Flickr and Creative Commons images

Earlier today on Twitter I also noted that I am trying to deal with social media overload. I should probably evaluate how I use Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Vimeo, YouTube, FriendFeed, etc. What I really want is to manage them all more easily with my OpenID.

I add new photos to my Flickr profile on a daily basis now, as part of my “365 Days” photo project.

In related news, I found this cool photo set on Flickr: New York 1940’s.

Here’s a handy new Google Image Search feature: “Find Creative Commons images with Image Search.”

Web fonts and typography

It would be great if better typography was available for the Web, but IE doesn’t support @font-face. Cufón and FontJazz seem nice. I’m not a big fan of sIFR or FLIR, though I understand why they were developed originally. I’m not sure about the licensing and distribution model of Typekit. Only foundries that agree to a web-only font linking license will have hosted fonts supplied via the Typekit CDN.

This is a nice overview of four methods: “Font-ificating: Delivering Web-Native Fonts.” For more information on Cufón see this article: “Use Whatever Font You Please On WordPress.” For many fonts you can download, see broble.com Font Sharing.

AJAX web development

These sites and articles have come in handy for me during the past few months, for a few different AJAX-enabled sites I’ve built:

• jQuery UI
• AjaxDaddy
• “37+ Great Ajax, CSS Tab-Based Interfaces” at Noupe.com
• “50+ Nice Clean CSS Tab-Based Navigation Scripts” at Hongkiat.com
• “10 Javascript Ajax Tabs” at TutorialBlog.org
• Ajax Tabs Content Script at DynamicDrive.com

Here are some pages I found useful during some Internet Explorer-related AJAX fury last month:

• “IE and ‘Operation Aborted’” from Clientcide
• “Attaching JavaScript functions to the Window OnLoad event” from Thought Bytes blog
• innerHTML Property from MSDN
  

Eudora, Penelope extension and Thunderbird

April 8, 2009 is still the most recent release date of Eudora 8 (8.0.0b6) and Penelope (0.5a3). The Penelope extension works with Thunderbird 3.0b1 or higher. To sum things up: Three years later, Eudora 8 is still in beta. It is currently based on the Thunderbird 3.0b2 source code and comes packaged with an alpha version of the Penelope extension (which gives it that “Eudora” feel). Compelling. At this rate we may never have a final version of Eudora 8.

Oregon Country Fair

I will be attending the Oregon Country Fair near Veneta on Sunday. One highlight should be The Nowhere Band performing The Beatles’ White Album in its entirety for the 40th anniversary celebration. The Oregon Country Fair got its start in July 1969, a month before a little event called Woodstock happened in New York.

I’ll post some amusing and random pop culture links tomorrow.

Here is a Flickr slideshow of my “365 Days” project:

Most of my daily photos over the next year will presumably be taken in Corvallis, Oregon, since that’s where I spend most of of my time. Visit my Flickr profile.

Earlier today I realized that I launched my first website 12 years ago today. I started this blog seven years ago. Time flies.

Google Wave, Microsoft Bing and HTML 5

In late May, I read whole bunch of articles about Google Wave. Here’s one: “Could Google Wave Redefine Email and Web Communication?” You can see Google Wave in this video: Google Wave: Live collaborative editing. Here’s another resource: Google Wave: A Complete Guide.

So what about the new search engine Microsoft Bing? Here are two articles: “Bing vs. Google vs. Yahoo: Feature Smackdown” and “Bing Off to a Good Start: Takes #2 Spot Ahead of Yahoo.”

Will Google Wave consume everything? Well, it can eat Twitter: “Twave: Google Wave + Twitter.”

The Google I/O Keynote Day 1 video was interesting. Yes, the new features of HTML 5 and drawing with tags are cool. See the Canvas tutorial. Turns out that IE is still the bane of web developers’ existences. Go figure. I am very curious about the in-browser 3D graphics and JavaScript demonstrated in the keynote. And won’t the <video> tag to match the <img> tag be nice? Time to get video out of “plugin prison.” The W3C Geolocation API will be great when it’s widely supported as well. Can we actually get standardization across all browsers?

In addition to using the canvas tag in production websites someday (once IE is dead?), I am looking forward to playing with Typekit this summer. Learn more: “Web Fonts Get Real with Typekit.”

