August 2010
26 posts
Classilla 9.2.1 released →
After returning from my summer holidays, it’s been a bit difficult to readjust to the usual incoming information flow from the Internet. During my most-needed holiday, in fact, I connected…
Steven Frank on collecting vintage machines &... →
I really enjoyed this recent piece by Steven Frank where he talks about his latest project: When I decided a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to devote half of the guest bedroom to a selection of…
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The First English Dictionary of Slang, 1699 →
The first dictionary of slang, out of print for 300 years, is being published by the Bodleian Library from a rare copy unearthed in its collections.
[…]
With over 4,000 entries, the dictionary contains many words which are now part of everyday parlance, such as ‘Chitchat’ and ‘Eyesore’ as well as a great many which have become obsolete, such as the delightful ‘Dandyprat’ and ‘Fizzle’....
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grain edit · enormouschampion Studio Visit →
Grace Danico at Grain Edit:
This past weekend, I had the privilege of visiting Jordan Provost and Jason Wong, the dynamite duo behind Brooklyn based stationery and gift line enormouschampion. Their incredible collection of letterpressed cards, screenprinted cloth, and wooden goods features images of animals, love, and nature, as well as bold type. In this studio visit, Jordan and Jason show us...
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Libraries by Candida Höfer →
The Used Books Blog:
The photos showcase a passion for history and for literature. They are cathedrals built for knowledge. And I can’t think of a better subject to celebrate.
Fully agreed.
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Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime →
Cameron Moll:
Matt Richtel, The New York Times:
Even though people feel entertained, even relaxed, when they multitask while exercising, or pass a moment at the bus stop by catching a quick video clip, they might be taxing their brains, scientists say.
‘People think they’re refreshing themselves, but they’re fatiguing themselves,’ said Marc Berman, a University of Michigan neuroscientist.
I...
Just dormant →
Just a quick update: no, System Folder has not been abandoned, it’s only dormant. I’m away from my home office and without interesting material to offer or talk about at the moment. Vintage-Mac-wise,…
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How to convert DVDs for iPhone, iPad, and other... →
Nice brief guide by Christopher Breen at Macworld.
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New Isetta to Solve Our Transportation Woes →
A Dutch designer says resurrecting the microcar is the key to reducing congestion and maximizing efficiency.
Ralph Panhuysen, whose Space Efficient Vehicle (SEV) seats three in a sideways V formation and parks two abreast like shoes in a shoebox, dreams of a world in which small, lightweight cars sip fuel and travel two-abreast in a single lane.
“Fiat brought back the 500, BMW the Mini,...
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Enjoy great jazz music →
Just discovered this wonderful website. You can listen to every kind of jazz music, neatly divided in categories. Efficient site design, and great selection of music. A must for jazz lovers.
Simplenote News - A major new version is coming! →
From the Simplenote blog:
We’re proud to announce that a major new version of Simplenote is just around the corner. It should be available in a matter of days.
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Simplenote has been growing fast. Over the months, we’ve received all kinds of great feedback. We processed this feedback, pondered it, prioritized it, and came up with 3 areas of focus for this version:...
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TypeCulture – Articles & Essays →
A great collection of articles and essays on type design and environs, available in PDF format. Since I’ve fallen in love again with an old favourite, Perpetua, at the moment I’m reading The Story of Perpetua, written by the excellent Tiffany Wardle.
“We should bear in mind that, in general, it is the object of our newspapers...”
– Edgar Allan Poe, in The Mystery of Marie Rogêt, 1842-43
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Ask H&FJ: Four Ways to Mix Fonts →
Building a palette is an intuitive process, but expanding a typographic duet to three, four, or even five voices can be daunting. Here are four tips for navigating the typographic ocean, all built around H&FJ’s Highly Scientific First Principle of Combining Fonts: keep one thing consistent, and let one thing vary.
Not a fresh link, but this is must-read, must-bookmark material.
Twenty Years, One Keyboard – by Dave Caolo
Dave Caolo, in a guest post at Minimal Mac speaking of his love for the mighty Apple Extended Keyboard II:
First is the sound. That lovely wooden-stick-on-a-hollow-log “thonk” that announces each keystroke is yet to be duplicated. It’s satisfying in a way that affirms your productivity. Much like the jackhammer operator feels content at the end of a noisy day’s work, I feel that I got much...
"But the screen."
Dave Shea on The Setup:
My desktop computer is a brand new 27” i5 quad core iMac with 4GB RAM and a 1TB hard drive. Though plenty responsive, it’s not as blindingly fast as I would have expected. But the screen. Oh my word, the screen. I have just shy of 4 megapixels of real estate on a brilliantly saturated high-contrast display that I just can’t stop looking at. Viewing my...
25 HTML5 Tips & Features →
Cameron Moll:
This is a good overview of HTML5. On the whole, doesn’t HTML5 feel like one massive code release that fixes all the Flash and Javascript hacks we’ve used over the years, e.g. the placeholder attribute for inserting hints into input fields?
New Fonts Available at YouWorkForThem →
Grain Edit kindly informs that the good folks at YouWorkForThem have released some beautiful new fonts. Check the link in the title for a detailed overview of the new releases, and go visit YouWorkForThem’s Fonts section for even more type goodness.
Subtraction.com: The New Who Thing →
Insightful article by Khoi Vinh about Tumblr, and quite linked to. Especially the Identity Crisis bit. He writes:
My biggest complaint, by far, has bothered me for some time but has taken me only until recently to put my finger on. Tumblr discourages identity. Or, to be more specific, it promotes shallow identity. Moreso than other blogging systems like WordPress or ExpressionEngine, Tumblr...
Use Apple's Magic Mouse in Mac OS X 10.4 →
From Mac OS X Hints:
This hint links to a third party driver for the Apple Magic Mouse. It’s still in beta but works great. It works for all operating systems from 10.4 on. Their Preference pane/driver offers greater functionality for the Magic Mouse than the native Apple driver.
I’m on holiday with just my MacBook Pro, so I still haven’t been able to test this hint, but...
Advanced Twitter Search operators →
While I was trying to find a relatively old tweet of mine, I found this page in the Twitter Support site. Not extremely difficult to find, yet I thought it was worth mentioning anyway.
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Mutant ampersands
I may be a simpleton when it comes to typographic love, but I really dig the idea of the modified ampersand that makes the ‘Ex’ part of Extra. It’s smart and simple.
(In case you’re interested, Extra is the membership scheme for Guardian and Observer readers. Follow the link for more information.)
July 2010
39 posts
Sunday Magazine →
I’ve discovered this project by David Friedman only now (Ironic Sans is his main blog).
What is Sunday Magazine? As David writes in the About Page:
Every Friday I post the most interesting articles from the New York Times Sunday Magazine that was published exactly 100 years ago that weekend. You can get each week’s articles by subscribing to the RSS feed, or following @sundaymagazine on...
