At this point I’ve read and seen enough about the Winklevii to last me a few lifetimes, but this article in Vanity Fair was (another) interesting look into their minds.
Like why they won’t let up:

In my opinion, it’s all about how much pain you can make the other guy feel,” said Dan Walsh, another Olympic rower, when asked to explain the lure of a sport that offers neither fame nor fortune, and why two highly advantaged individuals would spend their 20s pursuing it–the Winklevosses were then weeks away from their 30th birthday. “It’s about trying to break him.”

And the power of this new strategy is that it requires only modest success to get the Winklevosses what they want, which is not control of Facebook, but rather to cause Mark Zuckerberg pain measurable in pride and money, and through this pain to avenge their own ideal selves by asserting their will over his.

Bringing analogue back to the movies with a bang in the 21st century, the LomoKino is a Lomography movie camera that shoots short, creative movies on 35mm film

Available on Etsy from GreenTape.
From the creator:

The wood in this dock is cherry from the Black Cherry Tree, Prunus serotina Ehrh., which has been prized by woodworkers for centuries due to its beauty and woodworking qualitites. Cherry trees are widespread in the eastern half of the United States and the wood is considered by many to be the premier furniture wood in North America. The leaves in the picture are from a cherry tree. The wood insert is finished with several coats of orange oil and beeswax.

The actual wood used here is from small pieces a cabinet maker gave me about 20 years ago. I knew I would use it one day!

It takes me several hours, a dozen tools and over 30 steps to create these docks. Did I already say they were painstakingly made?

via The Next Web

Last week M83 released their latest album. As a child growing up in the 80’s, the sound of M83 really resonates with me. It has that 80’s feel—but at the same time—a sense of timelessness.
I was fortunate to take in an M83 show a few years back:

Dan Frommer asks the key ‘why’ questions about Windows Mobile phones from Nokia:

• Why should any person buy this instead of an iPhone or the preferred Android phone du jour?
• Why should carriers favor Windows phones over Android or Apple phones, in either their in-store sales techniques and marketing?
• Why should carriers or consumers favor Nokia Windows phones over similar Windows phones from Samsung, HTC, etc.?
• Why should developers make apps for Windows or Nokia phones?

Windows Mobile phones are swimming a red ocean. So what is a ‘red ocean’ you ask? From Wikipedia:

Red Oceans are all the industries in existence today–the known market space. In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of product or service demand. As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become commodities or niche, and cutthroat competition turns the ocean bloody. Hence, the term red oceans.
Red oceans are the opposite of blue oceans:

Blue oceans, in contrast, denote all the industries not in existence today–the unknown market space, untainted by competition. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There is ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid. In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. Blue ocean is an analogy to describe the wider, deeper potential of market space that is not yet explored.

Apple established the new smartphone paradigm (full touchscreen, no keyboard, multitouch UI) with the launch of the iPhone in 2007 that Google subsequently copied with Android. Apple’s modus operandi since Jobs returned has been about focusing on blue oceans. Untapped markets.

Now Microsoft and Nokia are entering the market with the Windows Phone 7 platform, a platform that introduces a unique approach to the user interface.

Despite their fresh approach, they’re still in a red ocean. Boundaries and known and rules are understood and as Frommer notes, they’re going to continue to have a hard time distinguishing themselves in this already crowded market.

Randy Murray thinks about cloud computing and the end of updates:

We’ve already gone past the point where we have to go out and buy updates on discs. Now we download and update. And soon your device will update itself as it sits unused.

For some this may be frightening. We need to think long and hard about trusting all of our data to others. We need to think seriously about maintaining our own media and backups.

While he expresses caution, overall he’s excited about the freedom such a move to the cloud affords us.
I too am pro-cloud, and currently use iCloud and DropBox on a regular basis, but I’m also cognizant of what I sync. I’m also not a criminal, so I don’t worry about being caught doing something.
As I’ve written about before, though, I’m also I strong believer in keeping things on the Ground as well as in the Cloud. My music files, my photos, my videos, my documents, my designs — all my stuff is in my possession on my own external hard drives. On the ground.

Co.Exist is a Fast Company initiative that focuses in on ideas and innovation that are changing the world.
The editor of the site describes it like this:

This site is focused on groundbreaking innovation, innovation that’s going to change the way we live and the resources we use. We’re for brash and creative solutions, that make everyone rich while helping the people of the world lead lovely, clean, and fulfilling lives.

We look forward to making this a Daily reading at the Exhaust.

Wax seals and letterpressed identities via Graphic Exchange

Microsoft is a company run by engineers. Engineers love science fiction, right? (ok, I do too)
So instead of focusing on the technology issues of today they make movies about possible tomorrows.
It’s fun, but it doesn’t pay the bills.
No, that ugly, bloated non-future-y Office and Windows pay the bills.
* see also Daring Fireball, here, here and here.

(image via thisisnthappiness.com)

For over half a century now Hasselblad has been proud to offer the world’s most comprehensive system for medium format photography. The basic idea behind our system – combining a love of photography with a mastery of technology – is as valid today as it was in 1948 when the first Hasselblad camera was introduced. And we intend to keep it that way.

We as designers strive for our solutions to be elegant, so what’s interesting about this story is how it seems to suggest that the most elegant solution, in certain situations, might not be creating anything new at all. Lightness is to be found in substitution or recomposing, not in rote addition.

• Frank Chimero

A new documentary on Charles and Ray Eames is already making it’s way around the States.

via kottke

Simon Garfield was recently interviewed on the CBC about his new book Just My Type: A Book about Fonts.
Conversations about Typography have usually lurked in the shadows. This is the first interview I have come across that takes the talk into the mainstream.
Here is the interview:

or
Here