Other technology/paranoia

Here are two interesting articles, for Big Brother and hacker enthusiasts: “Britain’s CCTV Network to Track, Log All Car Journeys” and “The Ultimate Lock Picker Hacks Pentagon, Beats Corporate Security for Fun and Profit.”

Amusements

Funny or Die tweeted about the new “Tonight Show” set design on June 4: “Conan’s new set backdrop looks just like Super Mario Bros! http://imgur.com/hGEY5.gif” Nice! I love it.

I know the point of science isn’t for amusement, but here we have glowing monkeys in the name of science: “Japanese Scientists Create Green Glowing Monkeys.”

I’ll end this post with another goofy blog I found (there are many like this): Happiest People Ever!

Cartography and fonts

These are very cool maps: Here & There: a horizonless projection in Manhattan. Also see the following blog post for some map inspiration: Here & There influences.

Font Fight is all-out typeface-off. It’s CollegeHumor’s sequel to Font Conference. You may also want to watch their Twitter in Real Life video.

Web technology and fear

The dotMobi WordPress Mobile Pack looks very cool. I will try to use it soon, probably on this blog.

This is an interesting perspective: “Firefox Could Be the Real Facebook Challenger.”

Hmm: “Unknown internet 2: Could the net become self-aware?” Sounds like Skynet! No, botnet!

And here’s what the Internet will use to control us: Check out this YouTube hypnosis. Wow. It’s an interesting visual effect that just uses some JavaScript and a SWF. See the original “Alice” video, which is a remix using footage from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland.

In other Disney-related new, here’s a clear sign that we’re living in the end of times: Disney Farm Fresh Eggs Commercial. What!?

FYI: Here are the WHO phases of pandemic alert – if you still aren’t sure if you should be running around like a chicken with your head cut off during Stage 5, or if you should save your panic until Stage 6.

I like yesterday’s funny Tips for Avoiding Swine Flu list at Timothy McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.

Art, superheroes and awesomeness

This is interesting if true: “Gauguin ‘cut off Van Gogh’s ear’.” It’s sure a lot more interesting to have your ear cut off by your artist friend outside a brothel than it is to self-mutilate out of depression.

I love this inflatable street art by Joshua Allen Harris: centaur and mus. You know what else is on the streets, besides inflatable bag monsters? Superheroes. People like ‘Shadow Hare’ are among a nationwide group: “Cincinnati Superhero Patrols Streets Fighting Crime.”

By the way, if I haven’t said it before, ECTOPLASMOSIS! and Coilhouse are awesome. And this is amusing: Texts From Last Night.

Mostly worthwhile longer videos

Here are three good, longer videos, if you have some time to kill:

• Seth Godin: Sliced bread and other marketing delights (18 min.), from the TED Conference 2007
• Grant Morrison – Disinfo Lecture (45 min.), from approx. 1999, in which he talks about The Invisibles, Magic, Sigils and metaphysics
• An anthropological introduction to YouTube by Michael Wesch (55 min.), from June 23, 2008

Music and Auto-Tune

Former Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle has a lot of music projects going on: “Jason Lytle – One Busy Montanian.” He’s everywhere right now. I am going to go to one of his Portland shows next month. Lytle is opening for Neko Case on June 5 at the Crystal Ballroom and has a solo show at the Doug Fir Lounge on June 6. Will buy tickets this week.

About two weeks ago, I was wasting a bunch of time reading about Auto-Tune and watching related pop/hip-hop videos that use it or mock its use. See two articles: “Auto-Tune: Why Pop Music Sounds Perfect” and “The Secret of Auto-Tune: Kanye and T-Pain Are Not Good Singers.”

I love the hell out of Katie Couric repeatedly singing “on very thin ice” in the incredible Auto-Tune the News #2. The first Auto-Tune the News is not quite as funny as the second, but still amusing. Michael Gregory is the man?

Watching the second Auto-Tune the News also inspired me to go back and watch The Lonely Island’s “I’m On A Boat (ft. T-Pain)” about 15 more times. I have a problem. I’m going to have to restrain myself to keep from watching this addictive crap again. Shorty!

Now, to help fill out this post, I will share some cool art and technology, with assistance from Gizmodo.

With the Academy Awards happening this weekend, you may want to to take a peek at the Oscar nominees for Short Films (Animated and Live Action).

