The Red Ferret Journal

Trompe l’oeil – or trick of the eye – art can be absolutely extraordinary when produced by a master. Here are some of the most amazing demonstrations of the art around.

John Pugh produces ‘monumental’ scale art on walls, buildings and interiors which are so realistic it sometimes takes your breath away. Astonishing stuff.

Ron Francis is a universally acclaimed master of the art and it shows. This window with children playing outside in a garden may not be real, but it is truly delightful.

Julian Beever creates astonishing pavement art which seems to spring up from the ground with a vivid 3D power that is simply mesmerising.

Chinese artist Liu Bolin has already run afoul of the Chinese authorities because his work is considered subversive, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s brilliant. The invisible man indeed. More here.

For a fabulous collection of stunning trompe l’oeil images from France (with before and after shots via the precedente/suivante links) take a look at the trompe-l-oeil.info site. This example features a cinema frontage in Cannes. I could spend hours on this site just browsing while oohing and ahhing. Stunning stuff.

CouchSurfing is a super cool social network which takes social interaction off the computer monitor and returns it firmly back into the realm of real life. The non-profit works by helping travellers hook up with locals to share accommodation – or sometimes just a friendly chat and drink – on their journey, but it seems to go much further than just finding a cheap place to crash.

According to the site they’ve helped facilitate 1.25 million stays, 1.5 million new friends have been made (90,000 of those ‘close’ friends) and overall an impressive 99.6% of users have reported a positive experience. Beat that Facebook! This is all the more remarkable when you consider it’s based around one party opening up their home to a stranger, and a traveller trusting their rest-stop to a remote member of an online community.

The heart of the service lies in a system of references and verified profiles, both of which are designed to minimise the risks of coming up against a nutcase on your travels. People can only vouch for those they have met, and they can give references to indicate honesty and people appeal.

Overall this is such an excellent idea it makes you wonder why it’s not as well known as Facebook. Apart from the obvious benefits of cost efficient travel for those on a budget – and we’ll leave aside the ecological issues of the global travel industry for now, shall we? – it has to be a force for good when people from 231 countries and over 67,000 cities can come together both online and face to face to share experiences and cultural differences in such a fabulous way. Great stuff.

[Photo from Flickr]

USB SuperCharger is a brilliant little bit of software that will transform the way you use your USB flash drive by improving its performance by some 300% and more. If you move lots of small files around or you’re a heavy user of Portable Apps, then you’ll definitely want to read what it can do. For once the hype is actually matched by reality!

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PC Decrapifier is one awesome bit of freeware which removes multiple programs from your Windows Vista or XP computer all in one go. You know what that means? Yes, you don’t have to sit there in Control Panel laboriously clicking on each program you want to remove. It’s a superb uninstaller in other words.

The only hassle is when it fails to trap the program uninstalls that require a re-start, but it’s a small price to pay for this kind of convenience. Definitely one of the most useful tools ever (especially if you spend your life reviewing software eh?)

The Matrox M9188 is an 8 headed video card that fits into a single PCIe slot. Each output on the card is mini DisplayPort, but it ships with eight mini DisplayPort to DVI adapters so you’re fine whatever you’re running. It has 2Gb of memory and it can display a maximum resolution of 2560 x 1600 per output in DisplayPort or 1920 x 1200 per output in DVI mode. It works with Vista (32/64bit), Windows7, XP (32/64bit), Server 2003/2008 (32/64bit) and Linux. If 8 monitors aren’t enough, stick two cards in and get 16 monitors. Sheesh, they should have called this thing the Hydra. Priced at US$1995 and available at the end of the year.

The Matrox M9188 PCIe x16 multi-display Octal graphics card addresses the need to visualize large amounts of data at once in order to effectively make decisions. The latest offering from the M-Series family is the world’s first single-slot PCIe x16 octal card, featuring the ability to support both DisplayPort and DVI Single-Link outputs to ensure wide compatibility with today’s monitors

Tags: gadget, matrox, 8+head+video+card, matrox+m9188

If you’re the de facto gadget guru in your neck of the woods, and frankly you’re sick of telling Aunt Mildred which netbook she should buy, then tell people to drop by Measy and sort themselves out.

