July 28, 2006
links for 2006-07-28
Geeking Out
Matt says,
I've been a bad blogger. When the site I'm working on is launched (aaaaany minute now), I'll make it up, I promise. But since I can't sleep and am up at kind of an ungodly hour, I'd like to take a moment to geek out over Google's answer to Sourceforge. Sourceforge drives me nuts. There's tons of good stuff there, but how's anyone supposed to find it? GCode is much prettier. Of course, the Googletrons say, "We really like SourceForge, and we don't want to hurt SourceForge." I say fiddle while they burn, Eric Schmidt. Fiddle while they burn! OK, back to my cave. (Waxtastic.)
July 27, 2006
An Alien to Call Your Own
Robin says,
When you play Spore, will you be to order a real, physical 3D 'printout' of your totally custom alien creature? Signs say yes. That is SO cool.
Lesson 2: The Proper Use of Plasma Grenades
Robin says,
Sooo, yeah, this is probably my favorite paragraph in any news story so far this year:
Gaming-lessons.com says its youngest "Halo 2" instructor is 8-year-old New Yorker Victor De Leon III -- better known by his online gamer name, Lil Poison -- who has given several lessons a month since late last year, fitting the classes in after he has done his homework. His father, also named Victor, says his son has used some of the money he earns from lessons (hourly rate: $25) to buy a hamster, named Cortana after a character in the game.
July 26, 2006
links for 2006-07-26
So Fresh and So Clean
Robin says,
The Current website just got a BIG update!
In particular it's a lot easier and more fun to click around between videos. Watch for the navigation panel over on the right.
July 23, 2006
Justice and Statehood
Robin says,
Peter Levine, whose blog is one of my very favorites these days, has a smart and well-wrought post on Israel and the burdens of being a democracy.
P.S. Look out, the next Snarkmarket post is about reality-show superheroes! It might make your head explode if you read it too soon after this one...
Who Wants to be a Superhero?
Robin says,
Finally, a reality show for people like me. (To clarify I mean "people who would watch something awesome like this." Not "people who dress up as superheroes." Shut up.)
July 21, 2006
The WifiPod... by Microsoft
Robin says,
Hey, pay attention to this Zune stuff from Microsoft. The emphasis on wifi, social networks, and maybe even gaming is interesting, and the whole thing smells more Xbox-y than Vista-y to me. (Which is a good thing.)
Prediction: J Allard will run Microsoft in ten years.
July 19, 2006
July 18, 2006
links for 2006-07-18
July 17, 2006
We're All Designers Now
Robin says,
ZeFrank on the democratization of design and creation. Radness level = extreme. He's totally right -- how wacky and historically new is it that everybody knows what a font is? And has a favorite? Waxmatic.
Evolution, Not Revolution
Robin says,
I believe the argument that Matt's McClatchy colleague Howard Weaver makes in this post can be generalized beyond the news business:
But our change will be more lasting and better constructed if we apply the time-tested lessons of evolution and eschew the flashier but less productive posture of revolution. As we apply lessons learned from the changing climate to adapt our sturdy, battle-hardened structures, we'll end up with operations that meet changed conditions without abandoning valuable lessons from our past.
He talks about punctuated equilibrium -- the theory that evolution is not the gradual, continuous process we sometimes imagine, but actually a really fast survival response to a changed environment (e.g. meteor strike, Google).
Personally I am waiting for the equilibrium of American government to get punctuated. Viva la evolution!
P.S. Howard also links to Amazon in a way I haven't seen before; it's pretty cool and probably more useful than the normal book listing page.
The Long Tail Book
You're familiar with the basic idea: mass culture is diminishing, and niche culture is ascendant. You probably know the reasons behind it:
a) It's becoming much cheaper and easier to produce stuff (books, music, movies), so there's a lot more of it.
b) That stuff is becoming much cheaper and easier to distribute, so you can get it no matter where you are.
c) Filters like search engines and recommendation engines are making it much easier to find the best stuff.
And you probably know what all this means for business: there's now significant money to be made in offering products that appeal to the few instead of the many.
And many of you already know that these ideas underpin a phenomenon that has been dubbed "the Long Tail" by Wired editor Chris Anderson. You may even, like me and Anil Dash, have been a subscriber to Anderson's blog on the topic.
Now there's a book. So what haven't you heard about the Long Tail?
