Giles Turnbull looks at what’s on the
Giles Turnbull looks at what’s on the Dock of a few OS X users for O’Reilly. I’m in there, near the bottom
Advertise here with Carbon Ads
This site is made possible by member support. 💞
Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.
When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!
kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.
Beloved by 86.47% of the web.
Entries for September 2003
Review of Photoshop CS from a digital photography perspective
Review of Photoshop CS from a digital photography perspective.
The social force in elevators
I stand alone in the elevator, right in the middle, equidistant from the four walls. Before the doors close, a woman enters. Unconsciously, I move over to make room for her. We stand side by side with equal amounts of space between the two of us and between each of us and the walls of the elevator. On the 12th floor, a man gets on and the woman and I slide slightly to the side and to the back, maximizing the space that each of us occupies in the elevator. At the 14th floor, another man gets on. The man in front steps to the back center and the woman and I move slightly toward the front, forming a diamond shape that again maximizes each person’s distance from the elevator walls and the people next to them.
It reminds me of cell division in an embryo or the arrangement of atoms in a molecule. Just as the cells and atoms know how to position themselves for maximum efficiency at a minimum size, humans know how to balance the need to collectively occupy an enclosed area and give each person his/her own space.
Update: Stewart sends in a link to Scott Snibbe’s Boundary Functions, an art project which makes explicit a person’s social space among others:
Boundary Functions is realized as a set of lines projected from overhead onto the floor which divide each person in the gallery from one another. With one person in the gallery there is no response. When two are present, there is a single line drawn halfway between them segmenting the room into two regions. As each person moves, this line dynamically changes, maintaining an even distance between the two. With more than two people, the floor becomes divided into cellular regions, each with the mathematical quality that all space within the region is closer to the person inside than any other.
D3an 4 Am3r1ca
A timely post from Steven Johnson about creating “mob spots” for political campaigns. Well, timely for me because I was thinking about something similar last week. As the next step in the utilization of the Web in his campaign, Howard Dean should open up a b3ta-like forum for people who want to create digital media (photos, movies, music, Flash animations, etc.) related to Dean and the election. Give people starting material (photos, soundbites, talking points, important issues, logos, colors) and let them go nuts (you know, participate in the political process). Create ratings systems so that the good stuff bubbles to the top. Use that good stuff (with the permission of the creators) to get ideas for the ads you put on TV and in magazines or run the actual ads on Web sites, on TV stations like MTV, on radio stations (Web & not). And don’t sweat the “negative” results (the anti-Dean ads that will inevitably appear) too much…moderate down or delete anything offensive, study the rest for good ideas, and, if necessary, create a separate forum for dissenting views.
Build your own Segway for about $2000
Build your own Segway for about $2000. This guy is my new hero.
Thirty
Had a nice birthday this weekend, which was good after a couple not-so-good birthdays in years past. Cookies from my mom, a present for myself, an excellent meal at Gramercy Tavern (one of the best 3 or 4 meals I’ve ever had in a restaurant, highly recommended), and a mini one-day vacation to Midtown Manhattan, including a trip to the Met to see an exhibit of French Daguerreotypes and a collection of objects from Saint Petersburg. Thanks to everyone who sent along birthday wishes, prompted or otherwise, and happy birthday to everyone with a birthday right around now, including Michael, Jen, Andre, Peter, Matt, Mena, and Ben.
Be Safe with your Dong
Here’s a handy tip for all you font lovers out there. If you’re going to do something crazy like use Dong Casual, be smart and use Safe Font as well.
Richard Stallman’s original post to Usenet about
Richard Stallman’s original post to Usenet about his intent to build GNU software.
The denizens of the Matrix Reloaded thread
The denizens of the Matrix Reloaded thread are discussing the Revolutions trailers.
Fun sound trick in Grand Central
Here’s a fun tip for visitors to (or even residents of) NYC. If you’re in Grand Central, make your way down to the lower level where all the food is and find the Oyster Bar. In front of the entrance is an archway about 12-16 feet across. If you and a companion stand facing opposite walls of the arch just inside the archway and whisper to each other, you will be able carry on a hushed conversation despite the 15-foot gap between you. The closer you get to the wall the better…about 6-12 inches away is pretty good. This works on the same principle as the “whisper dishes” you see at science museums.
Note to rabid CSS redesigners: your efforts aren’t necessarily appreciated
Note to rabid CSS redesigners: your efforts aren’t necessarily appreciated.
Great writeup on how to build offices for software developers
Great writeup on how to build offices for software developers.
Sign the petition to stop the brushed
Sign the petition to stop the brushed metal in the OS X 10.3 Finder.
Heather abandons ship at Harrumph and launches
Heather abandons ship at Harrumph and launches a photolog at hchamp.com.
Shanghai Knights
Jackie Chan’s schtick — along with the man himself — is getting old. I wanted to like this movie, but even Owen Wilson’s presence, which actually made the movie worse, couldn’t help it.
The trickle up economics of radio
From Criminal Records, an article from the Sunday Times Magazine on UK pirate radio:
There is a studio mobile too. It vibrates every few seconds like a faulty alarm clock, as listeners call and text. Scrolling through its inbox, I notice scores of “missed calls”. Big N explains that this is how pirates gauge a record’s popularity. If listeners like a tune, they call in and then ring off, so the studio mobile registers a “missed call”. This costs callers nothing. If Xtreme receives over 20 missed calls from different numbers before a track ends, the DJs play it again. This is why teenagers listen to pirate radio: it’s interactive in ways legal stations can’t match. Some tune in on their mobiles - on the bus, in the high street, even at school.
Great Hurricane Isabel photos from the International Space Station
Great Hurricane Isabel photos from the International Space Station.
On the Internet, no one knows you’re
On the Internet, no one knows you’re Frank Black, former lead singer of the Pixies.
An evening with Bjork
An evening with Bjork. Gina goes to see the Bjork New Yorker Festival Event
ON TRIAL! NOT ON STAGE! LIKE GOEBBELS
ON TRIAL! NOT ON STAGE! LIKE GOEBBELS AND LORD HAW HAW. Dissent at the Jeffrey Goldberg and Paul Wolfowitz New Yorker Festival event
Moneyball
Since Lewis writes primarily on business, business folks will undoubtably read Moneyball with an eye toward picking up some pointers on how to run their companies. Some will completely misunderstand what Lewis discovered about major league baseball and beefheadedly apply their new “knowledge”. The lesson of Moneyball is not that there are potential employees out there that are cheaper than your current employees. That’s the holy grail of large American corporations and exactly what they would want to hear.
As Lewis reports, what Oakland actually did is a) measure player statistics as objectively as they could, b) identify players that perform well in those statistical categories, c) discover that the players they valued were not valued by other teams and were therefore relatively cheap, and d) went out and got the players they wanted at bargain prices. As much as the business person would like to skip directly to step d, it’s impossible to determine if that will actually be effective unless you do the a-c analysis first.
Socials & More