Posts by matt

The amazing Jonathan Harris is at it again, having completed another super-interesting project with a fantastic interface. (Actually, a pair of them.) This time, he and his collaborator Sepamdar Kamvar have outdone themselves with We Feel Fine, a Java applet that offers a peek at blogged emotions, in aggregate or as snapshots. WFF also enabled a spin-off project called Love-lines, done in Flash. Play around with these for a while, they’ll awe you. (Infosthetic.)

• UK Jedis. (Peter’s RSS Unblog.)
  (tags: cool funny geek)
• Super-hott maps coming. (Lifehacker.)
  (tags: maps cool googlemaps search)

I promise I don’t link to McSweeneys every time it updates:

Dear Kelly,

Thank you for crying hysterically during the intervention and repeatedly shifting the attention to yourself. I’m not sure if that was intentional, but if it was, you are a true friend. A person can use a few breathers during such an intense meeting, and your sobbing jags and incomprehensible wailing really helped by raising serious questions about your own stability and obvious addiction to OxyContin

Feist’s cover of the Kings of Conveniences’ “The Build Up” was one of my hands-down favorite moments from her concert. And now you, too, can hear it (mp3 link). Here are all the tracks from the performance. (Waxtastic.)

Thursdays you’ll often find me at the Walker Art Center, cell phone at my ear, wandering from exhibit to exhibit and occasionally punching in digits as I stare at the works of art. It’s because the Walker offers this pretty fantastic service called “Art on Call,” which lets you listen to the curators (and often the original artists) talking about the exhibits.

Now the Walker’s hatched up a plan to lend visitors free iPod nanos, pre-loaded with the “Art on Call” tracks. A great idea. But what’s really awesome is the thought the Walker folks have put into hacking the iPods to make them dunceproof. I love this museum.

(BTW: the Walker Channel is really a tremendous resource. Free video of talks by some of my favorite artists, from Ang Lee to Todd Haynes to Paul Auster. Highly, highly recommended.)

• 8-bit Character Quiz. (CP Blotter.)
  (tags: art cool geek videogames quiz)
• The Web 2.0 list. (NMMusings.)
  (tags: list geek business 2.0)
• Troy, alternate reality game. (Unmediated.)
  (tags: videogames internet future storytelling)
• How to make beer. (Lifehacker.)
  (tags: lifehacks drinking internet reference)

• Told you Fresno was hott.
  (tags: article nature fresno travel)

• Amazoning the news? (CyberJournalist.net.)
  (tags: ajax journalism media social aggregated newspapers)

News sites have been all abuzz about the agreement by soft-drink distributors to pull fizzy lifting drinks out of schools. The AP article about this draws a nice observation from Fine Young Journalist:

Four reporters worked on the story. Six people are quoted, all of whom are either happy observers or proud of themselves. … A very significant change in behaviour is about to be imposed on students. Yet nobody appears to have talked to a kid, or anybody who works in a school. One of the four journalists could have located a student council president or student newspaper editor or somebody.

• FinnegansWiki. Joyce 2.0. (if:book.)
  (tags: literature social writing academia)
• No aliens? Here’s why. (Delicious.)
  (tags: article funny future culture philosophy science)
• Cartoons for grown-ups. (Delicious.)
  (tags: animation movies best list)