... Read more ....File under: Books, Writing & Such, Media Galaxy
July 14, 2006
July 13, 2006
links for 2006-07-13
San Francisco Interactive City Summit
Robin says,
I think this looks pretty fun: a free, open conference about interactive cities -- e.g. ideas at the intersection of urban planning, technology, networks, media, mapping, local social networks... or whatever else you think fits. It's here in San Francisco on August 7 and 8. Sign up if you're in the area!
July 12, 2006
links for 2006-07-12
My Power Strip Always Makes Me Cry
Robin says,
Come to think of it, the power strip has needed re-inventing for quite some time now. Here's a cool new system called E-ROPE designed by students. Energy-efficient, too!
The snarky commenters clearly have not had the struggles with traditional long, uniformly-spaced power strips that I have. Arghhh.
July 10, 2006
How Wikipedia Really Works
Robin says,
Nick Carr links to a great interview with three living, breathing Wikipedians who aren't Jimmy Wales. Here's the cash:
Dirk Riehle: What about the 'collective intelligence' or 'collective wisdom' argument: That given enough authors, the quality of an article will generally improve? Does this hold true for Wikipedia?Elisabeth "Elian" Bauer: No, it does not. The best articles are typically written by a single or a few authors with expertise in the topic. In this respect, Wikipedia is not different from classical encyclopedias.
Kizu Naoko: Elian is right.
And I love this broad-minded comment, the first on Carr's post:
Our founding fathers created a wiki, representative democracy, where everyone (supposedly) has an equal voice.
links for 2006-07-10
July 9, 2006
links for 2006-07-09
July 8, 2006
links for 2006-07-08
Movable Type Hacking
Matt says,
I seem to have finally bested the quirks introduced by the Five Words category -- no dates appearing above entries on certain days, an inaccurate entry count on the home page, etc. -- using a sweet little heretofore-undiscovered MT plugin called CatEntries.
Onward, Light Cone
Robin says,
I know I mentioned this before, but seriously, the RSS feed that tracks the progress of your personal light cone through deep space is just way too cool.
Just hours ago, mine cruised past p Eridani, 26.6 light-years from Earth. I used a cool open-source astronomy app called Stellarium to track it down.
July 7, 2006
links for 2006-07-07
Test Drive Unlimited
Robin says,
Whoah! This game sounds awesome!
The game models the entire Hawaiian island of Oahu and allows players to race any of 90 cars over more than 1,000 miles of roads [...] the idea is that thousands of players will cruise the island simultaneously over the Internet, challenging one another at any traffic light to lay down some rubber. On the Xbox 360, the game's main system, the graphics dazzle and the cars evoke a realistic sense of speed.
Note that I am now a proud possessor of an Xbox 360, and thus especially interested in news of cool games for said system.
(Via.)
July 6, 2006
links for 2006-07-06
The Happy Hive Mind
Matt says,
Cambrian House: anyone can submit an idea, anyone can vote for or against that idea, anyone can contribute the code/creative work to execute that idea, and the folks who do get paid.
July 5, 2006
Smack Dat Hadron
Robin says,
Let me just tick off the things I love about this article in Seed Magazine.
Grand claims?
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) currently under construction at CERN is the greatest basic science endeavor in history.
Check. Giant ominous-looking machinery?
Um... CHECK. Big goals?
All these superlatives exist for one reason: To understand the universe.
Check and mate. Seriously, even if you know the basics of the LHC (*cough* don't we all *cough*) it's worth a look -- Seed has gathered short, provocative notes from a crew of smart physicists. It's good reading.
P.S. That blue thing up above? It transforms into a robot.
links for 2006-07-05
Bill Gates... for President?
Robin says,
James Fallows (one of my all-time favorites) is part of The Atlantic's crew liveblogging the Aspen Ideas Festival. Here's an interesting note on the prospects for an independent presidential candidate sometime soon. (For the record I think Bill Gates as candidate is a horrible idea. But it makes a good headline!)
<downtown>
Robin says,
This is weird: CityGML is a markup language for describing cities. Reminds me of FOAF, for good and for ill.
July 4, 2006
links for 2006-07-04
July 3, 2006
The Lester Bangs of Ludology
Robin says,
Clive Thompson on the video game criticism we're all waiting for:
The game criticism of tomorrow won't look anything like the stuff that Pauline Kael wrote. It'll be some crazy, unruly spawn of sportswriting, gonzo journalism, analytic philosophy, memoir and investigative reporting. The Lester Bangs of gaming is going to be a philosopher of play.
Really great piece. Go read it.