By David Ponce

What else can be said about this, other than I’ve enjoyed ruining your childhood now that mine has been.

Remember: it cannot be unseen!

VIA [ Geekologie ]

By David Ponce

This seems to have been around since 2008, but it’s only now making the rounds on the blogs, so we thought to let y’all know about it too. The video we’ve embedded after the jump shows a creation by Japanese artist Mio I-zawa. It’s a rubber (or latex, we’re not sure) bladder shaped and painted to look like a tumor. It’s connected to a series of motors and pneumatic actuators, and the whole apparatus is controlled by a piece of software on the PC to which its attached. When the load on the CPU is low, the tumor gently pulsates. But start doing something CPU-intensive, and it’ll grow, giving you a direct, organic connection to the current load on the PC.

We’re not entirely sure why the use of a tumor, as opposed to say a fake lung. We get the whole bridging the gap between inorganic digital stress and biological stress; kind of anthropomorphizing the most inanimate of objects. But heck, even a heart would have made more sense… Why a tumor?

Hit the jump for the creepy video.

[ Artist's Website ] VIA [ Pink Tentacle ]

By David Ponce

Kenny Irwin is an interesting artist who likes to use a microwave to create. In this case, he took an OLPC and straight out melted it. He then added some “mixed media” (looks like parrafin if you ask me) and turned it into a slug. It’s called the OLPCSlug. We’re not sure what it means, as art, or whether he’s trying to make some kind of statement, but there you have it. Kenny then decided to put it up on eBay to raise money for the OLPC Foundation. Thing is, he’s asking $26,001 for this, 80% of which will be given away. I’d like to point out that this is still a 5 figure number for a melted laptop. Is it worth it? Keep reading for a gallery and pictures, and a VERY trippy video of the making of the OLPCSlug.

[ eBay Auction Page ] VIA [ Engadget ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Usually here at OhGizmo we try to cover the latest in cool gadgets. However, once in a while I’ll run across something extremely low-tech that seems brilliant. You’ll have to bear with me, as today is one of those days. It seems that someone came up with the idea to make an eraser, which has an attached brush on one end. What for? For brushing away all of those little eraser crumbs, that’s what!

Most of you will scoff at this, which is understandable. After all, you’ve got a pinkie that’s perfectly capable of performing the exact same task. However, the artists out there will ooh and aah as I have. You see, when you slide your pinkie across a paper you’ve drawn on, you smear the graphite just a little. After just a few times, your illustration starts to develop some unintended shading. This brush looks like it wouldn’t yield the same smudgy results. If you’re an artist, or just fascinated by things with brushes attached to them, you can pick one of these up for around $10.

[ Eraser Brush ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By David Ponce

Don’t shortchange your kid and give him regular old Crayons when you could be giving him these Rich Color Crayons. They’re pretty much made of the same material as regular Crayons, but instead of being one solid color, they’re marbled with a variety of color speckles that produce a richer color pattern. As you can see from the image above, the results can be impressive. Then again, these are obviously marketing renderings made by some kind of professional. But still, the idea is interesting.

Seeing as you can’t quite give each crayon an actual color name, they’ve been affectionately dubbed “Passion & Orange”, “StrawberrySpecial”, “CandyPop”, “CitrusHerb”, “BerryMix” and “ChocolateAlmond”. A box of these six “flavors” will set you back 1,200 Yen, or about $13.

Hit the jump for a few more pictures and links.

[ Product Page (Google Translate From Japanese) ] VIA [ Incredible Things ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I enjoy drawing, and like to think that I’m not half-bad at it. Not everyone has spent countless hours doodling to perfect their skills, so instead they can rely on a machine to help them. No, it’s not going to make you a great artist per se, but it will force you to draw at least one really good picture.

This Self-Portrait Machine takes a picture of the person using it, and once they’ve strapped themselves in, it moves their arms back-and-forth to create a picture. It’s a little gimmicky, sure, but who wouldn’t want to be able to show off an awesome self-portrait that they drew?

[ We Make Money Not Art ] VIA [ GearFuse ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Last time I checked, vinyl stickers weren’t gadgets, but every now and then I come across something too cool not to post. These spiffy stickers go near your electrical outlets and really make them stand out. Some might say that they make you stop and think about everything that goes into getting power from one place to another. Me? I think they’d just look really cool in my office. They’re a bit pricey, at around  $71 for the set (don’t quote me on that, I had a heck of a time figuring out the currency), and unfortunately you’ll have to get them shipping from out of the country.

[ DizDecor ] VIA [ GearFuse ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I’ve spent a good deal of  time drawing since I was about 10 years old. When I was 12 my dad bought our first computer, on which he promptly installed Photoshop. Needless to say, I was hooked on digital art from then on. I still do a good deal of my work with graphite and paper, but when I want to transform it on my computer, I’ve always turned to a Wacom tablet. Since the Intuos4 line was just recently launched, Wacom was kind enough to send over a review unit, which I was more than happy to take for a proverbial spin.

Wacom sent over the Intuos4 Medium, which is the equivalent of my now outdated Intuos3 6×8. The newer tablet has a slightly larger active area than its predecessor (5.5 x 8.8 inches, compared to 6×8) and the exact same resolution (5080 lpi). However, when it comes to pressure sensitivity, they’ve doubled it to 2048. I can’t stress enough how much of a difference this makes, but we’ll get to that later. Hit the jump for my full review.

