Life in Pixels

haud ignota loquor

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  • The Philosophy of Invention

    There is much written about philosophy that guides good design. And once, not too long ago, design and engineering were two separate entities that were only married at the end-product stage. But we live in an increasingly interconnected world, and there arises the need for a style of thinking that embodies the gestalt.

    According to the Oxford Dictionary of English (standard on Mac OS X, naturally)

    Gestalt: an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.

    Apple is a brilliant example of the mix between design and engineering that embodies this philosophy: the product is considered as a whole, where both its functionality and aesthetic is of prime importance. This, for me, is what good design is all about: not a simple, superficial outer-beauty, but a beauty that encompasses the whole, internally and externally.

    Thus, back to my original point: the philosophy of invention. Philosophy in design is concerned with the why: “why is something designed in that way? What does the design contribute to the functionality and aesthetic, and overall user-experience?”. Essentially, there’s incessant rhetoric etched throughout the design process.

    Engineering, on the other hand, is a vastly different world. It’s an efficient world, a place where the quickest, simplest route is always sourced first. However, I do feel that in an age where sensitivity to human-created objects is paramount, there needs to exist some sort of philosophy that guides future inventors and innovators.

    There needs to be a sense of thinking about the gestalt. By perceiving the challenge in its entirety, there exists the possibility of providing a solution that is beautifully mathematical, scientific, and aesthetic. Engineers must ask themselves not only “how does this work?” or, “how can I solve this problem?”, but also, “why?”. Why should this solution exist – “what is the purpose of this machine?”, for example.

    By understanding the purpose of our mechanical creations, we gain deeper understanding of their place in this world, and thus can better integrate solutions into our everyday life, and into a more sustainable, brighter future.

  • Wozniak on Siri

    “I start telling everyone I knew and speaking around the world about how this was the future of computing, speaking things in normal ways, feeling like you’re talking to a human.”

    –Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, inc.

     Woz has constantly “needled” the company he once founded. Here, according to Boy Genius Report,  the Woz has lamented on how Apple has “dumbed-down” Siri, making it less cooler than it was before the Cupertino behemoth scooped-up the humble startup and turned it into the biggest selling-point of new iOS devices.

    From the BGR article:

    Wozniak said that he used to be able to get Siri to list prime numbers greater than 87, but when he asks Siri to do that now it thinks he’s talking about prime ribs.

    Wozniak was the engineering powerhouse behind early Apple computers such as the Apple II. He founded the company alongside his close friend Steve Jobs, who was able to brilliantly package and market Wozniak’s inventions and together, they revolutionized the personal computing industry.

  • Retina MBP and the Future

    Back in 1998 Apple introduced the iMac – and it was a big step forward in computer history. For starters, it was the first computer that did away with the old floppy drive technology, and truly pushed what was the hot tech at the time: the CD drive.

    And now, they’ve done it again. Watching the WWDC ’12 keynote, I noted a striking connection to the boldness of the original iMac: when CEO Tim Cook paused before revealing the inside of the new Retina MacBook Pro, commenting that the underside of Apple’s computers look better than most company’s actual design, it was as if Apple was lifting a caption from the marketing of that original iMac ( “the back of our computer looks better than the front of anyone else’s”).

    But more importantly, it’s their constant push of that removal from the past, of forging a new way forward, that is the most striking factor of this new product. It’s superficial to be looking at the new Retina MacBook Pro and commenting that it’s purely the Retina screen that’s the single most important factor, and that 1 Infinite Loop has lost their technical guidance. Because it’s not about the exterior, but rather the engineering prowess embedded in the interior, that can truly signify the direction a technology company is headed in. Simply slapping a Retina onto a new computer is not the full approach Apple has here; rather, it’s a new way of thinking. And with the Retina MBP, Apple’s started over, and I think that’s the best approach, having been involved in software projects myself that required a refreshed way of thinking to solve new challenges (more on that in a later post).

    Design and engineering require a level of precision unique to their trade; it’s a level of thinking about things and seeing things that is fundamentally different to other professions. This is clearly the case in the new MacBook Pro. From the tiniest of details – the asymmetrical fan blades that produce a variable frequency, thus making the fans appear to sound quieter than they actually are, and that draws cool air in from air-intakes on one side of the machine, allowing intelligent thermodynamic design to cool the innards of this beast, and then expelling it at the other side; the use of only Solid-State Drives, and, most significantly, the move away from including a superdrive (disc drive). These are factors that signify a push in the direction of the future, a push that once before in history ended the era of the floppy drive and ushered in the CD and DVD epoch.

    The new MBP is the icon marking a new wave of computing, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

  • On the Publication of the Vymanika-Shastra…

    The 20th century may be said to be made historic by two achievements: the bringing of Moon-rock from outer space, and the publication of “Vymanika Sastra” from the unknown past.

    – G. R. JOSYER
    Academy of Sanskrit Research

  • 3D: It’s Not About Excessivness

    After recently watching Men in Black : 3, I finally came to my personal conclusion about the 3D cinematic phenomenon. In fact, I kind of realised it when watching Alice in Wonderland. The 3D of today is not the same as the red-and-cyan-split 3D of the past, where it was all about the excessive spectacle of exaggerating perspective out of the screen-box.

    Rather, today’s 3D is more about adding a sense of depth – both into the screen and spanning outwards from it, all in the hope of creating a more immersive cinematic experience. It’s almost like a modern version of the medieval puppet-boxes, except with CGI special effects.

    However, I’m still very partial to 3D. I think that Hollywood is simply using it as a gimmick to sell more seats, and the technology still has a long way to go until it really becomes a good tool to augment the art of cinema.