randomwalks/dj

A quick update on matters Helvetica.

First, Gary Hustwit’s “Helvetica” documentary is real, or at least about ten minutes of it are, anyway. That’s how much I saw in a private screening of a handful of clips that was held last night at Pentagram here in New York. Hustwit invited about fifty or so of us to a “reception celebrating the release of three limited-edition letterpress prints” commemorating the film (beautiful work from Experimental Jetset in Amsterdam, Build in London and Norm in Zürich), but the real star of the show was the sneak peeks.

It’s very hard to judge an entire movie on the basis of a handful of snippets, but let me just say that I’m really excited for its release after this little taste. To see graphic design writ large on the silver screen (well, it was projected on a big wall last night, but that’s close enough) was really invigorating, and the interviews he showed, especially with Michael Bierut and Wim Crouwel, were riotous. Fingers crossed, the final product is going to be a film we’ll all treasure for a long time.

In other news, a resounding “Yes!” to those of you who have emailed in to ask — I will indeed be doing another run of my Hel-Fucking-Vetica tee shirts soon. I have a lot of traveling to do in the next few months, but I’ll try and squeeze in the time to actually put another order through. This round, the shirts will be run in a different color entirely, so as to preserve the ‘limited edition-ality’ of the first batch, perhaps in a shade of black or gray for increased bad ass-ness. And, in all likelihood, I’ll be running that second batch alongside a first edition run of my Fear of a Cooper Black Planet tee shirt, too. Stay tuned, type fans.

Finally, take note of “Helvetica Memory,” an alphabet designed by Mike Essl for Rick Valicenti’s Playground. It’s a fun reinterpretation of the typeface, as filtered through the lens of Helvetica’s contemporary ubiquity. And it’s also a good lead-in to something else Essl-related, for which you’ll need to come back to this blog next week. How about that? A weekend cliff-hanger!

Originally from Subtraction by Khoi Vinh reBlogged on Jan 26, 2007, 7:25PM

Originally posted by Khoi Vinh from Subtraction, on January 27, 2007 7:08 PM

Some time ago I had the great privilege of working for a week in New York City at the Fog Creek headquarters. Aside from getting a chance to meet Joel and the rest of the staff, I was also able to do some early exploratory work on the Mac version of Copilot, which went live today. This is a product based on a fantastically simple idea: VNC with no configuration hassles. Anybody who’s ever tried to set up a remote access connection to a person who may be technically naive, behind a firewall, etc., knows how significant removing the hassles is.

My trip to Fog Creek was a Copilot-heavy experience. Though only one of the original Aardvark interns was present at the time, the company was in the final stages of post-production for their Project Aadrvark movie. So I showed up just in time to meet the film’s director and join in company screening just before it went to production.

Up to now Fog Creek was “the best software company that doesn’t make Mac products.” Now I guess I’ll have to drop that qualification. Maybe now that one of their brightest engineers has been bitten by the Mac bug, we’ll be seeing other interesting stuff in the future. (Actually, they have shipped FogBugz, and an associated screen capture tool for Mac for some time).

One of the interesting aspects of this commercial venture is that both the helper and helpee processes are completely open source, GPL licensed code. How does Fog Creek make money by having customers download GPL applications? The mojo is all in the server. This is simultaneously how the company eliminates the configuration hassles and adds a monetary bottleneck to the offering. But at the new price of $5 for a full day’s use, I think many will find it’s worth every penny.

Originally from Red Sweater Blog by Daniel Jalkut reBlogged on Jan 26, 2007, 11:14AM

Originally posted by Daniel Jalkut from Red Sweater Blog, on January 27, 2007 7:08 PM

Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week PAUL FORD addresses a question thousands of young men and women grapple with each year: to law school or not to law school.

Have a question? Need some advice? Ignored by everyone else? Send your questions '); document.write('via email'); // --> . The Non-Expert handles all subjects and is updated on Fridays, and is written by a member of The Morning News staff.* * * Question: I would like to know what I should do with my life. I am 22. I am thinking about going to law school because you can apply a law degree to many occupations. Do you have any advice for someone my age in my situation? Thank you.—Robert Cassel Answer: 1. Disclaimer BY CONTINUING TO READ THIS ESSAY, THE READER ACKNOWLEDGES THAT ANY ADVICE CONTAINED HEREIN IS PROVIDED PURELY FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES (“JOLLIES”) AND AGREES THAT NO REPRESENTATIVE OF OR WRITER FOR THE MORNING NEWS DOT ORG WILL BE HELD LIABLE FOR LOSS OF PROPERTY OR LIMB, MILK-LEG, PREGNANCY, ROT, OR GLOOM THAT MIGHT RESULT AS A CONSEQUENCE... Click here to continue reading this article.

