yewknee http://virb.com/mackle Virb 2.0 (@mackle) en Turns out my Google Search Results 'Nemesis' has a twitter account all his... http://virb.com/mackle/posts/status/7291586 @DrEades - consider yourself followed!]]> Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:57:06 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/status/7291586 Hype Machine Zeitgeist 2009 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7285928
Hype Machine has been posting their Music Blog Zeitgeist for 2009 and it's a series of custom illustrations from a wide variety of artists showcasing the top 50 artists from 2009.

The artwork (and variety) is great but the list itself is further confirmation that my grip on what is happening in the indie music world is slipping more and more - how are Sufjan Stevens, LCD Soundsytem, Chromeo and Bloc Party in the 2009 Zeitgeist? Are these just anomalies in the blogosphere of downloaded music or am I really not paying much attention anymore?]]> Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:29:23 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7285928 Matthew Lyons http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7285927 Matthew Lyons
I stumbled upon the work of Matthew Lyons today and I'm quite smitten with the playful retro future vibe he's got going on. He has a number of fictional Movie Title Screens that I highly suggest looking into. Then, once you're done with that, follow him on Flickr and Tumblr.]]> Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:29:22 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7285927 Penny Arcade TV http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7285925 PATV
In all honesty, I rarely read Penny Arcade - not because it isn't funny but because I'm so far removed from the in's and out's of serious videogame nerd culture that I don't always get what's funny about a strip. Despite that, I checked out PA TV and dove into the Pilot of the Penny Arcade documentary series. I readily admit that I was all set to turn it off after the first minute but found myself pretty glued to the on screen actions for the duration. It's a nice watch and good to see people passionate about what they do actually succeeding at it in such a way. I'll be watching the rest of the episodes anytime now...]]> Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:29:21 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7285925 Tony D'Orio http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7285924 Dorio
The portfolio site for Tony D'Orio is an impressive piece of work. The full browser grid / mosaic transitions are simple but entirely effective. It's nice that the Next / Previous navigation actually seem to jump you around the portfolio entries, rather than a linear checking off of boxes. Apparently Hello Monday is responsible for the site.. a task worthy of praise for sure.

Via Will.]]> Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:29:19 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7285924 Criticisms of the Singularity http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7280965 Singularity Apparently GOOD magazine has been running a series discussing the concept of Technological Singularity that I'm just now finding out about. Part Seven is a bit of an essay criticizing the concept as a whole - speculating that not enough serious research has been done to make much speculation (thereby somewhat negating itself). I plan on diving into the rest of the articles soon but it's tough to imagine anyone could predict what will happen with the integration of technology and mankind. Although I guess half the fun is the guessing...]]> Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:17:09 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7280965 Unison 2.0 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7280960 Unison Panic just released a whole new version of Unison; their Usenet Browser / Newsreader for OS X. While I am sure that the number of people tackling usenet in this fashion dwindles every day it's nice to see a progressive and respected company making a piece of software to keep things contemporary for those that are still into it.]]> Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:17:07 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7280960 Fairly sure that's the fastest I've ever purchased a @TinyShowcase print.... http://virb.com/mackle/posts/status/7237295 @TinyShowcase print. Deth P Sun can do no wrong: http://bit.ly/6xVltE]]> Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:52:50 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/status/7237295 Eating the Dinosaur http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7231073 Dinosaur Eating
Chuck Klosterman is a bit of a polarizing writer; likely due to his affiliation with music and "hip" culture. I get the feeling that a lot of people don't like him simply because he's a recognized music writer that has taste that not everyone agrees with. That being said, I finished reading his latest series of essays, Eating the Dinosaur, and rather enjoyed it. There are a couple of chapters on Sports that I glossed over but, on the whole, the subject matter is pretty intriguing. He compares Kurt Cobain to David Koresh, postulates on the Garth Brooks phenomena Chris Gaines, trumpets the greatness of ABBA and ponders why people feel the need to respond to interviews (beyond the obvious promotion scheme).

