Scrolls are usually a delicate papyrus or pressed fiber pulp, surviving (or not) over centuries with essential information about our histories. They contain stories, personal accounts, journals, all filled with our ancestors thoughts and musings. With the Alu collection by Archive for Space, these notions are upended and upheld simultaneously. Presented by Bton Brut, these meticulously hand wrought aluminum sheets transform humble stock product into fanciful seating. The Alu collection includes the Stool 001, Seat 001, and Bench 001.The aluminum is finished uniquely, minimally changed after production to eventually patina over time. All unfinished metals, and even finished ones, will develop a natural oxidation layer over time, infusing the surface with depth and ranges of color. This will be especially interesting to see how this forms on a chair or stool of this nature, natural oils from hands working passively to produce a unique texture based on use patterns. Similar to the allure of raw denim, the customization and craft is in the actual use of the product, allowing the finish to speak for itself.For now, the Alu collection sits in its original light, brushed aluminum finish. The arc of the seat is expressive, wide and inviting. One would almost imagine the smallest amount of give, highlighting its primary function. The interplay of light between the rounded forms changes by the hour, inviting interest at any time of day.Incredibly light but strong, aluminum is an apt material for paper-like seating. The thickness of the metal couldnt be more than a couple millimeters, adding to the grace and elegance of the form. Similar to an old-world ribbon on a statue, flowing in time yet set it stone, the Alu collection gives life to aluminum, allowing it to shine as a material.Archive for Space founders Arabella Maza and Stephen MaginnArchive for Space is a multidisciplinary design studio based in London and Mallorca, ranging from interiors and architecture to generative art and set design. This is deeply informed by historical and cultural context, neatly categorized in the Archive, a database of inspiration from stories less told. Expanding on their ethos, they explain, We are ardent advocates of knowledge dissemination, for we believe that design flourishes when it thrives upon collective brilliance. The Archive hopefully unfurls a deeper understanding of design through our practices distinctive lens.Founded in 2013 by Sophie Pearce, Bton Brut has quickly become a magnet for the best design from Europe and Japan. Working with both private and trade clients, their capabilities in luxury furnishing and staging are unmatched. Named after the brutalist concrete finish found in modern architecture, Bton Brut stays true original, uncompromising, and honest mirroring self with reflection.For more on Archive for Space, click here,and for more on Bton Brut, click here.Photography by Thea Lvstad.

Manage UX backlogs the Agile wayContinue reading on UX Collective

The Great Twitter Exodus of 2022 is still happening. It's just a little...fractured. A lot of X power users migrated to Bluesky early on, which paved the way for a flood of folks to join that service in 2024. Meanwhile, a lot of technically inclined individuals are still hanging out on Mastodon (at least, that's where I hang out).Bluesky and Mastodon are both decentralized services, in theory, but users of one service can't really talk to users on the otheror it wasn't possible before Bridgy Fed, anyway. It's a beta service that makes it possible for Bluesky and Fediverse-compatible applications, such as Mastodon, to interact.What is the Fediverse?Let's back up a little. Mastodon is part of the Fediverse, a collection of services that connect to the same protocol. Threads, another place where a lot of X users ended up, is starting to connect to the Fediverse; WordPress blogs can also connect. This all points to a future where people can use whatever social network they like and follow people who prefer to use a different one, with one problem: Bluesky, despite being decentralized, isn't part of this network.This is where Bridgy Fed comes in. With this service, individual users of either service can opt in to "bridging" their accounts. I tested this out with my friend and Lifehacker alumni Eric Ravenscraft, who hangs out on Bluesky more than me. It worked wellwe can now see each other's posts, like each other's posts, and even talk to each other, cross-network.Create your bridged accountSetting up the bridge couldn't be easier: You just need to follow a particular account.Mastodon and other Fediverse users need to search for and follow the account @bsky.brid.gy (it's easiest to just search for thisnote that some Mastodon instances may be blocking the bridge).Bluesky users need to follow the account @ap.brid.gy.That's it! Bridgy Fed will now create an account for you that users of the other service can follow. You'll also be able to find your account on the other service so you can share it with friends.If you're a Fediverse user, your new Bluesky account will be @[user].[instance].ap.brid.gy. For example, my Mastodon account @jhpot@mastodon.social becomes @jhpot.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy on Bluesky.If you're a Bluesky user, your new Fediverse account will be @[handle]@bsky.brid.gy. For example, Eric's Bluesky account @lordravenscraft.bsky.social can be found at @lordravenscraft.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy.That's a little more complicated than I'd likeit would be great if the service sent a DM letting you know where you new "bridged" profile is, for example. Still, I was able to find my own newly created Bluesky profile pretty quickly, and I was also able to interact with Eric with ease. Here's how the interaction looks from Mastodon, for me: Credit: Justin Pot And here's how it looks from Bluesky, for Eric: Credit: Justin Pot Replies show up in mentions, the way they normally would, as do likes. If all you want is to be able to organically interact with someone who is using the other network, this works well.An imperfect solutionWhile this solution works well, there are a few hangups. Chiefly, it only functions if both people bridge their accounts. This means I can't see any comments from Bluesky users unless they also are bridged, and vice versa: During our little test, a few other Mastodon users responded to my conversation with Eric, but Eric could not see those replies. This make sense if you know how the system worksonly comments from bridged users are bridgedbut it's hardly ideal, and can lead to asymmetrical conversations. Unfortunately, the opt-in nature of the bridging service makes this inevitable.And there are other issues too: Bluesky has a 300-character limit for posts, for one thing, while the Fediverse doesn't have a hard cap. As a result, some posts are cut short along the way. I could pick at more threads (as opposed to Threads), but suffice it to say, this is far from a perfect solution. You can, and should, read the documentation to learn more. For the moment, though, it's one realtively simple way for people who aren't on the same decentralized social ecosystem to talk to each other, and I like that. I'll certainly be bugging friends I want to interact with on Bluesky to "bridge" their accounts.

