If you could build an origami-like paper object that can visualize information at your voice command, what would you ask it to tell you? Google’s new ‘Paper Signals’ project is a fun way to play with information, technology and DIY crafts, offering templates for paper sculptures containing simple parts like a micro servo, an Adafruit Feather Huzzah (a thin, light WiFi board with built-in USB and battery charging) and some things you likely have laying around the house or office.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iJXYSfnxuQ

Google’s examples are an arrow that points up and down to track Bitcoin, a wheel that counts down to Halloween, an umbrella that tracks the rain in Seattle, a pair of pants that grows shorter or longer according to the temperature in New York City, a box with arms that tells you when it’s time to take a break and a rocket that tracks NASA launches.

You can choose from one of these examples and print the paper template to put it together using your own parts, or buy the Paper Signals bundle from Adafruit for $24.95. Or, if you have some experience, grab the code from GitHub and make something new.

Construction is in full swing on Chicago’s new Apple store by Foster + Partners, revealing a surprise design feature that wasn’t visible in the firm’s early renderings: a gigantic MacBook for a roof. When the project was initially unveiled in 2015, the drawings depicted a sleek two-story structure with river views, glass walls and a slimline roof canopy that looks like it’s precariously balancing on slender supports. But construction crews recently added a shiny metallic silver finish to that canopy – and a familiar white Apple logo.

The store is a relocation of Apple’s Chicago flagship, and will measure about 20,000 square feet. The glass walls range from 14 to 32 feet in height, but there’s little danger of breakage, as they consist of four layers of half-inch-thick glass melded with additional layers of thicker laminated glass. The carbon fiber roof is made of a similar material as yacht hulls, which is what gives it that iconic sheen. It’s four feet thick in the center and just four inches thick at its tapered edges.

You can see this unexpected addition in action in the video above. DNA Chicago reports that crews affixed the logo and left it in place for no more than 60 minutes before removing it again, but it seems likely that it’ll return, especially since the Chicago Tribune reported back in March that the logo would be part of the design. The Tribune has more photos of the construction process.

Apple Stores and Apple authorized resellers are about as sure a thing as can be in business but even these b&m goldmines close shop and are left abandoned.

There weren’t any official Apple Stores before May 19th of 2001, only authorized Apple resellers ranging from Mom & Pop computer shops to big box retailers like Best Buy and Circuit City. The sign above hales from the 1980s (the “rainbow” Apple logo was used from 1977 to 1998) and towers over the Roberts Court strip mall on Barrett Parkway in Kennesaw, Georgia. According to Rebrn.com, the sign advertised Rick’s Educational Products and although that store moved many years ago, the sign lingered on for decades. The images above date from April 8th of 2011 and April 10th of 2011 respectively.

Later that month, something – most likely a weather-related event – twisted the top of the sign 180-degrees and shattered the plastic on both sides. A Reddit user who lives nearby fortuitously picked up some of the pieces as seen above. Not sure what his plans for them are but we hear pretty much anything sells on eBay these days.

Dublin Down

The number of Mac authorized resellers dropped by almost half between 1997 and 2000. Around that time Tim Cook, Apple’s Senior Vice President for Worldwide Operations since 1998, announced the company would “cut some channel partners that may not be providing the buying experience (Apple expects). We’re not happy with everybody.” Perhaps the late and lamented Apple Centre on Kildare Street in Dublin, Ireland was one such partner that aroused Cook’s ire – no pun intended. Flickr user Fintan Palmer (fintanp) snapped the shuttered shop in October of 2008; fellow Flickrer twrbl noted no change in its abandoned status five months later.

Simply Closed

Simply Mac may have referred to itself as “the greatest Apple partner in North America” but according to a January 2017 announcement by the West Acres mall in Fargo, North Dakota, “Apple Corporation (is) ending its national agreement with Simply Mac to sell them Apple product, making it impossible for them to continue.” The Fargo store and the other depicted store in Billings, Montana are not the only Simply Mac stores closing and no doubt the signage pictured above will be coming down sooner than later.

Next Page - Click Below to Read More:
Fruitless 10 Closed Abandoned Apple Stores

Before WiFi and smartphones stole their thunder, internet cafés like these closed and abandoned relics offered cheap & easy access to the World Wide Web.

As the original public hotspots for intrepid internet explorers, these ‘net cafés were homes away from home, free from nagging parents and other annoying housemates wont to pick up the phone while you’re trying to download a GIF.

The Cyber Café in Worthing, West Sussex, UK was one such early example. Shopfront Elegy saved some snaps of the closed café circa 1999. Note the charming conjunction of the sign’s hand-painted digital type with the classic mosaic facade below. Sadly, both were lost in the unit’s 2015 renovation as Attic Solutions.

