Author: Austin Vegas

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Programmable matter technology to manipulate designs in 3D

Imagine being a designer or any discipline: fashion, architecture, automobiles, or technology and having tools that would allow you to physically shape your project in real life before even producing a design draft? The technology would allow you to manipulating consumer products or designs in real-time with your fingers in a 3D representation of your idea. The concept can be thought of as “the ultimate form of digital printing”.

First demoed at last year’s Intel Developer Forum (IDF), Programmable Matter, as it’s termed now, is looking more realistic in the next few years. The idea revolves around tiny glass spheres with processing power and photovoltaic for generating electricity to run the tiny circuitry. These particles called catoms would move relative to one another via electrostatic. Here’s a visual:

Programmable Matter along with Intel’s Dynamic Physical Rendering (DPR) are some of the sweetest technology I’ve seen in years.

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My Restuarant Peeves

I wrote earlier about the shite tipping practice going on in NY, and increasingly I’m seeing more and more restaurants dead or light with patrons. I walked into Del Postal the other Thursday evening at prime time and got a table for 4 with no problems.

I eat out a lot in NY for multiple reasons: My apartment is too small, I don’t have groceries, it’s too hot to stay at home, the games on and I don’t have an HDTV and most importantly there’s too many damn good restaurants around here to not eat out!

Having plenty of experience in banquets and restaurant service, I’m instantly picky about issues I see that show how weak the restaurants service really is. Here’s a list of some of my biggest issues when I go out to eat:

  • Host or hostess does not acknowledge me (guests) upon entering the restaurant – eye contact and a smile are key.
  • Not being sat promptly at my reservation time, when I’m on time. If the service is extended (which in NYC that’s usually), then escort me to the bar and make sure to come get me when the table is ready
  • Music that’s too loud for the restaurant, or no music at all. And no a TV doesn’t count.
  • Dirty flatware, glassware and silverware or being served with bent silverware, cracked or chipped glassware or flatware: This just shows carelessness to your service.
  • As a server I would always greet my table and introduce myself to them for the evening and believe all servers should take that minute to do so. Now I understand this is a professional relationship, not a social one, so I don’t necessarily need your name, but at least point out that you’re the head server I’ll need to flag for assistance.
  • Servers that don’t have a clue about the food, how it’s made, or the specials: especially at higher end restaurants.
  • Servers that are either overly attentive, or no where to be seen. A server should make an eye check on all their tables before heading back to the kitchen and if anything needs a check (water glass etc.) prompt your busser for help.
  • Being asked “You still workin’ on that?” or anything like this when not all the people at a table have finished their course.
  • Not much can be worse that badly prepared food.
  • Not thanking the guests as they leave. Last impression!

Now that I’m hungry I need a steak!

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Car makers still extending lifestyle with electronic music samples

America is the last major country on earth where the populous doesn’t appreciate the nuances of both electronic music and soccer. Despite flare ups of popularity of both (womans US World cup and olympic performance, Moby’s incredibly popular “Play” album years ago or today: Lady GaGa’s “The Fame” album) both still struggle with mainstream attention.

In the realm of electronic music, the only on going success has been in soundtracks, ESPN and shopping mall background music and in advertising. When I was ahead of the curve, buying white labels, in record pools and hanging out at record shops hours on end to get the latest music, if I heard anything I purchased, later turn up on a commercial that track would instantly go into my dead pool. Dirty Vegas’s “Days Go By” was a key example, made famous by the Mitsubishi Eclipse commercial.

I’m not so much on the forefront of music these days so a good background track on a commercial catches my ear and I will want to hear it again, maybe even buy it. This happened earlier this year when I caught a Scion tc commercial entitled “Samples”. Here’s the commercial:


Scion Samples TC

I did plenty of research on this one and found the track isn’t even a full track but was created by Face the Music (Executive Producer: Adam Joseph Composer/Sound Designer: Tony Shimkin Mixer: Tom Burbank) specifically for the commercial, rather than the marketer picking up an already produced track to match the commercial message.

FTM has done some quality work for commercials and I’m sure they claim to have a successful business out of their work, however, I’m putting a public request out for them to remix the Samples track into a full 12″ and I’m sure they can extend their music talents with a private record label.

Justice went the other way with a sample from their “Genesis” track at the end of the Cadillac Escalade commercial. The sample didn’t kill the track use in the club scene however, still drove home the point of the commercial.

As long as the style continues to permeate in American culture, I’ll continue to accept it, hoping one day electronic music becomes even half as popular as European football.