September 2010
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Thoughts on Bugatti & Hello Kitty
A Bugatti Veyron packs 1020 brake horse power, delivering 922 foot-pounds of torque to reach a top speed 220 miles per hour, at which point, the wing and spoiler will be providing a staggering 770 pounds per foot of downforce. The Bugatti Veryron is, by any measure, an awesome machine. But a Bugatti Veyron with a Hello Kitty paint job and a 4ft tall Bugatti logo splayed across the bonnet, is not...
June 2010
1 post
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Debranded
I’ve been meaning to give a shout out to Debranded for a while. So here I go.
Debranded is a fledgling fashion label, the brain child of a few friends of mine who have been working in the rag trade for a few years. For a veritable cornucopia of reasons, they all agreed there is a better way to make and sell clothes. Primarily, they wanted to channel some of their ill gotten gains to...
April 2010
4 posts
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Lib Dems Pledge To Repeal The Digital Economy Act →
I can not think of a single logical reason to vote Labour or Conservative.
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The Science Behind 2012
You’re adopted. We’re all adopted in fact. Let me explain.
If you look up into the night sky on a very dark night (with little surrounding light pollution), you will notice that most of the stars are grouped together in a band that cuts diagonally across the blackness. What you’re looking at is the Milky Way, or what we have lovingly referred to over the centuries as Home.
...
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Collateral
Some of you may have seen the news that Apple has changed in TOS for iPhone OS developers, some of you may not. In a nutshell, the change means that Adobe’s plans to provide a way for Flash developers to compile and run their Flash projects on the iPhone, and distribute them through the App store have been stopped dead in their tracks.
The Adobe community is understandably up in arms about...
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A Farewell To The Future
The internet is by far mankind’s single greatest achievement. It has changed the way we do pretty much everything, and will continue to change things in ways we still can’t imagine. The future for man kind looked promising, until last night when the British government, in it’s infinite arrogance, greed and stupidity passed the digital economy bill.
For those of you who don’t know that the...
March 2010
3 posts
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I'll Probably Be Getting an iPad
I’ve been using iPhones and iPod Touches for a while now, and I’ve loved being able to sit on the sofa, check emails, surf a bit of web and do other small bits and pieces of web related jiggery pokery without having to crack open my Mac Book Pro, which seems gargantuan by comparison now. It’s been a perfect go between and I’ve not once had cause for complaint over this set...
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When Frameworks Attack
I’ve learnt to be weary of web frameworks. They start out trying to make simple things easier, and inevitably end up making important things difficult. I think of frameworks like this
“They make it easy to do somethings, but impossible to do anything.”
The number of frameworks I actually trust can be counted on one finger. It’s jQuery.
And so here I am trying to get to...
January 2010
1 post
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Apple & Tablets
The rumors that Apple will be announcing a new Tablet device this months have reached such a fever pitch that if it turns out to be bull hunky, there’s going to be a riot.
That said, since I’m something of an Apple fan, and because I’m also a blogger, Apple Legal have informed me that I’m contractually obligated to write a post listing my own worthless speculations on what...
December 2009
1 post
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Grammar Nazi
The phrase is “I could not care less”. The emphasis is on the ‘not’. The phrase implies that the subject/object/person or thing holds absolutely no interest for the speaker. Hence, they could not care any less about it, because it’s the thing they care least about in the world.
However, I’m increasingly seeing the phrase “I could care less” which...
November 2009
7 posts
“If vacuum-cleaners suck, and hairdryers blow, what the fuck does Peter Mandelson...”
– Tom Elders. circa 2009
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Great British Democracy
No one voted for Gordon Brown. And all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the opening of Parliament by the Queen yesterday reminded me that no one voted for her either. Or any of her sauerkraut munching predecessors. It’s a very unique brand of Democracy we have in this country in the sense that it’s not democratic at all.
In the past couple of months, we’ve had the...
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Lazy Susan
Ok, this is going to be a long one, but there’s a point to my rambling so stick with it.
Here’s something that just hit the tubes that has me all in a tizz.
2.5 Trillion Oil Scam
View more documents from theoilman.
The crux of the issue lies in a process called Round Tripping, Round Trip Trading, or ‘Lazy Susans’ which involves a company selling something, in this...
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The Infinite Loop
Do you remember when Apple was the first and last name in personal computing? Probably not, but that’s how it used to be. And then Microsoft happened and the rest is history.
But here we are at the arse-hole end of the naughties and Apple have taken the lead in the smartphone market. You could argue that the iPhone was the first ever true smart phone, since all alleged smart phones before...