Visit The Morning News.

Originally from The Morning News reBlogged on Jan 26, 2007, 7:54AM

Originally from The Morning News, on January 27, 2007 7:08 PM

Long audio interview with Michael Lewis by economist Russ Roberts on "the hidden economics of baseball and football". "Michael Lewis talks about the economics of sports -- the financial and decision-making side of baseball and football -- using the insights from his bestselling books on baseball and football: Moneyball and The Blind Side. Along the way he discusses the implications of Moneyball for the movie business and other industries, the peculiar ways that Moneyball influenced the strategies of baseball teams, the corruption of college football, and the challenge and tragedy of kids who live on the streets with little education or prospects for success."

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Jan 26, 2007, 3:59PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on January 27, 2007 7:03 PM

The New York Knicks.

If there is a stronger argument for location determining value (something that comes up a lot in the whole would-LeBron James-be-more-valuable-in-the-Big Apple-debate) then I do not know of one. Lacking in profits and savvy, the Knicks are league leaders in proximity to large numbers of wealthy basketball fans, and that clearly makes a huge difference.

One other way to make the same point: one of the biggest assets any pro sports entity (player, team etc.) has is all the free marketing they get from the sports media. I'm going to make up some numbers. Let's say the Knicks get, on average, 30 column inches a day from The New York Times, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, etc. Then add in time on the local TV, radio stations, and websites.

If you were an advertiser, and wanted to buy all those column inches and airtime, it would have an actual price. A value--based on demographics, size of audience, etc. The number for the free local coverage the Knicks get? It's high.

Tally up the value of the free local media in Portland, San Antonio, Cleveland etc., and it's not nearly as high. The prices in the Oregonian and the Akron Beacon-Journal aren't cheap to you and me, perhaps, but they're cheap compared to the Times. You can bank on that.

That reality contributes mightily to the value of teams and players in New York and Los Angeles.

Not to say, of course, that you can't be a big star from anywhere in the NBA, but a bigger stage can certainly help.

Originally from True Hoop by Henry Abbott reBlogged on Jan 26, 2007, 1:59PM

Originally posted by Henry Abbott from True Hoop, on January 27, 2007 7:03 PM

Mari:

I am eating Sukeroku sushi for lunch now. Sukeroku is a package of roll and Inari sushi. Originally Sukeroku is a title of Kabuki. The story of Sukeroku is the love affair of Mr. Sukeroku and the Oiran "A-ge-ma-ki." We call deep-fried tofu which is a main ingredient of inari "A-ge" and we call roll sushi "maki." That is the why the package is called Sukeroku. It's a kind of Edokko wit. Sushi is good, but I really love pickled ginger, "gari". I can eat gari as my afternoon snack. (I have never eaten it as a snack though; I mean I like it that much.) Why do we call it "gari"? In the Japanese wiki it is said that when you eat gari, it makes the sound "gari gari," or when you cut ginger it makes the sound "gari gari." Well, I suppose this doesn't make sense. In your country a pig says "oink," and in this country a pig say "boo boo." By the way, it is very easy to make gari at home. In winter time, it works to warm up your body.

I am eating sushi and I am looking for some good topics to write, but today is a very poor topic day again. So I will pick "the best selling chocolate slab in Japan." I found this ranking on the Nikkei site.
1 Meiji Milk chocolate
2 Lotte Gana milk chocolate
3 Meiji Rich strawberry chocolate
4 Meiji Black chocolate
5 Meiji White chocolate
6 Morinaga Milk chocolate
7 Lotte Gana Black chocolate
8 Meiji High milk chocolate
9 Lotte Crunky chocolate
10 Meiji Chokolate effect cacao 86%

In Japan, Meiji has an overwhelming share of the chocolate market. I wrote I love 99%, actually that my favorite slab is Meiji chocolate too. My No.2 isKiri no ukifune(a vessel in fog). It has many bubbles inside, so that gives it a very light taste. And No.3 is Chocolife. It has 8 different tastes and each package has only 4 pieces of thin chocolates. So we don't need to worry about eating too much.

