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Tech21’s iBand protective case and its mystical, magical, non-Newtonian goo

The iBand from Tech21 isn’t particularly attractive nor svelte, but after watching the video below there’s little doubt about its effectiveness. It’s made of a substance called d3o, which is a fancy orange non-Newtonian substance, starting out stretchy and gushy but, when put under pressure, hardening and protecting its precious contents. We’ve seen this stuff applied to high-impact applications like motorcycle armor, but we’re glad to see gadgetry getting a little attention too. […] Right now the £15 ($25) iBand is only available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but future gadgets should receive the oobleck treatment soon.

via Video: Tech21’s iBand protective case and its mystical, magical, non-Newtonian goo.

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

It’s a ticket stub from Youth Alive 2009, but whether that’s relevant to this message is debatable. As I look upon this half-torn ticket stub I think about the events that it reflected – the incredible stench of the mosh pit, the “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen” comment I made when some girls left the mosh pit, the energy that was conveyed through light and sound.

via All that’s tangible, and all that’s not. » freshbytes.

Thanks to the ever-awesome Mr Lineage for this one.

Source to be revealed (if I ever get around to it).

The Programming Antihero

I was fresh out of college, still wet behind the ears, and about to enter the beta phase of my first professional game project — a late-90s PC title. It had been an exciting rollercoaster ride, as projects often are. All the content was in and the game was looking good. There was one problem though: We were way over our memory budget.

Since most memory was taken up by models and textures, we worked with the artists to reduce the memory footprint of the game as much as possible. We scaled down images, decimated models, and compressed textures. Sometimes we did this with the support of the artists, and sometimes over their dead bodies.

We cut megabyte after megabyte, and after a few days of frantic activity, we reached a point where we felt there was nothing else we could do. Unless we cut some major content, there was no way we could free up any more memory. Exhausted, we evaluated our current memory usage. We were still 1.5 MB over the memory limit!

At this point one of the most experienced programmers in the team, one who had survived many years of development in the “good old days,” decided to take matters into his own hands. He called me into his office, and we set out upon what I imagined would be another exhausting session of freeing up memory.

via Gamasutra – Features – Dirty Coding Tricks.

You’ll have to scroll to the bottom of the article to read The Programming Antihero, but it’s totally worth it (as are all the other reads)!

Just. Plain. Awesome.

I sure as hell don’t think I’ll ever be in such a situation, but if I am – far out, that’d be an awesome way to do it.

Like whichever person I follow on Twitter who posted this, I could read these sorts of things forever.

Thylacines. Tasmanian Tigers.

But dig, they’re basically like part Dingo, part Wolf, throw in some Okapi or Tiger in the mix and if I’m doing my math correctly, adds up to 100% FUCKING EPIC. If mankind weren’t such assholes and erased these beautiful creatures from our existence than maybe I can at LEAST check one out in a zoo but alas the moment is gone. Tasmanian Tiger, I hardly knew ye.

via YOU MIGHT FIND YOURSELF.