magpie's shiny things

To fuel the OO vs. every­one else debates. Manga about Ubuntu. (Get ’em
ear­ly while they are still impressionable…)
http://doctormo.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/ubunchu-the-ubuntu-manga-is-now-in-english/

The last dinosaur will soon be extinct. (Thank God, the thing is creepy)
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/04/21/pleo-extinct.html

I love the ways peo­ple are find­ing to put the arti­facts of excess to use.
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/04/recycled_catalog_dollhouse.html

Lovingly recre­at­ed decals for old machin­ery. To be used by restorers
of such gems as those pro­duced by Red Fox and Buffalo Forge. To be
enjoyed for their per­fect design by the rest of us.
http://wiki.owwm.com/(X(1)S(51ovfv45xcn1iq45xouil2ft))/Default.aspx?Page=Decals&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Unesco’s Digital World Library is now online. A nice­ly done interface
to approx 1200 doc­u­ments. Excellent and deeply researched annotations
in sev­er­al lan­guages. I hope they con­tin­ue to add more material.
http://www.wdl.org/en/

Oblig. motor­ized con­cept of the day:
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/04/put-some-ev-per.html

Does any­one know of good sites/blogs for find­ing good motorcycle
design news? Most of the ones I read are heav­i­ly 4‑wheel oriented.

Best Link of the Day:
Isabella Rossellini, sci­ence, and paper­craft. Describing reproductive
tech­niques of var­i­ous ani­mals. NSWF if limpet repro­duc­tion is the sort
of thing that gets your boss all hot and bothered.
http://www.sundancechannel.com/greenporno/

more tomor­row

Kind of icky because it’s about bugs (ants) but the pho­tos are fab.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/24826

Can any­one tell me what I am being warned against? “Cause that’s the
scari­est squir­rel I have ever seen.
http://sleepmachine.tumblr.com/post/98430660/tsuyatsuya

Two from the tech news.

Oracle to buy SUN. The MySQL forums will be utter­ly use­less for at
least a week. Let the wail­ing begin.
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/04/oracle-acquires-sun-ars-explores-the-impact-on-open-source.ars

More tech for devel­op­ing coun­tries. Portable cell phone based ultra-sound.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/20/winmo-smartphones-now-work-as-medical-tricorders-with-usb-based-imagers/

Oblig LEGO post. Visual pun ahead.
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/04/20/lego-photo-box-lego.html

I love the idea of guest cura­tors and now a musi­cian (Brian Eno) is
being giv­en the chance to curate a music fes­ti­val. Very high cool
factor.
http://www.bonnaroo.com/news/2009/04/20/david-byrne-first-artist-to-curate-stage.aspx

Spend some time look­ing at what Winfried Baumann can do with a simple
alu­minum con­tain­er. Housing, offices, can­teens. Click on “WORKS” in
the top bar.
http://winfried-baumann.de/

No words just a wicked con­cept bike picture.
http://insomnio.org/post/97944795/tron‑2–0

The mania for recre­at­ing the pho­to­graph­ic expe­ri­ence of cheap old
cam­eras con­tin­ues. The Russian LOMO
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/20/the-disturbing-beauty-of-oversaturated-pictures/

A cou­ple of infrastructure/communications posts.

First a guide to what’s hang­ing out on the util­i­ty pole.
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/04/17/a‑field-guide-to-pol.html

And ille­gal but inge­nious use of satel­lites for bounc­ing ham radio
sig­nals in Brazil.
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2009/04/fleetcom?currentPage=all

The Internet Archive is ask­ing the judge for per­mis­sion to intervene
in the Google/Authors Guild settlement.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/internet-archive-wants-book-copyright-indemnity-like-google.ars

And final­ly for every lit­tle girl you know, Niel Gaiman’s pray for his
god-daughter. Blueberry Girl.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH4lyJWa_84

That’s all for now, more tomorrow,

Because a Titan Missile silo east­ern Washington is the ultimate
loca­tion for a hack­er camp. (click around for photos):
http://www.toorcamp.org/content/introduction

More inter­est­ing ques­tions about how the oceans work. In this case how
long does it take an ocean to rise. (not sure of the cred­i­bil­i­ty of
the web­site but the jour­nal cit­ed is legit):
http://www.openthefuture.com/2009/04/the_sea_level_rise_mystery.html

Silly tech for today — tweets, morse code, and ambi­ent lighting:
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/04/16/tweetlite-flashes-tw.html

Illustrations and ani­ma­tion pro­duced from paper constructions:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnykelly/

Our new space tele­scope is com­ing on-line:
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/first-light-kep.html

Nice sum­ma­ry of the pro­pos­al for lim­it­ed “high-speed” rail in the USA:
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/04/obama-lays-out.html

People agree­ing to hav­ing their cars tracked and hacked because they
are poor and untrustworthy:
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/17/sales-booming-in-rem.html

Shipping con­tain­ers are the lat­est archi­tec­tur­al cliche:
http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/this_just_inbox_new_puma_vs_new_nike_vs_new_adidas_13183.asp

A gig­gle in hon­or of the end of Passover:
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/04/16/haminal-plush-tinned.html

Try to fig­ure out how this was done before you click through to Instructables.
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/04/how-to_vertically_stacked_flow.html

more next week

fair warn­ing — look for me to bom­bard you with links to this in August.
http://www.core77.com/blog/news/maker_faire_africa_is_happening_august_1315_in_accra_ghana_13199.asp

walk through of the design process for “fix­ing” one of the least
suc­cess­ful tools in the world — the con­fer­ence phone.
http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/2009/04/product-concept-touchscreen-conference-phone/

today’s must have cloth­ing item.
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/missilecommand

over­ly flash site but OMG the design (pana­son­ic)
http://www.panasonic.eu/designmuseum/

sweet­est zom­bie car­toon evah! I send you via Neil Gaiman’s site
because he’s very cool and has inter­est­ing things to say about the
cartoon.
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/04/it-was-dark-and-silly-night.html

also dude keeps bees.
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/04/to-bat-hive-bee-wonder-and-other.html

Wired:Autotopia — Your Daily Source for Fugly
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/04/a‑truck-enginee.html

Laughably Scary? The keep­ers have no idea what the inmates do.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/boston-college-prompt-commands-are-suspicious

more tomor­row