June 2010
Skeuomorph, n →
A skeuomorph or skeuomorphism (Greek: skeuos—vessel or tool, morphe—shape)[1] is a derivative object which retains ornamental design cues to a structure that was necessary in the original.
I’m infatuated with skeuomorphs, they are the object equivalent of vestigal characteristics in the living world : the dog thumb, the ostrich wings, the human coccyx. Remnants of ancestors...
Comments section on an old Engadget post used for... →
I was expecting trolls but some sound quite genuine. Creepy.
via reddit
“It’s perfectly fine to say “I would not get $10 worth of value out of this” or...”
– 37 signals on the price of their ipad app. Catty. Draft for iPad
YouTube wins case against Viacom →
Was out of a plug this week, as was shown in the sparse updates. Missed this.
Kent Walker, Google VP and General Counsel
YouTube is protected by the safe harbor of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) against claims of copyright infringement. The decision follows established judicial consensus that online services like YouTube are protected when they work cooperatively with copyright...
“The best design explicitly acknowledges that you cannot disconnect the form from...”
– Jonathan Ive
“You’re a thousand times more likely to die because of what some urban banker did...”
– Bruce Sterling
Seventy Years Later, Churchill’s ‘Finest Hour’... →
John F. Burns, on the greatest speech ever delivered.
Equally intriguing, the final typescript of the speech is set out, at least in the final passage building up to “their finest hour,” in blank verse format, with five-line paragraphs set out in indented type, a form that the Churchill Archives Center’s director, Allen Packwood, compared to the Old Testament Book of Psalms, regarded by many...
How Xerox Helped Win The Cold War -Edit... →
One of the most successful espionage operations in intelligence history began in 1961, when the CIA analyzed the results of routine surveillance of the Soviet embassy in Washington.
US agents discovered that, while almost everyone else was restricted from entering the Soviet embassy, the Xerox serviceman could come and go almost anytime to maintain the Soviets’ new photocopiers.
“Gaming is having a ridiculously huge TV in a tiny one room apartment. Staying up...”
– E3 2010: Kevin Butler’s Address
^___^
WatchI love me some subsurface scattering.
ericalba:
Solid Amnesty International spot directed by Pleix, #vfx/post by Digital District
How to look like a Hipster →
Favourite new tumblr. Hilarious.
Who killed the iceman? | COSMOS magazine →
The murder of Ötzi the Iceman is perhaps the most challenging cold case in history. Archaeologists used a splay of forensic methods to piece together a detailed picture of his life – and death.
Follows a list of Ötzi’s physical features, with this little interesting bit :
Tattoos: The body is etched with over 50 tattoos, created by rubbing charcoal into fine incisions. Fine...
“I see 22 millionaires ruining a lawn.”
– Charlie Brooker
On the World Cup
The special effect of Ray Harryhausen - Times... →
The man behind Jason and the Argonauts, King Kong, and pioneer of the FX industry :
“I always say films were invented for fantasy, otherwise they just become propaganda. Now the films are so serious — everybody has a gun and they are shooting everybody.”
So what does he make of the massive technological advances in cinema special effects? “Well I think CGI is a wonderful tool, but...