Measy is a wizard-based gadget recommendation website, similar to alaTest but which works by asking you a series of questions to rate how important certain features are. Using the information gathered it creates a list of products that are worthy of your attention. So far the only gadgets listed are HDTVs, digital cameras, digital SLRs and netbooks but I’m sure it will expand. Very, very useful.

On a personal note, using Measy’s wizard I checked my last couple of purchases (dSLR and HDTV) and the last 2 recommendations I made (digital camera and netbook) and got 3 out of 4. I failed only in choosing a dSLR for myself as apparently I should have bought a D300 instead of a D700. But what would I know? [Photo from Flickr]

Measy makes finding the right electronics a simple and fun process. We help you express what you are looking for, and then match you with the best product at the best price. The whole process is backed by comprehensive research from the most knowledgeable experts on the Internet. Measy is personal, informative, and so easy, anyone can use it… even Dan.

Tags: gadget, measy, gadget+buying, gadget+recommendation

For the past few months I’ve been living with a selection of Android handsets, different makes, models and network owners. The HTC Hero, The T-Mobile Pulse, the HTC Magic and from my experience of this new computing platform I’m going to predict that Android is destined to be the biggest thing to hit computing since Windows hit the PC. Yes it’s that big.

It’s not that these early products exhibit anything spectacular in the way of features, applications or style, in fact quite the opposite. Apart from the occasional stand-out such as the free turn-by-turn GPS navigation included with Android 2.0, the releases have to date been fairly ordinary, workable and fun, but not mind-blowing. Much of what we’re seeing is just catch up to the iPhone, which is hardly world shaking stuff (Motorola’s Droid included!).

No, it’s not the current situation that is so exciting, it’s the promise of the platform that is starting to grab people’s attention. The main thing is the Google of course. Attach the name of the hottest tech company in the universe to a raw hamburger and you could IPO the company for a billion tomorrow, so the fact that Google is so publicly supporting, guiding and driving development of this platform has literally set the tech arena alight.

If you want a comparison, just look how hard it’s been for good old Palm, another great name from yesteryear, to drive the sales of the Pre phone to date. Or look at how fast Android has eclipsed the stalwart but extremely stodgy Symbian and Windows Mobile phone systems and it’s clear that there are more forces at work here than just technical ability. One of the keys to this rapid take-up of course is Google’s focus on open systems. Compare and contrast this with the traditional closed wall attitude of Apple and the rest of the mobile phone industry and suddenly the possibilities are endless.

Sure, it’s not completely open. Android may be based on Linux and Java roots, but the crucial Dalvik virtual machine interface is definitely not completely open source, yet. But the whole platform is still a heck of a lot more open than anything else out there right now. And crucially, oh so crucially, Google gets the Web. Better than just about anyone around, and like it or not, the world is moving to a web-centric milieu, where networked technology serves as the backbone for every day functionality. Web applications like Google Docs, Internet communications like Skype and Google Voice, location aware services like Google Maps. Can we spot a trend here?

And to top it all off, Google loves engineers. They respect developers, nurture them, speak to them, encourage them (mostly!). Watch out as the 10,000 applications for the platform literally explodes over the next year, to catch and surpass all but the Windows PC platform. The reason for this is the fact that Google don’t hold all the strings to this development effort. Open Source drives its own agenda, and once developers get wind of a potential gold mine, they’ll jump on in force, and then we’ll see how open vs closed works in realtime.

The driving force for all this action of course will be the massive increase of devices using the Android system which we can expect to see arrive over the coming 12 months. And so here’s a list of the 75 devices now available or which will arrive very shortly.

The Android Phone List [source] (bold = available now!)

