More Numbers.....

Seems like the "paint a number - make a sale" business model is being pursued by more than one artist. Anthony White also has a number series. I'm not overly excited by Anthony's artwork - looks like the daubings of a chimpanzee on crack, however you can buy it in varying currencies and it is multi-colored. The fact that he's created his own "secondary market" is quite impressive - even though it appears that he's buying back his own artwork for more than for which he sold it. Smart move there Anthony.

Update: 17 August. Seems like Anthony White is a little tetchy. At least I didn't liken his artwork to that which is created by elephants in Thailand - but wait, maybe I should look again? I'm working on my own wonderful business opportunity to sell plastic and metal scuptures of numbers based on some wacko bit of 2nd grade math. Get those credit cards ready..!

Update: 18 August. I had a call this morning from the legal representatives of the Elephant Sri-Siam, currently in residence at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. They cautioned me about comparing the primitive splotchings of Anthony White to the elegantly executed paintings of their clients, especially Sri-Siam. Below is an original elephant painting created by Sri-Siam on elephant dung paper. It's entitled "Daawk Sunng" ("Tall Flowers") (actually 'Daawk Sunng' translates on Babel fish as "bean sprouts, pad thai and rice", so I'm not really sure). I'll leave the decision regarding which artist is the better, elephant or Anthony, to the reader....

Boomzilla as a Graph

Created this image of Boomzilla using a cool applet that lets you see the HTML structure of your blog or website as graph. People who have created them for their websites are posting them on Flickr and tagging them websitesasgraphs. Here are a few examples, including CNN, Apple and Yahoo.

The Beast of a Number

http://www.onethousandpaintings.com/home/


....So what you get is a painting, which is a canvas, 30 cm * 30 cm, 4 cm, thick. It's white and it has this blue number number on it. That's it. It's signed, of course, and it has an "up to 19 digits" number on the back, which is sort of a password for that specific number.

...the "value" of a painting, i.e. the full price of a painting, is simply 1000 USD minus the number...the lower the number the more expensive it is...

Number 1 - if it was still available - would go for $999... initally, you just had to pay 10% of this amount. And then, after a 100 paintings are sold, you have to pay 20%, and after another hundred, it's 30%, and so on. And the last hundred numbers that are sold will go for the full price. So, it's a bit like the stock market: The more people buy, the more expensive it gets.

Criss Angel reveals his levitation trick

Check out the video at http://media.putfile.com/Criss-Angel-reveal-his-levitation-trick - Awsome video of Criss demonstrating how he levitates several feet into the air.

Amazon "R" Us

Amazon.com and Toys R Us have finally parted ways. Toys R Us has chosen GSI Commerce to provide a new e-commerce platform, and Exel to supply supporting logistics solutions for its new online strategy. On 1 July Amazon.com launched its new Toys & Games and Baby stores which it is running itself, along with selections from Target and eToys. Given the significant problems that Toys R Us has had in the past with fulfilling orders, it’ll be interesting to see how each company fares.

The Survivors

Survivors of the query Log clickstream era will gather at Craig Woods house later today to mark the evolution to Event Driven Clickstream. In celebration I've made a pinata in the shape of a pager -- somthing that we expect to be using less of in the coming months. It will be beaten to a pulp and small children will be showered with treats for no good reason. (And yes - I know it's "All your base are belong to us"......)

Thoughts for Evan's Graduation

Well, I have three years to prepare for Evan's graduation. Thoughts thus far (based on what I learned during the building of the cable car):

• Drive-in movie - Large screen on which is projected old 50's movies, concession stand (popcorn, hot dogs, soda etc), car's (real cars cut just behind the front seats, engine removed + other junk necessary to reduce weight).
• Space Theme - Tall (30 foot+) rocket ship. PCV pipe, white, flexible card (requires no painting), gantry made from PVC pipe.
• Midway Roller Coaster - Old wooden style coaster on which a small (12inch x 4inch x 3inch) car runs backwards and forwards. Lights, sounds etc.

I think the rocket ship would be straightforwad to build. Gantry is easy, just PVC pipe, fittings and orange paint. Ship framework is PVC pipe and flexible "hoops" around which the white card can be attached. Three stage rocket that is topped off with an escape rocket to remove the crew capsule in case of problems. Fins and engine bells would also be needed.

