yewknee.com

The Decade in Seven Minutes

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:11:00 -0800

Newsweek have posted a (strangely low quality) video of The Decade in Seven Minutes. Relive the past ten years in under ten minutes. It's a pretty nice overview of the high points mixed in with a few nuggets that I'd forgotten about. I wish they focused on a few more positive things but the impactful points in history are rarely uplifting.

SetJam: First Impressions

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:00:07 -0800

Yesterday, I got my account approved to try out SetJam; a forthcoming site intended to help you discover TV shows on the web. It's pretty similar in scope to Clicker; as I have mentioned before. I'm not sure what I was really expecting from either service but it turns out that I'm pretty underwhelmed by both.

At the heart of it, SetJam is a search engine. The main developer even gives great amounts of insight on how the engine works and it is, supposedly, better than Google. In that regard, the site works well. You search for a show and inevitably some options come up of places to purchase (or maybe stream) the program. Great, but isn't that just an alternative to Google?

The site does offer some other options; such as saving your "Favorite Shows" but it runs all of that functionality through your Facebook account which, frankly, I've no interest in coupling with SetJam. There is zero option to just save the information on their servers, nor is there any way to provide feedback / contact the developers unless you do it through Facebook. Maybe I'm just being a codgy old man but I really don't want all my online activity running through one central hub showing what I'm doing.

And maybe my Torrent Friendly ways are blinding me but I don't really see the benefit of having a site that, mostly, just links me to the Amazon store to download a movie.

In the end, neither SetJam nor Clicker really do much of anything for me - though I think both are done quite well.

Always Sunny Xmas

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:41:39 -0800

Since I had no idea such a thing was set to exist I will assume you did not either. So here's the official heads up - It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia will release A Very Sunny Christmas, a 60-minute movie, on November 17th. You can watch a little behind the scenes bit on it here or just watch the commercial.

Choose Your Own Adventure: Visualized

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:29:28 -0800

The Choose Your Own Adventure Visualized essay is impressive to say the very least. First there is the notion of appreciating gathering statistical data from books of my childhood and, secondly, it's coupled with a series of fantastically designed and implemented charts and graphs. Add to that the Animations, Gallery and Playable Version and.. well.. you've got a not-to-be-missed web phenomena!

Typically I'd shrug off a web article about childhood nostalgia but this is something of a different breed; brilliant and enjoyable in so many respects.

Everyday Chemistry

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:18:41 -0800

The story behind The Beatles Never Broke Up is laughably insane - parallel dimensions and what not - but that's not the point. The point is that it's a quality mashup of Beatles solo songs presented as if it were an unreleased album from the band. I've been giving it a good listen for the past few days and rather enjoy it.. it's familiar but still new.

Related: Scenes from an Alternate Universe in which The Beatles accept an offer from Lorne Michaels to reunite and perform on SNL. At the heart of it, it's fan fiction.. but without the creepy parts.

Both links via WAXY; basically the best site on the Internet.

Jim Carrey dot com. Mindblowing.

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:15:28 -0800

What's the most impressively immersive / over-the-top / informative site you've encountered this year? If you didn't say JimCarrey.com you're honestly missing out. I realize it seems very odd for him to have one of the most insane sites that I've seen in a long time but it's true! Every page has tons going on, there are great transitions between sections and it actually manages to contain a load of relevant information. In terms of 100% Flash experiences, this one wins the top prize in terms of awe factor.

TypeKit goes live

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:01:13 -0800

Looks like Typekit is officially live and ready for usage. If you aren't familiar, Typekit is a service / method for using a number of OpenType fonts in web design as plain text. This is good and bad - it means less time spent making graphics to replace text and more flexibility in design but it also means that a novice designer can make their entire site use this font instead of something "lame" like Verdana. It's a bit scary for the future look of the web but the potential good, hopefully, will outweigh the bad.

Long story short, the service is now ready for live deployment and they've got a nice trial signup deal if you're curious to try it out.

Bertino works, store

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:53:34 -0800

It'd been too long since I visited the works of Mike Bertino and he seems to have only improved over time. Not that he wasn't always great but the new stuff is even further out, more surreal and filled with entertaining characters. I'm also pleased to see that he has a Shop setup with a number of very affordable prints - "Don't Forget to Pack" being my favorite of the group.

Be sure to visit his blog for even more newness worth enjoying.

