain it:

"As far as I know, Nancy Davolio originated in Access 1.0. The *name* was
made up, but the *photo* has always been of a real Microsoft employee -
not, however, with that name. (The same applies to the rest of the
people in the Northwind sample database: synthetic names, real people).

The name has turned up in tons of examples because Microsoft legal
cleared it for use in such things (they have a big master list they
maintain for just that purpose). My name turns up in some of the same
places because I raid their list or Northwind when I want to write an
article myself."

Thanks, Mike!


posted 10:36 PM

 
First audio recording from another world.
(via boingboing)

posted 3:51 PM

 
Fraser's Spiral. Perhaps this explains why my brain hurt so much working on Spiral Inscriber.

posted 10:53 AM

 
Who is Nancy Davolio, and why is her name in thousands of spreadsheet and database examples?
Really, if someone knows this, please email me.
Update: One page I found seemed to suggest that she was a real person, and had something to do with Microsoft Access 95. Most of the examples seem to be for Microsoft products. There are a few N. Davolios in the Redmond White pages. Maybe we should call them.
Interestingly, her name sometimes crops up in the same document as that of one Mike Gunderloy. Is this the same person who used to edit Factsheet Five?

Further update: Microsoft Office ships with a sample database, northwind.mdb. She's employee number 1 in the table Employees. Still, I'm betting she's a real person.


posted 4:08 PM

 
Laugh all you want, kids. We had to eat this shit.
(via MeFi)

posted 1:20 PM

 
Knitting references in literature.

posted 3:18 PM

 
The Wandtafeln of Rudolph Leuckart
Big ol' zoology charts!
(Via The Cartoonist)
Update: If that's the sort of thing you like, you might want to check out this.

posted 1:51 PM

 
I was looking at the stats again, and marveling that, given a combination of clueless users, and bad search engines, the vast majority of people who wind up here from following a search engine (mostly yahoo) query are actually looking for something called "ass parade." And the more I use the phrase "weird-ass", the worse it's going to get.
As annoying as it is, I suppose some people have it worse.


posted 6:05 PM

 
Handy screen cleaning utility. Make sure your speakers are turned up.
(via b3ta)

posted 1:42 PM

 
"Electric Enigma is a double album on which California-based artist
Stephen P. McGreevy has documented recordings he made of Natural
Radio - electromagnetic emissions in the very-low-frequency band
caused by massive discharges and their after-effects in lightning
storms and by the solar wind buffeting the earth's magnetic field,
visible as Aurora Borealis and Australis. It would normally take long
wires to pick up these emissions, which would hamper the mobility of
a listener or recordist. "
(Thanks, Kat!)

posted 9:38 AM

 
The Free Information Society has a gallery of monkey jockey pictures. That's exactly what I needed.
(via things magazine)

posted 1:11 PM

 
"Are you tired of virtual synthesizers, samplers and wavetable machines? Are you seeking for the unique sound of the vintage homecomputer days. Did you know that the sound device from one of the most popular computers of the 80's - the C64 - can produce awesome sounds like a modern synth? Did you ever build a low-budget synthesizer by your own? Well, maybe the MIDIbox SID could be interesting for you."

posted 9:26 AM

 
I tried some komochi kombu on New Years day. It's herring roe stuck to
seaweed. "Wow, this looks hard to make", I said.
"No, the fish do all the work!" It's true. And they do a good job.




posted 4:51 PM

 
If you know me, or read this blog, you may be aware that I've been laying low, not returning calls, and working on a mysterious something that I've been unusually tight-lipped about. Time to let the cat out of the bag.
Spiral Inscriber will be exhibited at Fly Gallery 1172 Queen Street West, Toronto, from Jan 3 to 31, 2005. Fly is a street level window space that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Since we can't really have an opening in the rain, on a sidewalk in Parkdale, a few of us will be getting together for beers and chitchat at the Gladstone, mere steps from Fly, Monday Jan 3 around 8 or so. Feel free to drop by and say hi.

posted 5:21 PM

 
Plankton art. Amazing. (Even if some of it isn't really plankton) Makes me want to just look at plankton on the net all day.
(via Grow a Brain)

posted 2:25 PM