In some of my research for an upcoming project for Pantone/X-rite, I came across this fun little number, which I thought you might enjoy as well.
John Hodgman Mention on Twit.TV
Upon completion and launch of John Hodgman‘s new web site, Areas of My Expertise, the author recently mentioned me and my company (ERA404) on a Twit.tv interview and pays tribute to the colors and theme-switching functionality.
For clarification, puce was mentioned in discussion of the theme switcher on the site as a hypothetical color for a third book cover/color palette/theme, not as a synonym for the ochre or “mustard” color currently employed by the More Information Than You Require theme. Puce is actually a reddish-brown.
Cooliris 3DWall
Somehow I happened upon this weird, but fun gadget that “transforms your browser into a ligntning fast, cinematic way to discover the web”.
It’s a plug-in for Firefox and other browsers that turns web pages with media into a PaperVision3D-style gallery with functions for zoom, play (if movies), share and more. It’s also a thinly-veiled method for getting you to install a product-oriented shopping plug-in, but that’s besides the point. Frankly, I wouldn’t have any use for browsing the web in 3D and want my shopping experience to be unbiased, personally-driven and bells-and-whistles-free, but hell, it’s still fun to watch the video. Sorta reminds me of the Airtight TiltViewer.
Name tags in Picasa Web Albums
My biggest frustration with online galleries has always been search- and sort-ability by photo contents. The introduction of captioning to Picasa and tagging to Flickr did little to quell my disappointment. Sure I could view a tag cloud of photos that were tagged with the word “New York” or “Mom”, but I couldn’t easily sort by who was included in the photos. And, beyond that, my sojourns to social events would all be tagged after the event and not the containing people, unless I went through each individually and tagged the person or people for each picture.
Typocalypse
While I don’t necessarily agree with most of Lars Willem Veldkampf‘s assertions about font selection, I do think this it’s a fascinating exercise in typography to think about the subliminal meanings behind their evaluation, selection, discarding, and thought processes. The very act of choosing a typeface to communicate some deeper or subliminal meaning is the same as altering your own penmanship based on to whom you write.
Why do we select the fonts we do for specific pieces/identities? Inherently, it is based more on what works best instead of what is perfect (as faces are a limited commodity and you can’t be Ed Benguiat and design a new font for each project). Read more
Gmail on Android
I was getting a little frustrated that all the cool touch-screen phones were for different networks (iPhone on AT&T, Blackberry Storm on Verizon). Then I saw that T-Mobile touts the first Android-powered phone, the T-Mobile G1:
Need to catch up with your Gmail on the go? That’s easy with Gmail on Android. Keep your conversations going, search and find any message, and get notified when a new message arrives. Anywhere, and any time – for free. Read more
Spam from the Future
I’d started to grow weary of spammers post-dating spam messages so they show at the top of folders sorted reverse-chronologically until I started thinking about the idea. Sure, 90% of the spam in my Yahoo! account ends up in the Spam folder (as opposed to about 99% in my Gmail account and 10% in my Hotmail account), but how ambitious could a spammer be? I mean, it isn’t enough that they want to clutter your mail folders with unsolicited messages about diplomas, stock quotes and ED drugs, but now they want to supercede all messages of value on the off-chance that: a) the message would somehow land in the Inbox and b) a user would forget the default sort order and say to him/herself “Wow, this must be important. It’s at the top of the list.”
But then I got to thinking: What if I’m wrong? What if these messages are ACTUALLY messages from the future? What if the geriatric future Don actually placed an order for V14gr4 or C14l15? I mean, I’ll be 60-years-old in 2038 (provided that the Mayans were wrong), so there’s a chance that I actually could be interested in said pharmaceuticals. AND maybe copyright laws change in the great Pfizer Inc. v. Pf1z3r 1nc. case of 2021 and the pharma giant was actually forced to change their product name to Vee Fourteen Gee Are Four?
With that in mind, it goes without saying that this sexagenarian me might’ve placed the order for a batch of erectile dysfunction drugs. Or, in developer speak, maybe:
Error 1110: Call to private Member function is not responding.
As a result, the future version of UPS, which I must assume is UPS v2.0 (or United Parcel Starfleet) has dispatched a hover-truck and courier bot in brown Lycra shorts to deliver the resolution to the above error.
Or maybe by 2018, pharmaceutical companies will develop technology to pre-determine erectile dysfunction for years to come (a true “Minority” Report by Mr. P. K. Dick — pun intended) and the 40-year-old me pre-ordered V14gr4 for the 60-year-old me without any indication to the 30-year-old me save for a shipping ticket in my spambox. Hell, this might not be spam at all. It might be the future telling me to click that link in my email, register my email address for some bulk list and save the elderly Don from embarrassing, shameful situations in my hovering moon-based bachelor pad.
Click those links, people! Click them like your (sex) life depends on it! Your future you will thank you!