I'm going to make a conscious effort to complete a bit more reading this year and talk about it here. I've got no shortage of books in the "To Read" pile but it takes a bit of forced will to dive into them. Eating the Dinosaur was a great way to start off the year as a way to get the gears churning and get excited about reading regularly again. I suggest you pick it up and dive right in.]]> Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:18:13 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7231073 Portfolio of Jesse Lenz http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7230674 Jesse Lenz I spent a good bit of timing poking through the portfolio of Jesse Lenz - much of the work reminds me of the influences of BEAST, Stefan Sagmeister and other such dirty / textured favorites. The Cargofolio interface makes it easy to sort through and quick to see a lot of the work. I'd love to see some larger versions of the Monsters and Marilyns pieces...]]> Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:01:01 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7230674 HTML Brushup http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7229073
  • HTML5 Web Forms - a great writeup about the new form elements available in HTML 5, their compatibility with existing browsers and the kind of results they create. I had no idea spinboxes, sliders, date pickers and color pickers were part of the HTML 5 set of available tools!
  • Image management, naming and attribute selectors - not exactly a compelling title for an article but provides some great insight on the ability to style elements based on more than a predefined class. While I am not sure on the browser compatibility of all the techniques I think it's good to have these sorts of tricks at hand.
    • ]]>     Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:44:14 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7229073     Persons of Interest http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7229072
    Benjamin Kyle
    Benjamin Kyle was found discovered behind a fast food restaurant in 2004 beaten, naked, unconscious and sunburned. He also has retrograde amnesia - leaving him devoid of any information about himself or concrete details of his past. After years of attempts to properly identify him his past is still mostly unknown.
    Rosner
    Rick Rosner has some of the highest IQ test scores ever recorded but is known for his exploits of the genuinely non-genius type. He's been in a Domino's Pizza commercial, he's been on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (lost, and sued the show for the question being flawed), tricked his way back into being a high school senior four times after he was well beyond the age of it being acceptable and many other odd activities. He was also the subject of an Errol Morris episode of "Obsessed" that I'm quite curious to see. Do some googling on this guy.. there is a lot to unearth.]]>     Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:44:13 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7229072     The Big Wheel http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7229070 Bike Wheel The renewed interest in biking that's taking place all over the globe has spurred a great new invention from some MIT Research - the Copenhagen Wheel. The specially designed wheel has an electric motor inside that stores energy every time the cyclist brakes - allowing them to use that energy when needed for uphill battles. The device will also be able to communicate via Bluetooth to keep track of speed, direction, distance and even data on air pollution. While the motor aspect of the wheel may upset some bike purists that it detracts from the physical benefits of cycling I say that anything that makes biking easier and gets more people out there is a good thing. If this were available today, I'd get one.]]> Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:44:12 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7229070 iPhone IR http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7229069 iPhone IR This, supposedly forthcoming, device from L5 Technology will enable you to add an IR attachment to your iPhone and turn it into a universal remote control. This article points out that it will run about $50 and is set to debut at CES sometime this week. While the proof is in the pudding I have to say this sounds like an excellently obvious idea.

    Via Daniel.]]>     Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:44:11 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7229069     Keith Weaver: iPhoneography http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7206946 Keith Weaver: iPhoneography
    It turns out that Mark Weaver has a brother - the talented Keith Weaver - who has quite a repository of images he's calling iPhoneography. There are loads of great images to be found within; all taken with the iPhone camera and processed by some sort of app. It sort of begs the question of where the line is drawn between a Photoshop'ed image and a true "photograph" - particularly in this situation where the level of control is random but still intentional. Regardless of the theoretical take behind it, the majority of images are certainly a treat to partake in.]]>     Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:40:54 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7206946     HYPE http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7205423 HYPE While I have yet to try it out myself I have to say I am highly intrigued by the concept behind the Joshua Davis project HYPE. This sums it up best I think:
    HYPE is a creative coding framework built on top of ActionScript 3. A major goal of HYPE is to allow newcomers to Flash and ActionScript to creatively play and express themselves while they are learning how to program.
    From what I can tell, it's a way to decomplicate coding in AS3; a feature that I can entirely endorse. I'm not sure if the new methods could properly be evoked in a production environment but I'm glad to see someone is trying to take Flash back to being an enjoyable tool to use, and not exclusively a dirge of code.

    Via Will.]]>     Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:27:48 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7205423     Nic Cage as Everyone http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7205418 Everyone: Nic Cage
    It's going to be hard for the Internet to top Nic Cage as Everyone as best single serving blog of 2010. A good (or bad) Photoshop job is always a treat but when every single one of them involves Nicolas Cage it takes it to a new level. Well worth browsing through the archives.]]>     Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:27:43 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7205418     The Loudness Wars http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7205412 Loudness
    I caught this NPR report the other day entitled The Loudness Wars: Why Music Sounds Worse and it's something everyone should read who listens to any form of contemporary music. Overall, it serves as a good primer as to why music progressively gets louder even if it's not getting better and also dives into the rudimentary insights of how digital compression works / warps the original analog sound. It's a quick read but an insightful one.]]>     Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:27:39 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7205412     Unusual Wikipedia http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7205411 The Wikipedia List of Unusual Articles. On the surface it's a lot of trivial information like The World's Shortest Street but there are also some slightly mind bending insights like World's Weirdest Grammatically Correct Sentence or The Definition of Ghoti. It may end up being just a bunch of facts to bust out in a social setting but you can never have too many of those at hand.]]> Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:27:37 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7205411 Web Suicide http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7205410 Suicide Paige posted a link to this article about the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine - a web service that will, once you've provided some passwords, access your account and prevent you from ever signing in again. It all sounds a bit extreme but there is some merit behind the idea of ditching all your Social Network profiles and just enjoying the Internet as an informative / educational tool; rather than constant flood of updates. Granted, you could just curb your usage and control yourself but that doesn't sound anywhere near as grandiose!]]> Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:27:36 -0800 http://virb.com/mackle/posts/text/7205410