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Anamorphic Pavement Drawings

by | Jan 25, 2009 | Art

Julian Beever is a Belgium-based chalk artist who creates drawings on pavement with chalk. They are ‘anamorphic’ because these drawings give a distorted projection and a 3-dimensional perspective. See for yourself on his official website and wikipedia page.

The image above is from Julian Beever’s official website pavement drawings page. You can find other amazing photos there.

Latte Art

by | Jan 25, 2009 | Art

This was another one of the random emails people forward unrepentantly. Latte Art refers to patterns made in the foam topping espresso drinks. Making good coffee is an art in iteself, but apparently this niche community has been thriving around the world. There are how-to articles, World Latte-Art Champions, and what not. 

Latte Art by S.CallaghanLatteArtExample2

Latte Art by S.Callaghan

(The photo above was taken from Scottie Callaghan’s flickr photoset.)

My paintings

by | Jan 18, 2009 | Art

Some of my infrequent attempts at amateur charcoal and watercolor paintings.

Calvin & Hobbes (Watercolor, 1 Jan 2004)

Calvin & Hobbes (Watercolor, 1 Jan 2004)

Focus (Charcoal, 06 Feb 2001)

Focus (Charcoal, 06 Feb 2001)

Last-mile networks

by | Jun 8, 2007 | Musings

There are some examples of last-mile networks that are becoming clearer to me. Consider:

  • Telecom: Verizon, ATT or some major company owns the ‘last mile’ of actual physical network that runs from the street into your living room. So irrespective of who provides the actual service in the central routing point, these last-mile owners rake in part of revenue generated.
  • Cable: Same with Comcast or Cox. They own the physical last few yards of cable that brings the entertainment to your TV.
  • Local healthcare providers (general practitioners, family physicians) can be seen as the last-mile network that big IDNs (Integrated Delivery Networks) and hospitals miss. The big players are always in need to bring in the last-mile players into their network.

Now lets see how new generation companies are changing the rules of game by obviating the need for ownership of ‘last-mile’ networks.

  • Vonage and VoIP companies disrupt standard telecom-providers by circumventing the need for specific telephone wiring to the home.
  • Dish and DirectTV  work around cable providers  with satellite communication. So does Joost, in terms of content distribution.
  • Telemedicine and remote monitoring technologies make it possible to take care of chronic diseases without actually visiting your big hospital ER.

I’m not sure what exactly, but there is a pattern here. Something around the impending value-depreciation of last-mile networks. Stay tuned while I sharpen my mental axe to trim this overgrowth..