Talking tech with Bill Joy

"CNET News.com recently spoke to Joy about the use of technology in industrial societies and about venture capital prospects in the tech business..."

Fabien Cousteau inspired by 'Tintin' builds shark submarine

Apple - Pro/Video - Fabien Cousteau: "The oceanographer rails against what he calls “species solipsistic theory” — the belief that it’s unnecessary to understand anything outside our own species. “I want to open our minds to the shark’s way of understanding its surroundings,” he says."


Another cool pro article from Apple

Frenzy Begins Over Cookie Alternative

clickz.com: "An existing technology offering cookie-like functionality is gaining attention from publishers, marketers and others as a possible replacement for the ubiquitous, but potentially endangered, text files... The technology, based on Macromedia's Flash, is getting attention as awareness spreads of an apparent increase in user deletion of cookies..."

Xamlon Pro for Flash Beta Announced

"Develop applications and movies with your choice of .NET language and XAML markup and export to SWF...Xamlon Pro separates the interface design and logic of the application in a way that allows designers to design and developers to code without compromising aesthetics or utility..."

LiveStrong Yellow Band "the most successful viral campaign in a decade"

dexigner.com: "The grand prize in the inaugural Bottom Line Design Awards from US magazine Business 2.0 went to the buck-a-throw Livestrong wristbands, beating off competition from Virgin Atlantic's Upper-Class Cabin, Apple's iMac G5 and Motorola's Razr V3 cellphone..."

Tell PBS not to advertise to children

CommercialAlert.org: "According to today's New York Times, PBS is partnering with Comcast in a kids TV channel - with advertising. 

Of course, PBS was supposed to be a non-commercial alternative to the networks.  But PBS seems to have forgotten this."

There's really no way to deny the fact that PBS now shows ads. This has irked me for a long time and the ads are getting longer and higher in production value.

Sony wants an 'iTunes for movies'

BBC NEWS | Technology: "Sony is to make its top 500 films available digitally in the next year...Films will be put onto flash memory for mobiles over the next year, said Mr Arrieta, and it will develop its digital download services for films...There remain big issues to giving people more access to films and other digital content anywhere, anytime..."

Is Ikea for Everyone?

It may not be for everyone, but we certainly just bought a bunch o' stuff on our recent trip to the Emmeryville store. Another good brandchannel article.

Contribute gets an update

creativepro.com - Macromedia Web Publishing System Update Enhances Enterprise Features: "Macromedia today announced the immediate availability of a Macromedia Web Publishing System update that includes Macromedia Contribute 3.1 and Macromedia Contribute Publishing Services 1.1."

ALSO, I'm traveling so posts will be less frequent for a bit...

Pimp My Safari - catalogs plugins

"what is Pimp My Safari?: It was started as a reaction to the sites cataloguing Firefox extensions. Many excellent plugins for Safari have been developed, but because Safari doesn’t have an official ‘extension architecture’, many don’t know of these extensions..."

Word-up

Newly Minted Brand Names: What does the target market think?

brandchannel.com: "Newly Minted Brand Names: What does the target market think? - The practice of critiquing new brand names has evolved to a high art, which can be fun. But, quite frankly, it’s irrelevant. What really matters is what the target market thinks. The author tests 10 new brand names..."

Continuing today's theme of freebies, here's an interesting little study to download (note: study includes Skype among others)

Mercedes-Benz Mixed Tape '06 Free Tunes

"Rediscover musical diversity with Mixed Tape.
Always a treat: every eight weeks Mercedes presents a free, exclusive download compilation – this time with 15 MP3 by international newcomers from Boston, Tobago, Ibiza and beyond!"

Hip music, elegantly presented, for free

Ones that got away

Bright ideas, big wait on tech payback | CNET News.com "The tech industry is famous for billion-dollar ideas. But the rewards don't always to go to the inventor. Some of the most important technologies of the past 50 years--the transistor, the relational database and the microprocessor--weren't the slam dunks for their creators that you might expect." -- Certainly not extensive, but an interesting read.

Innovative designers spark wallpaper trend

It might be less insistent than cicadas, but wallpaper is definitely getting buzz. Especially since May, when a clutch of talented young designers and entrepreneurial types with audacious ideas and catchy company names unveiled their offerings at New York’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), the country’s premier venue for cutting-edge furnishings.

