How to make iPhone buttons
LaunchPad Blog: Replicating iPhone Buttons the ‘-webkit’ way: “Well, I started digging around Safari’s ‘-webkit’ innards, and was able to to use the -webkit-border-image to accomplish exactly what I wanted.”
« June 24, 2007 - June 30, 2007 | Main | July 8, 2007 - July 14, 2007 »
July 7, 2007
iTunes 7.3 UI changes
ThinkMac Blog: “iTunes 7.3 has a number of subtle user interface enhancements that aid usability and in some cases improve the cosmetics.”
Hackint0sh: iPhone serial hacked, "full interactive shell".
Hackint0sh: iPhone serial hacked, "full interactive shell". This appears to be a bootloader shell, not an OS X shell.
L'Equipe becomes "The Team" for London start
The French sports daily L'Equipe commemmorated the Tour's visit to London with a Saturday edition that featured two front pages -- one in English.
With Marion Bartoli in the women's Wimbledon final and Richard Gasquet facing off with Roger Federer later today, the eyes of the French sports world are in London today, and both covers featured the headline “God Save le Tour!”
Only the cover was in English, although interestingly, the paper's web page is surveying its readers today on whether they speak English, with 73 percent so far answering, “Oui.”
VeloNews has posted a photo of the two covers (scroll down to “Latest photos”).
Hello New York Times/Sun readers and other “hip shushers”
The fashion section of the New York Times has an article titled A Hipper Crowd of Shushers which, despite the title is less annoying than the usual “librarians, they’re not as lame as you think!” articles that we see about the profession. I’m quoted in it, there’s a great picture of Peter Welsch DJing, a quote from Sarah Mercure and a bunch of other fun pictures and quips. The New York Sun has its own article on a very similar topic.
Jessamyn West, 38, an editor of “Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical Librarians Speak Out” a book that promotes social responsibility in librarianship, and the librarian behind the Web site librarian.net (its tagline is “putting the rarin’ back in librarian since 1999?) agreed that many new librarians are attracted to what they call the “Library 2.0? phenomenon. “It’s become a techie profession,” she said. In a typical day, Ms. West might send instant and e-mail messages to patrons, many of who do their research online rather than in the library. She might also check Twitter, MySpace and other social networking sites, post to her various blogs and keep current through MetaFilter and RSS feeds. Some librarians also create Wikis or podcasts.jessamyn, l2, library2.0, me, newyorktimes, nyt
Prologue underway
Mikel Astarloza has the best early time with a 9:23.88.
Stuart O'Grady overcooked a left-hander and crashed into some barriers with a little more than 1 kilometer to ride after setting the best time at 5 kilometers.
One thing to watch are the riders' handlebars: VeloNews this morning has a story about some “clarifications” to UCI rules that have caused some riders to switch their aero bars. At the Dauphiné Libéré, officials seemed to be focused on whether the rider had more than 2 points of contact with the bars, but now they're more concerned with the angle of the extensions, which they want essentially parallel to the ground. Some riders were experimenting with variations on the more steeply angled position (the “Praying Landis”) that Floyd Landis used last year.
Dave Zabriskie sets out in the Stars and Stripes. By the way, he's got “These colors don't run” printed on the inside of each sleeve. You can see it in this photo (look at the large version, on his left arm). Zabriskie is fastest at the time check. Coming to the finish now, and Zabriskie sprints to the line at 9:22.98. I don't think that will last.
Right behind Zabriskie is Caisse d'Epargne's Vladimir Karpets, and the former white jersey is very strong: 9:16.77 takes over the lead.
Robbie McEwen looks like he's out for a club ride, and comes in at 9:59.15.
Discovery Channel is wearing jerseys with big green stripes across the arms and back, as part of Discovery Channel Goes Green. The team will plant trees in Mendocino to offset the team cars' carbon emissions, and an additional 30 trees for each stage win or leader's jersey a Disco rider wears.
Prologue preview: Let's race!
It's time to kick it off -- the Grand Depart comes to London! It's a fairly straight, very fast 7.9-kilometer (4.9-mile) course starting at Horse Guard's Parade in Whitehall, passing the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, then Buckingham Palace and the Royal Parks. Here's an interactive map of the race course, which also offers a flythrough of the route. PezCyclingNews rode the route during a normal day and offer photos of the course.
Riders will scream through the London tour that many of us have enjoyed during a 90-minute ride on a double-decker bus in under 10 minutes. Favorites for the day include 2 Britons, Brad Wiggins of Cofidis and David Millar of Saunier Duval (who may have overtrained for the occasion), as well as Fabian Cancellara of CSC, who smoked the opening stage at the Tour de Suisse in June. Among the Americans, Dave Zabriskie has a chance, but the short course and his early start time work against him. George Hincapie was 2nd at the prologue last year, and Levi Leipheimer already has 3 time-trial wins under his belt, although none came in Europe.
CyclingNews offers a look at some of the bikes riders will race today and a photo gallery.
I've posted a full list of start times over at TdFwiki.com, which is a new site I'm working on, that hopes to provide a somewhat more structured way of surfing information about the Tour. It's a wiki, which means you're welcome to add content. My hope is to have each rider's daily results on a rider page, as well as full results for each stage on a stage page, and daily standings for each competition. There's a core group of volunteers working on the site, including Nancy Toby from TdF Lanterne Rouge, and we welcome more help -- feel free to sign up and start hacking!
I've also set up an account at Twitter you can use to track race and site updates in real-time.
Also:
Cycling.TV's Rebecca Charlton offers a video preview of the prologue course (Windows Media)
PodiumCafe.com | Le Tour '07: London Prologue Live!! -- an open discussion thread on the day's stage
Live VeloNews ticker starts at 11 a.m. Eastern.
The CyclingNews live ticker is also available in a mobile version at http://live.cyclingnews.com/wap/.
July 6, 2007
Wheels for Your Wall
A couple of years ago at ICFF, I met the guys from Flavor Paper. In the middle of a Javits center bursting with enough brilliant design to keep a junky like me enthralled for weeks, Flavor Paper’s booth stood out—as did the slightly disheveled guys with an unmistakable passion for wallpaper.
The New Orleans-based maker of boutique wallpaper had a thrillingly over the top booth swathed in a crazy quilt of their eye-popping patterns. Periodically I check their site to find a wild new pattern for my notional dream house and so stumbled across the following titled “Flower Pedal.”
Designed by Dan Funderburgh and perfect for your home bicycle workshop.
RoughlyDrafted on no Flash
RoughlyDrafted: The iPhone Threat to Adobe, Microsoft, Sun, Real, BREW, Symbian: “The version of Safari running on Apple’s iPhone shows the web without Flash, Windows Media, Real Player, or Java applets. It’s not just a case of few plugins gone missing. Here’s why Apple chose to cut proprietary content from the web, and what it means for Adobe, Sun, Microsoft, Real, and other mobile makers.”
How many of your team’s ideas are in the iPhone?
With the launch of the iPhone I’ve been hearing many grumblings from interaction designers who’ve worked for various, well known consumer electronics companies. We can all see in the iPhone aspects of our concepts from years past that were brushed aside or died prematurely. Our concepts are suffocating under the pile of NDA verbiage, never to see the light of day. What sets our mere concepts apart from this final product however, is a company with leadership who has the fortitude to take the risk, find the budget, and push the technology for the single cause of designing compelling user experiences. Apple got it right.
For my own concepts, the valuable lessons I’ve learned are that I could have done a better job navigating internal politics as well as communicating the advantages of the concepts. In some cases, I was unable to translate my passion and conviction about experience design into reasons to build the products. The accelerometer (portrait to landscape) my team wanted to include in one of our designs was killed simply because it cost $20 per unit. Playing with the iPhone, one can see that’s $20 well spent.
In the end, everyone I’ve spoke with are tremendously thankful for the iPhone’s release - this product launch has single-handedly raised the bar of what’s possible. Since the rumors of an iPhone began last year, there was a shift that happened within many consumer electronics companies. My hope is that this is only the beginning of change in the roll of interaction design within consumer electronics.
This is the opportunity for all the UX Managers, Directors, VPs, CCOs, and CXOs to push for more. For some it will be a new seat at the C-level, for others it will be to move the UX team into a visible location on the org chart - out from under Engineering, Marketing, Research or QA, and for others it will be creating an interaction design team from scratch.
If your company still needs convincing of the value experience design brings to your product and you’re in need of more funding for staff, training, etc., I encourage you to create a case study of the iPhone and pitch it to your CEO. With the rumored 1 million iPhones sold in less than a week, now is the time get what you need.
Speculation as to why iPhone doesn’t include Flash
We all know that the iPhone doesn’t include Flash. Various theories have been aired.
I have a theory that I haven’t heard yet: Flash wasn’t included because it crashes so much.
I have some evidence for this. My app—which uses WebKit and, thus, supports Flash—includes a crash reporter: when it crashes, you can send the crash log to me just by clicking a button. People do so, so I see the crashes.
And you know what I see a lot of? Stuff like this:
Thread 0 Crashed:
0 ...romedia.Flash Player.plugin 0x094e8ddc native_ShockwaveFlash_TCallFrame + 344728
Thread 0 Crashed:
0 ...romedia.Flash Player.plugin 0x19367572 MMgc::GCAlloc::ClearMarks() + 370
Since Apple collects crash logs too, they know how often Flash crashes.
Given that the first impression of the iPhone is so important, I can easily imagine a conversation like this:
A: “We have to include Flash so it’s not the watered-down web.”
B: “We can’t, since Flash crashes all the time, and people will think the iPhone is crashy.”
A: “But can we get away with not including Flash?”
B: “If we do a special YouTube app that uses QuickTime instead.”
A: “That’s officer thinking, lieutenant. Let’s call Google.”
Hello, Ollie!
We would like to extend a big, warm welcome to the newest and littlest serious eater, Ollie Kottke. Congrats, Meg and Jason!
Welcome Ollie Kottke
Introducing Ollie Peter Kottke! Our son was born on July 3rd, all 7 lbs, 2 oz. and 20 inches of him. As you can see from the photo, we've both been resting a lot ever since. Things will be slow around here for a while as I settle in with my newest favorite fella. I can't tell you how cute he is, especially when he starts to cry and his bottom lip quivers and he makes this "whuh whuh whuh" sound. All of the sudden, nothing in the whole world seems as exciting as watching Ollie as he sleeps. Restaurants? Farmers markets? Food? Blogs? The web? The entire outside world? Nope, not as wonderful as our new little boy.
comments are open
? Ollie Kottke
Dear internet, I'd like you to meet Ollie Kottke.
Some vital statistics: He was born on July 3 just before 1pm, weighed about 7 lbs., 2 oz., loves to eat (and then sleep), is O.K. (ha!), dislikes sponge baths, unfortunately doesn't have any descenders in his name, both mom and baby are home and doing fine, Ollie is not a particularly popular name right now (and is not short for Oliver), and I've never been quite so content as when he fell asleep on my chest yesterday and we snoozed together on the couch for an hour or so. A little slice of heaven.
Also, I'm going to be taking about two months of paternity leave from working on kottke.org. I'll probably post a few things here and there when I can, but it won't be a priority by any means. I hope you all have a good rest of the summer and that you'll find the site again when I start back up in the fall.
Jennifer Lopez Says "I'm Not Pregnant ... Yet!"