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More Adobe Suckiness
While I’m on a rant against Adobe and Flash, I figure I may as well comment on Adobe’s latest shenanigans in which they try to drum up dissent against Apple for not allowing Flash on the iPhone. Engadget has the details. The comments are full of idiots literally defecating in their own pants in a fits of rage over not being able to use Flash on their iPhone.
Now, as far as I know,...
Flash Sucks Massive Donkey Dick
I despise Adobe® Flash®. In fact, I despise everything by Adobe® for reasons far to long winded to get into here. Alas, due to the nature of my profession, I’m obligated to work with pretty much every single turd they churn out with the exception of Dreamweaver® (which I consider to be unquestionable proof of Satan’s presence on earth), Fireworks® and After Effects®. However, the one...
October 2009
2 posts
Real Women
Most of you will have seen the headlines generated by a certain German woman’s magazine and their descision to use “Real Women” as models from now on.
The theory goes that size zero models perpetuate an unhealthy ideal for people to aspire to. But in a world where obesity is a bigger killer than anorexia, I have to question the logic here.
While it’s pretty obvious that...
Back To Blighty
My 4 year long reign of terror on the EU mainland comes to an end next week as I head home to the sceptered isle (Britain). In addition, I’ve been convinced that it’s a good idea to start a podcast with an old friend from back home. We start recording next week, so I think the first installment of “Luke & Tom’s totally awesome topical comedy podcast bonanzathon”...
September 2009
14 posts
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Predictably Irrational Attitude to Marketeers
Jeff Atwood has posted a great selection of excerpts from the book ‘Predictably Irrational.’ There’s some interesting stuff in there and I love reading up on the type of cognitive experiments it talks about.
But I was a little offended by his preface to the article.
If you don’t understand how these irrational behaviors are triggered, the marketing weasels will use them...
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35 Stunning Black & White Logos →
I’m a sucker for clever, simple logos like these. Found via ffffound.
All You Need is Hate
John Gruber, of Daring Fireball fame, has linked to this neat little idea by Heather Armstrong: Monetizing the hate. You can read the backstory here, but the basic premise is that’s she publishing all her hate mail on a page loaded with umpteen brazillion banner ads. It’s definitley worth a read and I’d love to know how well it does.
It puts me in mind of something I stumbled...
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iPhones & Accessibility
Apple has created this video detailing how the visually impaired can use an iPhone. They’ve been the gold standard in this area for a long time, but their work on the iPhone, a one button, icon powered interface, demonstrates just how serious they are about it.
Make sure you see what they’ve done with Safari.
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The Beatles & Me
Last week saw the launch of a new Beatles Website. Critique is easy and I could wax lryical all day about what I like, what I don’t like and what I would have done differently. Instead, I’ll offer something more credible and talk about my experience working on thebeatles.com.
Back when I was in art college in the mid 90’s, the Beatles were experiencing something of a...
iTunes LP: Behind The Scenes
With reference to my earlier post on iTunes LP, Jay Robinson has done some digging around and it turns out I was right, it is all HTML, CSS & Javascript. He’s also posted some nice screenshots from various albums which you can see here.
jayrobinson.org
I guess the special visualizes are made with Quartz Composer, but there’s no word on what special Javascript magic is available to...
The Unspoken Truth About Managing Geeks →
One of the best written pieces on the subject I’ve ever read. If you work in digital marketing and you deal with developers, then this is essential reading. A lot of the same points also relate to designers.
Linkage
While I sit here designing websites and stalking attractive women on Facebook, an old friend of mine has decided to drive from Moorends (UK) to Barcelona (Spain) in a beat up old banger that cost him £200, all in aid of Action for Children. Which….. sounds like a lot of fun if you ask me. I remeber when raising money for charity involved starving yourself or getting in a bath full of baked...
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You Are Not As Unique As You Think
One of the stories on BBC News today talks about concerns over the national DNA database. Right now in the UK, anyone who is arrested is entered into the database. Not convicted, just arrested. But what’s the problem? DNA evidence has revolutionized police work in recent years, and many scientists will tell you the chances of two people sharing the same DNA profile are 1 in 113 Billion!
...
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Steve Jobs Doesn't Like The Kindle
In a somewhat lacklustre interview yesterday with David Pouge over at the New York Times, Steve Jobs had this to say about the Amazon Kindle…
“I’m sure there will always be dedicated devices, and they may have a few advantages in doing just one thing,” he said. “But I think the general-purpose devices will win the day. Because I think people just probably aren’t willing to pay for a...
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Apple Teeny
So Steve Jobs made a triumphant return to the masses yesterday at Apple’s special event. He still looks a little delicate to me, but I wish him all the best. It’s nice to see him back at the helm.
One of the things I was most looking forward to in the announcements was the rumored release of what those in the Apple rumour business had dubbed ‘Cocktail’. As far as I can...