August 31, 2005
Zoomquilt
This is one of the most creative, hypnotic, addicitve and simple conflations of art and technology I've seen in a long time. It's like pixellated LSD.
The 16 Laws of Simplicity
John Maeda is a Professor of Media Arts & Sciences at MIT Media Lab. His most recent blog is an exposition of his 16 laws of simplicity - a combination of insights, musings, proto-philosophy and quaint observations. Simplicity in interface design is a hot topic right now, so it makes for interesting reading. And even if the notion of 16 laws whiffs of arrogance, there are probably few people better qualified to comment on the topic.
August 26, 2005
Chomsky with dick jokes
It's impossible to tire of these quotes. Two favourites:
"I smoke. If this bothers anyone, I recommend you look around the world in which we live...and shut your fucking mouth."
"Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration. That we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is only a dream and we're the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather."
Thanks Toby.
August 25, 2005
Fenriz wouldn't like it
For how much longer will BM be flavour of the month? Clothing label Silas and Maria - responsible for the appropriation of BM imagery to brand a line of soft furnishings - decked out their three Japan-based shops with a variety of cool / nerdish / psychotic metal grafitti.
Nagoya entrance
Nagoya interior
Osaka stairwell
Tokyo interior
Tokyo shop window
August 23, 2005
Moor Music
Some friends organised the Moor Music festival last weekend. It was a huge logistical effort, but the atmosphere, professionalism and weather made it a success (I had a great time anyway.) Also, the setting was incredible - high up on Addingham Moorside overlooking Rombald's Moor. Best bits included Freakin, Tim Wright, Mishkin and Jake getting a soaking. Respect to everyone involved - here are some of my photos, and here are some from another happy punter.
August 18, 2005
Why is Flickr the way it is?
If you give a damn about Flickr or UI design, this is interesting.
New Shoes Sir
I take size 11 shoes (so not exactly Captain Caveman-sized feet), but it's still hard to find decent footwear, especially older lines. So imagine my surprise when I found these in my local trainer emporium, available in size 11 only. IMO Air Max 90 Escapes are some of the fuckest-uppest Nikes on the trainer tree, so I was well chuffed.
August 16, 2005
Not as good as it used to be
I still have a soft spot for Games Workshop; I remember when it was little more than an RPG shop in Hammersmith, and when White Dwarf covered non-GW games. Now it cynically churns out new product like a Ford car plant. But some of its dark re-imaginings of old fantasy races are cool; check the artwork for its new wood elves range.
Old Phone Graveyard
The company I work for is updating its telephone handsets. This is the consequent old phone graveyard, and here's the discarded cabling.
What Next? The Speaking Clock?
You know podcasting's gone mainstream when both the White House and South Yorkshire Police get in on the act.
August 15, 2005
Last.fm vs Pandora
Ian's been roadtesting Last.fm and Pandora, and rates both of them pretty highly. His head-to-head comparison of Cocteau Twins-based recommendations was particularly interesting. The main reason I prefer Last.fm / Audioscrobbler is a philosophical one - Last.fm uses the listening habits of other people to feed me recommendations; Pandora uses a system based on categorisations by expert musicologists. Music is a social activity, so I prefer my recommendations to come from a social network. The same argument applies to folksonomies (and taxonomic categorisation in general). Assuming the quality of recommendations from both are similar, the philosophical question remains: is everyone equally capable of making sense of the world, or are some better qualified to do it than others?
Perhaps he found new ways to motivate them...
This is quite old news now but I still think it's cool. In Star Wars Galaxies, Alpha Company, 203rd Tatooine Expeditionary Stormtrooper Legion is a group of Empire-loving players who have displayed impressive loyalty and discipline. They’ve recruited competent people and taken out a good number of rebels. To reward them, SWG sent Darth Vader to meet with them. Here are the screenshots.
August 14, 2005
BM Photo Archive
This archive of classic BM photos is corpsepaint-tastic, and contains ample evidence that BM is nothing to be scared of. Found at Stephen O'Malley's Ideologic.
Edinburgh Fringe
Went to Edinburgh this weekend, and sampled a few 'Fringe benefits' (do you see what I did there?) Stewart Lee was pretty good and Richard Herring's new show 'Someone Likes Yoghurt' was genius. He even singled out Bronwyn for special attention ("the girl in turquoise looking bored.") But the real find was Alan Carr - camp and gossipy but also sharp and self-deprecating (best joke: "I parked in the disabled space outside Tescos. The attendant said 'what's your disability?' I said 'Tourette's. Fuck off.'"