1. Acer Liquid – A1 – November 28th
2. Compulab Exeda
3. Dell Ophone mini3i – Benzine
4. Geek Phone One – December
5. General Mobile DSTL1
6. Haier H7
7. HKC Pearl
8. HighScreen PP5420
9. HTC Click – Fiesta – Tattoo
10. HTC Desire 6200 – Verizon Droid Eris
11. HTC Dragon – Zoom 2 – Passion
12. HTC Dream – T-Mobile G1
13. HTC Hero – G2 Touch
14. HTC Lancaster
15. HTC Magic – Sapphire – T-Mobile myTouch 3G – Google Ion – Dopod A6188
16. HTC Predator
17. Huawei U8220 – T-Mobile Pulse
18. Huawei U8230
19. Innocomm Skate
20. Kogan Agora
21. Koolu Freerunner – Openmoko GTA02
22. Lenovo O1 Ophone
23. LG Etna
24. LG GW620 Eve
25. LG GW880
26. Motorola Calgary
27. Motorola Devour
28. Motorola Droid – Sholes – Tao – Milestone
29. Motorola Heron
30. Motorola MB200
31. Motorola MB300
32. Motorola Morrison – Cliq – DEXT
33. Motorola Motus – 2010
34. Motorola Sholes Tablet – 2010
35. Motorola Zeppelin – 2010
36. Philips V808
37. Qigi i6
38. Saygus VPhone V1 – 2010
39. Samsung Behold 2 T939 – November 18th
40. Samsung Bigfoot
41. Samsung Galaxy i7500
42. Samsung Galaxy Lite i5700 – Spica – November
43. Samsung Houdini
44. Samsung m850 Q
45. Samsung Moment – InstinctQ m900
46. Samsung Saturn i6500 – 2010
47. Sciphone N12
48. Sciphone N16
49. Sciphone N17
50. Sciphone N19
51. Sciphone N21
52. Sony Ericsson Sunny
53. Sony Ericsson XPERIA x10 – Rachael – Infinity – January 2010
54. Sunno S880
55. Tiger G3
56. ZTE Android

Non-Phone Devices

1. Alex Android eReader
2. Archos 5 Internet Tablet
3. Barnes & Noble Nook
4. Cloud Telecomputers Glass
5. Creative Zii Egg
6. Dell Streak
7. ENT ET-M4301
8. enTourage eDGe – February 2010
9. eviGroup Wallet MID
10. GiiNii Movit Maxx
11. GiiNii Movit Mini
12. Hard Kernel ORDROID
13. Mio MiBuddy
14. RAmos T11
15. Shenzhen Eston HD ENT N97
16. Spring Alex
17. Skytone Alpha 680
18. SMiT Android MID-560
19. Touch Revolution NIMble

If we remember that the very first device was introduced a mere 13 months ago, the speed and scale of the adoption starts to become apparent. And note that it’s not just mobile phones we’re seeing here, but also a growing range of other devices such as digital picture frames, media players, set top boxes and beyond. We may be on the verge of witnessing the start of the infamous ubiquitous computing platform era that has been promised since the start of the micro-computer revolution.

I’ll leave you with anecdotal evidence of how things are going to change over the next few years. Just about everyone I’ve shown Android too have said 2 things in quick succession –

a) “Ooh, that’s nice, looks just like an iPhone”.

b) “Oooh, I want one”.

And this from people who are not trend setters, fashion conscious or interested in keeping up with the crowd. They are just impressed by the feature set and ease of use of the device itself. We owe a huge – huge! – debt of gratitude to Mr Jobs and Apple for showing the world how to make mobile phones which could be ‘smarter’ and still have bags of style and fondle appeal, but maybe the baton is about to be passed to a more open platform where the promise of mobile computing can ripen properly as it should? Time will tell!