Talking about chocolate slabs, I saw many chocolate bars in the U.S but I don't remember about slabs. Maybe I saw Hershey's?? I am not sure. On the other hand, there are not so many chocolate bars in Japan; maybe Snickers and Kit Kat? Ha ha, both are U.S products. I don't know why, maybe Japanese don't eat so much chocolate all at once. Slabs are easy to break but bars are not easy to break without biting. What do you think? I wrote about Kit Kat in this entrance exam post. The BBC picked the same topic in this news.

Originally from Metroblogging Tokyo by Mari reBlogged on Jan 26, 2007, 10:10AM

Originally posted by Mari from Metroblogging Tokyo, on January 27, 2007 7:03 PM

Deep in the Mojave desert, there’s some sort of aircraft which looks as if it crashed and was left to rot. So how did it come to be here?

There’s a military airfield to the east, Camp Wilson, so it’s possible the aircraft came from there - but why would they just leave it in the middle of the desert?

Of interest is that this location is very close to (that famed magnet of extra-terrestrial activity) Giant Rock. There’s even more airstrips just south east of the crash site at Outlying Field Seagle, where two of the strips are abandoned but apparently the third is still in operation. Most interestingly, the Xs at each end of the runway indicates that no-one should try to land here, as it’s used exclusively by unmanned aircraft…

Thanks to Shane McGillacutty.

Categories: Aircraft and California

View in Google Earth

Originally from Google Sightseeing by Alex reBlogged on Jan 26, 2007, 12:38PM

Originally posted by Alex from Google Sightseeing, on January 27, 2007 7:01 PM

Artist Jens Claessens says he’s inspired by “concept art, french illustration, manga, and lots of art history figures,” and I’m certainly impressed with his range of styles and techniques. Visit the site for a load of sketches, digital paintings, and various drawing/painting studies.

Originally from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog by Johnny reBlogged on Jan 26, 2007, 5:26PM

Originally posted by Johnny from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog, on January 27, 2007 7:00 PM

This cold weather already has us longing for the springtime opening of the Mexican, Central American, South American and Caribbean food stalls at the Red Hook ball fields. It's gonna be a while before we can eat an ear of corn fresh off the grill or snack on ceviche at a sunny picnic table, but in the meantime, where can we get something to hold us over? We've heard great things about Tacos Matamoros (4503 5th Avenue in Sunset Park) — is it all it's cracked up to be? And has anyone been to Honduras Maya (587 Fifth Ave between Prospect Ave and 16th St. in Park Slope), the restaurant run by the woman who makes the Ball Fields baleadas? If you've got other recommendations, please share in the comments.
Photo by 536

Originally from Brooklyn Record by Brooklyn Record reBlogged on Jan 26, 2007, 12:12PM

Originally posted by Brooklyn Record from Brooklyn Record, on January 27, 2007 7:00 PM

"Price-based access enforcement to collective transport networks is a mistake; public transport should tend to be free. Free-riding behaviour isn't a negative effect; it forms part of a social safety net. In most European cities, ticketing is basically an 'honesty system', in-transit ticket checking is rare, and most people *do* pay. Distrust-by-default is not the behaviour of a system in which i want to live."

Originally from tecznotes links by Michal Migurski reBlogged on Jan 26, 2007, 10:28AM

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on January 27, 2007 7:00 PM

"The essence of the hack isn't just realizing you can use a system in a new, unexpected way. It's getting a disproportionate effect from your effort. It's catalyzing potential energy stored in the system."

Originally from tecznotes links by Michal Migurski reBlogged on Jan 26, 2007, 10:25AM

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on January 27, 2007 7:00 PM

Very interesting idea of dynamically mapping places mentioned in books in Google's book search. The Alienist etc. I wanted to do this with Dylan's autobiography. It would be great if Google could also make dynamic bibliographies of mentions in the books. (via Techmeme)

Originally from DefinitiveInk by joshua mack reBlogged on Jan 26, 2007, 9:32PM

Originally posted by joshua mack from DefinitiveInk, on January 27, 2007 6:54 PM

TN2185: Tips and tricks for beginning to advanced C++ programmers on Mac OS X.

