The Nested Float Links

How Different Groups of People Spend Their Days

2009-08-07T15:54:57+00:00

Another rad interactive infographic from the NY Times. I do get fed up with clients constantly mentioning the Times' flashier stuff as and example of what they're looking for ("Okay, fine. Do you have another four grand?"), but it's hard to argue that they don't make the best stuff out there. With this one, I especially had fun watching the amount of time each group sleeps. Watch the whole chart lurch toward late night for the 15-24 demographic. Expected, but still funny. (via Dan Benjamin.) (#)

So you think you can ride a bike?

2009-08-05T17:19:51+00:00

A lot of stunt footage fails to impress, but I am floored by Danny MacAskill's skill. And as Andrew Leonard notes, it's his decency (the red light shot is cute, sure, but I especially love the bit of him replacing the traffic gate after biking up its length) that in part sets this clip apart. That and the song. And the several clips of shocked bystanders going all "WTF?" after the fact. Oh - and that thing with the tree. (#)

Vim Plugins: snipmate.vim

2009-08-04T13:40:42+00:00

Oh, now you're just taunting me. I'm always telling people that the coolest thing about vi is that it's everywhere and that you have to do precious little to reasonably configure it. But now I'm finding all these indispensable plugins. And I'll be forced to install them on every server I ever touch. What a bother. Really. (#)

Twitter, an Evolving Architecture

2009-06-30T15:10:57+00:00

A look at Twitter's current architecture and a few notes on the lead architect's plans for the future. The most interesting bit for me: "Everything is kept in RAM and the database is just a backup." Crazy. (via Willison.) (#)

Take Your Design To The Next Level With CSS3

2009-06-16T14:25:39+00:00

I dare say I've never linked to a Smashing Magazine article, but here's one I can really get behind. A pretty comprehensive primer on all of the CSS3 rules worth using. The most useful part for me: which browsers currently support each tool. (#)

resty

2009-05-21T03:14:26+00:00

A lovely little bash script that exposes a simple HTTP request syntax for using curl on the command line. I can see myself using this a lot. (via Simon Willison.) (#)

Yahoo! Placemaker

2009-05-20T21:52:36+00:00

This is gonna be really big news. Yahoo! is opening up a treasure-trove of geo-relational data that can be queried through what looks to be a really easy-to-use API. Know the city your photo comes from, but want to figure out the state, the country, the continent? That's just one use case. Can't wait to dream up some others. (via Jeff Croft.) (#)

Visible Tweets

2009-05-20T03:06:34+00:00

The best use of Flash I've seen in a long time. A visualizer for Twitter messages that's capable of working in full screen. Hook this puppy up to a monitor at your next geek event and watch as your attendees get sucked into the resultant feedback loop. How wonderfully anti-social! (#)

What Twitter Looks Like For Twitter Employees

2009-04-30T16:16:33+00:00

I spend a chunk of pretty much every day thinking about the user interfaces that Category 4 clients see, so I found this look at the Twitter admin site quite interesting. It's way more barebones than I expected. (#)

Writing Software Is Like…Writing

2009-04-22T18:59:53+00:00

I like what this guy is trying to explain almost as much as I like how he does it. He's not really answering the question "What is programming like?" He's answering "Why do no two programmers ever produce the same work?" It's a great analogy. (#)

Your Eyes Suck At Blue

2009-04-22T00:06:35+00:00

I've read a lot about monitor and video color display in my day, but this is a new one on me. Turns out if you reduce the quality of an images blue channel, no one will ever notice. Same, to a certain extent, with red. But mess with the greens and you've got a problem. Fantastic stuff. (#)

tweenbots

2009-04-13T00:37:30+00:00

Little cardboard robots are helped by passers-by in their journey from one end of Washington Square Park to the other. "The journey the Tweenbots take each time they are released in the city becomes a story of people's willingness to engage with a creature that mirrors human characteristics of vulnerability, of being lost, and of having intention without the means of achieving its goal alone." Grad student much? I thought so. Still, this is one rad little project. (#)

THRU-YOU

2009-03-14T12:20:08+00:00

Israeli DJ Kutiman takes videos blends amateur music footage from YouTube into a PoMo dance party. Really great stuff. (via Kubicek.) (#)

Readability

2009-03-03T11:38:12+00:00

Now here's a bookmarklet I'll actually use. From arc90, this tool takes that article you're reading at the Times and strips out everything but the title and the article content. No ads, no extraneous razmatazz, and no fuss. The only dissapointing part is that it removes story-related photos unless they're actually in the article body. (via kottke.) (#)

django-chronograph

2009-03-02T17:02:57+00:00

Weston Nielson – who as far as I can tell doesn't have a personal site – recently released this handy little app that lets you set up cron jobs that act on your Django views, admin commands, or other scripts, all from within the built-in admin interface. I've never minded setting up cron schedules, but for a site with lots of periodic configuration, this little puppy could turn out to be a huge help. (via TWiD.) (#)

