when galaxies collide

Ok, this image is astounding:



It's a snapshot in time that initially just looks pretty. But when it's explained it's awe inspiring. Two galaxies passed through each other, and while the individual stars that make up each galaxy didn't collide directly, clouds of interstellar gas and dust became condensed, causing waves of star formation to move out from the 'impact' point like ripples across the surface of a pond in both galaxies.

strange creature

I see fractal forms in nature all the time, but I don't think I've ever been as astounded by a creature as I have by this one:



Credit: Steve Jurvetson

new apples

On October 14 Apple is refreshing both the MacBook and the MacBook Pro line designs.

They will feature the same 'single piece of aluminium' designs that the current iMac and slim keyboard have. The keyboard will also feature the same white plastic scrabble piece keys.

That will be the extent of the newness announced.

I really shouldn't look at rumour sites as it ruins the fun.

EDIT: I was wrong. Apologies. The keys were black, and they also announced a new Cinema Display (like the current iMac).

vimeos

Link roundup of my favourite videos on Vimeo:



Wobbly.




Illustrator Ninja.




Both Victoria Park London gigs were unique and amazing (add superlatives as required).

iPhone alpha

My 2 cents on the gadget that has every Tech pundit, Apple fan and weblog junkie frothing at the mouth... the "3G iPhone" that I'm guessing is thought of as iPhone 1.0 (straight outta beta) inside Apple:

It's going to be affordable and available everywhere (colours soon)!

Think of the perfect storm unleashed by Apple if they release their "alpha" iPhone model at a reasonable price point with a year and a half of hypercube-hype and solid beta testing by early adopters behind them.

Sure, they could milk the high premium and keep it relatively niche, or sell them to everyone like they do with iPods (including "enterprise" and "gamers" with the new features/SDK apps).

"BOOM!" indeed.

red veined darter

That's what it's called! Don't blame me.



Credit: Martin Amm

advertisement

I interrupt this weblog to give a shout out to the clients who pay my bills...

Cheers Motorola, this was a fun site to design:

fish

Very cool video for Radiohead's Weird Fishes/Arpeggio track by Robert at Flight404

Download the 200mb QuickTime movie:

deadlines... an observation

The closer a deadline gets (and the more unrealistic it is), the more 'carbon copy' addresses are added to team members' emails.

My speculation: "Here's me doing my bit so if it fucks up, it's not my fault... see everyone?"

skateboarding + explosions

What a fantastic intro sequence for a skateboarding video.

Downloading the high-res version as a result.

you need to see this, seriously.

This.
1:56 ftw
1:31 runner-UP!
2:21 honorable mention
1:17 best actor

this is not an illustration

This is probably the best HDR image I've seen so far:


My new iPhone desktop. Download it here.

dolphins are not the only awesome creatures

Another cute animal movie... aww!

Didn't even make this list.
Ok, the Japanese Hornet is BAD ASS.

tfl "journey planner" on your iphone home-screen

So iPhone 1.1.3. That was Macworld for me. Some really nice new functionality.

If, like me, you want to customise the icons for web-clips, some people have already worked out how to.

Here's how you make one.

Here's a safari bookmarklet you'll need to point your iPhone towards to add a custom icon for a given URL (after you've synced the bookmarklet to your iPhone).

Here's an icon for TFL (Transport For London) that I've uploaded. Zoom in on the "Journey Planner" section of the website (double tap the section header), invoke the bookmarklet voodoo, and add it to your homepage. Viola! An elegant London Transport Journey Finder "app" without waiting for TFL to make their own.

http://www.vectr.net/tfl.png

dolphins are awesome

Easily one of the coolest things I've ever seen:

For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons.

Douglas Adams

worst game ever?

"ET the Extra-Terrestrial"
Wiki | Video review.