Originally from ADC Reference Library Updates reBlogged on Jan 25, 2007, 8:00PM

Originally from ADC Reference Library Updates, on January 26, 2007 12:14 AM

Apologizing for not posting much lately is liable to get a fellow burned at the stake around these parts but since I'm feeling a little chilly today, I figured why not. Things outside kottke.org have been taking up much of my attention for the last week or so and they've made posting here regularly and with gusto more difficult than usual. Apologies.

But also, and more relevantly, I've been working on a number of improvements for kottke.org and I'm finally rolling some of them out. On the front-end, the part you see, the changes are relatively minor but things are working differently now on the back-end. I'm still using Movable Type to edit the site, but now there's a layer of PHP that takes what MT spits out, works some magic, and presents it to you folks, an arrangement that is probably a little nuts to anyone who knows their bangs from their octothorpes, but it promises to allow me more flexibility with how I want to present things around here.

Anyway, here's what's new:

• Slight changes on the front page, including dates for the short entries and separate listings for each movie "review".
• Monthly archives are now combined. Instead of going to separate pages to see the December 2006 entries for movies, books, remaindered links, and main entries, all entries are presented on one page. Books and movies are still available on their own pages.
• A pared down the archive page to remove the superfluous monthly archives, as well as little changes to pages here and there for the same reason.
• Something fun: a page of random posts from the kottke.org archives, featuring lots of broken links, really poor writing, but also some nice posts from back when. The posts randomize every time I update, which is every hour or two during the day.

That's it for now. There will be more over the weekend, I hope, including some looooooooooooooooooong overdue changes to the RSS feeds and remaindered links. As always, your bug reports, questions, and concerns are appreciated and may be directed to jason@kottke.org.

Originally from kottke.org reBlogged on Jan 25, 2007, 4:36PM

Originally from kottke.org, on January 26, 2007 12:14 AM

The Good Housekeeping Institute offers 10 things to do with your microwave besides cook. Rejuvenate mascara!

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket reBlogged on Jan 25, 2007, 10:59AM

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket, on January 26, 2007 12:14 AM

At Mary's birthday dinner last night I had the good fortune of running into accosted Ziggy to take a picture with me. I was slightly embarassed at my audacity and borderline rudeness but secretly proud of my audacity and borderline rudeness.

I wonder if I'll ever think of him as being a real person named James Ransome, or PJ as Mary calls him or if he'll forever and always be Ziggy to me, the total fuck up son of Sobotka who nevertheless occupies a special spot in my heart (the part of my heart reserved for The Wire characters).

Thanks for the picture Zig! It made my night! I hope I didn't ruin yours! :-)

Originally from Andrea Harner by Andrea reBlogged on Jan 25, 2007, 10:25AM

Originally posted by Andrea from Andrea Harner, on January 26, 2007 12:14 AM

Lego reproductions of some well-known photos.
Update: Another set from a different person, this time representing well-known paintings. (thx, derek)

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Jan 25, 2007, 12:20PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on January 26, 2007 12:03 AM

Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Jan 25, 2007, 12:07PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on January 26, 2007 12:03 AM

Mobile phones DO fry your brains, according to The Inquirer.

"According to a leak on a study to be published later this year in the International Journal of Cancer people who regularly used mobiles for 10 years and more were up to 40 per cent more likely to develop nervous system tumours - gliomas - on the side of their head where they hold their phones.

... A recent Finnish study by the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority found that people who had used a mobile for 10 years or more were 39 per cent more likely to sprout a glioma on the side of their head they held their phone."

Originally from textually.org by emily reBlogged on Jan 25, 2007, 10:50AM

Originally posted by emily from textually.org, on January 26, 2007 12:02 AM

For the typophile in all of us.

In Helvetica: The Documentary Film, Gary Hustwit chronicles the history of this wonderfully plain typeface. Check out clips and trailers, stills, and the history of the typeface.

It’s really amazing how ubiquitous this font really is. American Apparel, Fifa, the above-pictured NY metro system. There’s some really cool Helvetica merch available; and check out these awesome pins you get free with every order:

The film is currently in post-production and is slated to begin screening at film festivals worldwide starting in early 2007

[Link]

Originally from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog by Matt reBlogged on Jan 25, 2007, 9:20AM

Originally posted by Matt from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog, on January 26, 2007 12:02 AM

Posted by Salar Kamangar, Vice President, Product Management

In November, we officially closed our acquisition of YouTube, and since then we've received a number of questions about what will happen next. The summary is that Google Video and YouTube will continue to play to their respective strengths. But here's a bit more detail:

Google's strength -- and its history -- is grounded in search and in innovating technologies to make more information more available and accessible. YouTube, meanwhile, excels at being a leading content destination with a dynamic community of users who create, watch and share videos worldwide.