"Electronic Pearl Harbor"

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:42:07 -0800

Given 60 Minutes propaganda report on the MPAA last week and the general nature of Huffington Post I am inclined to read this article on the Electronic Pearl Harbor with a grain of salt. That being said, the source of the information - Jim Lewis, director of Technology and Public Policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies - seems to be a pretty reputable source. Though not a government entity he was in charge of creating a report for the Obama administration regarding cyber security. According to him, in 2007:

Some unknown foreign power, and honestly, we don't know who it is, broke into the Department of Defense, to the Department of State, the Department of Commerce, probably the Department of Energy, probably NASA. They broke into all of the high tech agencies, all of the military agencies, and downloaded terabytes of information.

Is this paranoia at its greatest usage? A lot of this seems pretty dramatic and quite an area of concern if anything confidential was breached but this is the first we're hearing of it.

The Thing About Retweets...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:01:05 -0800

Evan Williams has posted a rather lengthy bit of insight regarding the forthcoming official "ReTweet" feature that Twitter is going to roll out soon (it's in beta now). The interesting part, to me, is the amount and style of thought that went in to putting this feature together. Instead of just taking the standards that the community has established, they're tweaking the way things will work; despite it possibly not sitting well with the masses. It seems to be similar to a bit of tough parenting.. we'll see how that works out for them.

Via Dolan. Oh, and I realize the irony of following a post about tuning out with a post about a forthcoming Twitter feature.. bah!

Turn Off, Tune Out, Drop In

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:50:08 -0800

Over the past year I've encountered a number of articles promoting the notion of "Slow Living" - taking a moment to tune out the cacophony that is The Internet and just exist. A return to form if you will. This Washington Post article is another in that same line of thinking and contains a few interesting factoids:

In 2006, the world produced 161 exabytes (an exabyte is 1 quintillion bytes) of digital data, according to Columbia Journalism Review. Put in perspective, that's 3 million times the information contained in all the books ever written. By next year, the number is expected to reach 988 exabytes.

...

Unchecked "infomania" -- yes, there's even a term for this instapathology -- can lead to a lower IQ, according to a 2005 Hewlett-Packard study. The research, conducted by a University of London psychologist, found that people distracted by e-mail and phone calls lost 10 IQ points, more than twice the impact of smoking marijuana -- or comparable to losing a night's sleep.

Part of me is quite tempted by this notion of just completely severing the connection but then how would I spend my free time?

Ready, Able

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:29:26 -0800

Grizzly Bear just released a new video for "Ready, Able" off of Veckatimest that is directed by Allison Schulnik - creator of the short film "Hobo Clown." It's a nonsensical / weird claymation journey through the forest but quite enjoyable in its oddness.

Heads up via Chris.

Boxer: DOS Emulator for the Mac

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:09:01 -0800

There is a part of me that is incredibly tempted by the existence of Boxer - a DOS emulator for Mac mainly aimed at letting people run classic games on their machine. I think a good round of Another World would be a great way to spend an evening. Maybe it's my pessimistic attitude or just overt nostalgia but DOS games have a certain charm to them that I don't experience so much with any of the console creations of late.. constraints breed creativity and these games certainly fit that bill.

Image 2 Icons

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:00:06 -0800

I need to remember to snag IMG 2 ICN the next time I've got some great new app with a horrible icon that needs updating (last time I remember this happening was with the now defunct Visual Hub). This looks to be the easiest way I've encountered to create the icons for applications - a process that has always been baffling in its level of difficulty.

Steampunk: Lego Style

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:52:45 -0800

I'm not a huge Lego or Steampunk enthusiast (though I appreciate them both) but when the opportunity arises to think on the concept of a dirigible... you take it. Such is the case with this article that Lee sent over that contains a number of links to some impressive creations; including this Flickr collection and Web Urbanist article. Take a moment to browse through the offerings and be sure to be on the lookout for the Lego Steampunk Ghostbusters lurking around.

The Berlin Wall

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:43:12 -0800

Twenty years ago, yesterday, the Berlin Wall came down in Germany. This NY Times piece has a nice writeup and side-by-side slideshow of how things looked then and now. I actually remember this happening (despite being just 10) and it's great to see so much progress has been made over the years. Now if someone would just tell U2 about it.

AIR - Sing Sang Sung (Black Moth Super Rainbow)

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:25:59 -0800

Start your day off right. Thank you Jamie...

» AIR - Sing Sang Sung (Black Moth Super Rainbow Remix)

No Masters, No Mirrors

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:39:10 -0800

I am hanging out in Austin recovering from Fun Fun Fun Fest (day 1 was incredible, day 2 was too wet for me to fully appreciate). Regular blog posting will resume tomorrow. In the meantime...

Paige has posted a new mix over at Flux-Rad for your consumption and I have to say, I'm a fan. There are one or two songs I'm not keen on but the rest are all artists I plan on finding out more about. That's a healthy ratio of goodness in my opinion. Go download it.