From Wikipedia:

Instead of making ET into a Pac-Man-type game, Warshaw tried a more original idea. He had favored a design that was more story-based in hopes of creating a game that would capture some of the sentimentality he saw in the original film, but eventually ended up scrapping some of his own ideas due to time limitations. Ultimately, Warshaw designed a game based on what he believed could be reasonably programmed in the amount of time he had available to him. The basic design was worked out in two days, at the conclusion of which Warshaw presented the idea to Kassar before proceeding to spend the balance of the allotted five weeks writing, debugging, and documenting about 6.5KB of original code.

ET is also notable for being the first video game to "credit" a graphics artist, with the initials of ET's artist, Jerome Domurat, being hidden as an Easter egg."

versus:

"Big Rigs"
Wiki | Video review.

From Wikipedia:

The box of Big Rigs states that the player may "race trucks across the country, with cops chasing them." GameSpot considered this description of the game to be nothing more than "horrible, horrible lies", since there are no police in the game. Additionally, they pointed out, the computer-controlled opponent vehicles have no AI and never move from the starting position, making even the description of the gameplay as a "race" questionable.

(Or perhaps it's this late-comer that steals the gong?)

best of 2007 street art

Link.


Link.

the algorithm

I am lying. Really? Then I am lying when I say I am lying; therefore, I am not lying. Yikes. But if I am not lying then I am not lying when I say I am lying; therefore, I am lying. Double yikes. Not enough yet? Okay, consider the immortal quip of the great American philosopher Homer Simpson: “Oh Marge, cartoons don't have any deep meaning; they're just stupid drawings that give you a cheap laugh.” If cartoons don't have meaning, then Homer's statement is meaningless (not merely a philosopher, the man is a cartoon character); therefore, for all we know, cartoons have meaning. But then Homer's point is... Doh! Just say it ain't true. Ain't true? No, please, don't say it ain't true! Because if it ain't true then ain't true ain't true, and so...

Link

Interesting article that's taken me a while to digest as someone afflicted by a slight case of NADD.

recursion - michel gondry and björk style

mars rover video feed

11:00am (GMT), Wednesday, January 30, 2008:

:]

new york

Reminds me of this.

codespring

Logo design for my friends new company (site currently being designed):

life's not read-only

A thought provoking communiqué on why the copyright dichotomy is a bit odd.

The links in the article lead to gold:

1. Ideas aren't physical. Regardless of the legalities, treating ideas as possessions insults their vast combustive power. Jefferson put it best:

The moment [an idea] is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.

2. Ideas aren't worth jack unless other people can put them to use.
3. Ideas won't change the world unless others can improve on them.
4. Ideas grow by participation, not isolation.

The rest of the list is here.

christmas countdown clock

I spent a little time today sussing out how to make a Dashboard Widget.

Here's my first attempt (I know, I know, "Christmas Countdown Clock... lame!", just playing about at this stage):




Any testing appreciated (working for me on Leopard, does it work with Tiger?).

Also, my previous post on fixing Stacks has been trumped by this:



Very nice solution.

how to fix stacks

There's broad consensus that the Stacks feature in Leopard is a usability nightmare (I'm not going to rehash the debate).


Here's how I fixed mine:

1. Grab yourself a set of Agua icons from David Lanham's wonderful site.

2. Rename an Agua icon that best represents the Stacks folder you wish to badge as "00 Stack Name".

3. Drag the re-named Agua icon into the Stack.

4. Right-click the Stack and select "Sort by: Name". (While you're there, select "View as: Grid")

Fixed! (ie: Downloads, Applications, Trash)

spatial gaming

"Now you're thinking with portals"

MC Escher ideas are making a play for your gaming attention... they've got mine:



The final YouTube link should be viewed in full-screen.

what's wrong with this picture?

Two identical envelopes containing two identically addressed letters (printed in full colour), delivered to our door:



So what's wrong with this picture?