A Galaxy Far Far Away

The heyday of internet cafés lasted about 15 years give or take a few, with the first practical operations opening in the early 1990s. By the end of the next decade, however, the increasing power and utility of Apple’s iPhones and their ilk began to narrow the cafés’ market niche. Flickr user Johan van Elk (jmvanelk) captured the late & unlamented Galaxy Internet Cafe – no accent – in Duisburg, Germany, on July 28th of 2009.

Wanks For The Memories

Flickr user Ivan Bandura (mac_ivan) just couldn’t resist snapping the Wank internet café during a visit to Bali, Indonesia in the summer of 2009. One presumes he maintained control of ALL of his other urges as well. It may well be that the rise of online p0rn and the need (by most purveyors, at least) for privacy whilst viewing such contributed to the decline of ‘net cafés in recent years.

In any case, a more recent photo indicates Wank patrons – “wankers”, if we may – will need to get their kicks somewhere else as the AC units and decorative storefront potted plants have been removed.

Morocco’s Modern Life

Flickr user Michela (micny259) snapped this sun-baked empty internet café “somewhere close to Ouarzazate” in south-central Morocco on November 4th of 2006. The age of the image notwithstanding, internet cafés enjoyed a generally longer lifespan in developing nations due to lower per-capita GDPs. No telling if the pretty-in-pink Cyber@Lilane is still operating today, though it’d be cool if it had been bought out by a bitter and lovelorn American expatriot and re-named Rick’s Internet Café Américain. Here’s lookin’ at you, cyberkid.

Skokie Dokie

Ahh, Skokie, home of those hateful Illinois Nazis and this abandoned internet café in a mostly deserted strip mall. Who can say why this cybercafe couldn’t cut the mustard – easy access from the Yellow Line should have appealed to area non-drivers. In any case, Flickr users Katherine (katherine of chicago) and Marshall Rosenthal (mmmmarshall) captured the former Internet Zone‘s eerily anonymous state on March 26th, 2008 and April 2nd of 2009, respectively. Speaking of eerie, why does this miserable plaza boast TWO Subways?

iMac iNside

Flickr user benwagner chanced upon an abandoned internet cafe in Cienfuegos, Santiago, Dominican Republic, on April 29th of 2007. Though amateur and folk-artsy in its execution, the graphic representation of an iMac painted on the café’s outside wall is well worth a thousand words. Or, say, a couple.

Faded Hulkamania

You gotta admit, this internet cafe’s graphics really reach out and grab ya! How bow dah, Donald? You’ll find this closed internet café in Higham Hill, East London. Flickr user zall krishna (iotar) captured the café’s “hulking” facade in all of its sun-faded glory back on June 26th of 2013, several months after MSN Messenger was discontinued. Coincidence, or merely convergent devolution?

Net Loss

There’s not much we can say about the above closed and abandoned internet café above, other than that its graffiti-encrusted roll-down corrugated metal door looks out onto downtown Barcelona, Spain. Maybe that’s all you need to know… or WANT to know. Move along, citizen, nothing to see here.

Next Page - Click Below to Read More:
Lost Connection 15 Closed Abandoned Internet Cafes

Art made of salvaged circuit boards and other computer parts put what is normally hidden on full display in a sort of autopsy of our consumerist society, highlighting how quickly the things we create become obsolete. Is our obsession with technology a sign of our achievements as a species, or a festering problem threatening to overtake the natural world? These artists are all working with unwanted components, but have different takes on the issue of electronic waste.

Computer Bugs by Julie Alice Chappell

Pesky metaphorical computer bugs are made literal when artist Julie Alice Chappell transforms reclaimed circuit boards from electronics into little winged insects. The project started when Chappell discovered a box of tiny electronic components at a ‘craft bank’ in Portsmouth, England, instantly seeing the bodies and legs of bugs. Chappell hopes her work will raise awareness about the problem of electronic waste.

Technological Mandalas by Leonardo Ulian

Circuitry and microchips come together into intricately arranged, perfectly symmetrical mandalas in the work of London-based artist Leonardo Ulian. “With the Technological Mandala series I combined the suggestive and spiritual meaning of the Indian Mandalas with something that has been perceived as far from that sphere of influence, technology,” says Ulian. “The search of perfection as necessity within the electronics industry has stimulated my curiosity to produce this series of pieces in order toe locate that specific need. I wanted to show what has been hidden from the eyes of the consumer, representing electronic circuits as extraordinary objects where the perfection of the design can become almost something ethereal.”

Ornate Rug Made from Computer Parts by Federico Uribe

You won’t be getting too comfortable on this particular rug by Federico Uribe, which consists of thousands of tiny, sharp electronic components. The mixed-media piece, which mimics the patterns on traditional Persian carpets, measures 22 by 12 feet. Uribe specializes in making art from unwanted ‘waste’ objects as well as everyday items found in the home.

Next Page - Click Below to Read More:
Electronic Autopsy 24 Sculptures Made Of Computer Parts