If youve ever felt like you were duped by overpaying for something that was advertised as a great deal, youre in the right place. Its easy to get caught up in frenzied online shopping holidays like Black Friday or Prime Day, especially when retailers are known forsneaking price hikes before major sales or deceiving shoppers with tricks to spend more than you intended to. But there are actionable steps to prepare ourselves for major sales like the Black Friday deals from Walmart, Target, and Amazon.Howtotrackthe price of anitemFiguring out the best time to buy something requires constant watch over ever-fluctuating online prices and some knowledge of how prices have changed in the past. As a shopping and deal writer, that is what I do for a living, and it can be very time-consuming. Luckily, you dont have to figure it all out yourself: Here are the best websites and extensions I've been using for years to check price history and track prices so that you can be sure youre getting the best deal possible.The best Amazon price tracker: Camelcamelcamel Credit: camelcamelcamel.com CamelCamelCamel is among the best ways to track prices on Amazon products. You can install the browser extension (on Chrome and Firefox) to get access to the sites features without leaving Amazon, or you can just copy and paste an Amazon link or product name to the websites search bar. CamelCamelCamel shows you how the price of the item has gone up or down over time, how prices have changed through Amazon directly, and the fluctuations from third-party Amazon sellers who list new and used items.If you sign up for a free account, you can set up alerts so the site can notify you by email when the price of an item drops below a certain amount, if you can get it used for a given price, or if its at an all-time low and now is a good time to buy. You can even see previous historic highs and lows and try to map out the best time to strike. The best price tracker for most online retailers: Honey Credit: joinhoney.com Honey is more than a price-checking tool with automatic coupon and price-tracking alerts. The Honey browser extension compares prices from a whole bunch of retailers, not just Amazon. You can create a Droplist, which notifies you if the prices drop for an item on your list if youre willing to wait for a deal. Here is what creating a Droplist can do for you:First, itll keep the items you want to keep tabs on organized and easily accessible. Second, itll track the prices of those products and alert you when they go on sale at any major retailer. You can see how much those prices cost leading up to the sale to see if they are, in fact, good deals or a trick from retailers to take advantage of you, and even compare them with other major retailers to see who has the best deal. You can see how to set up your droplist here.The Honey extension also finds promo codes and applies them at checkout automatically when youre shopping on a retailers website. Users can also collect Honey Gold, a percentage back from online purchases made at more than 4,500 stores. Gold can be traded for gift cards to stores like Amazon, Groupon, Macys, and more.Honey is available on Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge and Opera.The best tool to compare prices: Capital One Shopping Credit: Capital One Shopping - Other Capital One Shopping, previously known as Wikibuy, compares prices from other sellers when you shop on Amazon. The browser extension will notify you if a product you are looking at is cheaper somewhere else, and offers a summary of pricing history, estimated delivery time, and total price, including tax and shipping. If you can apply a coupon, itll add that too. When the price drops for a product youve viewed, Capital One Shopping will notify you. When you shop, you can earn credits for your purchases at some websites, like Walmart and eBay, that Capital One Shopping has partnered with. You can trade that credit for gift cards or put it toward purchases through Capital One Shoppings site.The extension is available for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari, and an iOS app allows you to scan barcodes and search products to do price comparisons from your phone.The best price tracker tool for gamers: CheapShark Credit: cheapshark.com While most of the others in the roundup focus on products like electronics, apparel, household goods, and appliances, CheapShark is a great option for those looking to save money on video games. CheapShark combines all of the great places to get discounts on games in one place, one easily searchable directory and database of current prices from sites including Steam, GoG, Green Man Gaming, GameStop, Amazon, and more. Of course, its limited to video games, but you can search a game name not just to see how much itll cost you to buy, but even if you can buy it at alland which retailer has it available. If you want, you can even filter by games currently on sale at their selected stores.When you search for a specific game, CheapShark tells you what the cheapest-ever price was, when it hit that price, and gives you the choice to either go ahead and buy it from your choice of retailer or to sign up for a price notification if it drops again.Honorable mentionsSlickDeals: Great for finding deals and checking prices Credit: slickdeals.net SlickDeals is well known for bringing you up-to-the-minute discounts, coupons, and other deals from around the web, but its web-based price tracker is also great for watching prices on just about any item on Amazon and on a ton of other popular shopping sites, like Newegg, Gamestop, Chewy, Home Depot, and others. Credit: SlickDeals The service doesnt give you a detailed price history like some of the others in the roundup, only showing a deal history under the price intelligence section for a few popular products. However, it will track the price of your item from when you create an alert going forward and send you an email if the price drops below a threshold that you set. You can also return to the price tracker at any time, log in to your account, and see all of your tracked items on the same screen.Keepa: Great price-tracking tool for Amazon and eBay Credit: Keepa Keepa works very similarly to Camelcamelcamel, but instead of clicking on the extension to see the price history, it'll be automatically displayed below the image of the product. This helps if clicking on the extension or installing is one click too much for you. Keepa also lets you track specific products and sends you notifications when they go below a specific price that you set. It's also not just limited to Amazon, it also works on eBay. You can download the extension for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge, and Safari.

