Archive for the 'links' Category
July 5, 2011
- New camera technology is coming that allows photographers to change the focus of a photo after the snap. The data captured by the “micro-lens array” puts a simple two-lens 3D shot to shame.
- With some old documents and a little urban archaeology Forgotten Chicago maps out the evolution of Chicago’s El system, exploring its many abandoned and demolished lines.
- Hats. All of ‘em. Thanks, Wikipedia.
June 23, 2011
- Jack Endino, record producer, published a worthwhile article in Tape Op on the nuances of guitar tuning called Guitar Tuning Nightmares Explained.
- How many different versions of St. James Infirmary will it take to rid the blues? A hundred? Let her go, Let her go, God bless her!
- The new Buddy Holly tribute album is streaming on Soundcloud (and NPR) with tracks from the Black Keys, Fiona Apple, Cee Lo, Justin Townes Earle and others. Want to feel like a layabout? Guess how old Buddy was when he died.
June 10, 2011
- Since learning the word skeuomorph (a contemporary decorative touch that was once functional), I’ve been seeing them everywhere.
- Mapnificent uses CTA schedules to overlay Google Maps with an estimate of where you can get from any point in a certain amount of time.
- Talking Funny features Louie CK, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, and Ricky Gervais talking shop about comedy. They’re able to really analyze jokes and still crack each other up. It’s available on youtube, at least for now.
May 31, 2011
- From the depths of Michigan State’s college of arts and letters website, there’s an archive of literary talks by some real writer-celebrities: Atwood, Irving, McCullough, Sontag, Updike, Vonnegut, and a bunch more. The files are in .rm format, but VLC comes to the rescue.
- Speaking of literature, here’s a bummer of a Wikipedia list: book burning incidents throughout history.
- George Harrison spent some time at Dylan’s place at the end of 1968 and came home with an early copy of the Basement Tapes. The Beatles never recorded a proper take of it, but they did a few off-the-cuff recordings of “I Shall Be Released” the next month at the Get Back sessions. Elvis did his own little take in ’71.
May 1, 2011
- Solar System Scope is a nifty Google Maps-like application for checking in on our closest neighbors. I like the real-time view.
- Simple, reliable examples of chord progressions spelled out with Nashville numbers. The first few have people actually singing the numbers.
- This call for an open wireless movement from the EFF sounds good, but it doesn’t even get into privacy and location tracking from things like Skyhook. It seems open wireless would enable those technologies as well, or maybe it would add an important layer of deniability. A lot depends on the vague new protocol they propose.
April 18, 2011
- Solarized is an attempt to optimize screen display colors for high contrast regardless of situation (and using either light or dark backgrounds). The site itself uses the sixteen-color palette.
- To my disappointment, I didn’t hear about Chicago’s robot opera performance until it was too late. Even after reading a review, I’m unclear what exactly transpired, but it sounds cool—though I’m doubtful it “proved Chicago the next stage in the future of opera.”
- A wikipedia list of fictional books from television and movies. See The Royal Tenenbaums; The Simpsons; and lists from other media.
January 16, 2011
- Combining a reading of Carl Sagan with Planet Earth-style footage, Reid Gower made his own NASA promotional video. His reasoning: “I got frustrated with NASA and made this video. NASA is the most fascinating, adventurous, epic institution ever devised by human beings, and their media sucks.” It’s good.
- Pixar built a Toy Story-inspired zoetrope. What’s that? It’s a large, spinning illusion of sculptural animation. Don’t worry, they explain.
- Watch Taylor Hales play Bach on the banjo.
November 12, 2010
- The NYTimes covered the Underbelly Project, an underground street art show in NYC with some big names that requires you to trespass into an abandoned subway station to see it. Or you could just look at this gallery.
- Time-stretching music continued: someone slowed down a Justin Bieber song 800% to make a 35-minute long ambient-sounding piece. And it sounds good?!
- If you are looking for a good podcast about the history of the Byzantine Empire, please let it be 12 Byzantine Rulers.
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