The James Brand’s pocket-knife is a slick piece of EDC with a Micarta handle

You’ve seen some form of the Barlow knife at least once in your life. An icon of EDC, the Barlow was created over three centuries ago in England and perfected in America, quickly becoming Americans’ preferred blade over the years. The Barlow was such a crowd favorite, Presidents Washington and Lincoln never left home without theirs, and Mark Twain felt called to mention the tool in two of his iconic works. The James Brand’s Wayland aims at reinventing the Barlow, making it look and feel more sophisticated. The pocket knife comes with a S35VN Wharncliffe blade, fitted within a stainless steel handle that’s outfitted with Micarta, a composite that uses fabric and plastic to create a unique-looking handle with a one-of-a-kind grain.

The Wayland knife’s appeal lies in its ability to maintain the Barlow’s design cues and proportions, with new-age materials, a non-locking slip joint format, and an exterior that is absolutely devoid of any mechanical details. There isn’t a single screw, or lock, or functional element in sight. Every inch of the Wayland knife is designed to be an absolute pleasure for your eyes and your hand, and thanks to its Barlow-esque proportions, that comes pretty easy! The Wayland knife weighs a mere 2.8 oz (78 grams) and comes in a neat pocket-friendly size when folded. Moreover, a hole running through the base of the handle allows you to instantly attach a paracord or lanyard to it, letting you strap it to a bag or secure it around your neck… although it’s called a ‘pocket’ knife for a reason!

Designer: The James Brand

Canonical announces Mir, a custom display server that will serve up future versions of Unity

Canonical announces Mir

The X Window Server has been serving Linux users faithfully for the better part of a decade. And Ubuntu has been using the standard-issue display server to push its GUI to monitors across the globe since its color scheme was more sludge than slick. Canonical originally planned to replace the aging X with another display server called Wayland, but the developers apparently couldn't bend the compositing-friendly protocol to their cross-device whims. So, Mir was created. The goal for Mir is to easily scale from the TV, to the desktop, to tablets and phones while providing "efficient support for graphics co-processors." That means Canonical is relying heavily on GPU acceleration, which will require the cooperation of manufacturers like NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm and others.

As part of the cross-form factor convergence, Unity will be getting a rewrite entirely in QT and QML (the current version uses a Nux-based shell on the desktop). The Unity Next project will incorporate several core components from the Ubuntu Touch interface, inching the Linux OS closer to its goal of a truly unified codebase. Mir should make its debut on the mobile variants of Ubuntu soon, with Canonical aiming to get the UI unified and stable in time for the next LTS in April of 2014. For some more technical details check out the source links.

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Via: OMG Ubuntu 1, 2

Source: Ubuntu 1, 2