Philippe Starck Wants You to be More Sexy

Dexigner: "Internationally renowned lifestyle designer Philippe Starck has a dream to "make a place where people are more awesome, are more sexy, are more smart, more sparkling... " and he announced today a global partnership for a new ultra-luxury hotel brand, Starck Hotels, that he says will make people fall in love all over again..."

This is where I try to type an Austin Powers growl - - - 'yeah, baby!'

Zinio.com Releases New Version of Magazine Reader Software

"New in Zinio Reader 3.0: Zinio Library helps you manage your collection; Updated look, new layout, improved navigation; Search across all Zinio magazines; And more..."

Zinio offers you the ability to turn magazine pages without contributing more paper to the landfills.

Yahoo! gets a Flickr

FlickrBlog: "Holy smokes, SOMEBODY out there is bad at keeping secrets!!  Yes! We can finally confirm that Yahoo has made a definitive agreement to acquire Flickr and us, Ludicorp. Smack the tattlers and pop the champagne corks!.."

My Baby's Tee is falling apart

Baby's Coffee: I've had my Baby's shirt for ages and sadly it is falling apart. Just thought I'd share that. While you are at it, check out some of their cool swag and even better coffee roasts.

Cars get into music downloading craze

USATODAY.com "Searching for an answer to the music download revolution, automakers and audio suppliers are preparing a new wave of car stereos with enough built-in memory for hours of recorded music."

OK, can't wait for the first all white car with a scroll-wheel instead of a steering wheel. And will the cheaper models include instrument displays?

MSN Shopping Beta

The copy button may be on delay, but rest assured it's on...

When a sitemap falls in the forest...

:: texone.org :: code :: tree :: This is a cool java applet that renders a "tree" diagram of any website based on its file linking structure.

Who's Shopping? Who's Researching?

clickz.com: "(Author referring to Become.com)...A couple of PowerPoint slides into their dog-and-pony, I realized an elephant was in the room.

It happened when I saw the screenshot of Become's future home page. You won't see it on the current Web site, as it's still in beta.

The search box asks, 'What products are you looking for?' Underneath, there are two buttons: 'Research' and 'Shop.'

Get it?"

CG Auctions blends eBay with Stock Media

CG Auctions: Sell and Buy everything related to Computer Graphics "...So basically if you have ever created any model, texture, blueprint, plug-in, script, shader, HDRI map, sound, tutorial etc. and you're it's rightful owner, or you don't use your old hardware, software, books and other stuff and you want to sell it, this site is perfect for your needs!...If you are a company which produces any of above mentioned goods you can sell them as well."

Might be an interesting option when considering the acquisition of stock art / 3D models etc. Also could be a nice channel for smaller content creators who don't want to pay fees, or can't stand waiting to get picked up by more traditional stock agency.

Let the Puppets Talk - iStopMotion Updated

creativepro.com - Boinx iStopMotion 1.8: "...introduces a new pro level feature to iStopMotion which helps animators to synchronise their animation to a given soundtrack. The new version also features an improved timeline with thumbnail representation of the captured frames, direct drag and drop import of images from the finder and improves the import of multiple pictures from a still camera..."

When I was a kid, I had dreams of doing stop motion animation like the great Ray Harryhausen. It's cool to see that the modern PC opens this door for average users. I'm still crafting a good excuse to burn some time with this app.

IconBuilder Pro Updated

The Iconfactory: IconBuilder Pro 5.1 adds Fireworks MX support in addition to Photoshop CS.

Google's X Files disappear

The Register:"Google has unceremoniously, and without comment, yanked its latest labs "project" after less than twenty four hours."

I guess you can ignore my previous post about Google X. Man Apple's coming across as a bit of a control freak lately, huh? I wonder if they'll be trying to shut down Flashloaded's "iconbarMenu" extension that offers the same kind of OS X dock menu behavior?

Can Google mop up with Ajax?

Web tools blaze trail to the past | CNET News.com"Search giant shows that rich Web applications can be built from older tech. At risk: Flash, Java and even Microsoft."

Interpol video, interestingly disturbing

Matador Records | Interpol Music & Video A puppet thing? The lack of context for why there's this stand-in for the singer creates a really strange tension throughout the whole video. An interesting contrast to glitzy MTV schlock.