Google search results already include links to content that's hosted on YouTube. Starting today, YouTube video results will appear in the Google Video search index: when you click on YouTube thumbnails, you will be taken to YouTube.com to experience the videos. Over time, Google Video will become even more comprehensive as it evolves into a service where you can search for the world's online video content, irrespective of where it may be hosted.

This is part of Google's overall goal to give you the highest quality search results possible. For example, some users who do a Google search for Martin Luther King, Jr. may want to find websites about him. Others may want to see images of him. And others may want to watch video footage...

YouTube, as we've stated previously, will remain an independent subsidiary of Google, and will continue to operate separately. Google will support YouTube by providing access to search and monetization platforms and, when/where YouTube launches internationally, to international resources. YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen and the rest of the YouTube team will continue to innovate exciting new ways for people to "broadcast themselves."

Earlier this week, we announced one example of innovation in monetization and distribution with a new AdSense video test. We'll be working with a wide set of content providers, grouping together high quality video content from providers with high quality ads and offering them as playlists which publishers can select from and display on their AdSense sites. (There's more about the test on the AdSense blog.)

Today represents just the first step in our plan to bring you a comprehensive video search and content platform. We'll provide ongoing updates as they unfold.

Originally from Official Google Blog by Karen reBlogged

Originally posted by Karen from Official Google Blog, on January 26, 2007 12:02 AM

A great action in NYC, taping placards over those outdoor video billboards attached to subway entrances. The typography is composed of holes in the board, illuminated by the video ad beneath.

The project is Light Criticism, brought to you by the Anti-Advertising Agency and the Graffiti Research Lab.

In form, it reminds me of the work of Moose, writing his name on walls by cleaning them.

In context, it’s a lot like this guerilla wayfinding campaign, a grassroots, illegal action for civic improvement.

Originally from Social Design Notes reBlogged on Jan 24, 2007, 8:13AM

Originally from Social Design Notes, on January 25, 2007 8:44 AM

Social Design Notes: Negative Campaigning.

Billboard liberation campaign in NYC using placards taped over video billboards with the typography as negative space.

Originally from Laughing Meme by kellan reBlogged on Jan 24, 2007, 3:44PM

Originally posted by kellan from Laughing Meme, on January 25, 2007 8:36 AM

Mac OS X’s built-in Address Book is about as unglamorous a utility as any you can name. Aside from the fact that having a system-wide database of contacts that’s available to any application willing to hook into it is incredibly handy, very little about it could be described as interesting. It’s dead boring, in fact.

And yet, the other day, it surprised me. A colleague of mine sent, attached in an email, an updated vCard with his new home address. At first, I groaned a bit, because the relevant information — the new address — was buried inside of the vCard, hidden from view. I wanted it visible in the body of the email so that I could just update his contact information by hand. I was under the impression that, if I clicked on the vCard, it would launch Address Book and automatically add itself again to my contacts database — leaving me with two different cards for my colleague. Not a big deal, but an annoyance.

Two’s a Crowd

Below: Card tricks. Address Book has fun with duplicate contacts.

For whatever reason, though, I threw caution to the wind and double-clicked on the vCard. To my surprise, something unexpected happened: Address Book launched, alright, but a brand new screen appeared, one I hadn’t ever seen before. It identified the new vCard as a duplicate, highlighted the updated data, and offered to let me choose between retaining the original card, retaining the new card, retaining both, or simply updating the old card with the new information. I chose the last of those options, which also happened to be the default.

This is a smartly done and very handy bit of functionality, but the best part about it is that it’s so visually novel. The options arranged at the bottom of the screen, represented as a series of green and orange icons, are the most colorful parts of Address Book by far. Together with the unexpectedly playful, forty-five degree red snipe at the top right that reads “Update,” the whole screen looks an order of magnitude funner than rest of the application.

Fun Time Scheduled for Later

You can make an argument that the whole of Address Book could stand this level of novelty, and you might be right. But setting that debatable incompleteness aside, what I like about this new-to-me screen is the idea that an application can reveal itself to you over time, that an experience can be designed not just over the course of several sessions, but over much longer time periods.