Science of Watchmen

2009-02-28T14:08:20+00:00

University Physics Professor James Kakalios attempts to explain how the powers of Watchmen's Dr. Manhattan could maybe kinda be explained by quantum mechanics. "Not strictly correct from a Physics point of view, but very cool nonetheless." Yeah, that's what I thought. (via Dan Benjamin.) (#)

The mother of all budgets

2009-02-26T19:41:21+00:00

Salon's Andrew Leonard breaks down Obama's proposed budget and manages to get me totally pumped up in the process. One commenter in particular hits the nail on the head. Watching Obama is like watching a Chess Master. (I should point out, though, that Checkers played correctly is nearly as complex as Chess.) (#)

Without You

2009-01-20T18:09:46+00:00

This can't be real, right? It's just way too…what's the word I'm looking for? Intense? Yes. Indeed. (via Jason.) (#)

Origami In the Pursuit of Perfection (Asics Commercial)

2009-01-09T15:50:07+00:00

Origami artist Sipho Mabona details the history of the Asics Corporation in – what else? – folded paper. The writers also deserve much of the credit; pay attention to the unique narrative turns sprinkled throughout the story. An absolutely stunning corporate movie. (#)

iTunes Still Well Ahead of Amazon MP3 Store

2008-12-16T23:02:44+00:00

Come on, people! 256kbps standard, no DRM, a downloader that auto-adds stuff to iTunes for you, daily deals on albums that are frequently set at 99¢ or $1.99. What more could you ask for? So start buying! (#)

Hyperspaces for OSX

2008-12-09T21:17:46+00:00

A nice little app that tacks on additional functionality to Spaces in OSX. The background-image-per-space thing could be handy, but by my estimation, the ability to add a new space via hotkey is the most useful feature. (#)

Let’s talk about Python 3.0

2008-12-07T00:56:59+00:00

Even if you care not a lick about Python or programming in general, you'll enjoy the first part of James Bennett's rallying cry for Python 3.0. Related note: programmers who are also excellent writers inspire envy in me like nothing else. (#)

The Next President in Photos

2008-11-06T15:51:26+00:00

Boston.com's Big Picture is hands down my favorite photo blog out there. Here they've assembled the best Obama photos taken in the past few months. I'm particularly enamored with this one. (#)

Kaki King – Playing With Pink Noise

2008-10-30T15:27:32+00:00

I don't know much I'd enjoy listening to a whole album of Kaki King beating these melodies out of her guitar, but it sure is something to watch. (#)

Take On Me With Expository Lyrics

2008-10-29T15:06:07+00:00

This variation of A-ha's video for "Take On Me," with crazy-making special effects translated into easy-to-follow lyrics, confirms a long held suspicion: music videos really are more interesting than the songs they represent. I wish all music videos were like this. (#)

Obama Roasts McCain at Al Smith Dinner

2008-10-17T17:57:41+00:00

I'd heard talk about the bang-up job Obama did of roasting McCain – and most of Washington – at the Alfred E. Smith Dinner. But seeing it was something else altogether. His performance did more to calm my nerves about this election than anything else ever could have. Truly remarkable stuff. (#)

CSS Transforms in Firefox

2008-10-12T20:03:06+00:00

Mozilla seems to be doing a pretty good job of keeping the Firefox nightlies within striking distance of feature parity with Webkit. CSS Transforms are such a simple concept, it's hard to believe they're just becoming available. Apply various Photoshop-like transformations on HTML elements. By my estimation, rotate will be the most used option here. Also: the "translate" option sounds like an interesting alternative to CSS positioning. I'm excited for this feature to make it into Firefox proper. (Via FABW.) (#)

Muxtape Remembers

2008-10-08T20:40:54+00:00

Me and a couple colleagues found ourselves in a pickle when Muxtape shut down. All those great playlists lost! We'd buy all the songs if only we could only remember their names. I was the only one in the group that never copied down any of those playlists for posterity. Lucky for me, Muxtape has made a frozen copy of the system available, just sans music. Amazon MP3 store, here I come. (#)

Selecting Layers in Photoshop

2008-10-07T01:55:50+00:00

I'm with Jesse: the "rubber band" method of selecting layers is just awesomely cool. I had no idea that existed. Also: I'm a little ashamed at how giddy that discovery just made me. (#)

Your Favorite Programming Cartoons

2008-10-03T22:53:12+00:00

Stack Overflow users post some of their favorite programming funnies. Do you write code – any kind of code at all? I can't promise belly laughs, but a couple might bring you close. (#)