you put it together and it sounds like this...

through the looking glass

Looking out the window:

This panoramic view encompasses the entire sky as seen by Two Micron All-Sky Survey. The measured brightnesses of half a billion stars have been combined into colors representing three distinct wavelengths of infrared light. This image is centered on the core of our own Milky Way galaxy.

Hi Res Image: Here Source: Caltech


Looking inwards:



Record grooves (actually it's all one groove) under an electron microscope.

Article: synthgear

mathematical porn

The deepest and best fractal zoom I've ever seen. The last few minutes are fantastic:

magnet

3&7

I suggest watching this full screen with the lights out and don't read anything about it beforehand (I read a few comments singing it's praise before viewing... it contains some CG - computer generated imagery):



The 3rd and 7th letter of the alphabet? CG ... fantastic!

blanket?

Snow is covering the UK at the moment. Not much in Oxford Circus where I'm working. Transport infrastructure is creaking and groaning as usual though.

noél II

Lapland was incredible.

the known universe

"The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world's most complete four-dimensional map of the universe."

It quickly becomes mind-boggingly incomprehensible, and then zooms back into Earth. I love this:

wasp

Wasp!



Photo credit: Thomas Shahan

in case you've forgotten

Remind me:

noél

Saltzburg is probably the epicenter for Christkindlmarkt (Wien-Vienna too). The Austrians know how to do it. Chocolate box stuff.

Here's our tree:

machinarium

They keep refining their art:



Words about the art if that's your thing: here.

parfait?

eclipse

(borrowed from elsewhere)

Optical illusion... 'true' cyan on your monitor: stare at the white dot for 2 minutes, unflinchingly. Then move your head backwards away from the monitor:

crazy

"From the Basement" (New site from Nigel Godrich) featuring intimate music performances.

Like this:

★★★★★ visuals

Best watched full-screen with the lights off:



Atma by Quiet



Starts off slowly... like shutter-frame lightning, but kicks in around the 1:00 mark:



Energie by Thorsten Fleisch

arctic jelly

Brilliant photos of Jellyfish in the Arctic.

Images | Article

My dream job is still to cultivate jellyfish and sell and maintain them in aquariums. Palatial mansions, 5 Star hotel foyers, meeting rooms, zoos and schools. (In that order because I'll need funding for my jellyfish installation business). I'm not worried about caging jellyfish... I'm pretty sure they wouldn't even notice.

spotifiphone

Will Apple approve the Spotify iPhone app?

john who?

John Hughes "gave up the ghost" / "left this mortal coil" etc. RIP.

the magician

Scroll down and have a listen to this guys tunes for "The Magician"

Magic.

nostalgia bait

A trailer for the Tron remake is out.

world builder

A life affirming series of short films with love as a non-verbal narrative...

Idea 1: Affirmation



Idea 2: Signs (or Schweppes... ok, so it's a probably a viral to promote Schweppes drinks - personally speaking, I'm not sure if the 'sneak' ad is the way forward but most people won't be influenced anyway, so failed "ad" - great short film):



Idea 3: World Builder (short films don't get much better than this):


Brilliant :]

2008

Part 2

Part 3

real-life, hovering in 3D, space droid-bot... !

Tell me again why the US doesn't have a competitive car industry when they can produce this monster?

when galaxies collide

Ok, this image is astounding:



It's a snapshot in time that initially just looks pretty. But when it's explained it's awe inspiring. Two galaxies passed through each other, and while the individual stars that make up each galaxy didn't collide directly, clouds of interstellar gas and dust became condensed, causing waves of star formation to move out from the 'impact' point like ripples across the surface of a pond in both galaxies.

strange creature

I see fractal forms in nature all the time, but I don't think I've ever been as astounded by a creature as I have by this one:



Credit: Steve Jurvetson

new apples

On October 14 Apple is refreshing both the MacBook and the MacBook Pro line designs.

They will feature the same 'single piece of aluminium' designs that the current iMac and slim keyboard have. The keyboard will also feature the same white plastic scrabble piece keys.

That will be the extent of the newness announced.

I really shouldn't look at rumour sites as it ruins the fun.

EDIT: I was wrong. Apologies. The keys were black, and they also announced a new Cinema Display (like the current iMac).

vimeos

Link roundup of my favourite videos on Vimeo:



Wobbly.




Illustrator Ninja.




Both Victoria Park London gigs were unique and amazing (add superlatives as required).

iPhone alpha

My 2 cents on the gadget that has every Tech pundit, Apple fan and weblog junkie frothing at the mouth... the "3G iPhone" that I'm guessing is thought of as iPhone 1.0 (straight outta beta) inside Apple:

It's going to be affordable and available everywhere (colours soon)!