Looking gorgeous, as usual, on the cover of the new Glamour, Jennifer Lopez discusses her upcoming tour with hubby, Marc Anthony, a very insightful conversation she had with Victoria Beckham, and the everyday rumors that she's with child. Us Weekly previewed these noteworthy excerpts:
On making her marriage work:
"We made all these promises to each other in the beginning of the marriage, because both of us have difficult careers to manage with a partner. We don't have 9-to-5 jobs; our day could be 24 hours long if we let it. So you have to carve out your time and make your agreements: 'We are going to travel with each other. If I'm working, you're not going to work. If we both have to work, we're going to make sure we keep that to a minimum.'"On the constant question of kids: "Every other week [tabloids] say I'm pregnant, and I keep telling them, 'I'm not yet'...Marc and I just saw the film Children of Men. The message of the movie was if we don't have children, there's no hope for the future...maybe that's what the pregnancy rumors are about...Maybe it's not that deep. Maybe it's more about seeing two people together and wanting to know if it's real. A lot of the time, having a baby solidifies that."On her surprising chat with Victoria Beckham:
"[Beckham] said, 'People would never guess you're insecure. Are you? Because I know I am.' It was like she had to hear it from me. And I said, 'Yeah, of course I am.' She said, 'But you seem so confident.' And I said, 'Because I am confident! It doesn't mean I don't have my moments. But you have to remember the value of your individuality- that you have something special and different to offer that nobody else can.' She said, 'Oh, I love hearing this. What you're saying is so great!' It was really sweet."On what she would tell her younger self, if she could go back in time ten years:
"The truth is, everything that's happened was supposed to happen. That doesn't mean I don't look back and think, God, I wish I hadn't had to go through some of those things. But then I think, you know what? It didn't finish me- and I look at where I am now! So I would tell [25-year-old J. Lo], 'Always follow your heart. Sometimes it's gonna hurt, but you're going to be fine.' And I am: I'm in the best place I've ever been."
Mail Gossip Bug
Here’s my favorite Mail bug...
Say I get an email, and I do a reply-all. The to and cc list look like this (only less fuzzy):
So I’m like—cool, I can talk about the Nicks, since they’re not getting this email. I start typing, gossip gossip gossip, blah blah blah.
Then I send it, and the Nicks get the email, and then the whirring blades disperse the waste into the atmosphere...
In real life I’m not some big email-gossip, so this hasn’t actually happened. To me.
Here’s the thing—in this fictional situation, I didn’t check the cc list. If I had clicked in it, then typed down arrow a few times, I would have seen the rest of the cc list, and I would have known the Nicks were on the list.
But there’s nothing to indicate that there are more people on the cc list. The scroll thumb doesn’t actually appear—in fact, the absence of the thumb indicates that the entire list is visible.
But it’s not.
'Transformers': More than Meets the Eye?
Like many in the nation this week, I took advantage of the gloomy fourth of July weather and headed into the dry confines of the local cineplex to take in "Transformers." My expectations were mixed: Many renderings of favorite cartoons on the big screen have been less than stellar ("He-Man," "The Flintstones"), but coming from Michael "Armageddon" Bay and Steven Spielberg, I figured it couldn't be totally bad.
I was, in fact, pleasantly surprised. At 2 hours and 20 minutes, the film is way, way too long; but, Bay certainly knows how to direct action-adventure/sci-fi, and there was plenty of humor and celebrity cameos to go around.
Based on the mid-80's cartoon series, which was based on the toy line from Hasbro, the film enhances the backstory of these "robots in disguise." Having battled until their home world of Cybertron was destroyed, the Autobots (The good guys) and the Decepticons (The Bad Guys) are on a race to find "The All Spark," the mysterious energy source cube from which all Transformer--sentient mechanical beings--life evolved. Of course, the All Spark has found its way to earth and humans are now involved, including an assuming geek named Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf).
a Masi Clone Project
Enjoy the Speedplay gallery that “chronicles the start-to-finish construction process of my modern replica of the 1961 Masi Special.”
More email
The state of email at Ronge: “I am still actively working on MailCore/Kiwi, and my drive is only stronger...”
makkintosshu: Regarding ‘Mail Pro’
MailKit
MacUser: Dear Apple, we want MailKit.
Free advice about a pro email client
Michael McCracken: Free advice about a pro email client: “Make sure you’ve tried text-only clients like mutt and pine. Lots of your target audience refuses to give those up—figure out why. Don’t just try free alternatives—peek in on big-business.”
Rumor: New version of iLife due before Leopard?
Rumors are swirling once again, claiming that the next version of iLife has reached Golden Master. But when will Apple actually release it to consumers? We don't think it'll happen until next year.
iPhone Dev Wiki crew releases iPhoneInterface tool
they've figured out a way to start arbitrary services and move files around
Sweet Tea time
I agree with Southerners about iced tea served in the North. Now, i don't consider myself a Southerner even though everyone north of Maryland considers Virginia "the South." I also surely didn't grow up drinking sweetened iced tea, save for Lipton iced tea mix! But the Southerners are right to say that "iced tea" should be homemade and pre-sweetened. Most restaurants in the Northeast offer unsweetened, tannic iced tea that needs 14 packets of sugar to sweeten, half of which doesn't even fully dissolve.
I love sweet tea. It's so refreshing and delicious. I've been making a version adapted from here online. It's very simple although i changed it for 3 main reasons:
1) My iced tea is never cloudy so i don't find the baking soda necessary. It's always a beautiful clear deep brown so i don't know how it could cloud. Some people say baking soda takes out the "bitterness" in tea. I don't get this either since my cheapy Lipton bags haven't brewed up bitter, even with such a long steep time!
2) 2 cups of sugar for 2 quarts of liquid, even the 1.5 cups minimum the author listed was TOO SWEET. I love sugar. I can handle sweet - ask anyone who knows me how much candy and dessert i can chow down - but the amount of sugar listed was so sweet, i couldn't even taste the tea! I first made it with 1.5 cups, which was drinkable but barely. The next batch was 1 cup = totally good! For the third batch however, 1/2 cup of sugar was just right for me. It's still sweet but the tea taste shines through more clearly. For special occasions i'll use 3/4 cup, but for regular batches i think 1/2 cup is good.
3) Sweet tea = good use for crazy mint garden bounty.
be's Philadelphia Sweet Tea6 black tea bags (i used Lipton*)
1/2 cup white sugar
8 cups water
a 2 cup glass measuring cup (helpful)
fresh mint sprigs and a little extra sugar (optional)
Boil 2 cups of water. Pour the water over the tea bags in the glass measuring cup. Let steep for 15 minutes. Lift out the tea bags (don't squeeze them) and compost/discard. Pour the strong tea into a 2 quart pitcher. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Add 6 cups of cold water and stir. Refrigerate until cold and serve. For sweet mint tea, i like to crush a few mint sprigs with a little sugar in the bottom of each glass and pour the cold tea over it.
* I don't use my good black tea for this because it's not necessary. With a cold beverage, all the aroma of good tea is dulled, plus think of all the sugar you're adding! I hear that Luzianne brand tea bags are the way to go, so i'll be sure to make a batch once i get somewhere that actually stocks it! Lastly, i don't want to deal with "cold brew" and "family size" bag complications. Who doesn't have some regular black tea bags laying around?
Quote of the Morning: Denise Richards
, "I am truly not one to give advice. I'm divorced and I stole my best friend's husband."– the surprisingly amusing Denise Richards, at the Ratatouille premiere, when asked by Extra if she had any post-jail advice for Paris Hilton
Floating Pool Update: Tilted Barge, Pool Closed For Now
The Floating Pool opened at Brooklyn Bridge Park yesterday to visitors (a "decent sized" crowd showed up) . However, there are some lingering issues, thanks to yesterday's rainy weather. Reader Drew went to visit the pool today and wrote to us:
Unfortunately, after being open only one day to the public, it was closed. The director, a very nice woman, explained that the rain from yesterday flooded some of the ballast tanks and tilted the entire barge. So basically one end of the pool had 2 feet of water, and the other end was overflowing. They did let some of the public on the barge to check it out and take some pictures, but the pool is closed all day while engineers attempt to fix the problem. We'll see if this gets resolved by tomorrow.He also included this photograph - you can see the tilt if you look at the level of the pool in the photograph. If they can put a man on the moon, then we're sure engineers can fix the problem. The NY Times has video of the pool. And here's our post on the pool
July 5, 2007
Introducing Templatemaker
Adrian Holovaty's new freshness for deriving templates from a collection of examples. Hello scraping.
thither design camp!
A few days ago, I posted a question about "design camps", specifically, why don't they exist? The model I had in mind was the technology geek unconference scene, most visibly implemented as Bar Camp, and most famously as O'Reilly's Foo Camp. There's also a host of tech conferences with BOF (birds of a feather) sessions and other self-organizing nerdery going on.
My loaded question got me a few mails that mentioned events such as last year's DCamp, which even has "design" in the name (sort of):
Unlike traditional conferences, there is no program created by conference organizers. What happens at DCamp depends on you. Come share your work and ideas. Tell us about some interesting UX method, explain how design fits into agile development and open source, share your design dilemma, or tell us about your new and interesting design.In the end, the event was heavily HCI-focused, as might be expected from a BayCHI-sponsored event.
Mark Rickerby pointed out that New Zealand is home to a few emerging "time limited design contests", focused on competition rather than conferencing. 48Hours is about filmmaking, while Full Code Press is a "geek olympics": Web teams take each other on to build a complete website for a non-profit organisation in 24 hours. No excuses, no extensions, no budget overruns. These events remind me strongly of the late-90's sport of photoshop tennis, and are quite close to the problem-solving aspects of design.
One big difference that I can see already is a focus on two different ends of the process: technology events are about inputs, design events are about outputs. In general, it's possible to abstract a creative solution or sweet trick out a technological problem, and have that be the focus of a talk or session. For example, at the most recent FOO Camp I participated in a session on API authentication, specifically the derivation of a new standard process for authenticating to 3rd parties for web applications. There were people from Flickr, Google, Verisign, Dopplr, and Twitter there, and it was possible to have a meaningful conversation about the problem domain without everybody having to expose their secret sauce. Inputs. As Kevin Cheng put it, it's "fun to talk with a mixed group of both engineers and designers to get energized about building stuff."
In contrast, the competitive design events above are output-driven. Participants are expected to use the event to make a thing, with the conversational parts expected at the end. Make something, then talk about it. Mike Kuniavsky's event Sketching in Hardware (see also '07) had a lot of this element, especially the afternoon wrap-up design-off that had teams converting found electronic junk into working prototypes (my team made a record/playback telegraph machine out of a lamp and a stepper motor, and I still managed to get a bit of Flash involved). Timo Arnall imagines more of these events, with "a room full of markers, spray cans, nice paper and lego... access to a laser cutter, RP machine, etc..."
