useit.com: Jakob Nielsen's Website

"Usable" information technology - includes 'Voodoo Usability'
http://www.useit.com/

Aliasing:The Blind Spot of the Computer Industry

Perhaps it's time to make aliased graphics a violation of OSH minimum standards for display quality.
http://djs.www.media.mit.edu/~nicholas/Wired/WIRED2-01.html

Coldcut

Macintosh interface, content supreme.
http://www.ninjatune.net/coldcut

The Ark

Recycling used computers from industry for schools and the community.
http://www.the-ark.co.nz/

Che Tamahori

Virtuoso web designer, working for Shift (formerly SFX).
http://www.sfx.co.nz/tamahori

Design in Motion

The Daily Motion Design Resource for time-based media professionals.
http://www.designinmotion.com/

Extrasolar Visions

A (non-fiction) guide to planets discovered outside our solar system.
http://www.extrasolar.net/

Gabocorp

Flash site (very inspiring, worth a look).
http://www.gabocorp.com/

Hactivism

The fusion of hacking and activism.
http://www.thehacktivist.com/

How can you buy or sell the sky?

Chief Seattle's letter to the US Government, 1854
http://www.chiefseattle.com/history/chiefseattle/speech/speech.htm

Imaginary Forces

Film and television typographers, led by ex-head honcho Kyle Cooper (now with Prologue Films).
http://www.imaginaryforces.com/

Nothing™

Fiona Jack's December 1997 exhibition - 27 billboards, run with the support of the Outdoor Advertising Association of New Zealand.

On Xerox, Apple, and Progress

"...user interface design must be driven by deep architectural issues and not just new graphical appearances: interfaces are structure, not image."
Bruce Horn (co-creator of the Macintosh)
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=On_Xerox,_Apple_and_Progress.txt

The PageMaker Scripting Center

Optimizing your PageMaker - faster, smoother, cleaner.
http://www.svprint.com/pmscripting.html

The Unabomber Manifesto (Industrial Society and its Future)

Ted Kaczynski's treatise on technology and its effects.
http://www.thecourier.com/manifest.htm

The Hacker's Manifesto

The Mentor writes, and having written, moves on. Read and be afraid... very afraid.
http://www.mithral.com/%7Ebeberg/manifesto.html

Interactive Architecture

Graffiti Research Lab

Interactive Architecture is an illustration of the concept that digital projections can interact with the surfaces upon which they are projected. G.R.L. is proud to introduce Agent Watson; specializing in British ninja tactics and particle systems.

http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=32#video

Peter Greenaway

Peter Greenaway wants to create a re-presentation of the painting of the Nightwatch called Nightwatching as an act of theatre, treating the event of the painting as a theatrical activity of players, costumes, props, light, sound and dialogue set in a highly technical, innovating and creative installation; a combination of art and technology designed for an attentive audience that will be intrigued by a world of light and moving images and the single frozen moment.

http://www.petergreenawayevents.com/index.php?page=Nightwatching

VJ set (couldn't resist!): http://www.notv.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=90&Itemid=26

Near Vondelpark, Amsterdam

Craziness this week - a harsh introduction to dutch red tape. Honestly, it was like a scene out of Brazil!

Short updates (for those interested!):

- "Urban Queens" short film nearing the end of post-production, starting to hang together now.
- Motion Graphics showreel almost done
- Netherlands tax number (SOFI) progress
- "Fire Poi" short film about 70% complete
- I'm still trying to learn the Midi Trigger Finger!

No dice with studying in Berlin - it smelt funny. Free rental bikes though, and it had a great Film Museum with Marlene Dietrich, Fritz Lang & Ray Harryhausen (!) exhibits.

A couple of web tidbits fer ya's:
http://www.strandbeest.com/animaris%20rhinoceros%20transport_en.html
http://www.zefrank.com/ - i like the frog, it made me laugh.

Cya

London

I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe,

In every city of every Man,
In every Infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.

How the chimney-sweeper's cry
Every black'ning church appals;
And the hapless soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down palace walls.

But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful barlot's curse
Blasts the new-born infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the marriage hearse.

London was written by William Blake in 1794, in the aftermath of the French Revolution, a time of great political conflict in Britain.

Fire & Brimstone

Buncefield Oil Depot, Hemel Hempstead
photo

0520 GMT

Calculations show that Tank 912 would be completely full and starting to overflow. Continued pumping causes fuel to cascade down the side of the tank and through the air, leading to the rapid formation of a rich fuel/air mixture that collects in bund A - the low enclosure surrounding 912 and neighbouring tanks.

0538 to 0546 GMT

CCTV footage shows vapour of escaped fuel start to flow out of the north-west corner of the enclosure, towards the west. The vapour cloud thickens from 1m deep to about 2m deep and soon flows out in all directions.

0550 to 0600 GMT

The pumping rate down the pipeline to Tank 912 gradually rises to around 890 cubic metres an hour, and the vapour cloud starts flowing off-site.

0601 GMT

The first explosion occurs, and further explosions follow, eventually engulfing more than 20 large storage tanks.