This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on April 27, 2009). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.
Sometime between April 23rd and April 27th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!
- Gallery: Flickr Users Make Accidental Maps: "Billions of photos have now been uploaded to the internet, and many are tagged with text descriptions. Some are even geotagged — stamped with the latitude and longitude coordinates at which the image was taken. David Crandall and colleagues at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, analysed the data attached to 35 million photographs uploaded to the Flickr website to create accurate global and city maps and identify popular snapping sites." Neat stuff. If you dig into the actual report (.pdf link), you'll find that Seattle is the 8th most photographed city in the world, and the Space Needle is the 8th most photographed landmark in the world. Go Seattle — we're #8! ;)
- Skin Deep Usability: On setting up a new Microsoft Surface touch-screen, "no keyboard or mouse" computer, and discovering (among other issues, like where the power cord goes, or what color 'rhodamine' is), that one 'undocumented feature' is that a keyboard and mouse are required to boot the thing: "The whole experience was probably best summed up by Amanda who, when asked why it was taking us so long to get the machine up and running, and why we all looked so unhappy, replied 'Oh, it's just so…Microsofty.'"
- Locks of Love Helps Disadvantaged Children Suffering From Medical Hair Loss: "Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 18 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. We meet a unique need for children by using donated hair to create the highest quality hair prosthetics." I'm pretty sure I've got at least 10" of hair to chop, so this seems a lot nicer than just tossing it in the trash.
- Get Great Gadgets. and Keep Them. – Last Year’s Model: "We love cool gadgets as much as anybody else. We just want to be thoughtful about the stuff we've bought. Even the most cutting-edge, tech-savvy geeks in the world are choosing to hang on to their phones or their iPods that still work just fine."
- I Can Read Movies: I love, love, love the retro design of these film "novelizations". Beautiful work, and many are quite clever. Related, and also worth seeing: Harry Potter Redesign and Eight Films in Black and Red. Gorgeous work. This is the kind of stuff that makes me wish I was a graphic artist.