I might have left New York City, but it doesn’t mean I can’t still enjoy it from the left coast.
From the Bureau of Common Goods in Brooklyn comes Made By Hand (via arainert):

A project from the Bureau of Common Goods, Made by Hand was created out of the belief that the things we collect, consume, use, and share are part of who we are as individuals. For example, the food that we eat says something about each of us, as do the tools we use and the chairs we rest on. Objects that surround the space we dwell in tell stories, and not just about us. Where did they come from? Who made them? How were they made?

Each film aims to promote that which is made locally, sustainably, and with a love for craft. Based in Brooklyn, the project takes its influence from the handmade movement here and elsewhere. We hope you find the spirit of it inspiring.

I just watched their film on writer turned knife maker, Joel Bukiewicz. Pretty awesome – both the film and the knives Joel makes by hand (obviously).
I’m seeing more and more examples of a return to the analogue in our digital, multi-touch world. It’s the resurgence in letterpress printing in the last 10 years. It’s the Edison light bulbs I see in boutiques and restaurants and homes. It’s services providing locally produced and chemical-free foods. I see it in everything on Etsy. I see it on Kickstarter. I see in the the wooden iPhone and iPad cases made by Karvt.
People are craving all things hand made more than ever.
The Internet continues both reinvent and dismantled entire industries, but there’s one thing it can’t do – make things by hand.

Hillman Curtis died on April 18th. He was a talented, passionate creator.
Here’s a 4-minute documentary he did on himself a few months ago.
The funny thing about Hillman is I never thought much of his web design work. It wasn’t great. It was clean, and organized and a lot of work went into it. But there wasn’t passion.
His passion came out when he stepped behind the camera and began making his short films and documentaries on other talented creators like Milton Glaser, Stefan Sagmeister, Lawrence Weiner and Joshua Davis.
It was when he started making his films that I started paying attention to him.
I’m happy he found his true calling before he died.

6 May 1937, Lakehurst, New Jersey

A Ferrari 250 GT SWB

via Flickr via Motoriginal

Daily Exhaust is not my full-time job. This means many of the links I find daily I stash away in my Instapaper account and either take a while to get posted or sit around too long and go obsolete. Technology links are the most time-sensitive and usually go stale the quickest. Links focused on creativity, innovation and design usual stay fresh — or get better with age, like wine.
The good news is at this point, I have a whole wine cellar of tasty links and time to start posting them.
Instead of dumping them on this site all at once, I’ll be queueing them up to be posted in the coming weeks.

Jason Giddings came up with an idea for a multitouch, glass keyboard and mouse and launched a Kickstarter project late in 2011 to get it funded. I remember coming across it when I was launching my Kickstarter. He was aiming for $50K in funding but ended up getting over $143K. Amazing.
My thoughts now are the same as my thoughts then – while the project is gorgeous, it’s a step backwards in usability. A desktop keyboard with no haptic feedback (translation: you don’t know where the keys are unless you look at the screen)?
If I have any smack to talk about my iPhone and iPad, it’s that it’s a pain in the ass typing on a glass keyboard, because, well, there’s no haptic feedback.
I don’t intentionally seek out projects to trash, but Mr. Giddings has taken the main interface to computers and made it less usable.
In addition to function following form on this Kickstarter, Mr. Giddings’ project also shows how hard it can be to turn a 3-D rendering into a real product. Have a looks as his project updates to see what I mean. In short, things have gotten complicated.
It’s exciting to fund projects on Kickstarter, but be wary when you do. My Kickstarter was a screen-printed poster series and I thought that was more than enough to handle. I can’t imagine what goes into product design, with machining, protyping and software/hardware integration.

Adam Yauch of The Beastie Boys, dead at 47

via Technabob

MacNN: Liquidmetal inventor says Apple ‘years’ away from casings

Dr. Ataka Peker, one of the inventors of the new class of metallic alloys known commercially as Liquidmetal and the founder of the company, says he believes Apple would have to spend “three to five years”, and “$300 million to $500 million” to develop the alloys to the point where it could be used on a large scale, such as for an entire computing casing. He believes the company will continue to use Liquidmetal on a smaller scale until a “breakthrough product” comes along.

I wonder if Dr. Peker felt like Dr. Evil after he proclaimed Apple would have to spend, “Five hundred meellion dollars…..”
Apple is only sitting on over $100 billion in the bank now.
And that 3-5 year window for development? Who says they’re not already working on it?

From the PSFK Conference NYC, Clay Shirky shares what’s he learned about creativity by watching creatives (about 26 minutes long).
I love how he describes the program at ITP where he’s an associate professor:

It’s an interdisciplinary program. It’s about half engineers and techies who care about human factors. It’s about half artists and designers who aren’t afraid of machines.

If I was entering college right now, this would totally be where I’d be going.

It’s now over 5 years since the introduction of the original iPhone and this is what RIM’s response is?
Multitouch smartphone with on-screen keyboard. An email program that resembles something like those found in iOS and webOS and to round out the ‘sneak peek’ – the ability to stream video content from your phone to your TV. Like Apple TV.
My favorite Darwin quote comes to mind:
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
A 5-year response time is not being adaptable enough, RIM.

If I travel south from my house through Topanga Canyon for about 30 miuntes, this is where the road leads:

via my Instragram

Android Police gives us A Definitive History of Android Version Adoption (via Daring Fireball):

That’s right, it’s not your imagination, Ice Cream Sandwich adoption is going very, very slowly. You’ll notice update percentage gets progressively slower with each new version, but keep in mind the Android ecosystem is also getting progressively larger. Ice Cream Sandwich has to deal with many, many more models than √âclair did.

Updates are getting slower.
Eclair? Ice Cream Sandwich? burp Let’s not forget the other Android versions: Cupcake, Donut, Gingerbread, Honeycomb.
It’s obvious what’s going on here. Android is getting fat.
It’s time Android threw on some Richard Simmons Sweatin’ To The Oldies and burn some calories! Stop inhaling every new phone Samsung and HTC come out with!
Android, you can’t eat away your fragmentation, eating only makes the fragmentation worse.