The prime example of a successful design event in my mind is Andrew Otwell's Design Engaged, held once in 2004 and again in 2005. We attended the second one, and it was really something special: fairly ad-hoc, small group (~30 people), and an incredible amount of energetic participation. I think it's important that the attendees for these two events were mostly hand-picked, with DIY social events far beyond the usual eat+drink planned for attendees; you'd be hard-pressed to beat a walking tour of Berlin/Charlottenburg hosted by Erik Spiekermann. The best way I can think of to sum up the talks at DE is that every single one was delivered by a designer of some variety riffing on what they thought was personally interesting to them. Adam talked about peak oil, Jack showed comic books and alloys with low eutectic melting points, Liz described her research work in hospitals, and Malcolm threw out some ideas on the differences between access and mobility, to name a few of my favorite sessions. It was a difficult event to sum up, and takes on a special significance in retrospect because it was such a fragile, unlikely co-occurence. It was also probably one of the few TAZ's I've participated in:
The Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ) describes the socio-political tactic of creating temporary spaces that elude formal structures of control. ... A new territory of the moment is created that is on the boundary line of established regions. Any attempt at permanence, that goes beyond the moment, deteriorates to a structured system that inevitably stifles individual creativity. It is this chance at creativity that is real empowerment.Jay Feinberg gets at this as well, in his description of geek camp events as:
...enthusiast clubs, e.g., computer clubs of the 1970s or BBS clubs of the 1980s. The clubby aspect is, IMO, expressed through an implicit or explicit hierarchy among "members." People are invited and anyone can participate, but, ultimately, there are core members and even a hierarchy of leaders who define the culture of who is really "in" and who is really "out." And, the activities at camp are, on one level, very much about being part of the club - doing things that prove one's value as a member or move one up the hierarchy of important people in the club.I liked this description enough to go scurrying for an article that Nat pointed out a long time ago, Jo Freeman's Tyranny of Structurelessness. Freeman is a feminist scholar most active in the 1960s and 70s, and her essay describes the power dynamics of supposedly-unstructured movements:
Contrary to what we would like to believe, there is no such thing as a "structureless" group. Any group of people of whatever nature that comes together for any length of time for any purpose will inevitably structure itself in some fashion. The structure may be flexible; it may vary over time; it may evenly or unevenly distribute tasks, power and resources over the members of the group. But it will be formed regardless of the abilities, personalities, or intentions of the people involved. The very fact that we are individuals, with different talents, predispositions, and backgrounds, makes this inevitable. Only if we refused to relate or interact on any basis whatsoever could we approximate structurelessness - and that is not the nature of a human group....
Once the movement no longer clings tenaciously to the ideology of "structurelessness," it is free to develop those forms of organization best suited to its healthy functioning. This does not mean that we should go to the other extreme and blindly imitate the traditional forms of organization. But neither should we blindly reject them all.Jay points out that the designers often come together out of existing, established structures (there's a rough taxonomy of job titles and professional organizations such as AIGA, if I understand what he's getting at), and don't need to do quite so much jockeying for "geek cred".
Oddly, I've begun to form a mental model of how the conference/camp ecology operates by analogy to a previous scene I was a member of, San Francisco's mid/late 90s rave underground (just think "dj is to party as speaker is to conference") There was a constant push-pull dynamic between the promoters of permitted (in the legal sense), for-profit parties, and the collectives responsible for a dizzying array of remote, hidden, and otherwise illegal events. Questions of credibility and legitimacy were a core focus, and it was always important to stay just on the bleeding edge of acceptability and risk. The trigger for this association was a talk on unconference planning given by Jo Walsh and Rufus Pollock at E-Tech 2006, effectively an hour's worth of advice on scouting, securing, and using out-of-the-way venues for ad-hoc technology events. Same damn thing as a party, with no ear-bleeding bass.
What made it all work was the same fragility that Design Engaged featured: "any attempt at permanence, that goes beyond the moment, deteriorates to a structured system that inevitably stifles individual creativity." Look to Burning Man for a long-running example of permanence stifling spontaneity. How does an event go from inspiring, utter fucking chaos to the flaccid, gormless prose of today's annual desert art social? I'm sure that being forced to worry about BLM permits and power-tripping DPW wonks cuts the tolerance level for rave camp and the drive-by shooting range.
Many of the designers I've met over the years share joy in short-lived coincidence and unlikely collisions, and I think this is a reason that the "camp" meme hasn't found a home among designers as it has among techies. Foo camp, Bar camp, Etech, and other technology events are fundamentally about repetition: geeks need a refuge to congregate in, and this refuge can be constructed and duplicated in a fairly reliable manner. Tech events focus on inputs to the creative process, tools and techniques that want to be tried and implemented. Design events focus on outputs, results of a creative process whose constituent parts are fly together at the last moment in unpredictable ways. Boris says design is "dictatorial"; how can you have a session about the last-minute flash of inspiration, except to share war stories?
(Thank you Jay Feinberg, Timo Arnall, Peter Merholz, Boris Anthony, Hillary Hartley, Mark Rickerby, Tom Carden, and Andrew Otwell for your replies)
taste visualization in Ratatouille
a series of concepts of how taste has been visualized & animated in an abstract way in Pixar's recent movie Ratatouille. the resulting dynamic visualizations of tastes designed by animator Michel Gagné include cheese, strawberry, mushrooms & their combinations, which also acted as inspiration for the final music score.[link: gagneint.com]
Will a laptop power connector kill you if you put the end in your mouth? It was a very mild shock, like licking a 9-volt battery. Just a tingle. - jjg From the metafilter podcast.
Will a laptop power connector kill you if you put the end in
Will a laptop power connector kill you if you put the end in your mouth?
It was a very mild shock, like licking a 9-volt battery. Just a tingle. - jjg
Telekinesis: An Awesome iPhone App from the Creator of Quicksilver
Quick Post
This app is ridiculous. It turns your iPhone into a remote control for your Mac. You can create apps and there are a few included (e.g. controlling iTunes, iSight image capture). Gonna try it out when I get home tonight. [via John Zeratsky]
cloverfield
The Cloverfield trailer is still up at Dailymotion, but was pulled by YouTube. Slashfilm has a good roundup of the latest about the JJ Abrams project. (Every report I heard from TED this year was that Abrams had one of the best talks (keywords: magic, mystery, storytelling, an unopened box); I'm hoping it goes up on ted.com soon.)
Big pile o beans, waiting at San Tung [Flickr]
Stewart posted a photo:
Contesting the Congestion Plan
Unlike the green tshirt-clad folks in this NYTimes photo, NEWSgrist does not support the Mayor's NYC congestion plan, mainly because he seems not to care about those of us who live in the city who AREN'T BILLIONAIRES. There are both supporters and critics of the plan in the comments section of the NYTimes City Room piece; here are a few of the objections I thought worth re-posting (favorite bits in bold):
- 6.
July 5th, 2007 3:53 pmI have a small business and use a minivan for pick ups and deliveries in and out of manhattan. I already avoid using the car as parking is difficult and expensive, so if the pick up is small enough, I use public transportation. Still, it is necessary to drive if the load is big enough. This fee would simply hurt my business. If they want to pay for this tunnel, which would be a real solution to midtown congestion, they should finance it the way anyone else would, you know, with a loan, a sponsor…a financier. This fee is anti-small business, the backbone of our local economy.
— Posted by jm
- 13.
July 5th, 2007 4:04 pm
When he proposes taxing every cab and limo fare which make up the bulk of the traffic congestion and pollution in mid-town I will support it.
Without trying to reduce cab and limo riding in congestion area where there is plenty of mass transit options instead of taxing NYC residents who live in neighborhoods where commute could be 1 and 1/2 each way if used mass transit, the plan smacks of elitism and unfairness.
Of course we all want less pollution and less congestion and better mass transit. But the plan, although with worthy objective, will only further strain rush-hour mass transit and divert truck traffic to the residential neighborhoods where asthma rates are highest.— Posted by Pete
- 16.
July 5th, 2007 4:09 pmMayor’s plan is anything but practical. In a city where it is a rare luxury if public transportation is ever on time - either for arrival or departure - his first focuse should be to implement a system that compels people to commute willingly. Using the formula that MTA has for raising the fare, coupled with the fact that New Yorkers pay one of the highest taxes in the country, his plan will make people suffer both financially and medically. First fix the MTA - make more trains available that run on timely fashion and are power efficient. Then increase safety in public transportation hubs all over New York City, not just Grand Central. Second, lets make the MTA and all other city employees understand that they are not doing New Yorkers favors, they work for us; lets motivate to work correctly and efficiently. Then, provide transportation vouchers to New Yorks with income at or below $50K - this is more practical than following IRS formulas; we need to think NET and not GROSS for NYC Residents in this case. For example, a family of four with one income of $36K does not see any more than $28K after taxes; now apply ‘generous’ NYC rent of $1200 - more like the rent for a nice toilet nowadays - and you are down to $13.6K. Yeah, what about healthcare, food, and other basic needs?
Now, if we only want the rich to be here, lets just say so. There is no shame in kicking out the less affluent people openly; it is better to let people know you hate them because they are poor than to stab them on their back with seemingly “earth friendly” plans that do no good to earth or its inhabitants.
If you combine everything that the Mayor has done in the name of being “green”, they sum up to less than one percent of one percent of the work that needs to happen to make NYC greener for generations ahead of us.
— Posted by Al F
People who live in Manhattan and own cars should not be charged. Many already pay taxes at their parking garages and this additional “congestion pricing tax” would be unfair. In my view, the only drivers who should pay are those who live outside Manhattan. Let them leave there cars home and take public transportation. Manhattanites should have the right to drive in their own town untaxed. Our billionaire Mayor is out of touch with the financial pressures on the ordinary manhattan resident.
— Posted by Loraine
- 22.
July 5th, 2007 4:17 pmAgree with Pete above. But also according to survey - the cars that enter Manhattan daily are from other boroughs - so, they have to tax them. Every large city in Europe does it, and it makes people think twice about driving into London, Paris, Milan.
— Posted by A
- 23.
July 5th, 2007 4:18 pmThis is the worst plan that I have ever seen in my life! The mayor and all who support this should be ashamed. While the reduction of greenhouse gasses it is laudable goal this methodology falls yet once more on the back of the working class. Not surprising in a City whose government has been loosing touch with the common man as it embraces the high heeled and well off.
This charge would hit those who deliver goods into the city, thus inflating prices. It also affects people who use their cars for as part of their jobs, such as sales persons.
If the Major desires to lessen traffic congestion and its evil progeny in the City he should do the following:
First stop giving out permits to build yet more luxury apartments downtown that reach to the sky, this city has been getting more and more crowded and it is pushing the existing infrastructure to the breaking point; Second, lower the cost of public transport, for most it would make more economic sense to take the subway if it was only a $1 or better yet free; Third place a $5-$10 dollar surcharge on all cabs, those who refuse to use mass transit do not do so because of cost but rather do so because of convenience and would pay any price not to take the subway (this money could be used to make all of the City’s vehicles “green”); fourth, build more bike racks.— Posted by Craig
Illegal Fireworks Filled Oakland Sky
This is what happens when a deeply-stupid city government cancels the usual 7/4 fireworks show at the last minute. What did they expect? Personally I think the West O ghettoworks are one of the best parts of the 4th, like when I used to live in New Haven and the neighbors would light piles of furniture on fire in the street. Viva Freedom!
Recording Screencasts
I am often asked about details related to recording screencasts, so here goes.
more on the goddamn iphone
Alex "The Rest is Noise" Ross has the most compelling iPhone
reviewendorsement around. Forget the feature lists and AT&T shortcomings; it's stories like this that will sell the thing. (As if they're having trouble with that; a quick flip through populous states at apple.com/retail/iphone last night showed all red.)
Michel Gagné on Ratatouille
Michel Gagné has posted a detailed overview of his design work for the new Pixar film, Ratatouille. Michel did the concept work on the “taste visualization” scenes involving Remy and Emile.
Kean, over at the Flight Blog, also points us to this interview with Michel Gagné about his many wonderful projects.
I saw Ratatouille last weekend and I have to say it’s my favourite Pixar film yet. Packed full of engaging story, surprising turns and delicious characters. I’m going to schedule a second viewing in the theater - which is something I haven’t done for a film in a long time.