Bluesky, which has surged in the days following the US election, said on Friday that it wont train on its users posts for generative AI. The declaration stands in stark contrast to the AI training policies of X (Twitter) and Metas Threads. Probably not coincidentally, Blueskys announcement came the same day Xs new terms of service, allowing third-party partners to train on user posts, went into effect.A number of artists and creators have made their home on Bluesky, and we hear their concerns with other platforms training on their data, Bluesky posted (via The Verge) on Friday. We do not use any of your content to train generative AI, and have no intention of doing so.In a follow-up post, the decentralized social platform clarified that it does use AI to help with content moderation. Bluesky uses AI internally to assist in content moderation, which helps us triage posts and shield human moderators from harmful content, the company posted. Bluesky also added that it uses AI in the algorithms powering its Discover feed.None of these are Gen AI systems trained on user content, Bluesky stressed.The Verge points out that Blueskys robots.txt (the policy that dictates what outside parties can scrape from a website) doesnt prevent OpenAI, Google or other leading GenAI companies from crawling its data. The company justified that potential hole by pointing to the platforms open and public nature. Just as robots.txt files dont always prevent outside companies from crawling those sites, the same applies here, spokesperson Emily Liu told The Verge. That said, wed like to do our part to ensure that outside orgs respect user consent and are actively discussing within the team on how to achieve this.Although Bluesky is still the underdog in a race with X and Threads, the platform has picked up steam after the US election. It passed the 15 million user threshold on Wednesday after adding more than a million in the past week.A report from web analytics company SimilarWeb noted that the signup surge coincided with a spike in X deactivations. It found that more than 115,000 US web visitors deactivated their [X] accounts on November 7, more than on any previous day of Elon Musks tenure. In parallel, web traffic and daily active users for Bluesky increased dramatically in the week before the election, and then again after election day.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/the-suddenly-hot-bluesky-says-it-wont-train-ai-on-your-posts-220034195.html?src=rss

A damning report from the Anti-Defamation League published Thursday on the unprecedented amount of racist and violent content on Steam Community has prompted a US Senator to take action. In a letter spotted by The Verge, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) asked Valve CEO Gabe Newell how he and his company are addressing the issue.My concern is elevated by the fact that Steam is the largest single online gaming digital distribution and social networking platform in the world with over 100 million unique user accounts and a user base similar in scale to that of the traditional social media and social network platforms, Warner wrote.The senator also cited Steams online conduct policy that states users may not upload or post illegal or inappropriate content [including] [real] or disturbing depictions of violence or harass other users or Steam personnel.Valve must bring its content moderation practices in line with industry standards or face more intense scrutiny from the federal government for its complicity in allowing hate groups to congregate and engage in activities that undoubtedly puts Americans at risk, Warner writes.Congress doesnt have the ability to take action on Valve or any platform except to shine light on the problem through letters and committee hearings. The Supreme Court overturned two state laws in June that prevented government officials from communicating with social media companies about objectionable content.This also isnt the first time that Congress has raised concerns with Valve about extremist and racist content created by users or players in one of its products. The Senate Committee on the Judiciary sent a letter to Newell in 2023 to express concerns about players posting and spouting racist language in Valves multiplayer online arena game Dota 2.We reached out to Valve for comment. We will update this story if we receive a statement or reactions from Valve.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/adls-report-on-racist-steam-community-posts-prompts-a-letter-from-virginia-senator-214243775.html?src=rss

Maxon has released Red Giant 2025.2 and Universe 2025.1. Check out the new features in the suite of After Effects plugins and the online library of effects and transitions, including these new plugins for creating retro pixel dithering effects.https://www.cgchannel.com/2024/11/maxon-releases-red-giant-2025-2-and-universe-2025-1/

Ornatrix 3 for Cinema 4D is out. Check out the new features in the C4D edition of the popular hair and fur plugin, including the option to 'graft' readymade procedural grooms onto a character, and to 'box' operators into a single modifier.https://www.cgchannel.com/2024/11/ephere-releases-ornatrix-3-for-cinema-4d/

Looking for NYT Strands answers and hints? Here's all you need to know to solve today's game, including the spangram.

Looking for NYT Connections answers and hints? Here's all you need to know to solve today's game, plus my commentary on the puzzles.