Zeus Jones goes evil for a day.
Noteworthy, late June edition
Links, ideas and other ephemera that have caught my eye recently:
Magnetic Movie – the incredible visuals in this video prompt my internet skepticism to kick in. Even if it is some kind of trickery, it’s amazingly cool. More info here.
Speaking of internet trickery, I stumbled on a CSS hack I’ve never seen before: Overriding Inline Styles from a CSS file – useful if your CMS-using clients get too crazy with the WYSIWYG text editor and destroy your precious design.
The founders of Flickr are leaving Yahoo, and Stewart Butterfield wrote the oddest resignation letter I’ve seen. He must really likes metaphors.
Enkoder for Leopard
The always handy e-mail obfuscation utility for Mac OS X is now a bona-fide Leopard-friendly (and free) application. Get it here.
For the huddled Mac-less (or older OS X cats), you can use a web-based version.
If you do any kind of web design or development and you like keeping your clients spam-free, this app will make your life much easier.
We are the machines.
Really interesting article from the Atlantic — Is Google Making Us Stupid? The gist is that with such easy access to near-limitless amounts of information, we let machines supplant thinking and our attention span and memory retention suffers accordingly. I think the historical examples found at the end of the article are an interesting counterpoint to the premise — be wary of change because Bad Things will surely occur. However, in every example, the changes — paper, printing press, internet — brought much more positive change than negative. Perhaps we’re in the thick of a similar cycle — our brains just need to catch up with our ambition.
That Design is Money!
A really interesting and thorough look at the new Wells Fargo ATM interface (designed by Pentagram). Lots of good UI tidbits to be found here.
Noteworthy, early June edition
The nicer-than-the-name suggests folks over at the barbarian group are giving away a web browser called plainview — it’s tailor-made for presentations; just enter a URL (or a set) and you’ll see nothing but fullscreen browsing goodness. No browser chrome, distracting bookmark bar, tabs or other distractions. Did I mention it’s free?
(i)Phone as human to digital interface. — a (relatively) old-y but goodie from the gang at Zeus Jones posing the idea that connected devices like the iPhone a well positioned to become true extensions of yourself — with the ability to document virtually everywhere you travel and everything you see, hear and do.
Last but not least, a classic video from Charles and Ray Eames. I was explaining this video to someone recently — if you’ve never seen it, it’s worth your time to watch the whole thing.
Urban Photo Safari 2008
2008 Urban Photo Safari official t-shirt
Urban Photo Safari 2008 is right around the corner! (Saturday, May 17th from 9am – 1pm, to be exact.)
Urban Photo Safari is a free event created to encourage you explore KC, get creative with your digital camera and—most of all—have fun (friends, family and non-creatives are welcome, too).
You can find the location, rules, tips and more at UrbanPhotoSafari.com. Hope to see you there!