Remember the endlessly epic MacPaint? All through my childhood and adolescent Macintosh years, I tried to master its sheer brilliance by creating hideous black and white abstract art with titles like “Square Dancing in a Blender”. Having zero actual illustration talent, I wasn’t able to manage much else, but I was ever in awe of anyone who could actually draw anything more than a stick figure (in a blender).

For me, it was basically the only thing I could actually use on the Macintosh, which I first acquired hand-me-down when I was somewhere in the ballpark of 9 years old. For some years prior to that, my step-brother had been creating MacPaint artwork for me and faxing it to me for special occasions. (Remember the fax machine?) I spent hours I should’ve spent getting fresh air hunkered over my mouse, attempting to draw a straight line.

Nowadays I’ve moved on from Macs but I will always have a healthy appreciation for pixels neatly arranged in what was, as far as software goes, one of the greatest time-wasting tools ever invented. And so it is with great pleasure and fervent hope that you too fondly remember those grand, golden days in digital art that I present to you some pretty damn amazing MacPaint art…painted, of course, by those far more talented than me.

Preface: For those who don’t recall MacPaint, it was a bitmap-based paint program developed by Bill Atkinson of Macintosh’s original dev squad. It hit the streets standard with Macintosh in 1984, and was also available for purchase separately for a mere $195, or approximately $400 in today’s financial climate. MacPaint was so awesome it stayed on the market until 1998 – 10 years after its last version, 2.0, had been released.

Without further delay, the art:

The much vaulted Japanese girl woodcutting as created on MacPaint.

A near pointillist landscape as only MacPaint could present it.

A Macintosh on MacPaint; the nostalgia is almost palpable.

A river runs through MacPaint.

Now if you’ll pardon me, it’s time for me to wipe the tears of longing for defunct-software-for-even-more-defunct-hardware from my eyes.

I have a hard enough time connecting most common printers to my MacBook Pro, but apparently that wasn’t going to scare away a coder and Lego enthusiast who turned his love of Lego’s into a working felt tip printer for Mac’s.

The Lego Felt Tip Printer was built completely from scratch, including the code needed to make the system work.

According to the designer:

“Lego felt tip 110″ printer connected to an Apple Mac. This is not a kit you can buy and does not use mindstorms. I designed/built/coded it all from scratch including analog motor electronics, sensors an printer driver, the USB interface uses a “wiring” board.,

Next to the Bugatti Veyron creation I showcased earlier this week, this is one of the coolest Lego creations I’ve ever seen.

Here’s a video of the Lego Felt Tip Printer in action:

What do you think about the accomplishment?

Sometimes, normal people do things that just amaze me.

Chad Barraford of Brookline, Massachusetts, saw the movie Iron Man and decided that he wanted to turn the fictional Jarvis – the talking computer in charge of Tony Stark’s home, workshop and  Iron Man suit – into reality. To do it, he used a combination of RFID tags, Twitter, IM programs and did it all using a Mac Mini.

The Boston Globe broke the story, but if you want some of the fun details and videos about the project itself, go to the Project Jarvis homepage. There you can see Chad’s videos of the process, as well as different fun steps along the way.

Of course, something like this seems like it would be pretty pricey to build. The Boston Globe tells a slightly different story.

Compared with much of what’s marketed as “smart home’’ technology, Jarvis is both a marvel and a bargain. He runs on a 4-year-old Mac Mini computer with built-in speech recognition — and virtually no additional bells and whistles. Barraford has calculated, down to the penny, how much he has spent on a DLA that does everything but brush his teeth. To date, the figure stands at $691.98. That includes wall speakers and an xTag wireless microphone.

I love homebrew stuff like this, and I’m pretty stoked to see that Chad made this pipe dream into reality, particularly for so low a cost.

Having been subjected to various personality tests in the past, I was glad to find this simple chart that shows you what type of person you are based on the operating systems you predominantly use.

It looks like I’m an “Artsie” (be careful how you pronounce that) though at one time I could have been a graphic designer, or just a plain loser.

Do you fit with this diagram? Pity the Windows users it seems (and just think, you invented it)

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The first pair were obviously conceived by Mac fans.

Whereas the second pair come from Windows fans.

No matter. No need for a tiresome debate on Macs versus PCs.