[Link]
Related stuff:
Michel Gagné Blog
Apple mouse patent reveals multitouch plans, gesture support
Apple has been patenting up a storm on multitouch devices lately, so the newest one to surface comes as no surprise: Apple thinks it can create a completely solid, buttonless, multitouch mouse.
Quote of the Day by Elie Wiesel
The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
- Elie Wiesel
Happy First Birthday Tesla!
Last year, July 5, 2006, 9:20am, Tesla was born.A first year anniversary is indeed special. The first of many more to come, and a moment to look back and remember the starting moments with Tesla. She was still furry!
Dav and I could never have imagined how amazing it would all be. Lots of work, a huge adjustment, and many unknowns. On the other hand, it's felt like the most natural thing ever, and having Tesla as a part of us makes so much sense. I can't help but enjoy reminiscing.
p.s. I had to look in our files the exact time she was born, and realized I have a "baby" folder, then a "Tesla" folder. So weird to think that at one point Tesla was just "baby" to us...
VMWare releases Fusion for Mac Release Candidate 1.0
VMWare Fusion for Mac has reached the home stretch with release candidate 1.0 out in beta. It comes with improved Unity support, Boot Camp support, keyboard shortcuts, and more. With only a couple of months until it's scheduled to hit the final release, it looks like this is what we can expect to get for our money.
Legend of Zelda papercraft
Ninjatoes is well-named: this person has created the most incredibly detailed Legend of Zelda papercraft - and other franchise stuff, too numerous to list. It's a really old link, got digged years ago, but I've only just stumbled onto the site. I get there eventually.
I dread to think how much time and practice went into this. My attempts would look like frankenLink, so.. let's just admire from afar.
Unbelievable! Worship at the feet of the paper Link.
Majora's Mask. From the superb follow-up to Ocarina of Time. I never did finish it, LoZ end bosses are legendary (no pun intended).
Ninjatoes has a bunch of other gamepapercrafts too, including the iconic Venice speedboat from Tomb Raider 2. This one doesn't look quite so insanely complex:
Got lots of attention two years ago for the Advance Wars papercraft ...
Right, off to forage for porridge in Bakersfield. I fear failure.
(via Crafty Crafty)
The Future of Cycling
While the sports destroys itself with scandal after scandal, le Tour looming, and Landis coming to town later this month with his book, I couldn’t help but think these kids lining up for their race at Matava were the future of cycling.
As for the race, the boy in the red helmet was seriously under-geared and spun his little legs out, but kept falling off so I stayed with him. Junior Hugga raced her first race and got 3rd.
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: The music industry nobs have finally figured out what we're doing: The music companies are in a dying business, and they know it. Sure, they act all cool because they hang around with rock stars. But beneath all the glamour these guys are actually operating two very low-tech businesses. One is a form of loan-sharking: they put up money to make records, then force recording artists to pay the money back with exorbitant interest. The other business is distribution. They’ve got big warehouses and they control the shipment of little plastic boxes that happen to have music in them.
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: The music industry nobs have
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: The music industry nobs have finally figured out what we're doing:
The music companies are in a dying business, and they know it. Sure, they act all cool because they hang around with rock stars. But beneath all the glamour these guys are actually operating two very low-tech businesses. One is a form of loan-sharking: they put up money to make records, then force recording artists to pay the money back with exorbitant interest. The other business is distribution. They’ve got big warehouses and they control the shipment of little plastic boxes that happen to have music in them.
Leopard's Dock and human interface guidelines, a match made in...
It turns out that the "new and improved" Dock in Leopard is a Human Interface Guideline train-wreck. But, but... the pretty!
Apple releases developer guidelines for iPhone
All the gory details on building those AJAX iPhone applications are now available from Apple. Get coding, people!
Serious Eaters, the Farm Bill Needs You!
"This is not just a farm bill. It's a food bill, and Americans who eat want a stake in it."
Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of IowaAfter reading about the new Farm Bill before Congress it is clear that serious eaters everywhere need to do whatever they can to support this bill. Why? Because for the first time maybe ever the farm bill actually tries to do something for the people who grow our fruits and vegetables, the caretakers of our land, and for serious eaters.
Consider the coalition supporting the changes in the farm bill: "Changes in the farm bill are being supported by the Bush administration and an unusual alliance that includes the American Heart Association, Environmental Defense, Taxpayers for Common Sense, and GMA/FPA, a food industry association. They agree that some subsidies should be cut and money spent instead to help fruit and vegetable growers, protect farmland, support small farmers and promote healthy eating."
Consider these aspects of the farm bill currently being debated in Washington as reported by Marian Burros in the NYT:
"Some of the bills before Congress are aimed at helping growers of fruits and vegetables and adding to the supply of local food."
"One goal is helping to pay for new processing plants and slaughterhouses so that small farms could more easily market their products in their regions rather than sending them long distances. Many regional plants went out of business when the food industry became more concentrated."
"Another is setting up more farmers’ markets and helping farmers sell to nearby schools, hospitals and other institutions, and helping low-income older people buy from small farmers."
"Other ideas include giving grants, loans and technical assistance to beginning, immigrant and minority farmers to start new farms or to keep small struggling farms in business, and providing money for farmers who want to convert to organic methods."
"Spending money on researching the cultivation of fruits and vegetables would help farmers find more efficient ways to irrigate and fertilize crops and deal with pests while cutting back on pesticides. Greenhouses would also be built to extend growing seasons."
"Food Stamp benefits would be increased so that a family of three would receive $317 a month, up by $10."
"Some bills would expand farm and ranchland preservation programs, restore and protect more wetlands, grasslands and watersheds, and improve water quality by cutting back on pesticides and preventing nutrients and pesticides from washing off farms and into streams and lakes."
"Others include money for research and incentives for renewable energy on farms and ranches for wind power, biofuels from crops other than corn and for equipment to capture the methane from manure and turn it into an energy source."
You don't have to be a policy wonk to understand that a lot is at stake here. It seems as is this is a seminal moment for people who care about the food they eat and the people who grow it. Let's not let this farm bill get lost in a sea of lobbyists and special interests. E-mail, call, AND write your local congressperson and senator, anyone and everyone who is involved in this legislation.
iPhone: Apple attempts to push the "ref movie" and will likely fail
In a move that I can only comment as "stupidity" at its best Apple tries for the billions time to force developers using quicktime "ref" movies when making movies for the iPhone. Now this is nothing new. Apple tried to...
July 4, 2007
[bit] iPhone period-typing shortcut
iPhone period-typing shortcut. This works beautifully.
baby stroller day trips maps
an online world map illustrating baby stroller-friendly day trip itineraries in famous cities around the world. the detailed city maps feature visually impressive artwork by celebrated graphic designers. the "Bugaboo Daytrips"website clearly aims to appeal to the design-forward sensibility of today’s parents.(unfortunately, our stroller has already been bought some weeks ago... )
[link: bugaboodaytrips.com & 72andsunny.com]
Supreme Court Rejects Two Schools' Integration Effforts
Showing how divided its philosophies are, Supreme Court justices ruled, 5-4, to limit the power cities have integrating schools and placing students by race. Schools in Louisville, Kentucky and Seattle, Washington had been trying to maintain diversity by, as the NY Times explains, "limiting transfers on the basis of race or using race as a 'tiebreaker' for admission to particular schools." However, the majority found those programs to be unconstitutional and Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his opinion, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." The wrinkle in the majority is that Justice Anthony Kennedy felt Roberts' decision was "all-too-unyielding" and suggested local officials could consider race: "Fifty years of experience since Brown v. Board of Education should teach us that the problem before us defies so easy a solution. School districts can seek to reach Brown’s objective of equal educational opportunity." And while Roberts' said the majority opinion held tenets of Brown Vs. the Board of Education, lawyers for Brown say he's not getting the point. The ruling doesn't affect the NYC's Department of Education too much, except now it may be able to challenge integration rules at two schools that were put into place over three decades ago. It's unclear what will happen with the 11-year-old South Asian girl who was denied attendance to one of those schools, the Mark Twain School (IS 239) in Brooklyn, based on her race, but her dad said the Supreme Court ruling was "awesome." More: The Library of Congress on Brown Vs. the Board of Education; the Seattle Post-Intelligencer explains how "racial tie-breakers" came to be; Slate's discussion about the ruling; and Washington Post analysis on how the Court has moved to the right.
Print: The 2.0 of the Town
Writer Emily Gordon looks at recent online iterations of various print magazines, including interviews Winterhouse Studio, Harper’s, The Nation, and Scientific American.
No suitable email apps for Mac OS X
I’ve managed to start using just one email client—Apple’s Mail app—and I like a lot of things about it.
But it drives me crazy, too, with all the clicking I have to do.
There are a few things I want in an email app that I can’t get in one package:
1. No clicking to file a message. Keyboard only.
2. No clicking—or tabbing plus arrow arrow arrow arrow arrow arrow arrow arrow arrow—to go to a mailbox.
3. Easy searching multiple mailboxes.
4. IMAP.
5. Editor with macros (think BBEdit’s clippings, TextMate’s snippets, vim’s abbreviations).
6. Mac-app-ness.
Mail doesn’t do 1, 2, and 5.
mutt does 1, 2, 4, and 5—but not 3 and 6. (I could overlook the Terminal-ness of it if searching multiple mailboxes was easy. I count it as doing 5—editor with macros—because you can use a real text editor with it.)
Thunderbird, of course, is so not-Mac-like that I can’t deal. Also, from a quick look, it appears that 1, 2, and 5 are not done in Thunderbird either. (Though I could be wrong.)
And GyazMail, Eudora, and pine don’t do all of these. Mailsmith is awesome in many ways, but it doesn’t do IMAP—and I’m using IMAP because of my iPhone.
I could get past some of this if there were still a scripts menu in Mail and I could assign keyboard shortcuts to scripts. But you can’t anymore.
I could also deal with Mail better if the various plugins worked reliably. They don’t—I get hangs and run into deal-stopper bugs. I chalk this up to the fragility of the undocumented and unsupported Mail plugin system—I don’t fault the plugin developers. But there are plugins that are supposed to give me 1 and 2.
(If the plugins work for you, then you’re lucky and I’m envious.)
I haven’t tried TypeIt4Me or TextExpander yet, though I probably will, to get 5 (editor-with-macros).
But that still leaves me clicking like crazy.
Email is, or ought to be, a keyboard thing—it’s about reading and writing. I’m not drawing anything or applying gradients or moving shapes around—I should be able to set the mouse aside.
It may be that the only hope is that the Mail folks will add these features. The thing is, there is little economic incentive to create an email app when one comes free with the system—and that free one is good. For most people it’s easily good enough, if not great.
And Apple should include a Mail app. I don’t think they’re wrong to do it—I think it’s part of the basic functionality you expect when you buy a computer. I’m not saying that Apple is doing something wrong by developing it and including it.
But if there is little incentive for other folks to create an email client, that means that the needs of keyboard adepts will go wanting, since Apple (rightly) concentrates on other things. (And does a great job at it. The unified inbox, for example, is a wonderful thing, no matter what kind of user you are. Smart mailboxes rock. Etc.)
So, ah, what’s my point? Just that I’m bugged.
Adding tags to CPAN modules via CPAN::Forum
I am glad to announce that after another long period of neglecting the forum I had enough tuits to add a tagging system to it. So from now on, registered users of CPAN::Forum can add personal tags to every module (or actually distribution). You can see the tags I already added. All three of them. Later I add more features (such as seeing the tags of others and seeing them in a cloud) and I'll also provide access to the data so that it can be used to enhance search engines. You are most welcome to register on the site and start adding tags to your favorite modules or just complain bitterly about the bugs and missing features hereRead more of this story at use Perl.
size matters
Short video clip comparing the relative sizes of the planets in our solar system to the sun, and the sun to neighboring stars.