Think of the perfect storm unleashed by Apple if they release their "alpha" iPhone model at a reasonable price point with a year and a half of hypercube-hype and solid beta testing by early adopters behind them.

Sure, they could milk the high premium and keep it relatively niche, or sell them to everyone like they do with iPods (including "enterprise" and "gamers" with the new features/SDK apps).

"BOOM!" indeed.

red veined darter

That's what it's called! Don't blame me.



Credit: Martin Amm

advertisement

I interrupt this weblog to give a shout out to the clients who pay my bills...

Cheers Motorola, this was a fun site to design:

fish

Very cool video for Radiohead's Weird Fishes/Arpeggio track by Robert at Flight404

Download the 200mb QuickTime movie:

deadlines... an observation

The closer a deadline gets (and the more unrealistic it is), the more 'carbon copy' addresses are added to team members' emails.

My speculation: "Here's me doing my bit so if it fucks up, it's not my fault... see everyone?"

skateboarding + explosions

What a fantastic intro sequence for a skateboarding video.

Downloading the high-res version as a result.

you need to see this, seriously.

This.
1:56 ftw
1:31 runner-UP!
2:21 honorable mention
1:17 best actor

this is not an illustration

This is probably the best HDR image I've seen so far:


My new iPhone desktop. Download it here.

dolphins are not the only awesome creatures

Another cute animal movie... aww!

Didn't even make this list.
Ok, the Japanese Hornet is BAD ASS.

tfl "journey planner" on your iphone home-screen

So iPhone 1.1.3. That was Macworld for me. Some really nice new functionality.

If, like me, you want to customise the icons for web-clips, some people have already worked out how to.

Here's how you make one.

Here's a safari bookmarklet you'll need to point your iPhone towards to add a custom icon for a given URL (after you've synced the bookmarklet to your iPhone).

Here's an icon for TFL (Transport For London) that I've uploaded. Zoom in on the "Journey Planner" section of the website (double tap the section header), invoke the bookmarklet voodoo, and add it to your homepage. Viola! An elegant London Transport Journey Finder "app" without waiting for TFL to make their own.

http://www.vectr.net/tfl.png

dolphins are awesome

Easily one of the coolest things I've ever seen:

For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons.

Douglas Adams

worst game ever?

"ET the Extra-Terrestrial"
Wiki | Video review.

From Wikipedia:

Instead of making ET into a Pac-Man-type game, Warshaw tried a more original idea. He had favored a design that was more story-based in hopes of creating a game that would capture some of the sentimentality he saw in the original film, but eventually ended up scrapping some of his own ideas due to time limitations. Ultimately, Warshaw designed a game based on what he believed could be reasonably programmed in the amount of time he had available to him. The basic design was worked out in two days, at the conclusion of which Warshaw presented the idea to Kassar before proceeding to spend the balance of the allotted five weeks writing, debugging, and documenting about 6.5KB of original code.

ET is also notable for being the first video game to "credit" a graphics artist, with the initials of ET's artist, Jerome Domurat, being hidden as an Easter egg."

versus:

"Big Rigs"
Wiki | Video review.

From Wikipedia:

The box of Big Rigs states that the player may "race trucks across the country, with cops chasing them." GameSpot considered this description of the game to be nothing more than "horrible, horrible lies", since there are no police in the game. Additionally, they pointed out, the computer-controlled opponent vehicles have no AI and never move from the starting position, making even the description of the gameplay as a "race" questionable.

(Or perhaps it's this late-comer that steals the gong?)

best of 2007 street art

Link.


Link.

the algorithm

I am lying. Really? Then I am lying when I say I am lying; therefore, I am not lying. Yikes. But if I am not lying then I am not lying when I say I am lying; therefore, I am lying. Double yikes. Not enough yet? Okay, consider the immortal quip of the great American philosopher Homer Simpson: “Oh Marge, cartoons don't have any deep meaning; they're just stupid drawings that give you a cheap laugh.” If cartoons don't have meaning, then Homer's statement is meaningless (not merely a philosopher, the man is a cartoon character); therefore, for all we know, cartoons have meaning. But then Homer's point is... Doh! Just say it ain't true. Ain't true? No, please, don't say it ain't true! Because if it ain't true then ain't true ain't true, and so...

Link

Interesting article that's taken me a while to digest as someone afflicted by a slight case of NADD.