2017 恭喜發財!

Genetically modified apples won't turn brown after slicing

The beauty of genetic engineering. The unattractive brownish oxidised stuff that you see in apples moments after cutting them is a thing of the past.

via Engadget.

2016 Marks Record Rising Temperature 3 Years in a Row

Uh oh...

Average surface temperatures over land and the oceans in 2016 were 0.94 degrees Celsius (1.69 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 20th-century average of 13.9C (57.0F), according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

But there's hope...

At a conference in Paris in late 2015, governments agreed a plan to phase out fossil fuels this century and shift to renewable energies such as wind and solar power. 

They agreed to limit warming to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6F) above pre-industrial times, while pursuing efforts for 1.5C (2.7F). By that yardstick, the rise stood at about 1.1C (2.0F) in 2016.

via Reuters.

Identity Theft Possible If Portrait with "V" Peace Sign

High resolution digital cameras. Portrait of people showing the "V" peace sign or any other way with fingers facing the camera. Identity theft possibility. That's how technology had advanced to and how people misuse it. :(

via DPReview.

FedEx Works - "Art of Delivery"

Every now and then we hear about how the delivery boys rough handle packages. Artist Walead Beshty shipped laminated glass sculptures (containers?) that fit the internals of FedEx boxes and sent them off. The result - interesting fingerprints of "rough" deliveries.

via Colossus.

Soya Cincau

For those not familiar with the language, it's soya bean with herbal jelly. Is 16:9 or square format better in this case?

A photo posted by Adrian Tan (@ionbuck) on Jan 11, 2017 at 7:13am PST

Happy New 2017

Happy New Year, folks! Inspired by a new year greeting with the panda head emoji.

Nothing can stop Christmas! Be merry!

Merry Christmas, folks! Just got to colour the drawing. Sorry if Santa looks a little scary. Hope Rudolph makes up for it. Santa and Rudolph are well protected by an aura of happiness... or you could say they look more like protected in a snow globe.

Lemmings with a Touch

If there's ever a reason to buy the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar it's Lemmings. Now if Twitter will just let me center the embed. Grrr...

This may be the best app I've ever built pic.twitter.com/Z9WJi7e74G

— Erik Olsson (@valross2) December 11, 2016

Little Rudolph

You know what's coming when you see Rudolph?

Coloured Glass

Sometimes if you look up, you'd find interesting stuff such as these coloured glasses.

A photo posted by Adrian Tan (@ionbuck) on Dec 2, 2016 at 6:50am PST

Mysterious Visitor's Balloon

Yes, a cute floating cow is best paired with a mysterious visitor.

Happy Halloween 2016

Have a great trick or treat. Frankenstein's monster is watching over you.

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar - Bright Future

You've pretty much read about the new MacBook Pros with Touch Bar and Touch ID on every corner of the web so lets not get there. I've had no intention to write anything about it but this Cult of Mac post sure peaked my interest! A modified version of watchOS is actually powering the Touch Bar and Touch ID independently under the hood. I suppose this makes sense why the price of the new laptop got to be more expensive than it already was.

What's even more interesting was that this revelation prompted me to revisit the post "Here’s why Apple will never give MacBook a touchscreen" that I've read moments before the one mentioned above. Sir Jony Ive:

“In our view this is a big, big step forward. It is a new system architecture, and it allows us to then create many things to come, things that we can’t envision yet.”

It's integration of macOS and watchOS (and to a certain extent, iOS) but not in the way that boring companies would do. Dual boot is so yesterday! I'm excited all over again about the future of the Mac (and for that matter, iOS devices) indeed!

Toilets - Origins of Great Ideas

I used to doubt that people have their first glimpse of great ideas when in the toilet but the best proof has arrived. Donkey Kong was born when creator and Nintendo legendary video game designer was taking his bath.

IonBuck's impression of a Thinker "Kong" taking a dump