randomwalks/dj

Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure follows a graffiti artist, while the game Chibi-Robo is about a robot that cleans.

Originally from NYT > Technology, on February 15, 2006 09:47 PM

Erdös’s co-authors have Erdös number 1. People other than Erdös who have written a joint paper with someone with Erdös number 1 but not with Erdös have Erdös number 2, and so on...

Originally posted by stamen from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 15, 2006 09:29 PM

June 8, 1968 The controversy over the cartoons critical of Islam printed in European newspapers has seized the world’s attention. To some, it must seem that the Muslim prohibition against depicting the Prophet could not possibly be enough to fuel such a violent response. And, in truth, it probably is a combination of that prohibition and the nature of the content depicted in the cartoons. (That three far more offensive cartoons were mysteriously distributed within the Middle East didn’t help matters any.)

But the importance of Muhammad in the Muslim world, in and of itself, cannot be underestimated. Consider Ved Mehta’s 1968 article about the massive turmoil sparked by the theft of a single strand of the Prophet’s hair, an event that occurred in December 1963 in the contentious region of Kashmir. There, too, other factors played a role: the intractable politics of Kashmir, the larger context of India-Pakistan relations. Mehta relies a little too much on lengthy excerpts for my taste, but it is still a valuable piece of background to the current cartoon furor.

Note: The article is Part IV of a long series covering Mehta’s travels in India. The New Yorker got a little sloppy about numbering the parts of this series. I think the series ended up having eight parts, the last of which appeared in the April 11, 1970 issue. Still, wow. An eight-part series. It’s hard to imagine any editor anywhere, other than Shawn, who would have approved an eight-part series of this sort.

Originally posted by Martin from Between the Squibs, on February 15, 2006 08:08 PM

I think we can safely say that it was a good day when I heard that the New Yorker was going to release all of its issues in DVD format. In the autumn of 2005, I bought the Complete New Yorker (CNY) set, and I’ve been enjoying it with gusto ever since.

Most of the reviewers who praised the CNY made reference to the futility of actually trying to read all of it. The number of issues (4,109) was often mentioned. It is certainly a daunting number. If you spend every single evening reading one issue, you will be nearing the end in the year 2016. (Once you finished that, you’d still have to continue the exercise for another year and a half to catch up with the issues released since autumn 2005.)

As I eagerly consumed my fill of the excellent articles, I often wished for some sort of online directory, blog, wiki, or catalog containing the favorite finds of some industrious person. Of course, this worked in two directions: after reading a particularly satisfying article in the CNY, I also wished that there were an obvious place where I could post the find.

Strangely enough, I never found any such directory, and Amazon’s comments page for the product wasn’t exactly doing it for me. So I’m starting my own.

This blog is herewith dedicated to the collection of discerning recommendations of treasures to be found in the CNY. Articles, Talk of the Town pieces, Cartoons, Advertisements, Squibs, you name it. If you stumbled on it in the CNY, and you think people should know about it, drop me a line. I promise to do my share of the recommending.

This will also be a place where people can discuss and debate the DVD collection itself. I am aware that there has already been considerable annoyance expressed in some quarters about various technical quirks and legal ambiguities concerning the collection, and — provided that the tone remains civil — I would like consumers of the DVD to consider this blog a potential resource for such topics. Having said that, I should state that I am relatively not very bothered by such matters, and I will not allow this blog to become a place for wholesale trashing of the project.

Eventually I would like to see this blog (should it find palpable response) turn into a collective enterprise, but for the time being I will be in charge of it.

So onward! I have plenty of articles I want to pass on, and I sincerely hope you do as well. This blog will never work if it remains a one-way street. Welcome!

Originally posted by Martin from Between the Squibs, on February 15, 2006 08:08 PM

Today Theo Watson in the Eyebeam Production Studio released the Maya to Google Earth plugin.

Maya2GoogleEarth is an open-source, cross-platform tool developed at Eyebeam for exporting 3D models from Maya into Google Earth. Once installed, it allows you to export 3D models from within your scene as a single Google Earth Placemark (KML) file.

The project was inspired by the Open GL extraction utility OGLE which can extract 3D data from openGL programs like Google Earth. We thought that it would be fun to be able to take the extracted 3D data, remix and add to it and then load it back into Google Earth.

Here are a couple examples, and there are more (as well as the KML files for download) on the Maya2GEarth page:

Originally from OGLE: OpenGLExtractor by Eyebeam R&D blogs, on February 15, 2006 08:03 PM

I’m sorry that we missed this post yesterday, but for all you day-late romantics out there here’s a (slightly patchy) large heart-shaped forest near Kansas City airport. Aww.

We’ve also previously posted various other heart shaped things.

Thanks: Glenn

Originally posted by James from Google Sightseeing, on February 15, 2006 08:02 PM

Originally from Modern Art Notes, on February 15, 2006 08:02 PM

"interesting concept"

Originally posted by anselm from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 15, 2006 08:01 PM

I have listened to this song about twenty times today.

Originally posted by axt from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 15, 2006 08:01 PM

Between the Squibs is a blog highlighting articles from the Complete New Yorker DVD set.