Survey Finds Workers Average Only Three Productive Days Per Week

creativepro.com: "Most Respondents to New Microsoft Office Survey Say They're Working Longer, But Are Less Productive; They Relate Their Productivity to Technology...Unclear objectives, lack of team communication and ineffective meetings are among the top time wasters that workers around the world say make them feel unproductive for as much as a third of their workweek on average, according to results of an online Microsoft® Office survey announced today..." Oops, back to work I go!

amaztype - A Typographic Book Search

amaztype Renders the word(s) of your search with a collage of book/music/video covers. You can then roll over and zoom in on a particular item which also links directly to the store. Found thanks to boingboing.net.

Microsoft lifts curtain on Indigo

Microsoft lifts curtain on Indigo | CNET News.com "Microsoft has released an early version of Indigo, a new communications system intended to let Windows programs more easily connect to other software."

Orb "takes the home out of home entertainment."

Orb Networks :: WhatIsOrb: "Orb gives you secure access to the digital media on your home PC through a simple web interface."

Apple Pro Site Explores Celebrity Color Palettes

Apple - Pro - Hot Topic: Color - Celebrity Color Palette Interesting multi-part article highlights perspectives on color from four industry pros: Matias Bilbao; Russell Brown; John Paul Caponigro; & Jody Turner.


Image Credit - Matias Bilbao

Google goes X

Google goes X "...a quick fun way to access all of Google's services..." From the blog entry of Google engineer Chikai Ohazama.

VW shows off New Beetle Ragster concept

Volkswagen: Auto Show 2005: New Beetle Ragster I'll let you have your own reaction...

Creative Commons gaining traction

Creative Commons Is Rewriting Rules of Copyright (washingtonpost.com): "So far, more than 10 million other creations -- ranging from the movie 'Outfoxed' and songs by the Beastie Boys to the British Broadcasting Corp.'s news footage and the tech support books published under the O'Reilly label -- have been distributed using these licenses..."

SnapShooter makes instant forum thumbnails...

MacThemes.net | News: "MacThemes.net and Twisted Ninja Software are proud to introduce our new application, SnapShooter. SnapShooter is a tool specifically designed for the MacThemes Forums, designed to let users easily create beautifully framed thumbnails that fit in the forum's dimensions. SnapShooter already comes with 13 borders..."

Privacy advocates frown on Amazon snooping plan

CNET News.com "What's new:
Amazon has been granted a patent for a system that gathers clues from reviews about customers' gift-giving habits in order to suggest future gifts and reminders.

Bottom line:
Consumer advocates worry that the company's profiling practices may have gone too far and could exploit the giving of gifts and the sense of community that customer reviews were designed to engender."

Noo Foo!

FOO FIGHTERS""In Your Honor" will be the bands fifth album. Almost exactly a decade from the release of the first Foo Fighters record, it will come out early July..." Read the link titled 'A letter from Dave' in headlines section of homepage for details.

Industrial Design Smackdown, a theme of '05?

It's apparent that some gadget makers finally get it. ID is driving interesting competition out there. Here are a few recent examples: asono mica another iPod shuffle competitor. And this was unexpected - The Tulip ego appears to be a recast of Apple's 1999 clamshell iBook design, but with a full commitment to looking exactly like a purse (offered in different patterns too).



Found thanks to design*sponge.

A Blog Entry about Blogs About Blogs

BlogWhat "Currently in Beta, BlogWhat.com is turning the web upside down by providing readers with newsworthy and original fast paced content. BlogWhat.com is the homepage of our network of Blogs."

Beware of those who turn the web upside down :-P

Free Flash Charting Tool

FusionCharts Lite: "FREE flash based animated charting solution for the web. Use this to create visually arresting charts for your website."

Massive web trawl nets spammers

The Register: "A 'comprehensive' sweep of the net by 70 law enforcement organisations from 26 countries should help authorities combat phishers, spammers and scammers, says a leading consumer protection agency...The co-ordinated trawl last month netted a stack of data and information that authorities plan to use to tackle spammers while helping to protect consumers and legitimate ecommerce operators..."

