- The Long Now Foundation
Every now and then, you discover something ridiculously good and wonder how you’ve not managed to find it before. This is one of those things (thanks Sophie). I’ve only listened to two of the podcasts so far, but both were first-class. Firstly, the ridiculously talented Steven Johnson talks about long zoom thinking and references some of his exquisitely crafted books. Secondly, Will Wright and Brian Eno collaborate — or should I say chat — about generative systems, and the eagerly awaited Spore.
- Fluid
I’m always intrigued by apps that break the traditional browser model. Actually, I’m not sure ‘intrigue’ is the right word. It’s part trepidation, part excitement and then a sense that this is probably a sign of things to come.
- Link to a specific point on Google Video
This is old, but still useful. Love the way, it’s handled in the URL.
- Feltron Eight
Another year, another brilliant piece of design from Feltron.
- There’s only one Barack Obama
Who would have guessed it? Barack Obama is a hammer! This is the last time I link to The Sun (honest).
The common theme for my weekend seems to have been phase transitions.
Firstly I got hooked on this dynamic traffic simulation. I wasted an inordinate amount of time trying to discover tipping points for traffic jams.
I blame Mat Webb’s Interconnected, which also led me here. And in particular here. The theme was set.
Next up, I spent the afternoon in East London watching West Ham take on Manchester City in the FA Cup. It ended up being a pretty drab affair, largely because it lacked any creative players (or at least creative play). With no player willing or able to inject anything extraordinary, the match became disappointingly stale and predictable. What I and thirty three thousand other spectators really needed was something to subvert the unimaginative patterns the game had fallen in to. Someone or something that could move it towards a critical point. This proved to be wishful thinking on my part and the game ended as it began: nil nil.
To give all this pretentious nonsense some context, I should probably mention that I’m currently reading Philip Ball’s Critical Mass. I’ve just got to the part in which Ball explains that phase transitions can be considered generic phenomena:
“It is surprising enough that two different fluids, such as carbon dioxide or methane, which have quite different critical temperatures, should approach their critical points at the same relative (that is, percentage) terms. It is baffling that two wholly different kinds of system – a fluid and a magnet – also display this universality. What this suggests is that phase transitions are generic phenomena: they happen in the same way for a wide range of apparently different systems.
So why not traffic and football? In fact, Ball ends up drawing one such parallel:
“Every traffic jam involves a different set of vehicles and circumstances, but there are features that are common to them all.”
I read this on Sunday night and so brought an end to my weekend of (seeing) phase transitions (where there were none).
- Dynamic traffic simulation
Love this (from Interconnected). I’m no programmer, but I see this as a useful model for expressing the concepts/benefits of OOP. In fact, when I was studying for my MA, I tried to build something like this in Director (I didn’t get anywhere). Think I wanted to experiment with intelligent traffic lights.
- Paper CD case
Horrible looking tool for creating foldable paper CD cases. That said, I quite like the whole idea of online nonsense being used to create offline ephemera. In fact, in a different skin (less app, more experience), I could actually see this site being a cute little social space.
- Schematic
Like the spatial thing going on with this interface. Same genes as Relevare and Sofake (two old favourites) which don’t seem to be alive as I post this.
Happy New Year people. I begrudgingly stayed in this evening (it’s Friday). Here’s the guff I looked at:
- Star Wars and UX
Okay, I freely admit to being lured in by the Star Wars thing but there’s some great material here. I’d really like to see Stephen Anderson talk sometime. In case you’re wondering, the Star Wars thing is used to draw parallels with entrepreneurship. P.S. Did you know that George Lucas only decided to kill off Obi Wan during filming!
- Elmwood
Yes, this is fancy-schmancy Flash. And may be a little pompous. But it has got nice-ish URLs. And nice content. And big pictures. Oh and I quote like the idea of language workshops.
- The Small Stakes
Lovely illustration. Great bands.
- Fixed-price contracts don’t work
Well put. Certainly something close to my heart at the moment.