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on February 15, 2006 08:01 PM

Earlier today I posted a link to Frank Bruni's new food blog over at the NY Times. At the same time, I added a comment to this post about how restaurant reservations work here in NYC. I went back to see if there was any further conversation and my comment had been deleted (or had otherwise disappeared). Not such a good start. I've resubmitted the comment...we'll see how long it lasts.

Originally from kottke.org, on February 15, 2006 07:59 PM

The very insighitful Stowe Boyd gives a follow up to Robert Scoble’s advice about how to raise more attention (and consequently send more important ’snowball’ as in Stowe’s terminology). I.E. it’s w how to for improving one’s blog and one’s sphere of influence. Some excerpts:

1. True Voice — authentic and empassioned writing, clearly expressing a consistent and value-based perspective
2. Throw Yourself Into Dialog — Most great posts are a response to the writing of others.
3. Draw The Line, Over And Over Again — At any given time, successful, engaged bloggers are pursuing a set of themes or topics. (…) State your position and defend it.
4. The Big Idea — Every once in a while, work on one of those big posts, that outlines an idea that may have big implications.
5. Sharpen Your Pencil, And Then Write. (…) You should write — at a minimum — every day.
6. Courage — (…) Accept the occasional (or even consistent) vitriol from detractors and nay-sayers. If you stand up and say something is great, or pointless, or the most likely trend for the future, you can be sure that there are others that will disagree, and they will be happy to say so. Fine. But you can’t hedge, and middle-of-the-road platitudes or cautious optimism
7. Technology — (…) Learn how search engines work, and do the obvious things. Expressive titles, especially with people’s and products’ names help greatly. Tagging with detailed terms helps search engines and people alike. By all means, make your blog visually pleasing, accessible, and easy to read. Use graphics when appropriate, such as screen shots or diagrams. Link to all the people and stories you reference, and include people discussed as tags. [My favorite but hard to follow on a regular basis -nicolas]
8. Timing Matters — I am not suggesting blowing hot and cold on themes, but rather try to build on stories when they are still new and in people’s thoughts.
9. Human Sized Pieces — People are busy, and so your posts should generally not be 20 page dissertations.
10. Respond to comments — (…) Engage them when they come. But never feed the trolls.

uote>

Why do I blog this? actually I don’t aim at following all of these, especially my blog is first a repository for what I keep track of (yes that’s why it’s a HUGE MESS here) but I found some ideas interesting. I like what Stowe Boyd writes, relevant insights about to improve new media communication.

At the same time, News Scientist has a paper about the opposite: How to keep your site anonymous!

Originally posted by Nicolas from pasta and vinegar, on February 15, 2006 07:59 PM

gives you cancer

-- miami ink

ill-advised portion of odb quilt, sketch:

the odb thing ("rip") comes from brooklyn group home days... reportedly (from Trinidadian house-mother) he'd drive around the girls' home "riding in fancy cars, drinking liquor" picking up vulnerable or straight up soul-starving girls. he got real into one, gave her expensive shit, and called the house for her a lot. the house-mother intervened, told him to mess with women his own age. and odb said, "don't you know who i am?" and she said, "yeah, i'm from staten island -- you're a drug dealer."

a quilt that screams and cusses and is kind of hot and sad, like sexed-up adolescents... catholic symbolism (it was a catholic foster care agency) will aid, plus whatever else jumps in. fabulous dress and martini (fleeting, lost in the mix) may represent me.

odb's music maintains a prime zone in my emotional history btw. if effective this piece is about tension, not demonizing.

Originally from serenalarogers, on February 15, 2006 11:23 AM

Originally from Modern Art Notes, on February 15, 2006 11:22 AM

sledgehammer-operated keyboard, 2005
silicone, wood, computer, projector

It actually looks more like a rubber-mallet operated keyboard, but why split hairs?

It also reminds me of Perry Hoberman’s Cathartic User Interface which was fun, fun, fun!

Originally posted by T.Whid from MTAA Reference Resource, on February 15, 2006 11:22 AM

Starting next month Andy Baio’s Waxy.org becomes the fifth plank in The Deck ad network we’re building. Andy’s influential links list pretty much sets the daily surfing agenda for the web dev and design communities. It also brings millions of new page views to any buy on the network. Not only does Andy seems to have a perfect sense of pitch when it comes to selecting the topics we’re most interested in, he also seems to be hardwired in a way that results in lots of exclusive finds too.

If you’ve got a product or service that could benefit by being in front of tons of web design and design prefessionals, there’s a slot or two in The Deck open in March and April and we’ll be making May through July available for reservations soon.

Originally from Signal vs. Noise, on February 15, 2006 11:22 AM

Things about my job at The New York Times that I can talk about: I’m working slightly fewer hours than I did at Behavior but each hour is more jam-packed with work than ever before. I’m walking to work most every day; it’s more than two and a half miles each way, but I’ve never liked commuting to work on the subway, it probably doesn’t take that much more time by foot anyway, and it’s great exercise. I’m taking lots and lots of notes, and getting in the habit of writing everything down — or recording them in the impressive, Omni Outliner Pro-powered Kinkless Getting Things Done system — as quickly as I possibly can, before I forget the dozens and dozens of details that get thrown at me every day.

