Thursday, March 29, 2012

Amazon is slowly killing Best Buy...

Best Buy’s announced it is closing 50 big box stores in 2012, shares plunged 8.1% to $24.47 in early trading today.

"Critics have noted that its expansive, attractive stores have essentially become showrooms for online retailers like Amazon: Customers go to Best Buy to see a product, and can quickly use a smartphone to find a cheaper price online. This has led to six straight quarterly declines at stores open at least 14 months, including a 2.4% dip last quarter." Scary numbers...

It's not only Amazon that is putting pressure on the retailer, but a host of other online only retailers including newegg and buy.com, all of who like the model of using Best Buy where consumers try out the products and ask BestBuy workers about the items of interest and then go back and buy it online... A business model that will not be in BestBuys favor....

The future of planetary bugs: Sand Flea is an 11-lb robot

Sand Flea is an 11-lb robot RC device but when it needs to it can jump 30 feet into the air. Current development of Sand Flea is funded by the The US Army's Rapid Equipping Force. www.BostonDynamics.com.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Dain Fagerholm - Nicely done 3D illustration

artist blog

additional artist links

What Happens In An Internet Minute... Not surprising... A Whole Lot of Stuff

source link

Stunning photo of central park contrasted with the edge of manhattan

central park contrasted with the edge of manhattan

source link

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

PROMETHEUS - music and video clip - Ridley Scott

PROMETHEUS - music for the Trailer

Museum confirms it really is a is by Van Gogh....

Thought for years to be from a lesser painter... The painting is owned by the Kroeller-Mueller Museum in the central Netherlands and was being hung there Tuesday among its other Van Gogh works.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Eli Klein Fine Art opening featuring first solo exhibit in New York for the Liu Bolin....

Eli Klein Fine Art opening featuring first solo exhibit in New York for the highly regarded Chinese artist Liu Bolin....

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Acne Paper Party at Pace Gallery 2012

Celebrated the private release of Acne 256-page edition themed with the body over the years at The Pace gallery in New York. One of my favorite writers was there... Paul Haggis, the only writer to win back-to-back Best Film Oscars. Topped with extremely nice Champagne and a live classical orchestra...

Acne Paper Party at Pace Gallery 2012

official acne paper photos from pace

more photos

Monday, March 12, 2012

Edgar Street Towers in New York City by IwamotoScott Architecture

additional link

more photos of spiral designs... great link

Friday, March 9, 2012

Soho Windows By Stephen Sherman

To dedicate art and photo week here in new york..

stephen sherman 2012

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Zuckerberg Likes App That Turns Facebook Into Pinterest and so do I...

The Facebook CEO pushed the “Like” button on the Friendsheet Facebook app, which launched in January. pInterest comes to Facebook photo views... Very nicely done...

Who knew... Charles Shaw Winery cleans up on awards and prices...

Who knew....wine awards announced...

Nine years since Charles Shaw wine was introduced by Trader Joe's, has sold over 600,000,000 bottles.
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2011 Pacific Rim International Wine Competition
Charles Shaw Winery 2009 Pinot Grigio, California -- Gold Medal/Best of Class
Charles Shaw Winery 2009 Merlot, California -- Silver Medal
Charles Shaw Winery 2009 White Zinfandel, California -- Bronze Medal
Charles Shaw Winery 2009 Chardonnay, California -- Bronze Medal

2011 California State Fair Wine Competition
Charles Shaw Winery 2010 Pinot Grigio, California -- Gold Medal
Charles Shaw Winery 2009 White Zinfandel, California -- Silver Medal
Charles Shaw Winery 2009 Merlot, California -- Silver Medal
Charles Shaw Winery 2009 Chardonnay, California -- Silver Medal
Charles Shaw Winery 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, California -- Silver Medal
Charles Shaw Winery 2008 Sauvignon Blanc, California -- Bronze Medal

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2011 Jerry D. Mead’s New World International Wine Competition
Charles Shaw Winery 2009 Shiraz, California -- Double Gold Medal/Best of Class
Charles Shaw Winery 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon, California -- Silver Medal

Samsung Unveils New Top-of-the-Line ES8000 Series LED HDTVs - Hands-on: gesture, voice

Next Generations of Samsung TVs are soon to be available... Seemless Web Experience

"The slim-bodied (not much more than an inch thick) ES8000 models arrive with a narrow brushed aluminum bezel, a new U-shaped stand, and built-in Wi-Fi standard.