In my case, it took me literally several years of working with Address Book to encounter this feature. In spite of how much care that the software’s designers took to make the feature forehead-slappingly logical and aesthetically entertaining, they were in no rush to show it to me; they let me discover it in my own time. They abstained from showing me daily tips, forcing me through extensive tutorials, or devising interaction paths that would unnaturally cause me to encounter it.

Instead, they just designed it and figured that when I needed to use it, it would be there — and that I’d be pleased to see it when I did. That kind of quiet self-confidence is rare in interaction design, I think; it represents a kind of maturity that we’re still working up to: the ability to hold back, to trust the users to embrace applications as a whole and to encounter details over time, to act more like artists than marketers. I know, I know. We’re just talking about a duplication dialog box here, essentially, and this is all a bit of an Apple fanatic’s triumphalism. But sometimes big ideas start with small notions.

Originally from Subtraction by Khoi Vinh reBlogged on Jan 24, 2007, 11:59PM

Originally posted by Khoi Vinh from Subtraction, on January 25, 2007 8:34 AM

Chicagoist has photos and details of Alinea's latest 24-course tour with wine parings. Looks amazing, I've got to get back there! Thx Emily!

Originally from Megnut by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) reBlogged on Jan 23, 2007, 2:33PM

Originally posted by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) from Megnut, on January 25, 2007 8:28 AM

Things were slow around here at the end of last week because I was at MIT giving a talk, and didn't end up with as much time to blog as I'd thought. I hope to write up more about my presentation when I get a chance. In the meantime, here's a little summary from John Maeda.

Originally from Megnut by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) reBlogged on Jan 23, 2007, 12:31PM

Originally posted by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) from Megnut, on January 25, 2007 8:28 AM

Human slingshot video. I so want a four-wheeler and a big backyard! (via cyn-c)

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Jan 24, 2007, 3:46PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on January 25, 2007 8:24 AM

"I felt a great disturbance in the [Net], as if thousands of [high-pagerank links] cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced."

A brief roundup of some miscellaneous observation on the "black hole of Wikipedia:

The change is now stated to be "Indefinite".

Regarding Wikipedia taking and not giving back: Well, I've said it before - It's Wales' world, and we just work in it (for free). There's a big difference between autonomy and the illusion of autonomy. And that difference should be clearest whenever the top-down decisions are evident (even if they're good decisions).

Some people say this change doesn't matter much, since Wikipedia's content is echoed and scraped, and those links may remain active. However, the scraper sites tend not to have a lot of rank or trust to pass on. And more importantly, Google knows how to deal with duplicate sites in terms of not counting them repeatedly (not that it can't ever be fooled, but page-duplication is a very old issue).

I've seen conjecture that this will lower Wikipedia's search ranking, since it'll now look like a spammish site, having many inlinks and no outlinks. That's wishful thinking. Wikipedia is "trusted" enough so that it can horde outlinks like Scrooge, it won't be a problem.

And while I'm amused by the idea of removing Wikipedia from results, or returning the favor to Wikipedia by similarly denying it any link-juice, I'm a little skeptical that anybody with enough power is listening.

Originally from unmediated by yatta reBlogged on Jan 24, 2007, 5:46PM

Originally posted by yatta from unmediated, on January 25, 2007 8:23 AM

We like this one a lot - On blank walls and white posters awaiting advertisements, Niko and Andrea cleverly co-opt the space by placing stickers of the "broken link" icon that appears on a web page when when the image is missing. We love how the simple sticker makesw a statement against the plethora of ugly white posters that you can't avoid seeing in cities around the world

Originally from Wooster Collective reBlogged on Jan 22, 2007, 8:49AM

Originally from Wooster Collective, on January 23, 2007 7:55 PM

For five weeks Mejan Labs will be transformed to a production laboratory and an open studio where we can follow the progress of the work of different artists. Invited to the exhibition are Michael Frumin (US) and Ralf Baecker (DE).

Originally from tecznotes links by Michal Migurski reBlogged on Jan 22, 2007, 2:24AM

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on January 23, 2007 7:55 PM

It's January 22nd, it must be time for another Cliff Arnall bollocks-fest. According to Arnall, his 'formula' predicts that today is officially the most depressing of the year.

Yes, Cliff, it is, but only because we have to put up with more utter nonsense from you.

Exactly the same story appeared in 2005 and 2006, and what a coincidence that all of these 'most depressing days of the year' have happened on a Monday.