Goodbye Oven. Goodbye kitchen.
Kitchen renovation started on Monday. On Sunday Jenny retired our oven from over 50 years of service. Vegan orange pudding cupcakes with chocolate ganache was a fine send-off.
Apple, On Custom JavaScript Events
Seth Dillingham: “This morning when I checked my Gmail account, I read a message (from someone named ‘Filippelli Christophe’) that said Apple seemed to be using my Custom JavaScript Events code on the iPhone page.”
The Remembrance Agent
"The Remembrance Agent (Remem) is an Emacs plug-in that watches over your shoulder and suggests information relevant to what you're reading or writing. While search engines help with direct recall, Remem is a tool for associative memory. Suggested documents are displayed in a buffer at the bottom of your Emacs window, and are updated every few seconds based on the last hundred or so words surrounding the cursor."
Jobs and I are very much on the same page
Remember the iPhone-will-become-a-UMPC idea I floated a few months back? Well, at the time it didn’t get too much traction (to be honest, I kind of wish I sat on it until after the iPhone was released), but I’m guessing that now, after people have had a chance to really dig into Apple’s latest offering, it’s going to be read in a different, slightly more ‘possible’ (probable?), light. Indeed, the spirit of that piece has been echoed throughout the blogosphere these last few days — the iPhone really is going to change things forever.
Steve, call me.
Mapping the Regional Express Rail
Mapping the Regional Express Rail.“In its 1996 Third Regional Plan, the Regional Plan Association describes a rapid transit line in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx that could be built almost entirely on pre-existing rail rights of way and would connect with at least twenty existing subway lines. The so-called “Triboro RX” (“TRX” for short) presents a unique opportunity to provide mobility and accessibility to New Yorkers living or working within these three boroughs, at a fraction of the cost of most transit projects of similar size. In my part-time internship at the RPA, which ends today, the lion’s share of the work I have done has focused on fleshing out the idea of this line.” And he did it with mostly open source tools: GPL mapping and GIS software, GPS to digital camera sync, Google Map maship, population and commuter demand modeling... Mike’s data sources and results are up on his TRX wiki.
DVD Jon breaks iPhone activation
I love that guy; also, the iPhone dev crew just released their own tool
London's Mysterious Gold Bars
If you're in London, for the last couple of months you may have noticed mysterious gold bars that have been sited in various spots around town. Turns out that they've been placed there by Paul Insect. On Sunday he left a pile of 51 bars on Old Street roundabout, there until last night - gone this morning. Each bar and the pallet they're sitting on are signed by Paul with the line 'if you have me I was stolen'. We're told that the message is a comment on the "'liberating/stealing' of street art both physically and theoretically."
If you're not familiar with Paul's work, check out his upcoming show at the Lazarides Gallery. We've been fans for years.
Paul has a show opening later this month - http://www.lazinc.com/exhibitions/future/
All the Chips Fit to Print
Celebrating July 4th in proper fashion the New York Times Dining Section is all over one of life's perfect foods, the potato chip. Kim Severson's lead story is chock full of resonant chip history, lore, and fun facts. Appropriately she leaves the chip science to Harold McGee, who fills us in on the sonic appeal of the chip, or as McGee calls them, the "sounds of crispness." Serious Eater Jonathan Bender weighed in on some of the newer "designer" chip flavors almost three months ago.
Interview with Christine Hill
Meet one of my favourite Berliners! Christine Hill invited me last year to give a talk at the Bauhaus University where she heads the department "Media, Trend and Public Appearance". That's how i got to know her, i then googled her name and immediately realized the extent of my ignorance when i discovered that she has been exhibiting all over the world with a very unconventional and intriguing project (or should i label it "production label"?) called Volksboutique.
Volksboutique began as a thrift store/sculptural installation in Berlin back in the '90s when she left New York and landed in Germany. Visitors would open the door to her underground shop, tea was served, clothes were cheap and people congregated to discuss topics ranging from identity and self presentation, to weather and the effect of tourism on the neighborhood (via).
Volksboutique projects kept on evolving, surprising and questioning the audience and the art world. She franchised the boutique for Documenta X, then abandoned her role as a salesgirl and mutated into a late-night talk-show host, a tour guide, a masseuse, a handbags and retro-looking stamp kits designer, etc. Turning everyday job into an artistic activity that could either be presented inside galleries or taken on the road inside carefully crafted trunks.
She is currently showing one of Volksboutique manifestations, Minutes, at the Venice Biennale of Art. This interview was made before the Venice art exhibition.
A book about your work "Inventory : The Work of Christine Hill and Volksboutique" has been published recently. How did it feel? Like a chapter of your professional life that had been turned?
Volksboutique Inventory. But of course, having an opportunity like that one was incredible, and making the book into a project became my primary task that entire year. I like to keep order, and surveying the projects made since I really began working professionally (depending upon when that actually was) was incredibly satisfying.
Initially, I thought of this book as a sort of end of year Annual Report, and was thinking of course about summing up.
I also was glad to have the opportunity to formally define what makes up Volksboutique for me, as it has often been (mis)understood as solely a second-hand shop. The book was the opportunity to show breadth, and to also underscore the aesthetic and "philosophical" stance I take. I also write a fair amount, and the book was the perfect showcase for that activity.It was an incredibly tidy feeling to draw the line somewhere and say to myself "All this has been accomplished", but then a sort of enormous void was staring at me, as in "what now?" This is rather familiar to me after large projects.
And as I've gotten increasingly interested in libraries and other archiving systems, I am happy to be working on books that can show that interest.
Why these deliberate confusions between art and commerce?
Well, I'm quite interested in properly defining which things are assigned value. And I'm very preoccupied with what counts as labor.
This began quite practically following my move to Berlin in 1991 — with my larger project of assimilating. It is noteworthy that I had no real permission to work here, and so I devised series of service pieces in the early 90s, where I, for example, worked as a masseuse, largely for tips. Also, that I was included in (and working for) numerous group shows all over Europe at this time, and realized that, rewarding as that is, it doesn't pay money.
This idea of merging income and art occupations culminated with opening the Volksboutique-as-shop in 1996. It was a way of claiming autonomy. It both freed me from being anyone's employee, and launched me straight into Proprietor-status, and it absolved me from having to rely on the art system to provide me with an audience. It allowed me to build a base of operations, and work from it, which is a device I've held onto over years. I've always held the belief that art is labor that deserves proper compensation. It is often difficult to assert this, in all levels of the art system. I'm sure that all involved would agree that art has "value", but where the work lies, and who is paying for it becomes a very clouded issue. I have issues with the premise that art is its own reward.
My work path over years has continued to punctuate my thoughts on this, in the form of anecdote or in specific exhibition or project experience. A museum I did a project with revoked a small production fee when they discovered that the piece I had made — a vending machine — was turning a small profit within the exhibition itself. Hundreds of visitors to my installation at documenta X (a franchise of the Volksboutique shop, installed in the exhibition) complained loudly that this "wasn't a commercial exhibition!", missing the irony that, for example, a Jeff Wall was hanging directly opposite my store. Numerous visitors (including a reporter from The Wall Street Journal) found my $12 tour fee as part of my Tourguide? piece in New York city excessive, although that is exactly the sum charged by all tour guide agencies in the city. A museum director in Italy refused to refund my travel and production costs for the installation, barking at me that I was "lucky to be in Italy".
Volksboutique Franchise, 1997On the one hand, we have art fairs and Sotheby's auctions reminding us all the time about the financial inequalities or excesses of the art system, but then, on the other, we have puritan calls for the work to be freed of economics so that it can exist in some reality-free bubble. And I disagree with both of these extremes.
Of course, I am isolating these experiences to underscore this particular point. It should not be misinterpreted that my entire work path has been a litany of complaint or abuse. To the contrary. Most artists I know find themselves being pushed forward by "mistakes" or such experiences, and I am no different. Hitting a point of adversity, whether within one's own process or from the outside, pushes things forward.
Basically, I identify with being a working artist - I work hard in order to live from this and live AS this. And it's important to me to feature that in projects. And it is important that that include financial aspects.Of course, when I am involved is larger scale projects — which I call "Organizational Ventures" – that contain large amounts of administration, preparation, and on-site labor, I am often asking myself what I am trying to prove to myself by creating these insanely confounding schemes. It IS the addition of chaos, of overwhelming-ness, of over-stressing productivity that ends up defining many of these projects.
Pilot, 2000Do you perform or role-play with Volksboutique? How do you differentiate one from the other?
It is good that the the word "performative" has entered the general art vocabulary, because it rescues work from mine from being labeled as Performance Art. I am extremely averse to theater, because I don't want to see a simulation of life. I want life. I want things real and in real time. And there is always going to be that unfortunate leap the mind makes when hearing the phrase "performance art" that conjures the stage whisper, or someone setting themself on fire. So I don't consider myself to be performing in the sense that we understand "acting" or staging. But I DO find that the entire thing is about performance, in terms of what in German is the word Leistung. And I do have a certain public persona that is in the work (and probably in my teaching as well). It is a part of my own personality, not something that is assumed, but it is also specific to certain projects that contain an extroverted element. Initially, my labors in the Volksboutique were specifically about pointing directly to the fact that this was an occupation. Something all-consuming, that required a sweat to be broken. And about clarifying that my own person/a was the guide through this set of ideas. This is also a way of addressing accountability and responsibility. Projects of mine require participation of various levels by viewers. How much they can access has in part to do with how they approach me as the representative of any given work. I feel this is a fair exchange, similar to any in a shop transaction.
Tourguide?, 1999Which criteria guide the choice of the identities you adopt in the Volksboutique performances?
I spent one year at a university before switching to an art school, and while I was there, I remember being astonished at the number of extremely focussed majors some people had. I had no idea that these occupations existed. In high school, I was told by those in the position of advising me that I would be a good artist or a good lawyer. (I will assume because I was generally considered a "creative type" but I was also extremely loud and opinionated.) My step-mother thought I should become a dental hygienist. Upon graduating from art school, though my occupation as artist was never really something I questioned, I realized I missed many aspects from other occupations. I remain infinitely curious, for example, about office culture, although I've never worked in a true cubicle-zone ever. My initial incarnation as shopkeeper at the Volksboutique was mostly informed by my taking German service culture to task, not to mention wanting to define publicly what I felt was the role of the artist in the society, and that this was a service providing role. Thereafter, I began investigating which jobs would best illustrate my preoccupations. I am particularly interested in librarians now, for example.
I suppose it is redundant to mention these works also point out my femaleness to an extent. Either I have chosen to take on some stereotyped female roles (shopgirl, librarian) or I am intentionally trying out things that fewer women end up in (late night talk show host).
Volksboutique, 1996-1997One of the more reproduced photographs from the Volksboutique store shows me holding up an actual debutante's ball gown in a wall-sized mirror. There was a fair bit of sniping regarding that image, that it was self-serving or narcissistic, etc. But what it was was my trying something out that interested me. Sizing it up, putting it on.
The aesthetic of the Volksboutique object is very peculiar. What inspired it?