This is the fifth generation of Samsung's Smart TVs, now enhanced withSmart Interaction. This new suite of technologies allows users to access what we want to see and hear in intuitive new ways: With Voice Navigation we can speak certain handy catchphrases that turn on the television and take us directly to certain TV functions, including the built-in web browser powered by the Webkit engine. Gesture Control meanwhile puts our hands to work, waving and making fists to change channels and surf the web without the need for accessories. The top edge of the TV also contains an integrated camera with noise-canceling microphone for Skype video calls and more. With its Face Recognition, we can automatically log onto our Samsung Apps account, to use our favorites and download more."

source and great review

Darpa and Pentagon's 'freakily fast' robo-cheetah

Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) orders up a fast beast: The cheetah. Built by robotics firm Boston Dynamics, robo-cheetah just set a new speed record for multi-legged robots, clocking in at 18 miles per hour. (Watch a video below.) The machine's cat-like spine actually flexes and extends...

Robo-cheetah is "freakily fast," says Katie Drummond atWired. Consider human world-record holder Usain Bolt, "who clocked an amazing 28 mph during the 100-meter sprint in 2009

link

Steps to Follow...

Greatly enjoy this photo....

source

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

GIGABYTE 7 series motherboards features digital PWM at CeBIT 2012

“GIGABYTE 7 series motherboards featuring a new digital PWM design and an updated version of our popular 3D BIOS are on schedule and will be globally available in volume at launch,” commented Henry Kao, Vice President of GIGABYTE Motherboard Business Unit. “Our customers are very excited about making a swift transition to these 7 series motherboards and the benefits they offer in terms of features, performance and control.”
The boards are all tailored for Intel's 22-nm Ivy Bridge processors, with LGA1155 sockets and PCI Express 3.0 connectivity.

full review

Intel's rollout...Coming soon Ivy Bridge 2012

Intel's Tick-Tock with Ivy Bridge coming soon Tick+
Microarchitecture	Process Node	Tick or Tock	Release Year
Conroe/Merom	65nm	Tock	2006
Penryn	45nm	Tick	2007
Nehalem	45nm	Tock	2008
Westmere	32nm	Tick	2010
Sandy Bridge	32nm	Tock	2011
Ivy Bridge	22nm	Tick+	2012
Haswell	22nm	Tock	2013

Features

Ivy Bridge feature improvements over Sandy Bridge include:

Tri-gate transistor technology (less than 50% power consumption at the same performance level as 2-D planar transistors).
PCI Express 3.0 support
Max CPU multiplier of 63 (57 for Sandy Bridge).
RAM support up to 2800MT/s in 200MHz increments.
Intel HD Graphics with DirectX 11, OpenGL 3.1, and OpenCL 1.1 support.
The built-in GPU is believed to have up to 16 execution units (EUs), compared to Sandy Bridge's maximum of 12.
A new random number generator and the RdRand instruction, codenamed Bull Mountain.
Intel Quick Sync Video.
DDR3L low voltage for mobile processors.
Multiple 4K video playback.

Performance

Performance according to sources (compared to Sandy Bridge):

Up to 20% increase in CPU performance.
30% to 100% increase in integrated GPU performance.

review slashdot review

board review for ivy 22nn

more board level reviews

Blazing fast Radeon HD 7850 & HD 7870 editions...

need for speed 2012

Legion Hardware – AMD Radeon HD 7870 and Radeon HD 7850

World's Fastest Mobile Phone - HTC One X

The specs on the device are truly amazing for a mobile phone...

Key Features

4.7in, 720 x 1280 pixel display
32GB storage
Quad Core 1.5GHz CPU - Tegra 3
8 megapixel camera

HTC One X

HTC's Mobile World Congress Press Conference launched the HTC One X.

A huge oversize 4.7in screen with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor running at 1.5GHz, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of local storage as well as 25GB of Dropbox storage for two years and an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p video recording. Amazing amount of hardware that fits in your pocket.... full review

GIGABYTE G1.Assassin LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 XL ATX Intel Motherboard

Current Object of Desire

GIGABYTE G1.Assassin LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 XL ATX Intel Motherboard

Loaded Loaded Loaded...

Intel X58+ICH10R Chipset, heatpipe design, 16 power phase design, Dual CPU Power and Driver MOSFETs for the best-in-class system performance and power stability. Onboard Creative’s top-of-the-line Sound Blaster X-Fi Digital Audio Processor with X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity and EAX Advanced HD 5.0. E2100 Game Networking Platform addresses online gaming network lag issues, 4-way CrossFireX & 3-way SLI capabilities, front audio headphone amplifier, total 8x USB 3.0 ports... G1.Assassin is the best metal for enhancing your game play...

more gigabyte site

BASIC SPECS

Base Price	$185,300
Drivetrain	Rear Wheel Drive
Curb Weight (lbs)	3573
City (MPG)	14
Hwy (MPG)	20
Horsepower	563@6800
Torque (lb-ft)	479@4750
Wheelbase	105.5
Length (in.)	182.6
Width (in.)	76.3
Height (in.)	49.69