As is traditional, it's a commercial tie in, this time with a management consultancy and a PR firm.

What is genuinely depressing, is that mental health charity The Samaritans (who should really know better) have now been roped into the sorry affair.

Cliff Arnall specialises in creating nonsense formulas predicting almost anything that helps promote something or other, and gets credibility by being described as a psychologist.

Link to a suitable Arnall antidote from Ben Goldacre.

Originally from Mind Hacks by vaughan reBlogged on Jan 22, 2007, 3:28AM

Originally posted by vaughan from Mind Hacks, on January 23, 2007 7:49 PM

All links on Wikipedia now automatically use the "nofollow" attribute, which means that when Google crawls the site, none of the links it comes across get any PageRank from appearing on Wikipedia. SEO contest concerns aside, this also has the effect of consolidating Wikipedia's power. Now it gets all the Google juice and doesn't pass any of it along to the sources from which it gets information. Links are currency on the web and Wikipedia just stopped paying it forward, so to speak.

It's also unclear how effective nofollow is in curbing spam. It's too hard for spammers to filter out which sites use nofollow and which do not and much easier & cheaper just to spam everyone and everywhere. Plus there's a not-insignificant echo effect of links in Wikipedia articles getting posted elsewhere so the effort is still worth it for spammers.

Originally from kottke.org reBlogged on Jan 22, 2007, 3:37PM

Originally from kottke.org, on January 23, 2007 7:47 PM

Flickr user Wright38 is refurbishing a 1961 Raleigh Gran Sport, carefully documenting the piece-by-piece teardown of its Campagnolo Gran Sport derailleurs, the GB Coureur 66 centerpulls, and a really beautiful GB Spearpoint lugged stem.

He's also located an original Gran Sport catalogue from 1962, focusing on the bike's “race-ace” features and fittings.

Also, here's Sheldon Brown on Retro Raleighs.

Originally from Bike Hugger by Frank reBlogged on Jan 22, 2007, 11:33PM

Originally posted by Frank from Bike Hugger, on January 23, 2007 7:45 PM

Leon Neal, AKA TabscoKid, a freelance news photographer and Flickr member got up at 5AM to head down to a beach in Devon to take some amazing photos of the aftermath of the MSC Napoli going down. His story below:

"A Police Officer walking past two of the shipping containers washed up on the beach at Branscombe, Devon following the beaching of the cargo ship MSC Napoli after it was holed during storms on Sunday, 21st January 2007. The ship is carrying almost 2,400 containers, about 150 of which are said to hold hazardous chemical substances. The drifting vessel was being towed to Portland Harbour in Dorset for a salvage operation, but the Maritime and Coastguard Agency decided to beach it in Lyme Bay, near Sidmouth, instead, following the structural failure. The area is a World Heritage Site and also known as the Jurassic Coast," - Worth the 5am start for this picture, TabascoKid

There are a lot more truly spectacular shots of this amazing event in his stream:

Originally from FlickrBlog by Stewart Butterfield reBlogged on Jan 22, 2007, 10:23PM

Originally posted by Stewart Butterfield from FlickrBlog, on January 23, 2007 7:45 PM

Google arranged a flyover of the campus during last year's camp  

Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Jan 22, 2007, 1:28PM

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on January 23, 2007 7:45 PM

More perler beads, more coasters. Aren't these cute though?

A must for any geek's computer desk.

Originally from Wonderland by Alice reBlogged on Jan 22, 2007, 9:10AM

Originally posted by Alice from Wonderland, on January 23, 2007 7:45 PM

Make: has details up of this gorgeous Hobbit-like home, hand-built in Wales using found materials and many eco-sensitive building techniques:

"You are looking at pictures of our family home in Wales. It was built by myself and my father in law with help from passers by and visiting friends. 4 months after starting we were moved in and cosy. I estimate 1000-1500 man hours and £3000 put in to this point. Not really so much in house buying terms (roughly £60/sq m excluding labour)."

I love the help from passers-by bit. And I love this house!

• Solar panels for lighting, music and computing
• Water by gravity from nearby spring
• Compost toilet
• Roof water collects in pond for garden etc.

I didn't realise I had such strong Hobbit-y tendencies.

Originally from Wonderland by Alice reBlogged on Jan 22, 2007, 8:43AM

Originally posted by Alice from Wonderland, on January 23, 2007 7:45 PM