The Death Of Print

(Great) 1960s Art Director calls Cover of the Future "Ridiculous."

2008-10-23T16:01:11Z

George Lois, the great art director behind some of Esquire's most iconic covers calls the October Cover of Esquire, that featured a blinking E-Ink display "A Mickey Mouse Light clicking on and off... it's not an idea." Gawker responds with "PWND!!1!" while Boing Boing Gadgets really hit the nail on the head after getting a first look with this line:

"The future of print journalism is the blink tag, apparently."

A Conversation with George Lois -- Advertising Age

A Gentle Critique Of Esquire -- Gawker

Esquire e-ink cover a pathetic disappointment -- Boing Boing Gadgets

Little Big Computer

2008-10-08T21:57:39Z

A 1,600 part Electromechanical Computer built inside the nifty physics-engine-tastic PS3 game, Little Big Planet. Simulacrum!

--via [Opposable Thumbs]

Driving Under the Influence (of Starfox)

2008-10-08T21:46:24Z

In all honesty, I'm not convinced this is "working" technology... more of a speculative design. Gaming is a great area to utilize technologies like computer vision and augmented reality while they languish in their early stages though. Bravo!

--via [Opposable Thumbs]

Douglass Rushkoff on Playing, Cheating, Programming

2008-09-27T15:26:07Z

Before literacy, we were mere listeners. We heard stories read to us as a group. After the printing press, we were elevating to individuals, each with our own, acknowledged perspective on what we read. (The Renaissance, if anything, was a celebration of individual perspective - just like the paintings.) This reading phase took us right through the reading equivalent of cheating: postmodernism, cut-and-paste, and other personal deconstruction of the author's original intent.
Finally, computers have changed our relationship to the text again. Instead of just reading the publications of others, we are free to write and distribute our own - on a relatively level playing field. We become authors.

--Link [boingboing]

Massive Squirrel no match for U.S. Armed Forces

2008-08-21T17:14:58Z

Okay It's no Montauk Monster, or Frozen Yeti corpse, but it sure did give me a case of the LOLz.

-hack

--via [MYSTARBUCKS]

Digital DRM-mobile and Open Source Digital Rights

2008-08-13T15:08:09Z

Overdrive, the company serving up e-books for New York's public libraries drives across the country in a big Semi, uses a variety of DRM, primarily Windows Media. In Central Park on Sunday, a rep. told me "they are working on getting Windows Media DRM working on Macs." (wtf?)
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Meanwhile, Sun Microsystems is working on DReaM, an OPEN SOURCE DRM scheme. While I feel dirty saying it, I think the notion of closed networks and DRM is really what is going to drive the digital economy over the next several years. This is really the technology that libraries should be adopting, since its impossible to ignore publisher's rights. That is, if you want to get more than Shakespeare from public libraries' digital catalogs. Besides, aren't public encryption schemes the best ones anyway?

--via [wired]

Photoshop Tutorials: Make crap look nice

2008-07-21T17:50:38Z

Make hair look real shiny, and other trips and ticks [sic] over at Smashing Magazine...

-Link

Digital Lenticulars

2008-07-15T18:11:45Z

I just love the aspect of interactive optical illusions like this one. Its much like the digital equivalent of a lenticular image. Its kind of like the reverse of the Youtube Portraits by Cameron Browning...

--Link

--via [neatorama]

the wrath of the gamer

2008-07-15T17:20:46Z

Heed his dire warnings, Square Enix. (He is responding to this)

--via [Joystiq]

Wii Homebrew's Killer App

2008-07-09T22:23:23Z

TELESURGERY!

Hilarious domain name suggestions...

2008-05-19T15:50:41Z

My personal best:

TailFucking
NastyAssPics
SickAssOnline
BadAssWarez
WhoopAssOnline
WapYourAss
DryAssFuck
PaulTheAss (my favorite)

--Leroy

Modern day Supervillian

2008-05-13T09:41:28Z

Something about this feels an awful lot like the origin story of a dangerous new supervillian...

Thirty-Four Stingrays Die Suddenly at Calgary zoo (video) [Globe and Mail]

Give them the NEXRAD!

2008-05-12T13:33:31Z

NEXRAD is the "next generation of radar". It is capable of producing high definition 3 dimensional weather map, for personal use and forecasters. In the US, It is a joint collaboration between department of transport and department of defense. As of today, 175 units (1.3 billion dollar each) are strategically disposed on US soil to scan a maximum surface, hence see what's coming ahead in the sky.

The Myanmar tragedy…Over 15000 death and more to come...If the NEXRAD was on-site before the fatal storm, could have led to a successful preventive evacuation? I say maybe. I say let's decommission just one of these bad boy from an area less affected by costal storms (main land) and donate it expresso to Myanmar...Or better, take a fourth of our NEXRAD (~40) and pack and ship them to high risk poor coastal countries and mark that day "official day of the day who America donated 40 of his 175 NEXRAD to third/world countries" day, and make it an official holiday for everybody...Uh, not going to happen? Why not? Too busy invading Irak eh? Planting the flag in the butt hole of a few trouble extremists…Is that going to save 15000 people? It already killed 4300!!

--Leroy

A new chapter in Leroy's "flying sucks vol.1"

2008-05-05T14:39:41Z

On my way to lga, Queens. Foggy but nothing alarming, 2 hours in advance, 1 carry-on bag and no check-in: All the starts are align perfectly it seems...Oh but wait a minute, that can't really be possible eh? First, got my speed-stick confiscated because when directly apply on an eyeball, apparently it hurts freaking bad. Then they made me switch gates 4 times and delayed my flight 2 hours without explanation. Oh and just to be a little more pain in the ass, the flight attendant got in my face because my bag couldn't fit the tiny glove compartment...45 minutes after landing, I was with friends in a strip club with just enough energy left in my body to get half-hard to enjoy 2 girls doing it...Yup, Montreal beats New York 10 miles on that kind of entertainment.

Back 2 days later in the airport to flight my ass back to New York. Prior boarding I need to renew my visa (NAFTA trade) at the custom. I'm usual to the procedure and expect no problem but nevertheless got there 3 hours earlier just in case. Ended to be a good gut feeling: "Sir, do you have your degree diploma with you?" Hey man, my degree diploma is framed and hanged on a wall of fame at my family house so no, did not bring it. Instead, I got this official letter stating that I received the diploma. Look, it’s signed in blue and wax-sealed...Did you read it? "Yes, we need to see your diploma...I have to refused your demand.” These guys...Got them the frame and got through on the second pass...Have an hour to kill still and I need a beer. Last chance to drink a cold Molson Ex in a frozen bock...$10.50! Pricier than a stripper joint, boner-less...

An hour later, flying above the big ship on a clear sky at low altitude was the tradeoff for all the rocks this trip has thrown my way...

Peace,
--Leroy

Torrents vs. Box Office

2008-05-04T19:06:14Z

source: Blogpulse

source: Google Trends

I particularly like how the Google Trends graph illustrates of the news volume of box office sales beats out torrents.

related: State "Super-DMCA" Legislation: MPAA's Stealth Attack on Your Living Room [Electronic Frontier Foundation]