Remember now children, your iPod is dangerous

USATODAY.com - Assessing the privacy risks of MP3 players"...How might your MP3 player give out your information, and at what point might that occur? The process for collecting end-users' sensitive personal information, such as music and artist preferences, vary by manufacturer and technology..."

Your iPod will be safer if you use it while crouched under your desk, or while standing in a doorway. Seriously though, if concerned perhaps you might want to try PodLock...

Buzzword watch: The Empathy Economy

The Empathy Economy"..."Design thinking" can create rewarding experiences for consumers -- the key to earnings growth and an edge that outsourcing can't beat..."

Design Thinking, Empathy Economy, Masters of Heuristics, Right-Brain Gains - four great buzzwords packed into one handy article!

Swift 3D V. 4 Reviewed

Flashmagazine - swift3dv4: This software release and subsequent review are not exactly that new. However, I've been finding more excuses, ahem, I mean reasons, to use swift3d on client work. Therefore, I wanted to suggest this good overview. Check out the Electric Rain swift3d website for even more details.

Flashloaded Announces New Text Editor for Flash

"The FlashTextEditor is a v2 Macromedia Flash component which provides a way to apply user friendly runtime content editing to any flash textfield. This Flash MX 2004 developer component can be used to create Rich Internet applications in Flash."

And to top it off, email subscribers can download a free 'lite' version to test out...

Where Were You When the Bubble Popped?

Motley Fool Take -March 10, 2005 "It's interesting to think about in hindsight. But on March 10, 2000, no one had any idea that the intraday high of 5132.52 was going to be the Nasdaq Composite's high-water mark -- not just for the day, but for years..."

Happy *%#*!@$ anniversary!

Microsoft to buy Groove Networks

CNET News.com: "Microsoft on Thursday said it will acquire Groove Networks and make Groove's founder, Ray Ozzie, chief technology officer at the software giant."

I always thought that groove.net was a cool technology looking for a purpose. I wonder if MS will take it to the next level, or the grave...?

Apple joins Blu-ray Disc Association Board of Directors | MacMinute News

Apple joins Blu-ray Disc Association Board of Directors | MacMinute News "The BDA was created to broaden support for Blu-ray Disc--the next generation optical disc format for storing High Definition (HD) movies and other digital content. Blu-ray Discs have five times larger capacity than today's DVDs (4.7GB), with a single-layer Blu-ray Disc holding up to 25GB of data and a double-layer Blu-ray Disc holding up to 50GB."

Top Corporate Hate Web Sites

Forbes.com - Magazine Article"...we spent hours trawling the Web looking for the very best corporate hate sites. After checking out more than 100 sites with names like dontflycontinentalairlines.com and fordlemon.com, we rated the best of them on a scale from one to five in six different categories: ease of use, frequency of updates, number of posts, hostility level (angrier is better), relevance, and entertainment value (Hey! Angry and funny!)..." Yikes.

You say 'Craigslist' eBay says 'Kijiji'

EBay Launches International 'Craigslist' Competitor "E-commerce player eBay has taken the Craigslist concept -- free classifieds and community -- and launched Web sites in 50 cities around the world that embody that idea under a new project called Kijiji."

Shinycore Path Styler Pro

Shinycore Path Styler Pro Review of a Bevel and material effects plugin for Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop

This might make a handy addition to Illustrator for icon design and other uses.

SoundOfAnImage converts images into music

From Tim Omernick: "SoundOfAnImage converts images into music. Sometimes the 'music' even sounds like music, especially if you play images with a lot of structure and/or symmetry to them"

I've tried it and it is indeed very nifty. Thanks to Mike Mattas' blog for this link.

50 Cent shot me for nuthin'

50 Cent Website Represents Flash Gone Bad There are way too many sites out there so I don't often attempt to critique sites with this blog. But this site annoyed the hell out of me. Aside from it looking like some freakish blacksploitation NRA mini-site, it breaks all the basic 'website for idiot' rules in that most content areas are empty. To top if off, every time you go to a major section, an image of 50 Cent actually shoots at you. So when try to go to the gallery for example, you get shot at and then see that the content is "coming soon". Shot and killed for nothing, all flash and no substance - ironcially, a fitting metaphor for modern commercial Rap.

Harry Potter Cover Art Revealed

Amazon.com: Books: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)

It's been interesting to see the evolution of Mary GrandPre's North American cover a