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Entries for March 2004
Web sites that contain collections that are copyright free
Web sites that contain collections that are copyright free.
Erik Spiekermann’s favorite fonts
Erik Spiekermann’s favorite fonts. He created the Meta and Officina typefaces and now has a weblog.
Signs of life at Six Apart again
Signs of life at Six Apart again. About fricking time…the silence from all these weblog companies (*cough* Kinja *cough*) is weird and stupid.
A community site called FunHi is based
A community site called FunHi is based completely on amassing karma…and they’ve monetized it!. This is brilliant. Instead of building a community around topic/activity XYZ which will inevitably come to be dominated by people seeking karma, they’ve skipped right to end.
NYTimes’ quick guide to the best restaurants in New York
NYTimes’ quick guide to the best restaurants in New York.
Google is playing with personalized search
Google is playing with personalized search. Which everyone thinks is the future, but it needs to be more passive than this.
First look at Microsoft’s blog search engine
First look at Microsoft’s blog search engine. Is everyone who does blog “search” going to get it wrong?
Racing with my phone
On the way home from work this evening, I stopped by Times Square and played a video game on one of the jumbo videotrons:
Yahoo! partnered with interactive agency R/GA to produce the car racing game to promote their automotive site. The game play is pretty simple…you call an 800 number (1-800-660-4402), listen for your race, and when the starting flag goes down, you press 2 to speed up and 8 to slow down (like slot cars). I crashed twice, once into a cab and once while going too fast around a corner, but I still beat the stuffing out of the other car.
Audio files of the 9/11 Commission Hearings are
Audio files of the 9/11 Commission Hearings are available for free from Audible.com. You need to sign up for an Audible.com account though.
Former prison cook recalls the preparation of
Former prison cook recalls the preparation of last meals for death row inmates.
Doormat
A brand new doormat appeared at the front door of our apartment building a short time ago. In the winter, the stairs get extremely dirty due to snow/rain and the super’s negligence in mopping them, so the mat was a welcome addition. But now the mat has been there so long that it too is extremely dirty; it’s gone from being a solution to a problem to part of the problem itself.
Lying is more common over the phone
Lying is more common over the phone than over email, even if you’re looking to hire a prostitute.
Andy’s chatbot games get written up on Wired News
Andy’s chatbot games get written up on Wired News. “Instant messaging and text adventures go together like peanut butter and jelly.”
Time
There are too many clocks in my life. And each one is showing a different time, so I don’t know when I am anymore.
Larry Lessig’s new book is available for
Larry Lessig’s new book is available for download under a Creative Commons license.
Former runway fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi has
Former runway fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi has a chat/variety show on the Oxygen network.
Top Ten Things They Never Taught Me
Top Ten Things They Never Taught Me in Design School by Michael McDonough. I’m having problems with #9 these days.
Every weblog panel I’ve ever seen in a nutshell
Every weblog panel I’ve ever seen in a nutshell. “Yes, and obviously I concur.”
Physicists at the Institute of Physics in
Physicists at the Institute of Physics in London have calculated how high heels can go. h = Q x (12+3s/8) where s is shoe size and Q is a sociological factor based partially on alcohol consumption, years of experience, and how fashionable the shoes are.
Play a racing video game on a
Play a racing video game on a huge Times Square video screen using your cell phone.
Wonderful panorama showing Mars rover Opportunity’s home
Wonderful panorama showing Mars rover Opportunity’s home over the past two months.
Beyonce for Vice President!
Beyonce for Vice President!. “What I’m suggesting here is that Kerry at least consider the notion of taking the path more bootylicious.”
“I’m a bonafide publisher now, and you
“I’m a bonafide publisher now, and you can be one too.”. Use out-of-copyright books and on-demand printing to roll your own publishing house.
Steven Johnson examines the science of Eternal
Steven Johnson examines the science of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
A conversation with the blogosphere
A conversation with the blogosphere. “There’s probably a quiz about that; you should check my archives.”
No, your other left.
No, your other left.. Those wacky Republicans…when in doubt, they always go right.
Saw a preview of “Saved!” in the
Saw a preview of “Saved!” in the theatre yesterday…it certainly looks interesting..
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
It’s only March but I feel safe in saying that this Charlie Kaufman/Michel Gondry collaboration is the most creative film of the year. What’s even more remarkable than me making such a ridiculous pronouncement is that the creativity is not just gimmickry; it, like Jim Carrey’s comedic energy, is carefully applied in full support of the film’s themes and plot. The final scene of the movie between Carrey and Winslet is, at once, one of the most truthful, heartbreaking, hopeful statements about love that I’ve ever seen in a film.
The big NYC anti-war march took place
The big NYC anti-war march took place one year ago today. Here’s my photo gallery from that day..
Series of photographs that have had the
Series of photographs that have had the text stripped from them. Neat idea, would love to see this done with a photo of Times Square.
Six years!
Time is flying by so quickly these days, so I didn’t notice on March 14th that this weblog is now six years old. Except for the basics (eating, sleeping, remaining alive), I’ve never stuck with anything for six years straight, so it’s hard for me to believe I’m still here doing this. Six years!
TypeKey, authentication services for weblogs
TypeKey, authentication services for weblogs. I wonder if you could hack MT 3.0 to use Flickr for authentication instead…
Capturing the Friedmans
One of the subjects of the film, David Friedman, is a birthday clown here in NYC and was profiled by Susan Orlean in the New Yorker a few years ago. The story didn’t touch on any of the family history, which didn’t come out until Andrew Jarecki, the director of the film, profiled David for a short film on clowns, at which point the project exploded in scope.
There’s been some criticism of the film for being misleading, and that view has some merit. The director states in this interview that two scenes near the end of the movie, one showing Jesse Friedman clowning around and one showing him crying were actually shot weeks apart, not within the same day as the film makes it seem. But so much of the film is about the difference between reality and perception anyway that the whole thing could be fiction or heavily biased and it wouldn’t matter too much (to me at least).
ORD, JFK, SFO, AXA…where do those
ORD, JFK, SFO, AXA…where do those airport codes come from anyway?.
Loaf is attempting to use social networks
Loaf is attempting to use social networks to make email a little more useful. In essence, your email program can ask each incoming email, “hey, do I know this person or any of her friends?” without completely destroying anyone’s privacy.
Who doesn’t like TiVo?
The NY Times ran another of those fawning TiVo articles yesterday about how everyone who has one loves it like a member of the family. An excerpt:
Mr. Smith has since replaced his older TiVo model with three ReplayTV units. The new units allow him to stream programs from one to the other. After recording a program in his darkened home theater room, he transfers it to his brighter living room area, where he can watch while doing other things. Mr. Smith has been so taken with the technology that he has persuaded five of his friends to buy a recorder, he said.
The devices not only allow users to watch shows at any time, but they also introduce them to obscure programs that they might not otherwise find. Before Dr. Everett, the Michigan ophthalmologist, and his wife take a trip, he enters the destination on their TiVo “wish list,” to automatically record travelogues about the area.
Having used a TiVo myself for almost four years and wondering how I’d ever live watch TV without it, I can fully identify with the TiVolutionaries featured in stories like these. However, I wonder if there are people for whom TiVo was not a life-changing experience. They’ve got to be out there, unwritten about in major national newspapers; the appeal of TiVo can’t be that universal. So, I know this is probably a long shot, given that I’m largely preaching to the converted here on kottke.org, but does anyone out there not like their TiVo? And if so, are you crazy why? (No “I dont watch TV so why would I love TiVo” stories please.)
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