Time to start lobbying the PTA for one of these themes....

eBay this!

I have the cable car listed for sale on ebay. Will be interesting to see who bids and for how much (if indeed at all). Please feel free to bid without fear of winning as I will be taking the auction down before it is scheduled to end :-)

Couple More Cable Car Shots

A few different angles. Click on the images for larger views.

Cable Car Complete!!

Monday 12 June at Emma's 8th Grade graduation saw the unveiling of the finished cable car. It appeared to be a success - students were dancing inside the cable car (evening swinging from it). After three or-so months of construction it took only an hour and a half to reduce it to a few piles of wood and plastic tubing. For Evan's graduation I'm planning a scale replica of a Saturn V rocket....

(Click on a picture for a larger view)

Cable Car under construction. A number of people helped with painting (Emma, Heather, Cindy), putting on decals and generally running around for me. Thanks!!!

To Live and Die in Seattle

Well I'm finally here in Seattle drinking from the amazon.com firehose. It goes thus:
Week 1: "This is cool. No problem. Nice folks. Projects going well. Easy....."
Week 2: "Holy crap!"
Week 3: "Screw-it - down to business"

Wonder what week 4 will hold.....?

Doing time in Cabo

In Cabo this week. If you need me -- cbodell at yahoo.com will reach me. WIll be checking e-mail once a day or so, between margaritas....

Green!

I don't know about the grass being greener on the other side of the fence, but I certainly do know that greeen semi-gloss paint is a bitch to get out from underneath my fingernails....

As you can see from the shots below, the cable car is now regulation San Francisco Cable Car green (or as close as I could get by eye-balling the color from a second rate photocopy of a picture of a cable car). Next: the red trim!



And yes, that is a Commodore PET in the bottom left of the picture. Don't ask.....


Shopping List: Welding lessons and a spray gun!

Worms on a Blog (WonB)

What's better than Snakes on a plane? How about Worms on a blog. The BlueSfeare worm is a digital art worm created by the artists at Blue Sfear with the goal of creating the largest graphics worm on the internet. As of 16 April the worm is 4.26Mb, includes 92 images and is 63.88 ft (based on 72 pixels = 1 inch). The project is realtiavly forgetable, however the art work submitted thus far contains a number of well executed and interesting graphics. Will it get big or will it fizzle???

Max Headroom?

Actually MaxVista. Cool and inexpensive. Allows you to link up to four, network-connected PC's or laptops to create on large, single display. Don't throw away that old, barely working laptop. Recycle it as an additional display for your primary system. The MaxVista site has a cool video showing the system working across four laptops.

My brain is Wracked

"I'm racking my brian" -- we've all used it, and I confirmed today that "rack" (derived from the torture device) is the correct spelling. However, I believe in the seldom used phrase "my brain is wracked" the correct spelling of "wracked" is with the leading 'w', which means ' damage or destruction', and is related to wreck and wreak.

Color TV

Color TV. Better than black and white TV. More to see than radio.

Even more Cable Car

Continuing to make good progress on the Cable Car. Windows have all be trimmed out. Below is a view from the rear of the car looking forward.



Next and final stage is the roof. Challange is that the roof of the cable car tops out at about 13 feet. The garage ceiling is only 11 1/2 feet high....... I've resigned myself to just making the roof cuts for final assembly at the school hall. I *may* be able to cut the roof panels before shipping the who structure to school - but I'm not betting on it. Below you see the begining of the roof frame.



All those years as a kid playing with construction sets is finally paying off. See Mom and Dad - I told you that skill would come in useful one day...

Roof frame detail:

As interesting as watching a plank warp

Quick. Catch it while there is still time. For your edification: The Pitch Drop Experiment.

In 1927 Professor Parnell heated a sample of pitch and poured it into a glass funnel with a sealed stem. Three years were allowed for the pitch to settle, and in 1930 the sealed stem was cut. From that date on the pitch has slowly dripped out of the funnel - so slowly that now, 72 years later, the eighth drop is only just about to fall.

Gnr8

A stylish mix of form and function; scupture and light. Generate is also an alternative source for the Ambient Orb should ThinkGeek be out of stock.