Friday Videos - Nov 6th, 2009

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:28:37 -0800

Eight Friday Videos

I dunno how it happened but I came across a ton of stuff this week without even trying. Here's the Playlist and the breakdown...

We Are Douchebags. - NSFW language. It's pretty well done and I'd be easily convinced these guys really are douchebags.
Different Kinds of Strangers - adults are terrifying!
Toasty! - this is so ridiculous that I had to share.
Trouble with your Neti Pot? - forget that Neti Pot, get a Nasopure! It's hard to believe this video is legit.
VentriloChoir on Hungarian TV - There is nothing creepier than a ventriloquist.. except maybe a choir of them.
Seduction Scene - Gary Busey. Sax on the Beach. Nuff said.
Sittin on tha Toilet - this is what YouTube does best.
Germans trying to say Massachusetts - I think Paul told me about this. So good.

Bonus

I Love You, Mr. Star Wars - actually, just a great compilation of movie titles as spoken by characters in the film. Pretty much fantastic.

That's it! Have a great weekend everyone. I'm off to Texas this weekend to nerd out big time and partake in some Fun Fun Fun.

Sita Sings the Creative Commons

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:28:00 -0800

Way back in May of 2008 I was fortunate enough to see this fantastic animated film Sita Sings the Blues and was always a little bummed that it never got a wider release so my friends could partake in its goodness. Well, it appears that creator Nina Paley has released the film with a full-on Creative commons Attribution-Share Alike License; which means you can download the whole thing with the full blessing of the creator.

I suggest you snag it, view it this weekend and then consider donating a few dollars if you enjoy it as much as I think you will.

CoverSutra

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:21:34 -0800

Stumbled across CoverSutra yesterday; an application that runs in your dock or menubar as an easier way to navigate your iTunes. On the whole it looks pretty intriguing but I'm curious if anyone has some first hand experience with it?

Nerd Alert

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:17:59 -0800

Google releases Closure, the tools behind the JS geniuses - Personally I think it's safe to say that the web is moving in a more javascript powered application direction and Flash will become more of a desktop application language. That being said, it's rad to see these tools that Google has developed to enhance Javascript.
Page Speed - an open source Firefox plugin that you can use to evaluate the performance of your site - includes insight on how to improve things. I'm certainly going to look into this one.
CodeIgniter from Scratch - a series of tutorials on how to use CodeIgniter; a PHP platform that I'm absolutely curious about for using as a platform for a new yewknee.

Downloads. Worthwhile Downloads.

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:08:33 -0800

Local Lixx: Austin: Episode 1 - Paige has started posting an Austin-centric podcast over at WOXY and it's off to a great start. Very enjoyable listen.
Jeremy Davis Mix: Things Change - Jeremy and I overlap in musical enjoyment in many departments.. Awesomely, we don't always listen to the same things so I get exposed to great new music that's right up my alley but new to me. You should get it too.

Dó Plu Dó

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:45:57 -0800

I can confidently say that after having browsed the entirely of the Dó Plu Dó Flickr pool that there's nothing in there that I don't enjoy. There's a great bit of consistency / variety throughout and every bit of it has something to appreciate.

Via Daniel's Editorial.

Dia de los Muertos

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:36:27 -0800

In my opinion, Dia de los Muertos gets far too little attention `round these parts. Halloween certainly plays a hand in the overshadowing but I think next year we should all make an effort to appreciate it a bit more. I mean, check out this collection of arts associated with it - incredible! And that's just a tiny glimpse of the whole. So, for pure artistic appreciation - let's all try harder next year...

Kurt Russell Star Wars Audition

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:01:45 -0800

I'm not sure what else there is to say - Kurt Russell's Star Wars Audition. It may not be as hysterical as this but if you're an uber Star Wars nerd, it's an interesting little nugget to watch.

ABC Oddity and the Children of the Future

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:55:35 -0800

When Demetre posted a link to this childrens learning app, ABC Oddity, I was impressed by the design of the interface and the overall vibe of the software but, not having children, didn't think a whole lot about it. Then I watched the video of the child interacting on her own with the iPhone and it struck me how my parents probably felt when they saw me furiously traversing my way around in DOS. The app is great but the deeper notion that children are going up with these far advanced devices kind of blows my mind.

Courier: The Interface

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:45:22 -0800

The fine folks over at Gizmodo have been kind enough to share some interface notes on the Microsoft Courier device I posted about last week. The gallery of images gives insight into the numerous ways in which a user can interact with the device. If the actual UX is as good as they are making it out to be here, I'm more and more sold.

Heads up via Stephen.