The first thing you’re going to notice about the Intuos4 is that it’s a lot more sleek than its predecessor. They’ve ditched the shiny outer edges, opting for a matte finish on all but one side, which makes for a lot less fingerprints. The ExpressKeys have all been shifted to a single side of the tablet in a move that can only be described as genius. My biggest issue with the previous generation was that I had a tendency to press the keys with my right hand as I worked in the top right corner. Now with the buttons on the left, it’s no longer an issue.

So what if you’re a southpaw? Fear not, as the tablet can be easily turned around so that the ExpressKeys are located on your right. You tell the computer which side the buttons are on by selecting one of two different USB ports to plug the cord into. That’s right, the USB cord is removable on the smaller Intuos4 tablets. While not a huge issue, I hated having to run the cable behind my desk and plugging it into the computer every time I took my tablet somewhere.

The ExpressKeys have gotten quite the upgrade as well. I could never remember what I had programmed all of the buttons on my tablet to do, so I usually only used a couple of them. Well now I don’t have to wonder what they do, since each of the eight keys has its own illuminated display. When you set the key’s function, you can define what the display shows (such as ‘Step Back’ instead of ‘{Ctrl}{Alt}z’). Each display can show up to two rows of around 9 characters. Unfortunately you won’t find these on the Intuos4 Small, so you’ll need to dish out the extra dough.

Another new addition is the Touch Ring. This has taken the place of the two Touch Strips found on the previous Intuos tablets. At first it just seems like a cool slider ring that can be used for a single purpose, such as zooming or changing the brush size. However the center of the ring is actually a toggle button, which lets you cycle between four different functions for the Touch Ring. A small light lets you know which function you are currently on. Very useful indeed.

The pen has also seen a few upgrades as well. It features a new Wacom Tip Sensor which takes only a single gram of pressure to register. On the older pens it took a whopping 10 grams of pressure. As I mentioned earlier, the pen has 2048 levels of sensitivity, which blew my mind when I tried doing very soft feint lines with a larger brush size. After plugging my old Intuos3 back in, it became very apparent just how much of a difference those extra 1024 levels of pressure make.

The mouse has been redesigned, with a small upgrade as well. The cursor is moved according to both the direction and orientation of the mouse. Its oval shape is also a bit more comfortable than previous models. It still has the same 5-button configuration, though the two side buttons have been moved to above/below the scroll wheel.
Last but not least, we have the pen stand. This is easily the most boring accessory that gets bundled with the Wacom tablets, but even it has a little something extra this time around. Here’s a question for you, where are those extra pen nibs that came with your last tablet? Mine are sitting in a drawer somewhere so that I don’t lose them. After I picked one that I liked, I put them away and forgot about them. Well now you can store up to 10 of them inside the pen stand. There’s even a handy nib removal tool in there to boot.

As with the previous tablets, Wacom has included a nice bundle of software to enhance your drawing experience. This time around they’ve opted to give you a download code, rather than sticking it all on a disc. You get Color Efex Pro and Wacom Brushes 4. You can also pick two other programs. Your selections are Adobe Photoshop Elements (version 6 for Mac, 7 for PC) Autodesk SketchBook Express and Corel Painter Sketch Pad.

If you do a lot of sketching on your computer, you probably already use a Wacom product. I’ve yet to find another company that can even come close to the quality of their previous products. The Intuos4 is yet another finely crafted device that you’ll end up using for years to come. The position of the new ExpressKeys, the addition of the individual displays for each of the keys and increased pressure sensitivity are all enough to justify an upgrade. The Intuos4 Medium has an MSRP of $349, which might sound salty, but is only around $20 more than the previous model was fetching only a couple of months ago.

[ Product Page ]

These fish sculptures made from carbon fiber Formula One racing parts might seem a little odd at first, but when you consider that Alastair Gibson, the artist who created them, was the lead mechanic for the Benetton F1 team for 4 years, and later served as the race team chief mechanic for BAR Honda for another another 10, you can kind of understand where he drew his inspiration.

The parts used in his creations are from actual F1 cars (like the snazzy exhaust pipes on the back of the ‘Racing Mako’) and each one is documented so you can trace back where each fin, tooth or gill actually came from. Unfortunately these pieces aren’t available for sale, but Alastair is “undertaking a number of private commissions” according to his website, so all is not lost if you really wanted one of these hanging over your fireplace.

[ CarbonArt45 - Fish Sculptures ] VIA [ PistonHeads ]

If you don’t have kids at home, there’s a good chance your refrigerator is devoid of finger paintings, report cards and other such decorations. But that doesn’t mean it has to be completely bare. Magnetic Pixels is an easy to use kit that comes with 1400 10mm x 10mm colored magnetic squares that can be used to create pixelated works of art. The magnets come in 16 different shades, but if you’re feeling a little uninspired you can download a handful of pre-made pixelated designs from their website to get you started.

Now according to the Magnetic Pixels site, the kits should be available from Kikkerland, but I can’t find any mention of them on their website.

[ Magnetic Pixels ] VIA [ swissmiss ]