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Metalab wires its Blinkenwall to run from Commodore 64, gives no word on the obligatory Tetris port (video)
We've seen some ambitious Blinkenwalls in our time. Nearly all of the attention is unsurprisingly focused on the wall, however, and not on the often clever hardware and software behind it. Vienna's Metalab wants to shift the limelight by kicking it old school. Instead of the thoroughly modern Arduino and Fonera hotspot that normally light up Metalab's 45-block glass wall, the team's Blinken64 project swaps in a Commodore 64 with a cassette drive and the unusual Final Cartridge III feature extender. Getting lights to strobe requires dusting off more than just hardware -- all the animations have to be written in assembly-level MOS Technology 6510 code that even our nerdy parents might forget. The result you'll see in the video after the break is a far cry from the relatively easy, web-accessible hardware that normally powers such blinkenlight creations, but it's also a testament to how relevant classic technology can remain when it's in the right hands.
Flow now available, keeps your tasks beautifully in sync
Flow, the long-awaited task management system by Metalab, is finally slipping out of beta today and opening its doors to the public. First and foremost, Flow is a web app that many will find very similar to MobileMe in aesthetics. Through this interface, one can add and manage tasks through projects or even delegate tasks to other Flow users (a handy feature for teams). The real killer feature we're seeing with Flow, however, is the cloud-based architecture. Combined with Metalabs' new Flow app for iPhone and its Mac companion app, it's a pretty great way to keep things in sync. Flow has a 14-day free trial, which I highly recommend trying out. Beyond this time frame, Flow has a monthly cost of US$9.99. Metalab is also offering a yearly subscription for the very MobileMe-esque price of $99.