I find this a little hard to believe, but Samsung have announced a Universal Printer Driver that will work with every Samsung printer ever made, as well as any laser printer or multi-function unit that uses PCL6 or PostScript languages. It’s a free 26MB download and it runs on everything between Windows 2K to Vista including Server ‘03 and ‘08, 32 and 64 bit. The only reason I’m skeptical is well, the download page only seems to work with IE and not Firefox, but that may just be me. [Story via Akihabara News, photo via Flickr].

The Samsung Universal Print Driver enables you to print to any Samsung device without having to install a driver for every networked printer. It is also compatible with any printer or multi-function printer (MFP) that utilizes PCL6 or PostScript languages, meaning a wide range of devices from different manufacturers can be accessed on the single driver.

Tags: freeware, universal+printer+driver, samsung

Prism from Mozilla Labs lets you convert any web application into a desktop accessible program, complete with its own icon and dedicated screen. Why would you want this? Well it makes it easier to access some types of web apps if you can use them in their own space, without having them displayed in a generic browser. Things like docs, control panels, accounting services, even web mail.

Google Chrome has this feature and I love it, I immediately made Gmail into a desktop app so I could fire up my inbox without having to run up a full web browser instance. Very cool. The Prism product is implemented as a Firefox addon, which is superb (you’ll find it under the Tools menu when it’s installed) and you can set the app to run minimised from the task bar, start automatically and display pop-up notifications. Excellent. A keeper.

This is one of those As Seen On TV specials but judging by the video and my own tenuous grasp of power tool usage, this is a pretty amazing thing. The Omni Dual Saw is part circular saw, part angle grinder and part electric carving knife. The Dual Saw has two, contra-rotating* circular blades that make pretty short work of anything including steel reinforcing bars, PVC pipe, timber and diamond plate all with the same blades.

The dual blades reduce the vibration and stop the saw biting into hard materials so it’s safer to use. There’s also a set of optional diamond blades that will go through masonry, stone, granite and marble. US$219.96 includes $40 shipping.

*According to Wikipedia this design is actually a contra-rotating system, not counter-rotating as it says on the website. Your mileage may vary.

Omni Dual Saw’s patented counter rotating blade technology makes it the only saw with 2 blades that simultaneously rotate in opposite directions: forward, backward, top and bottom! Unlike other saws, this professional grade saw’s unique technology and dual blade design allow users to cut through virtually any material without changing blades.

Tags: gadget, power+tools, omni+dual+saw, dual+saw

The always amusing xkcd webcomic has boiled down a few quintessential movies into easily digested movie narrative flow charts. Why not print them out and present them at tomorrow’s sales meeting?

These charts show movie character interactions. The horizontal axis is time. The vertical grouping of the lines indicates which characters are together at a given time.

Tags: xkcd, movie+narrative+charts

US company Envion, has unveiled the Oil Generator, a recycling plant capable of turning plastic waste back into light, medium or emulsified heavy oil. The Oil Generator works using low temperature thermal cracking in a vacuum. This catalyst-free process results in a net gain in energy recaptured from the plastic.

Envion claim that a single oil generator unit can turn 10,000 tons of plastic waste back into oil in a single year, producing 3 to 5 barrels of oil from each ton of waste. The Oil Generator can accept PET, HDPE, LDPE/LLDPE, PP, PE, PS and PVC plastics, basically 60% – 80% of the types of plastic generated in the US each year. What’s more, the process is closed so it reuses the vent gases for electricity generation, and the waste residue is transformed into emulsified heavy oil. The generator’s output is similar to crude oil and can be processed into petrol, kerosene, jet fuel and diesel.

So all we need is one of these on a barge out in the middle of the Pacific garbage patch and problem solved right? Regardless it sounds like a much better idea than millions of tonnes of plastic going to landfills.

After years of development and operation, Envion is unveiling and launching its groundbreaking technology in the United States. The Envion process is capable of realizing the energy potential of plastic waste while helping to alleviate some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges in a sustainable and renewable manner.

Tags: gadget, envion+oil+generator, plastic+recycling, plastic+to+oil+recycling