All I can say is that this would surely work for triplets, quadruplets, and more. Just buy more “Paste” T-shirts and you’re done!

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I don’t know what they look like where you are, but in Britain, Microsoft’s TV ads extend the “I’m a PC” mantra and now suggest that it’s the users who told Microsoft how to design Windows 7.

“It was my idea”.

Nice tactic, Microsoft.

You see, while Windows 7 is a heck of a lot better than Vista, which we all blamed Microsoft for, when it goes wrong (and it will go wrong), Microsoft can turn around and say “ahhh, but it’s based on your design. It’s your fault”.

OK, that won’t really happen, but when the average user is tearing their hair out because that nifty new taskbar or window snapping isn’t behaving quite right, there may just be a little voice at the back of their head saying “it’s your fault.”

And I’ll add “You should’ve installed Linux”.

“Or bought a Mac”.

Of course, Microsoft has been dissing Macs for a long time, mainly on the basis that they’re too expensive. Thing is, it’s hard to do that with Linux, given that it will run on exactly the same hardware (and in fact, less powerful hardware, too) as Windows bloated OS, and yet is available for free.

I guess consumers who are happy to go to Best Buy on their search for a PC aren’t really too fussed, and perhaps are more willing to trust the viewpoint of the sales staff.

Though Windows 7 is looking a lot better than its predecessors, Vista has really hurt Microsoft. I suppose it has to do all it can to ensure regular consumers don’t consider switching to an enemy system.

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If you were waiting for a reason to jailbreak your iPhone, this might be exactly that moment you have been waiting for. Mini vMac is a complete emulator of the classic Mac Plus for the iPhone, admitted rather useless but oh so nerdy!

Named Fork ported this originally Mac OS X app to the iPhone. Because of restrictions in the iPhone OS, the jailbreak is required. Mini vMac is free and available via Cydia.

The Mini vMac app emulates the Mac Plus hardware, but you will need to provide your own OS. Once the original OS is installed you can play classic games (which you also need to own or you could find them somewhere online)

I am aware of how useful the iSight Mac webcam is, I believe Mac computers pioneered the embedded webcam feature on notebook computers that it has now become a standard. If a notebook computer doesn’t have a built-in webcam, it usually is ignored! Beats the hell out of occupying a USB slot and dangling your webcam on to of your notebook lid.

Happy as I am there are times, though, that the iSight just doesn’t fit in certain video situation. Like if I’m on a video conference and would like to share my surroundings to my chatmate I’d pick up my Macbook and swivel it like a monkey with my hands up. LOL!

Good thing there is now the BT-1 Bluetooth Webcam. This webcam was built to pair up with your Mac computer. And no cables, honey, it operates on blue tooth with about a 10-feet radius from your laptop. That means you can stand up and carry your wallet-size BT-1 bluetooth webcam around. Great job!

Here are the product features:

- 640×480 H.264 video and 48 kHz AAC stereo audio
- Compact 2″ x 2½” x 5/8″ design
- 4 hour talk time
- Compatible with iChat, Skype and more
- 10 – 30 foot wireless range
- Standard tripod mounting screw
- Includes a flexible mini-tripod and USB charging cable.
- Requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or newer and Bluetooth v2.0+EDR or better.

My only wish… colors! I hope when this product hits the shelves it will come in say… colors compatible to the iPods colors? That would be really swell now, wouldn’t it? :)

Price is set at about US$150 and seen to be released late Q1 of 2009.

Ah now isn’t this such an eye-turner! I know this is the first of its kind as I’ve never seen anything come close to it. Sure some would say it’s killing more trees and we’re all trying to be environment friendly the most we can. BUT the idea is something to take notice of. We can make “tree-like” design anyway.

Ok, back to the subject… the Wooden MacBook case is, for now, specifically designed for the MacBook and the MacBook Pro line. For now it’s made of real wood (and I don’t know which kind), and the inside is lined with leather, to ensure that your MacBook doesn’t get scratched.

Nah, not even a space for a nano-studded USB wireless mouse as it snug fits with not even a wiggle room to spare. Question is, will it allow us to use our crystal cases too? Darn it, I hope so!

It also features a magnetic clasp to ensure your Macbook stays nice ans secure inside the case. No word on official product release, nor of its pricing. You can camp out at this page to wait for further announcements.