Links For Today 9.28.2007

If you look hard, there’s actually a lot of amazing things happening in the world besides celebrities wiping their asses and speculation on non-existent gadgets.
MS to sell XP until June 2008 after Vista backlash – Imagine you release a product update that is so good that consumers opt for the older version. Well done Microsoft. Let me know how that ‘Silverlight‘ experiment goes too.
Blast from the Past: The Apple Store OnlineAndy Rutledge thinks the new online store sucks? Rutledge is spot on with most of his critiques, but in this one he’s wrong (unless he’s being facetious and I’m not catching it).
Amazon MP3 Store – iTunes rocks, but competition is healthy. Amazon has taken a great step in a great direction for digital music.
Palm Centro – A day late and a dollar short.

Fast Company – Masters of Design
– This issue is all about design, I mean Design. As in the big picture Design (thanks Jory).

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Uncategorized

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Rita Hazan

photo: ritahazan.com
Analogue launches the new Rita Hazan website in collaboration with Kate Schelter. I think they make a good team, this site is beautiful and easy to use.
Great photography can really elevate a project, can’t it?
Of course, so can great design and development.
Alright, I guess you need it all.

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Inspiration

These are from the QBN Sessions (via NewsToday)

Michael Muller – “And that is Batman smoking crack.”

Joshua Davis – “I’m somewhat responsible for what you’re seeing on screen …but there’s a lot of loss of control.”

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Art, Image

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Influences

When we make decisions in our lives, we all carry with us tons of opinions, ideas, memories and associations. Some of these we’re aware of, and some are subconscious.
A phenomenon that I always find interesting is cryptomnesia:

It refers to cases where (apparently) a person believes that he or she is creating or inventing something new, such as a story, poem, artwork, or joke, but is actually recalling a similar or identical work which he or she has previously encountered.

I don’t know if the creators of Absolut Brasil were aware of their influences, but they are apparent:
Absolut Brasil
screengrab: Absolut Brasil
iTunes (showing Coverflow view)
itunes_coverflow.jpg
It’s important to note that the CoverFlow technology not developed by Apple, but by Jonathan del Strother. I’d be curious to find out what del Strother’s inspiration was for CoverFlow.

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Links For Today 9.14.2007

WindowShade X – It’s not that the ‘genie’ minimize effect isn’t effective in OS X, it’s just not my style. Call me old-fashioned, but I still like the window shade ‘snap’ of the old OS 9. I’ve been using WindowShade X for years now.
Paths of Resistance in the East Village – As someone who’s fascinated with the history of New York in general including the Beat Generation and also lived in the East Village for almost 5 years, I could relate to a lot of the points made in this article. Its sad to see landmarks get replaced by premium condos and banks.
Here’s the accompanying video, Art and Unrest in the East Village

vintage matchbook covers

Matchbook Museum – amazing little gems (found via Monoscope)

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Career

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Welcome to the Family

Our CEO at Schematic, Trevor Kaufman, just sent out an email this morning announcing that Schematic was acquired by WWP.
All in all it sounds like a win-win. Obviously being part of a publicly-traded company brings with it some responsibilities, like meeting financial expectations every year, but how is that a bad thing? We just have to focus on continuing to produce amazing work (that’s why we were acquired in the first place).
Some of you out there who work at creative/ad/interactive agencies might not even know you’re owned by WWP as well. Here’s all the companies under the WWP umbrella. Ogilvy, Addison, Y&R, Grey Worldwide, JWT, Landor… the list goes on. Damn.

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Career

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The NY Times Gets the Web

I spend a lot of time online. Even as I work during the day in my design applications, I’m constantly checking my NewsFire RSS application for news. Despite great simplicity of RSS feeds, the NYTimes.com has many features that you can only take advantage of by going to the actual site.
The NYTimes.com really seems to ‘get’ the internet way better than most other news and newspaper sites. The site is well-designed, and by this I mean the underlying structure of the site, where things are positioned, image/text relationships, proportions and information heirarchy.
The style of the site is equally beautiful. The style of the site includes the color palette, grid treatment (the Times chose to expose most of their grid), fonts and photography.
Here’s a few gems I came across this morning:
making_the_cover.jpg
Making the Cover

ny_records.jpg

Records From a History of Hardship

riverside_drive.jpg

Behind the Facades

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Technology

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Once Upon a Time Up in Jersey, YO!

I’m heading back to school this fall.
Starting next week I’ll be teaching the Motion Design course with Brenda McManus at Rutgers University – Newark campus.
I’m excited because it focuses on storyboarding and concepting as well as execution within Adobe Flash. Learning an application is important, but its the conceptual skills that will get you jobs in the creative field.
Brick City, here I come.

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Career

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Schematic relaunch

A big round of applause to Schematic LA for their great work on the new Schematic website.
It’s in Flash 9, written in AS3, supports browser history (and back button), its friendly with mobile browsers, and search engine optimized. We even have a new showreel included. It’s got a few kinks in it, so if you see something funky, let them know by clicking on the BETA button on the homepage.
Go team!
screengrab: Schematic.com

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Technology

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Light up the web?

Microsoft Officially Launches Silverlight

Microsoft has also announced that a number of content providers will be providing Silverlight enabled content online, including Entertainment Tonight, HSN and World Wrestling Entertainment.

What this TechCrunch article doesn’t mention is that Microsoft has paid these companies, or has paid for the deveopment of some of these video players. I know this because the company I work for, Schematic, is in the process of developing some RIAs using Silverlight.
The second thing I’d like to point out is that so far, as of today, I have yet to see any ‘rich internet applications’ built with the Silverlight technology. I have seen a bunch of mediocre video players.
Silverlight is going to try to go head to head with Adobe Flash. If you’d like to see what real rich applications look like on the web, go browse through the featured sites on theFWA.
See the official Silverlight website

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Career

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Funny like a clown.

There’s been some good ha-ha’s this last month:
iTunes Store To Stop Selling NBC Television Shows – hahaha!
so NBC responds:
NBC ‘DISAPPOINTED’ IN NOT NEGOTIATING NEW ITUNES PACT – hahaha!
and NBC reacts:
After ditching Apple, NBC opts for flex pricing and more DRM with Amazon – HAHAHA! Stop, NBC, you’re killing me!
And on the Sony front:
Sony pulls the plug on Connect, refocuses on PlayStation – Now this is sad. I was really digging that Sony ATRAC music format. Wait, no I wasn’t, and I also wasn’t digging the mini disc format.

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Technology

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