The subject line:

"As an energy company we know that we have a huge responsibility to tackle climate change and we are acting now to change our business to meet this challenge. We want to help our customers to make a difference too, but we understand that it isn't easy being green"

Despite being supplied both gas and electricity from the same company (EDF energy), they cannot combine our details into one database and send us a single bill, or indeed a single copy of their wasteful, 'greenwash' junk mail.
Or how about you send us an email instead?

Nice work Andrew Edgoose of EDF Customer Services.
You're a goose.

leopard

WHAT THE HELL??

Ok. Initial shock aside... actually, 'aside' is the in-built solution.

New Dock Shock? Move it to the right side of your screen and spend a day or two re-adjusting your auto-motor response "icon is here". Nope... "icon is there!"

Lot's of valid commentary for the overly geeky upgrader here and the waaaay too nerdy upgrader here (sourced here).

It's growing on me already [eek! get it off!]. Nice Apple punt towards the awaiting 'Mac Indy software developer community' to polish, tweak, (hack) and innovate what Apple have done under the hood.

all i need

My favourite track from the new Radiohead album.

My favourite blogosphere comment?

"I do love the fact that no matter what else happens today, no one will be talking about anything other than In Rainbows. If Pete wants some attention in the next few days, short of finding Maddy McCann in Winehouse's beehive, he's going to have to pull something really special out of the bag."

crab. a big one.

It's real, it's a coconut crab, it's got a hamburger for a bum (tee-hee) and I'm not sure I like it.

manage your anticipation

While the whole world waits for the brilliantly released Radiohead album...

New Michel Gondrey

in rainbows

Kudos to the best band on earth.
You'll have to live under a rock for the next few weeks if you don't want to hear that Radiohead have a new album out for digital download on the 10th of October. From their website. Pay whatever you want.

I'll take the 'Digibox' please. Shipping at the start of December with two CD's, two heavyweight vinyl records and stacks of Stanley Donwood and Tchock artworky goodness.



I might go to sleep until I can download it. (Wikipedia is quick)

cave story (japanese freeware mac/pc platform game)

5 years in the making, and harking back to the golden age of 8-bit platform games, 'Cave Story' (洞窟物語, Dōkutsu Monogatari) is a real treat (released in 2004).

"Pixel" is the independent Japanese game developer who fashioned this remarkable game.

'Cave Story' in his words:

Cave Story is a jumping-and-shooting action game.
Explore the caves until you reach the ending.
You can also save your game and continue from where you left off.

Laughably modest. Download it! If you were an NES/sNES junkie back in the day, you'll absolutely love this.


('Cave Story' Walkthrough)

hey man

Nice shot.

(Track from the IronMan trailer: "Filter - Hey Man, Nice Shot")

Oh, and we've all seen the trailer for JJ Abrams new movie (code name 'Cloverfield'), yeah?

ironman

I'm half a world away from my IronMan comic collection, but it might be time to dig it out for an eBay auction.

IronMan Trailer:

missing

Missing from the iTunes store:

The Beatles - all albums
Radiohead - all albums
Tool - all albums
Slint - Spiderland

keep an eye out

I saw a Transformer today, while I was taking a break.

It drove right past me.

I can't be 100% sure, because it didn't transform at the time.

autobots, transform! (again)

Awesome installation at the recent Burning Man Festival.
Miss_Colleen's Photo on Flickr | Project Site

Unavoidable comparison to my recently posted 'real-life' transformer* photo.


Queue recursion.

*Since my initial post, I can now link to a gallery of Igor Siwanowicz photography. Fantastic.

old but still gold

Keep the greenery gyrating.

rss

I will be sharing links to content I like over here.

the last question

Pour yourself a Scotch (preferably aged for a decade or more), put an Ulrich Schnauss record on, and take the time to read Isaac Asimov's short story, "The Last Question".

"The idea seems to drown out everything"
***** Isaac Asimov

EDIT: Schnauss' MySpace only has tracks from his new album up. And it can't hold a candle to his earlier output. Soul seek.