The name Volksboutique stems from the VEB, or VolksEigenen Betrieb, which was the socialist term for collective ownership and industry in the GDR. I moved to Berlin Mitte in 1991, and it was a profoundly different aesthetic experience than today, not to mention from that which I was accustomed having grown up in the States. The remnants of the GDR were everywhere, literally cast out on the street in piles day by day. I wandered the streets daily hauling in everything I could physically transport home. A store called "Dumping Kuhle" sold off stockpiled VEB products that were suddenly rendered valueless. That was the environment I lived in, and so it naturally entered my work.
However, this is not exclusively a GDR nor Ostalgic thing. My residence in Brooklyn had me obsessed with visual elements I found locally, for example, my studio there is housed in a former pencil factory. Many elements invoke a hand-made aesthetic, and I have a predilection for cast-off objects. I collect 50s office furniture, vernacular signage, manual typewriters, and have a mini-museum of vintage stationery products.
Volksboutique is to a large extent about examining concepts of “value” in our culture and re-investing discarded appurtenances with meaning and use. I’m trying to point viewers’ attention to specific objects and events in life that risk being overlooked as being too quotidian or too common.
One of the mottos of Volksboutique is "Make the most of what you've got." Are there examples in your life when you had no choice but "make the most of what you had"?
I think I could answer this many ways. In my family, there is a particular tic to be constantly striving for a point of "readiness" or "departure" that is pretty unattainable, and can be frustrating. What I mean here is, that "work" can only get done once every little other thing is done — dishes washed, clothes straightened, recycling out, checkbook balanced — rendering a clean slate so that this WORK can begin. But this is a state that will never really be attained! I realized pretty early that rather than waiting for this ultimate constellation or alignment of graces, or whatever, that I simply had to jump in and work with whatever was at hand. This could easily be seen in financial terms, that when XXX stage of financial security is arrived at, THEN XXX can be achieved. Rather than waiting for an impossible or utopian situation to suddenly arise, better to get to work and create a better situation. I mean, I moved to Berlin with no permission to be here, not speaking the language, and with really no obvious skill set that differentiated me from anyone else...and so working within these limitations became my project.
Volksboutique Accounting Archive, 2002With regard to being a practicing artist, especially since entering the teaching community, there is this misunderstanding to dispel that one entered an art career with other cards than anyone else. What I mean here is that I went through the same channels that anyone would: art school, move to urban environment, work, dialogue within the art system. People are not born with cards optioning them to art careers, (or any careers). There is no mystical thing that suddenly bestows an artist with a career. An artist works and finds him/herself in the midst of it.
I also understand art making to be less about the invention or construction of new things, but more about the close paying attention to and realignment of existing things.
What is Christine Hill doing when she's not keeping the shop? I'm particularly curious about the work of your students.Well, I make a lot of lists. And I am a master procrastinator. It is sort of a job in itself. But yes, one of the larger re-structurings of my work life since 2004 is that I teach full time at the Bauhaus University. I chair the department "Media, Trend and Public Appearance" within the media faculty. This is something that sort of serendipitously presented itself to me, and turns out to have been fairly revolutionary for me. I am lucky that teaching is less a diversion from what I normally would be doing, rather it is a pretty natural extension of what I do. And though it has taken some getting used to in terms of the organization of my working time, I find myself impressed and inspired by my students to an amazing degree. The math for embarking on a career as an artist is not necessarily in one's favor, and the culture — even if we happen to be in some art market boom right now – doesn't necessarily jump over itself in appreciation for the artistic occupation. So these people are incredibly brave, and I appreciate them following their instincts, and their being uncompromising about what they demand from their lives. And it is there that I can offer the most guidance. I am not necessarily sitting with them teaching them software or how to patina something to a particular finish. More so, it's training them for the long fight. To instill in them a rigor, so that they can go out with that in their toolkit. I'm not trying to scare them, but I am trying to explain to them what will be required of them in terms of discipline and focus. Furthermore, I am myself a huge fan of good work, and when my students come up with good projects, I'm just completely invigorated by that.
Can you tell us something about the work you're preparing for the upcoming Biennale of Art in Venice?
Well, that aforementioned Second Book is the main contribution for Venice. It is entitled Minutes (as is the entire piece for Venice) — referring to detail, minutae; the passing and accruing of time; and of course, taking meeting minutes, the tallying of progress.
The book as an object is patterned after a calendar/datebook. In considering what one could/should put in an exhibition like Venice, there seemed to be pressure for Big Project, and I sort of dislike the notion of the masterpiece or opus. I like the continuum, that the machine is humming, that things are ebbing and flowing insofar as industry is concerned, and that many factors contribute to the so-called Process. This is most easily evidenced by a glimpse into my own datebook. So, the piece for Venice speaks to that...how my (or the mind) is organized, and what things are in there, and they can be very small things, and that it is something about growth via accumulation. And organization. I like that haircut appointments reside in the same space as big deadlines, and so-called Events of Note.
"Minutes" features work since the Inventory book, and texts I've written on them. There is a marvelous essay at the beginning by the author and musician (and my friend) Rick Moody. The publication was designed by the Leipzig-based Markus Dreßen (as was Inventory) and he is simply a masterful talent. Our collaboration is one that I am incredibly proud of.
Minutes, 2007, installation view at the Venice BiennaleIn addition to the publication, which is displayed in a sort of reading room environment, there is an installation of my Trunk Show in the Arsenale. These are a pretty spot-on manifestation of how my work and thought process organize themselves. The idea for this trunk system came from a conversation with my sister a number of years ago. She had visited a 60s submarine-turned-museum in Hawaii, and was extolling the wonders of how the interior worked...the attention to detail, how every little thing had its place in order to economize space, etc. She exclaimed "It was SO Volksboutique!". I realized that at that time, it wasn't particularly that any Volksboutique pieces were like this, but that my sister has such a good understanding of how my mind works, that she knew I would identify with this sort of organizational system. And so, the trunks were about making a physical representation of that. They isolate a five day work week into 5 governing tasks (Accounting, Management, PR, Production and Reception) and there are the complete accouterments for each of these occupations in each trunk. They are about economizing space and also rendering these tasks mobile.
Accounting Portable OfficeMy Brooklyn studio is right alongside the workspace of Booklyn — a bookmaking artist alliance that I've worked closely with since having been in New York. Particularly my friendship and collaboration with Mark Wagner — who manufactured these trunks as over-dimensional, exploded "books" – is important to me, and the show pays homage to that.
Name us 3 to 5 artists whom you think should get more attention from the public.
Well, I will preface this by saying that these are artists I admire and am inspired by, and am lucky enough to be friends with.
But I am not inferring that they are necessarily under-respected or underexposed in any way. But it is certainly excellent if even more people learn about them, because they all do amazing work. I notice that they are all mostly based in New York, which certainly means I need to get out in Berlin more!Allison Smith (The Muster and Notion Nanny.)
Nina Katchadourian
J. Morgan Puett
Pablo Helguera
Michael Rakowitz.Thanks Christine!
DS: Face Training
In a world where people seem to think it's okay to get cut and pulled and 'sculpted' into the shape they want (it's so weird!), here's a less bloody, visceral and dangerous alternative: facial exercising. Makes sense.
Wired's Game-Life reports that this is a title "obviously for women", although I think Chris there underestimates the vanity of the modern male - check out this vid covering Facercise from the US. Blokes everywhere. This one will sell.
Otona No DS Kao Training, or Face Training, includes a camera that plugs into the Game Boy Advance slot on the Nintendo DS and videos your face as you play the game.
There are a lot of applications for face-reading software; this could prove to be fun.
July 3, 2007
rememberance
Was reminded tonight of Remem, the Rememberance Agent plugin for emacs. Bradley Rhodes' original paper was written in 1996; by now this should be a feature of every popular operating system. Option a: this problem is harder than it looks. Option b: this is a problem that the market doesn't have. Option c: this is a problem the market doesn't know it has, until someone comes along and solves it for them in an elegant and intuitive way. (Did I hear someone say "next gen Google productivity apps?")
creative destruction and feed slamming
The blog is dead, long live the blog. I've been mucking about with a new-ish form at a new-ish URL, and it's time to flip the bit. The switch from /filtered to /unfiltered is an attempt to return to what I used to do at theobvious.com long long ago with "filtered for purity": offer reasonably context-free nuggets of linky goodness.
The old stuff is still available, all the old permalinks still work. But the new stuff will be here. In an act of what can only be called "feed slamming," I'm about to update my Feedburner account and instantly subscribe everyone over to the new stream. I wouldn't exactly call it a bait and switch, since there wasn't much "bait" at the old place lately. But I do recognize that the change in editorial focus and frequency may freak some folks out ...not to mention the flood of "new" items that I've been priming this with over the last couple of days. Feel free to exercise your right to unsubscribe, but know I'll be sorry to see you go.
Housekeeping things: the design's not "done" by any stretch, but you'll get the thing I'm going for. I'm sure there are bugs galore, and I know the view-source types will gasp with horror, but I optimized for ship date...and I didn't want to bug any of the geniuses I work with to make it perfect. There are, after all, only so many hours in the day.
OK, then. Enough talking. Onward!
Number Six buys an iPhone
Erika Hall: "Penny farthings are the new fixie"
Web Development for iPhone
Apple Developer Connection has posted guidelines etc. for developing web apps for the iPhone.
iPhone Safari isn't Safari 3.0, and other development surprises
A new report about the differences between Safari 3 and iPhone Safari suggests that gaining a share of the browser market was larger motivation for Safari 3 than providing development support for the iPhone.
Photojojo Hits 100,000+ Subscribers
Our new subscriber growth at Photojojo has been growing steadily. I expected us to hit 100,000 sometime this month, but we weighed in at 102,000+ this morning, so I guess we made it early. It’s taken us a year and 3 months to get to this point, and we’ve spent zero dollars are advertising or marketing. It’s all thanks to really enthusiastic readers who blog about us, tell their friends about us, and help spread the word. Thank you!
As an aside, when Daily Candy was acquired by Bob Pittman, they were about 3 years in and had 100,000 subscribers to their daily email list (we’re twice a week.)
Another aside: Two friends have started their own email newsletters in the past couple months, and I’m a fan of both: Nicole Davis’ startup Brooklyn Based for all your Brooklyn-dwelling friends, and Scott Hurff’s excellent Fuego for the classy men in your life.
Photoblock Kits available at Elsewares. (Kits illustrator featured in NY Times magazine)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/superamit/464486265/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/superamit/487710128/
how to encode video for iPhone using QuickTime Player
note to self:
After a bit of experimentation, here's our *working* video for iPhone settings:
Quicktime Player > Export > Movie to MPEG-4 > click options > Video Format: H.264 > Data Rate: 500 kbits/sec > Optimized for Download > Image Size: 480x270 (or whatever size you want) > Frame Rate: 15 > Key Frame > Automatic > Audio > AAC-LC Music > Data Rate: 96 kbps > Channels: Mono > Output Sample Rate: 44.100 kHz > Encoding Quality: Best
With well over a dozen different output formats, it's quite a task keeping them all trouble-free, but the Jesus Phone is important to us, so we needed to get this fixed asap.
Dept. Of Complaints: The New Crop Of Interns Is Bored - Gawker
I am bookmarking this for no reason in particular.
bookmark this on del.icio.us - posted by yatta to interns internship goodhelpishardtofindthesedays - more about this bookmark...
