Liquid_Light Fixtures: "

GNR8 shows off the Liquid_Light series of lamps, presenting a drop of light in a ‘fluid’ form. Designers Buro Fur Form explain:

A product needs more than perfect function and ergonomics. A product needs spirit, emotion, and poetry!

For between $360-$400, spirit, emotion and poetry come at something of a premium, to be sure. Available now.

Liquid_Light [GNR8]

"

(Via Gizmodo.)

MacZealots.com - Tutorials - Complete Mac Security, Part 1: “This is the first in a series on Mac OS X security. The purpose of the series is to modify and create settings such that your personal data is completely protected every second of the day, and how to accomplish that with tools built into Mac OS X.”

MacZealots.com - Tutorials - Complete Mac Security, Part 2: “In Part 1 of the Complete Mac Security series, we discussed physical security of your Mac, as well as Open Firmware and how you can utilize it to safeguard your system. Unfortunately, this is but a part of the steps everyone needs to take to completely safeguard your Mac against information (or physical) theft. This week, we'll discuss login security in all its forms, and how you can be completely sure that no one can login to your Mac except you.”

MacZealots.com - Tutorials - Complete Mac Security, Part 3: “This third article in the Complete Mac Security series expands upon the first and second installments. We've already covered physical security, Open Firmware, LoginWindow, Fast User Switching, and Screen Effects, and how they can be used to secure your Mac. This installment will focus on file security and encryption.”

If you‘re run an Apple X-Serve, then you won’t need it 'cause of the really good Server Monitor Application which checks all services and the physical elements (fans, temperature, disks etc) of the server. On the otherhand, if not, you may be interested in this little application.

Simple Server Sentry: “Simple Server Sentry is, as described by the name, a simple application that can check on your servers at specified intervals to see if they respond. It was developed for our own in-house use to keep tabs on our own servers, and we thought it was handy enough to share with others.”

It could do with a total GUI overhaul, but it does what it says on the tin.

FLOATING POINTS: networked art in public spaces: “Emerson College and New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (NRPA) announce a new speaker series that will explore ways that artists use wireless technologies to transform our interactions with one another and our urban and natural environments. This is the second (see Floating Points: Net Art Now) of a number of planned collaborations between NRPA and its world-renowned web site, Turbulence.org and Emerson College.”

Check out the video of Anne Galloway's keynote talk (26th Jan 2005 or 20050126 for those Geeks out there): Anne Galloway

Picture this: You have a mac, connected to broadband with outside access to it (maybe you have a web server or are using SSH / SFTP / SCP for remote file access) or maybe you have a server running OS X. How do you check that no-else has gained access and is snooping around (apart from all the obvious security stuff like firewalls and decent passwords and not using FTP and so on)? You use a trip wire!

Here are three articles describing between them 2 approaches …

CheckMate :: Mac OS X Software :: Brian Hill: "Checkmate is a preference pane for MacOS X 10.1 or higher that allows you to generate and compare secure MD5 checksums of critical files. This can be used to detect whether these files have been altered by viruses, root kits, trojan horses, or other possibly malicious programs. (macosxhints - Install and tweak the Checkmate tripwire: “Brian Hill‘s excellent Checkmate is a Preferences panel that does just that. Unfortunately, he is no longer updating it, and it has some limitations … so here’s a quick tutorial on making it work.”)"

Tripwire on OS X: “For the past several years, Tripwire Inc. has offered an Open Source version of their file integrity product - but I always felt there was one major drawback: no support whatsoever for the Mac. Fortunately, the developer community also perceived this gap and put together a Darwin-compatible patch.”

And one with a OS X Server bias:

AFP548 - How to install and update the Checkmate tripwire: "A glance at the underground sites shows a growing number of rootkits in development. Combine this with known, unpatched vulns, like the iSync mrouter privs escalation vuln, and I'm feeling naked without a tripwire.

Ed. Note: A tripwire application hashes a set of files and then looks for the files to change. Hopefully alerting you when that happens."

Old hat? It seems like is that the ‘bootlegging craze’ has passed by (thankfully) leaving the guys and gals who are really good! Maybe what is left is just superb remixes that happen to mix a few other tracks in? So without further ado … here a couple of beauties!

>> mcsleazy ::: A McSleazy bootleg, you say? Hows about three….

![](http://www.mcsleazy.net/basementboys/bbf.jpg)![](http://www.mcsleazy.net/basementboys/bbb.jpg)

DJ Riko

sketchel: "A sketchel is a new shoulder satchel concept that

          houses original, one-off art on flexible canvas panels by leading 

          international artists and designers, and amazing up and coming artists 

          and designers too.

This makes each sketchel a unique art work, while still being a

          functional product, and the canvas panel is protected behind a thick, 

          clear PVC cover. The sketchel is made of black vinyl, with metal 

          fasteners and rivets, adjustible shoulder strap, and internal pockets.

Sketchel is something very personal, and one of a kind. It is not

          a mass market or mass produced product at all... but rather, the 

          opposite of that. 

No one in the world will have the same sketchel as you. "

Silicon, Not Just Software, Key To Pervasive Media > Silicon, Not Just Software, Key To Pervasive Media > January 15, 2004: “Pervasive media refers to the electronic extension and expansion of the human senses through the ubiquitous presence of intelligent software and silicon systems. The concept relies on a mix of technologies, from digital signal processing to computer networks and information management. Its adherents envision, and in some cases are beginning to deliver, a spectrum of content, applications and services that enable improved information access and communications across a range of rich interfaces, displays, smart output devices and terminals.”

Flickerminick, the electronic jellyfish: "Flickerminick is a jittery fabric jellyfish that contains fans to inflate and deflate the body, tentacles which twitch with stepper motors, LEDs that modulate the creature's colour from bright white to soft purple with each breath, electroluminescent wire and IR transceiver to ensure that you get stung if you get too close.

Lots of cool videos.

Author: Christine Liu.

Flickerminick is at the Crawlspace Gallery in Cambridge, MA, on April 12 - April 18.

(Via we make money not art.)

I can see a whole load of exciting art style possibilities (as well as the obvious commercial applications) for this tech.

Gel interfaces: "The GelForce, engineered at the University of Tokyo, is a transparent deformable gel that measures the distribution of the magnitude and direction of force. The sensor is composed of a transparent elastic body, two layers of blue and red markers, and a CCD camera. Deformations of the surface -when pressed with finger, for instance- are then calculated in real time.

One of the goals of the project is to develop a finger-shaped sensor for robotic hands allowing robots to perform fine manipulation tasks just as humans do.

For robots? Why should they have all the fun?

Mind-blowing video.

Still in the ‘I want one’ series: Japanese interaction designer Akemi Tazaki made SoftInterface, a soft, fluid switch that makes people really want to touch it.

Liisa Torikka and Joonas Juutilainen, at the Media Lab in Helsinki, created a fingeroperated, web-based messageboard. They covered a window with thick, semitransparent colored gel and superimposed a layer of transparent plastic, to make a surface where people could draw or write with their fingers.

On the other side of the glass, a webcam tracked the input and send the captured image in realtime to a website.

This gelBoard practically resets it self while one draws new items on the board.

"

(Via we make money not art.)