The art piece “Reflection” is a very interesting mirrored ping pong table by Rirkrit Tiravanija, who is perhaps most famous for the self-sustaining environment and artistic community project “The Land” in Thailand.

On a similar note, the Watermarks Project is quite compelling. Artists in Bristol, England are superimposing watermarks onto city buildings, demonstrating high tide lines if Greenland’s ice cap melts. Will you be living underwater in the post-apocalypse?

Check out these SunCat rechargeable solar batteries. But do they actually charge in a reasonable amount of time?

This Frankenstein Steampunk PC mod is kind of awesome, if you’re into the wood/brass/valve steampunk aesthetic. And I rather enjoyed this example of “propaganda art” with a Motorola RAZR: Chairman Mao’s Little Red Cellphone.

Lastly, are you in nostalgic need of some retro gaming wallpaper to spice up your desktop? DesktopGaming and DeviantArt’s Orioto have some nice selections to choose from.

It’s interesting how Obama ultimately got to keep his CrackBerry, I mean BlackBerry, in the White House . . . and how when the Obama administration arrived the White House was setup for email (and the modern world, in general) like it’s 1992: “E-Mail Outage Forces White House to Operate the Oldfangled Way.”

New network neutrality tools have arrived to help keep ISPs honest, thanks to Google. See these two articles: “Google lets users search for Internet blockers” and “Is Your ISP Throttling Your Internet Connection?” Can ISPs be stopped from filtering and throttling Internet access? Maybe with Google fighting broadband providers (somewhat indirectly) via Measurementlab.net. Wait, which side do we want to win? All our data are belong to Google, once again. It’s Comcastic!

I’ve been learning more about resveratrol (the red wine chemical, found in red grapes and peanuts), the French paradox, sirtuins (enzymes involved in the aging process) and Sirtris Pharmaceuticals. You know . . . good fats and bad fats, low-quality and high-quality foods, heart disease, dairy and meat, cancer prevention, the magic elixir of eternal life . . . blah blah blah.

About halfway through the Australian Open tournament I was thinking how cool it is that the top seven-ish men have become so competitive (see men’s draw). I was thinking that it’s no longer just Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Though I guess it still kind of is. However, Nadal’s semifinal match with Fernando Verdasco was amazing. I wonder if Nadal will have the energy to defeat Federer this weekend, following his five-hour, five-set win over Verdasco. In the past, Nadal has won two-thirds of his meetings with Federer.


I don’t really care who wins this year’s Super Bowl, or even care that much about the commercials (except for the 3D ads). I thought it would’ve been interesting if the Arizona Cardinals had been forced to defeat every other NFL bird mascot on their way to the Super Bowl championship: Seattle Seahawks (Week 17), Atlanta Falcons (Wild Card game), Philadelphia Eagles (NFC championship) and Baltimore Ravens (Super Bowl). But that can’t happen now because the Baltimore Ravens lost the Pittsburgh in the AFC championship. Oh wait, Bill Simmons already wrote about this on January 16:

The Alfred Hitchcock Angle for “Creepiest Angle Involving Birds”
So you have the Cardinals beating the Seahawks in Week 17, then the Falcons in Round 1, and now, potentially, the Eagles in the NFC title game. Meanwhile, if the Ravens topple the Steelers, then the Cardinals could potentially beat every other NFL team with a bird nickname during their improbable five-game winning streak to capture the Super Bowl, and if that’s not enough, birds took down Thursday’s U.S. Airways flight heading from New York to Charlotte … the city that’s home to the team Arizona beat five days ago in Round 2.

Tired of the stock market? In this delicious economy, there’s this: “9 Things You Should Do Instead of Buying Stocks” (from Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert).

I can has Engrish? Check out these lists: “100 Most Often Mispronounced Words and Phrases in English” and “100 Most Often Misspelled Words and Phrases in English.” So many pet peeves, so little time. Do not misunderestimate us!

I found the x-axis and data labels of this car-themed GraphJam chart really funny.

I’ve been waiting for weeks to upgrade spiral::notepad to WordPress 2.7.1, but its release is still delayed. Entire WordPress development community otherwise occupied? Perhaps distracted by lolcats? See the WordPress Roadmap for projected release dates for next versions.