The French Have Some Catching Up to Do
In his blog entry, Is American Food Better Than French?, David Lebovitz compares the increasing use of fresh, local produce in American to the waning practice in France. He lists possible reasons for the "demise of French cooking", such as the 35 hour work week, industrialization, and a resistance to change under the impression that anything French must be superior. While he believes that France is rich with excellent food, he wonders why the use of good produce isn't more common:
French food has always been rooted in the terroir, or regionality of the food, which was the center of its cuisine for centuries. [...] So yes, there's still plenty of exceptional cheeses, wines, sparkling-fresh seafood, chickens that taste like chicken and hand-harvested salts available in France. But when it comes to fruits and vegetables, why is it so hard to get a simple tomato salad in the middle of summer made with sun-ripe French tomatoes? How come every French fry I've been served in the last four years is pale, completely limp and undersalted, dumped from a bag of previously frozen sticks, instead of being sliced from the great potatoes that Parmentier propagated for our enjoyment? Are there everyday restaurants that feature vegetables that are locally-grown and cooked simply with care?
David focuses on restaurants and markets in San Francisco; his idea of fresh produce being easily accessible and used by restaurants doesn't necessarily apply to the entire country. However, I was happy to find that there was enough demand to supply my nearest Whole Foods with flavorful, non-uniform, locally grown strawberries (which sat next to the large industrial variety) that I wouldn't be able to find at my neighborhood Pathmark or ShopRite. Do the French need to focus more on supplying their restaurants and consumers with fresh, local produce?
Bottled Water Is Still A Scam
Bottled water in America is generally less healthy than tap water, extraordinarily more expensive, and far more destructive to the environment. It’s something I started blogging about years ago, and thanks to an an exceptional package of stories in Fast Company, I had a reminder to revisit the issue.
From my old post:
In case you don’t know, bottled water is an incredible scam. I used to help out with running a water company when I was a kid, so I got a good background in the stringent set of requirements that utilities must meet when providing drinking water to a community. Generally, bottled water doesn’t have to meet standards that are anywhere near as tightly regulated in regards to contaminants, filtering, or purity. Not to mention the fact that waterwhich stagnates in plastic containers on supermarket shelves frequently has a higher bacteria count than water from public utilities.Meanwhile, the Fast Company article adds an incredible amount of new specifics, particularly about the explosive growth in sales of bottled water. As Charles Fishman says,
Bottled water is often simply an indulgence, and despite the stories we tell ourselves, it is not a benign indulgence. We’re moving 1 billion bottles of water around a week in ships, trains, and trucks in the United States alone. That’s a weekly convoy equivalent to 37,800 18-wheelers delivering water. (Water weighs 81/3 pounds a gallon. It’s so heavy you can’t fill an 18-wheeler with bottled water—you have to leave empty space.) Meanwhile, one out of six people in the world has no dependable, safe drinking water. The global economy has contrived to deny the most fundamental element of life to 1 billion people, while delivering to us an array of water “varieties” from around the globe, not one of which we actually need. That tension is only complicated by the fact that if we suddenly decided not to purchase the lake of Poland Spring water in Hollis, Maine, none of that water would find its way to people who really are thirsty.
It’s worth reiterating that Aquafina and Dasani are just tap water. There’s nothing wrong with that, since tap water is very good water — it’s just not worth paying 500 times as much for. I don’t have any argument against the convenience factor, either, since it makes perfect sense to take water with you when you’re on the go. You’ll just get something that’s got less bacteria and generally better quality if you fill your bottle from your tap. It’s also worth checking out this story for the slideshows that are displayed alongside it; These usually just seem like blatant attempts for magazines to increase their page views online, but in this case they seem to have actually included original content and research.
Some of the other points made in the article:
- Fiji Water produces more than a million bottles a day, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have reliable drinking water.
- If the water we use at home cost what even cheap bottled water costs, our monthly water bills would run $9,000.
- 24% of the bottled water we buy is tap water repackaged by Coke and Pepsi.
- The bubbles in San Pellegrino are extracted from volcanic springs in Tuscany, then trucked north and injected into the water from the source.
- We pitch into landfills 38 billion water bottles a year—in excess of $1 billion worth of plastic.
- Worldwide, 1 billion people have no reliable source of drinking water; 3,000 children a day die from diseases caught from tainted water.
I’d encourage everybody to take a look at the Fast Company article — it makes it clear that the costs of bottled water, aside from its extraordinarily expensive price, are simply not worth it. And that’s not even taking into account the fact that a lot of experts think the next resource that will spark a wide-scale international conflict isn’t going to be oil, but fresh drinking water.
Thanks to Lisa for the article link and to Philippe for the photo.
Edward Tufte on Megan Jaegerman’s Brilliant News Graphics
“Megan Jaegerman produced some of the best news graphics ever while working at The New York Times from 1990 to 1998.” Via Kottke.
"Everyone’s a Voyeurist, They’re Watching Me Watch Them Watch Me Right Now"
HBOVoyeur launched last week on a previously barren wall in the Lower East Side. The projection on the wall shows a film that tears down the facade of an apartment building and lets any passerby take a peak inside (HBO definitely picked the right city for this, as similar real-life scenes can seen from the street 24/7 here). The idea is a cool one, but can get old fast while watching it - which is why they keep the vignettes short. The pamphlet we picked up describes it as:
"a multimedia experience that gives you a peek into what happens behind the countless windows we pass everyday. It begins with a silent film projected on the side of a building, and extends online and to HBO on Demand. The project illustrates the underlying truth that sometimes the most revealing stories are the ones you weren't meant to see."This is something we all learned while watching the first season of The Real World (but probably forgot sometime around Big Brother, The Bachelor and every other "reality show" that quickly sprouted up). NYMag has a review from the premiere, where apparently "covetable gift bags" were handed out (we hear they contained iPods...but not iPhones). To watch the project live, head over to Broome and Ludlow Streets.
CNN.com relaunch case study at UX Week
The recent relaunch of CNN.com has a lot of people talking — and wondering just what went into such an ambitious step forward for an established brand like CNN.
We’re excited to announce that Lori Adams and Dermot Waters of CNN.com will be joining us at User Experience Week 2007 to present the inside story of CNN.com’s relaunch. Join us in Washington, D.C. August 13-16 to find out firsthand how CNN put it all together.
Prepaid (and Nonpaid) iPhone Plans 101
Some of you are still grumbling about the iPhone's "required" 2-year contract with AT&T. But if you manipulate the credit check a little bit (legally, at that), you can activate all of the iPhone's features on a prepaid plan. You can then even cancel that plan, if all you want is a widescreen iPod/WiFi communications device.
NYT on the attention to culinary detail in "Ratatouille"
including Thomas Keller's ratatouille recipe for the film's final meal [via]
iPhone profit margins examined: good for Apple, bad for your wallet
How much would an iPhone cost if an iPhone had no margin? We read speculative reports in January, but now Portelligent has (mostly) confirmed the details about the component breakdown of the iPhone.
iPhone Dev Wiki's Latest Summary
daily updates of progress in unlocking and modding the iPhone
Public Design Center
Public Design Center. “Public Design Center, Inc. is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in January of 2007 with the mission of providing design-studio production for groups and projects which focus on economic development and sustainability in underserved communities.
We provide print and web production for projects in impoverished areas with emphasis on rural issues, urban planning, bio, wind and solar energy, economic development, organic farming, energy conservation, microfinance, and sustainable building.
Our work includes presentation materials, identity, instructions, typography, illustration, signage, and web deployment.”
July 2, 2007
Rice Visit
Two weekends ago we were graced by a rare A&L visit. We hit Capogiro, Horizons, Honey's Sit 'n Eat and Brown Betty among numerous other fun stops.
As always, Capogiro and Horizons did not disappoint. ("Oh my god" was the most-uttered phrase at Horizons).
The next day we shared a chocolate cupcake and a pineapple cupcake from Brown Betty, a very cute & sunny cake shop in Liberties Walk. Honestly, the cupcakes didn't look spectacular - pretty simple and perhaps plain - but upon tasting we all found them to be deliciously moist and flavorful. The cake part of the chocolate cupcake was so rich and dense without being pasty and fake-tasting like some other "super chocolaty" ones. The icing wasn't crazy sweet and matched nicely with the tasty cakes. I can't wait to go back to check out more desserts, especially that Sweet Potato Pot!
Before our cupcakes we had a brunch at Honey's Sit 'n Eat in Northern Liberties. I had heard about the numerous vegetarian options and that the food was good. We unfortunately arrived at prime brunch time so our wait was very long (almost an hour!) but we were finally seated at a large table in the cavernous, breezy place. The food mix was mainly American diner with a good chunk of Southern and some Jewish; we were all very excited and couldn't decide on what to order. be chose the vegetarian chicken-fried steak, i settled on an egg & biscuit plate, A got pancakes and L got another breakfast plate. L's brother L got the chicken fajitas while S got the whitefish salad on a bagel. Sadly, they had already run out of vegetarian sausage patties but the adorable tiny Mason jar salt & pepper shakers on the tables made up for that.
Overall i liked Honey's. It wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst. My breakfast was quite tasty although the grits a tad bland - nothing butter & salt couldn't fix. (I liked the biscuits at Honey's better than the sky-high ones at Morning Glory, although Geechee Girl's are my favorite in Philly so far.) be's mac n cheese was quite good, not quite casseroley but definitely creamy and satisfying. However, the latkes were fried ultra-hard to dark brown triangles and be's veg chick steak was so crispy and oily he could barely finish it. I'll definitely still give Honey's another try; perhaps an earlier visit will reap vegetarian sausage patties and a less-insane fry cook!
The Rices gifted us with very noteworthy items!1) a loaf of crusty, tasty, tangy sourdough bread from Cenan's Bakery in Vienna, VA
2) a jar of "Aloha Rose" pineapple rosemary jam from Crackpot Gourmet
3) an insanely addictive bag of real kettle corn from Colonial Kettle Corn
I love the way all the products were from small VA companies. All i know is that the next time i'm in VA, i'm stocking up on bread, jam and a carload of kettle corn!
McSweeney's is opening a small design shop called Timothy McSweeney's...
McSweeney's is opening a small design shop called Timothy McSweeney's Design House to "tackle smaller jobs where the personal touch is welcome". If I wanted a job, this is one of the places I'd apply. (via quipsologies) (link)
I feel so used.
I'm in Tel Aviv right now; appropriately, the heat here is biblical. As such, my lady-sweat has resulted in some unfortunate blemishes on my decolletage. No stranger to summertime chacne, I know that the situation--which, thanks to my wardrobe selection, is all too visible, all the time--would be best combated with some exfoliation and a few days' worth of excessive spot-treatment. But because I am a stupid girl, I left my emergency Differin at home. Unable to look at myself in the mirror any longer, I hit up a pharmacy.
As it turns out, the drugstores here aren't a whole lot like your local Duane Reade, and not just because a security guard molests your handbag at the front door. For starters, the places are actually clean. And you can't just browse or wander, because the staff wants to help you get in and out quickly. Thus if you linger for more than 30 seconds, your stereotypical Jewish grandmother-type gets all up in your face, wanting to help you. In fact, she's not going to go away until she knows you're either going to make a purchase or get the hell out (before you bomb something).
So after spending a few seconds too long in the Neutrogena section, a woman who looks exactly like every Nana to ever walk the earth has suddenly thrown herself into my personal space, asking in Hebrew if she can help. We make the awkward switch to English, but she doesn't understand what I mean by "pimple" or "acne" or "zit." Finally she says, "Show me. Show me." I gesture to my chest, which is covered by the one and only piece of clothing I brought that will hide the problem. "No, no, it is okay!" she insists. "Let me see!" And then, before I can stop her, she proceeds to pull the neckline away from me and LOOK DOWN MY DRESS. As it is so hot out, I have not deigned to wear a bra or underpants on this excursion.