Perhaps most importantly for those reading this weblog, I’m also hiring several full-time positions for the design group that I lead, and I’m looking to do this pretty soon. So maybe you’re an awesome visual designer, information architect, or design technologist and you want to come work with me?

Apply Within

You can follow the link to the Times job board to get the full descriptions for each job that I’m looking to fill, but I thought it would make sense to provide brief, human-readable summaries of what each position entails right here.

Warning: Please do not email me directly with your responses and résumés; to apply you must actually hit the “Apply” button in the upper right-hand corner on each job description’s page, linked to below. I won’t be replying to anything sent to the Subtraction.com domain if it has anything to do with these job positions. Seriously.

Wanted: Information Architect

This person will help plan new areas of NYTimes.com by translating business and technical goals into wireframes, user flows and site maps. He/she will also be an in-house authority on information architecture, helping improve information architecture practices across NYTimes.com.

Please read the full job description and use the “Apply” link on that page.

Wanted: Web Site Developer

This person will help design user interfaces for new areas of NYTimes.com, from brainstorming ideas to completing finished designs for hand-off to HTML coders. He/she will also help make modifications to the existing Web site, providing design help where necessary to improve the overall user experience.

Please read the full job description and use the “Apply” link on that page.

Wanted: User Interface Specialist

This person will help develop new areas of NYTimes.com with a special focus on producing customized weblogs. He/she will also be providing design and coding help as necessary for prototypes and to improve the NYTimes.com user experience. A thorough knowledge of weblog publishing software, especially WordPress, is required.

Please read the full job description and use the “Apply” link on that page.

Wanted: Web Developer/HTML Coder

This person will help develop new areas of NYTimes.com with a full skill-set of client-side technologies including XHTML, CSS, Macromedia Flash and ActionScript. He/she will also provide help with other technologies in both client and server environments relating to the user experience, and will be continually expanding his/her technical knowledge.

Please read the full job description and use the “Apply” link on that page.

Originally from Subtraction, on February 15, 2006 11:21 AM

Originally posted by tom moody from Tom Moody, on February 15, 2006 11:21 AM

Originally from WFMU's Beware of the Blog, on February 15, 2006 11:21 AM

Originally from Tuberaider Video, on February 15, 2006 09:09 AM

Jason Levine's mom and her friends were using Flickr to share their drawings between one another and get each other's feedback.

For a while, a lot of the members were using Flickr to upload their drawings, but when the folks behind Flickr began enforcing a photos-only policy, people found themselves without a home for their artwork.

Here's some of the artwork that was so threatening to the Flickr Community Guidelines.

Originally from Off the Hoof, on February 15, 2006 09:09 AM

These are hyperlinks to internet websites you should read.

• Rhino is doing a Prince retrospective. Though there's certainly more than enough retrospectives out there already (a box set with b-sides, a crappy single-disk colection, and the soundtrack to Spike Lee's Girl 6) it looks like this is one of the easiest ways to get a lot of the extended versions of the old Prince stuff on CD. In the olden days, we had to track down European import CD singles, and it was uphill both ways! In the really olden days, we found vinyl 12" singles at flea markets while knee-deep in the snow. I hope Rhino cleans up the audio, too, as these tracks approach 20 or 25 years old, they need remastering.

• Now don't get me wrong, I love Prince. I'm just glad I'm not this guy.

• Who dares to link???!1 I dare to link! In related BLTN news, that's a mighty purty logo.

• A few years ago, Andre and I got obsessed with instant messenger bots, and he built some pretty cool little apps. Of course, these all get killed off after a while because AOL hasn't had the sense to do open licensing on their APIs. But now Microsoft has, which would be cool if anybody I know used MSN Messenger.

• Two years ago was a very naive time.

• If shareholders start to think that investments like Amazon's (excellent) web services platform aren't delivering enough short-term value, how is this going to impact the trend of big publicly-traded companies being more open with their technology? The combination of cool but expensive technology investments and unexpected underperformance is could make it harder to do Good Things.

• The SEO community just loves drama, it seems. Especially as reported in this Wall Street Journal story. I'd be mad if the person I was paying to improve my site was busy wasting time with a pointless online pissing match. And I say that as someone who's participated in one.

• In found Shaun Inman's discussion of Mint piracy interesting for a couple of reasons. First, I've faced the opposite problem for a while, in that we have a totally free version of our application that we make available which people are allowed to customize and extend and hack the code of, but some people don't know it's there. So seeing the contrast is educational. And second, with the purchase of MeasureMap (congrats, kids!) Mint is theoretically more valuable now -- how does that complicate the requests that some people made that Shaun simply encourage free distribution and then charge for support? The honor system and the gift economy are tricky things to navigate.

• And finally, stop sending me the link: I've Seen It.

Originally from Anil Dash, on February 15, 2006 09:06 AM

We saw the photo above on a new website called Stencil International, a new site that reminds us a bit of Stencil Revolution (which seems to be down for quite some time)

http://stencilinternational.com

Originally from Wooster Collective, on February 15, 2006 09:05 AM