on the internetz.
The BBC are again staying at the forefront of communications technology – good to see one British public body gets it right most of the time! At the bottom of their news forums, which are great for open discussion of issues, the good ol’ beeb have started letting people join in phone debates over Skype. Check out this debate on the current Muslim cartoon crisis as an example.
Summary: Quality introduction to typography and layout. Easy to follow with plenty of good examples. (5/5)
Although I’ve had no official design training I’m always fascinated by design in general and in awe of people who make good design look easy (like these guys). So in the constant attempt to improve my design quality I was recommended this book as a good intro/workbook and was not disappointed. The structure of the book is well laid out and easy to follow, with plenty of good design examples and, surprisingly enough, it was well laid out as well. And although it’s a typography workbook Samara includes plenty of information on basic layout, grids and the like – lovely. Go get it if you need an intro to the world of type and layout.
An interesting analysis of how we use and abuse probablility in our daily lives. From how planes won’t crash in general but we still worry they will (up-playing the downside in game theory), to why bumping into random people around the world is actually pretty likely (bumping into a single specific person is pretty unlikely but when you consider all the people you know in the world bumping into one is pretty common). Ultimately it’s an interesting read, although a bit dry in places so not as compelling as many similar books.
Beautiful, unnerving, compelling, poetic and mythic, Murakami’s latest novel is one of his best by far following some of his classic plot lines but taking them in much stronger directions than he has for a while. Parallel worlds, strange coincidences and talking cats combined with a road tri pto save the world. Wow. A must read.
In this book an uber-intellectual postgraduate student gets enticed away from his cloistered college life into the heady, exciting world of dot com startups. There are certainly many interesting observations on the west coast lifestyle at this time, but the characters are not compelling and the story feels unresolved. Probably best as a beach read for when your startup fails.
After a week up in Montreal, where due to unseasonably warm weather everyone was going on about global warming, this article suggesting replacing normal light bulbs with new incandescent bulbs caught my eye. The concept at the end that products should be taxed according to their relative environmental impact is something that I’ve thought about before – a t-shirt that ‘costs’ 20c to make in a near third world country due to low labor costs should be taxed in ‘first’ world countries according to social and global impact worldwide, as well as for environmental impact. So, for example, in a country where the society is very poor and the incentive to make make cheap t-shirts is high that t-shirt should be taxed a ‘social tax’ that is transmitted back into programs in that country to ease poverty, consequently a t-shirt created here, that supplies local jobs and uses environmentally friendly methods may cost $2 to make, but would get a tax break on the shelf. In theory this is what American Apparel, the hipster’s gap, is trying to do – but a great idea is tainted by other issues with their staffing policies as indicated by their advertising.
Google have rapidly increased the quality of their satellite images on Google maps and Google earth. For example, check out this picture of Paddington Station in London, or the taxis outside my office.
If you haven’t already, then go download Google Earth and take yourself on a trip round the world from your desk – it is absolutely amazing. They’ve now added a full 3D simulation of the Grand Canyon which is off the hook. You can also see another aspect of their business plan there, further indicating their genius – firstly everyone is contributing piles of geographic information of their own into Google’s system, secondly Google offer a very reasonable pro upgrade on the service at $20 a year. This $20 isn’t much per person but considering it’s per year and the number of people I already know in love with this service they must be making a chunk o’ change of this. Personally I can’t wait till they properly render New York buildings as a 3D fly through with photographic wall renderings. In real time.
Jeez. I don’t know what Google are doing over at Blogger with their gazillions of dollars, but they sure as heck ain’t keeping the servers fast that serve up a ‘create new post’ page turn up. Kinda sucks, Blogger used to be super-fast and painless, and now every other post ends up being a half hour epic (assuming I don’t get bored). Anyhoo, guess that means it’s time to find another bloggin engine…
Anyhoo, on with the post: just been pointed towards the Pandora music recommendation site (“Friends who liked recommendation technology also liked…”), and gosh darn it ain’t it a doozy! I was tinkering around with last.fm for a bit, but that constantly seemed to suggest crappy music, with Pandora I dropped in Lamb (the artist) and seconds later I’m listening to some great ambient electronica. Why? Well, they tell you:
"Based on what you've told us so far, we're playing this track because it features electronic influences, mild rhythmic syncopation, minor key tonality, prominent use of synth and many other similarities identified in the music genome project"
Hmm.. not only did that teach me some new words (I always like to be learned something by the interweb) but it’s also spot on. Wow.
This is a great example of a good fitting taxonomy to describe an information space. These days it’s harder and harder to place bands into genres, and genres themselves are hard to understand, so why not cut the crap and get straight to descriptions of the music itself rather than try and pigeon hole it as you would do down at your local music store. Web-2.0-tastic I say! Go check it out.
Apparently a whale has been spotted swimming down the Thames near the houses of Parliament in London. That’s one of the most amazing things I’ve heard in a while.