I try not to act horrified (when in Rome?) as she peers downward, conducting a not-so-brief, full frontal inspection in front of several customers. She then brusquely pulls away, clearly disinterested, and says, "Oh, no. We have nothing for that." And I'm shown the door.
The World Without Us looks like an interesting read: "If...
The World Without Us looks like an interesting read: "If a virulent virus -- or even the Rapture -- depopulated Earth overnight, how long before all trace of humankind vanished? [...] Days after our disappearance, pumps keeping Manhattan's subways dry would fail, tunnels would flood, soil under streets would sluice away and the foundations of towering skyscrapers built to last for centuries would start to crumble." Here's a similar article from New Scientist from late 2006. (via mr) (link)
Rumor: MacBooks to become smaller, gain multi-touch
The current wave of MacBook rumors suggest that thinner MacBook featuring multi-touch trackpads will be coming sometime in October.
Google and health care
Posted by Missy Krasner, Product Marketing Manager
In a world of 24/7 news cycles, a summer weekend can bring considerable -- and unanticipated -- excitement. Take for example the reaction we've just seen to an item on our new health advertising blog. Frankly, we were surprised by the pickup, but perhaps we shouldn't have been. We've been proponents of corporate blogging for some time, despite the significant communication challenges that obviously arise from having many voices from all parts of our company speak publicly through blog posts. In this case, the blog criticized Michael Moore's new film "Sicko" to suggest how health care companies might use our ad programs when they face controversy. Our internal review of the piece before publication failed to recognize that readers would -- properly, but incorrectly -- impute the criticisms as reflecting Google's official position. We blew it.
In fact, Google does share many of the concerns that Mr. Moore expresses about the cost and availability of health care in America. Indeed, we think these issues are sufficiently important that we invited our employees to attend his film (nearly 1,000 people did so). We believe that it will fall to many entities -- businesses, government, educational institutions, individuals -- to work together to solve the current system's shortcomings. This is one reason we're deploying our technology and our expertise with the hope of improving health system information for everyone who is or will become a patient. Over the last several months, we have been blogging about our thinking in this area. See: November 30, 2006, March 28, May 23, and June 23, 2007.
In the meantime, we have taken steps on our own to address the failures we see in our health care system. In our case, the menu of health care options that we offer our employees includes both direct services (for example, on-site medical and dental professionals in certain locations) as well as a range of preventive care programs. It's one of the ways we're attempting to demonstrate corporate responsibility on a major issue of our time.
"Half a million iPhones sold;" Vodafone wants a piece of that action
Vodafone and Apple are close to an agreement on Vodafone carrying the iPhone in Europe, sources tell us, after 500,000 of them were sold in the US over the weekend.
The New Plessy v. Ferguson
Michael Blim summarizes the news from the Supreme Court over on 3quarksdaily; I wish this had gotten the coverage that the iPhone did, or even that people were camping out on the streets lining up for justice. Blim provides us with the amazing sight of Justice Clarence Thomas quoting Justice Harlan of the Plessy Court’s white supremacist justifications:
“The white race deems itself to be the dominant race in this country. And so it is, in prestige, in achievements, in education, in wealth and in power. So, I doubt not, it will continue to be for all time, *if it remains true to its great heritage and holds fast to the principles of constitutional liberty*. But in view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. (words in italics omitted by Thomas)A curious omission there, Justice Thomas. Justice John Paul Stevens, the elder statesman of the court, isn’t so easily fooled. From his dissent:
There is a cruel irony in THE CHIEF JUSTICE’s reliance on our decision in Brown versus the Board of Education. The first sentence in the concluding paragraph of his opinion states: ‘Before Brown, schoolchildren were told where they could and could not go to school based on the color of their skin.’ This sentence reminds me of Anatole France’s observation: ‘The majestic equality of the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.’ THE CHIEF JUSTICE fails to note that it was only black schoolchildren who were so ordered; indeed the history books do not tell stories of white children struggling to attend black schools. In this and other ways THE CHIEF JUSTICE rewrites the history of one of this Court’s most important decisions.Note his use of the word “our” here: Stevens was on the court for the Brown v. Board decision. One would hope that would make the rest of the Justices respect his opinion even more, but apparently not.
A Slate slideshow (with video) showing work from Brad Bird's...
A Slate slideshow (with video) showing work from Brad Bird's career, from his early tests to The Iron Giant to Ratatouille. (link)
The U2 iPod: Back when we were friends.
Bob Lefsetz has been sharing his opinions on the music industry for years. In last night's newsletter, he announces, "Let the games begin!" - and indeed, let them. Universal Music has declined to re-sign to a long term deal with Apple, essentially leaving them open to exclusive deals with other services. The fact that Doug Morris (chairman of UMG) and Zach Horowitz (President of Universal's parent company, Vivendi) have been gearing up to loosen the stranglehold that iTunes has on online distribution is not exactly news. They've used similar tactics against Microsoft's Zune and YouTube. But with the release of the iPhone and following his well-timed decision to openly "share his thoughts" on DRM, not to mention his landmark deal with (perennial "armpit of the industry") EMI to sell their music DRM-free and at a higher cost - the real question is: is Steve Jobs ready to play hardball?
Edward Tufte highlights some infographics done by Megan Jaegerman for...
Edward Tufte highlights some infographics done by Megan Jaegerman for the NY Times in the 90s. Tufte: "Her work is elegant, smart, finely detailed, inventive, and informative. A fierce researcher and reporter, she writes gracefully and precisely. Her best work is the best work in news graphics." (link)
AT&T claims to have fixed iPhone activation woes
Many readers reported over the weekend that they had major problems activating their iPhones. AT&T is aware of this, and claims to have implemented some technical fixes to the servers to ensure it doesn't happen again.
Did you see Ratatouille
So, did you see Ratatouille over the weekend? What did you think? I went again on Saturday and enjoyed it just as much the second time around, especially because I noticed many more details this time, like the cuts and burns on all the cooks' arms and the skull stylings of Ego's typewriter. It sure made me want to go to Paris too! And if the movie wasn't enough for you, YouTube's got some great stuff to check out, including this really cool interview with Pixar folks about Cooking up CG Food, explaining how they made all the food in the movie look so realistic and yummy. Here's the YouTube Ratatouille page with all the videos.
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The capitalist response to Sicko
Google started taking its first steps into evil when it allowed China to begin filtering content. It took its first big local step when it encouraged HMO's to buy GoogleAds using Sicko as a keyword to counter the message of the movie. (This is yet another reason why Stay Free! is an Ad-Free Blog - it is hard enough to rouse ourselves to provide content for the blog; we'd hate to be undone by our own sidebar.)The Google founders do seem like good guys, and the motto Do No Evil is a noble sentiment. Alas, this is another bit of...
All I want is Bash, is that too much to ask?
I’ll be honest, I’m a little disappointed that no one has hacked the iPhone yet and at least given me a shell to play around with. Come on guys, get on the ball — don’t let those sorry PSP hackers get all the glory.
Something tells me it won’t be long before the device’s innards are accessible.
Penguin Popular Classics
We were wandering around the book stores on Charing Cross Road on Saturday, and stumbled across a wonderful selection of the Penguin Popular Classics
.
Turns out they've been available since January, but had somehow escaped our notice till now.
They've got cheapo uncoated covers, no footnotes, and no introductions; but they're just £2 each, which is simply fantastic. How else can you get so much pleasure for so little money?
The utilitarian cover design is wonderful, and they make a great set when they're all together, really reminiscent of the early days of Penguin. The titles are heavily weighted in favour of the big hitters (Austen, Dickens and Shakespeare), but there are a stack of others to choose from too.
July 1, 2007
Lonesome George: Last of his Species; Impotent.
Search for Lonesome George mate is long shot
While scientists search for a mate for "Lonesome George" -- the last known survivor of a species of Galapagos tortoise -- some say the effort to fend off extinction may be in vain. Even if a mate is found, George has not been interested in reproducing in the past and may not know how, former keepers and others who have worked with him said."He has problems ... he probably never saw a female and male of his own species reproducing," said Swiss biologist Sveva Grigioni, who worked with George 13 years ago.
Grigioni, now back in Switzerland, said she could normally get tortoises to ejaculate within minutes, but spent months manually stimulating George and never extracted semen from him.
Age is not George's problem. He is estimated at between 60 and 90 years old, and could live to be 200 and still reproduce, scientists say.
The visual differences in tortoises from different islands were among the features of the Galapagos that helped 19th Century British naturalist Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution. Since then, the tortoises have been hunted by pirates for their meat and their habitat eaten away by goats introduced onto the islands. George, who weighs 198 pounds, was found on Pinta in 1971.
Hush-Hush: Rove's Security Clearance Renewal - washingtonpost.com
ROVE'S SECURITY CLEARANCE-HUSH, HUSH! "Under these standards, it is hard to see how Mr. Rove would qualify for renewal of his security clearance," Waxman wrote. White House spokesman Tony Fratto said he could not discuss details but that Rove's "clearance was appropriately renewed as part of the regular process that occurs every five years."
The oven's penultimate job
Polenta Lasagna
1) Sautee 5 cloves of chopped garlic in a pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil
2) Add 3 cups of chopped white or brown mushrooms, and continue to sautee. Add basil, lemon thyme, oregano and black pepper
3) Boil 2.5 cups of polenta in 7 cups of water, until it's really thick
4) Add mushroom mixture to the polenta
5) Add half a large jar of tomato sauce to the whole thingLayering the lasagna
1) Oil a lasagna pan
2) Add some tomato sauce
3) Add about an inch of polenta mixture
4) Add about a cup of grated soy mozzarella
5) Repeat steps 2-4 until all your sauce and polenta mixture is gone-- make sure to end the last layer with soy cheese on the topFinally
Bake in oven at 350 degrees for ten-fifteen minutes, until the cheese is melted. Add some chopped parsely and chopped chives to the top, as tasty garnish. Let cool in the fridge and then serve cold.Note: This may be good warm, but I can't vouch for it as I haven't tried it.
'Twas the Night Before Column Deadline....
...and all through the house---
Well, let's just say, the column wasn't written yet. Usually I'm done days in advance, just in case malaria or mange might afflict me and prevent me from pounding out my 525 words by Sunday morning.
My son got married last weekend, and the next day I was working 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily with twenty-five wonderful teachers new to the AP program. It was exhilarating---and exhausting. Each evening I limped up the front steps and hoped the unidentified tupperwares in my frig contained something edible for dinner.I should have been able to write my column on Saturday, after the work week had ended. But my daughter was moving lots of her stuff out of our basement to her flat in Detroit, and I needed to help her pack her 1990 Volvo. Ah, youth. She could probably pack the car, drive to Detroit, AND get the column done on a Saturday, but not me. By 10:15 p.m., I was dead asleep.
I woke up a bit after midnight, knowing I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep for awhile. So I decided to take advantage of the moment and start the column, now due less than twelve hours from that time. I was a bit sleepy, but that state made me less critical of what was appearing on the screen, and I knocked out a first draft in 90 minutes.
At 7 a.m. this morning, I looked at what I'd written, expecting I would be horrified by my middle-of-the-night creation, but I only had to spend about 40 minutes revising it and rewriting the last paragraph. (I always have to rewrite the last paragraph.)
It is now done and sent to my intrepid editor, who is working Sunday, as always. I hope you like tomorrow's column. It almost didn't happen!
Happy Canada Day!
Photo from Fake Plastic Alice.
See more photos in Flickr’s Canada Day clusters.
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