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Video : Target Pharmacy Design

Target's Innovative Clear Rx Prescription bottle design. More information at Target Pharmacy

Video : Colecovision Module 1982

Digitized from a 1982 VHS tape. TV commercial for Coleco's Colecovision adapter that would let you play Atari games on their game system.

Found at Google video

Article : Humanoids With Attitude

Japan Embraces New Generation of Robots

By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, March 11, 2005; Page A01

TOKYO - Ms. Saya, a perky receptionist in a smart canary-yellow suit, beamed a smile from behind the "May I Help You?" sign on her desk, offering greetings and answering questions posed by visitors at a local university. But when she failed to welcome a workman who had just walked by, a professor stormed up to Saya and dished out a harsh reprimand.

"You're so stupid!" said the professor, Hiroshi Kobayashi, towering over her desk.

"Eh?" she responded, her face wrinkling into a scowl. "I tell you, I am not stupid!"

Truth is, Saya isn't even human. But in a country where robots are changing the way people live, work, play and even love, that doesn't stop Saya the cyber-receptionist from defending herself from men who are out of line. With voice recognition technology allowing 700 verbal responses and an almost infinite number of facial expressions from joy to despair, surprise to rage, Saya may not be biological -- but she is nobody's fool.

"I almost feel like she's a real person," said Kobayashi, an associate professor at the Tokyo University of Science and Saya's inventor. Having worked at the university for almost two years now, she's an old hand at her job. "She has a temper . . . and she sometimes makes mistakes, especially when she has low energy," the professor said.

Full Story at The Washington Post

Information Design : Death & Taxes

Some great information design based on White House annual spending courtesy of Deviant Art.

"Most people are unaware of how much of their taxes fund our military, and those aware are often misinformed. Well here it is. Laid out, easy to read and compare. With data straight from the White House."

Changes : The Corcoran Group

On Monday 20th March, I will be leaving my position in the music industry as Creative Director for Music Choice, and joining New York's prestigious Corcoran Group as Director Of Internet Marketing. I am thrilled about the challenges the new position will offer, and look forward to learning from the best in the online marketing business, plus I get to experience New York City from a whole fresh perspective. I will primarily be working on projects for Corcoran.com, as well as other enhancements to CitiHabitats.com and TheSunshineGroup.com.

So stay tuned for exciting news from the world of high-end online real estate! My sincere thanks to Music Choice for all their support, it has been a blast, and I hope to keep in touch with the many friends I have made there through the years. They facilitated my transition to New York City, for which I will always be grateful. I wish them all the very best in their ground breaking work into video on-demand for the future.

As one chapter closes, so one on Madison Avenue begins...

Sergey Brin Speaks with UC Berkeley Class

Google co-founder Sergey Brin's views on search, Google, and life. This lecture is from the UC Berkeley course Search Engines: Technology, Society, and Business with instructor Marti Hearst.

Found at Google Video

Links : Other Algorithms

As part of the monthly site updates, I do a search on Google to see how the Algorithm efforts are going in terms of being picked up by the search robots. From time to time some stunning results are returned from the easily confused with, mathematical sites also featuring algorithm design. Above is a wonderful example from an optical visualiztion project at Berkley from 1995, the full paper of which can be found here.

Found Imagery : Wartime England

Beautiful nighttime AA and V1 tracks over southern England late 1944

Daniel Wilson Talks At Google

Daniel H. Wilson discusses his book "How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips On Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion". This video is part of the Google Author Series - filmed at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA.

Just Added : Wallpapers Series 7

Algorithm has just completed the latest series of desktops now available for download. This latest batch is based upon a recent interest in combining the elements of heraldic history with the conceptual approach of expressionism. We aim to submit these designs to a number of online competitions, so stay tuned for the results. We hope there's something you find you like here.

Links : Johanna Balušíková

Wonderful new shirts from our friends over at Typotheque. This t-shirt presents a collection of 48 herbs from the author's herb collection. Each herb's name is spelled out, and repeated in the circle to form the flower. The result is an incredible layout of mandala-like shapes made out of letters.

Printed on the full surface of the t-shirt (over the seam). T-shirt are hand-printed, so each one is unique piece of art.

Video : Seth Godin Speaks At Google

Seth Godin is the author of six bestsellers, including Permission Marketing, an Amazon Top 100 bestseller for a year and a Fortune Best Business Book. His newest book, All Marketers are Liars , has already made the Amazon Top 100 and has inspired its own blog. Seth is also a renowned speaker, and was recently chosen as one of "21 Speakers for the Next Century" by Successful Meetings Magazine and is consistently rated among the best speakers by the audiences he addresses. Seth was founder and CEO of Yoyodyne, an interactive direct marketing company, which Yahoo! acquired in late 1998. He holds an MBA from Stanford, is a contributing editor to Fast Company magazine, and was called "the Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age" by Business Week.

This video is part of the Authors@Google series.

Links : Nikon Test Patterns

Some interesting test patterns from Nikon here.

Links : Spunk United Design

Some wonderful online presentations from Singapore based design blog Spunk UN. Navigation is a little tough to use, but if you can find their wallpaper projects it's well worth the hunt.

Coming Soon...

In Progress : Guv'nor

Algorithm is currently constructing the Guv'nor website, the portfolio showcase of long-time collaborator, art director and friend James Coulson. The site will feature projects from BBC America, BMW, and agency initiatives from Pure, Metropolis and Edgeworx.

The site is not live yet, but will eventually be found at Guv'nor NYC

Viral Video : Roundabout

Click the picture above to play. Found At Video Bomb

Video : Monkey Drummer

Chris Cunningham and The Aphex Twin - Monkey Drummer
Found At Google Video

Links : Current.tv V-Cam

Current TV is debuting its viewer-created ad message (V-CAM). Young filmmakers and video producers will have a chance to produce a commercial spot for one of Current’s major-brand sponsors and have it air on national television. The charter sponsor will be Sony Electronics. The producer of the winning V-CAM will receive $1,000 for each ad that makes it to air, with the potential for more if the commercial is distributed wide. Interested in applying? Go to Current.tv

News : Origami Project

Story Found At Endgadget

So today Microsoft officially flipped the switch on the buzz machine for their Origami Project - an atypical viral marketing manuveur for a company whose products are usually known about years ahead of time. Scoble says its a device, the Internet's lighting up with rumors - is it the Xbox portable? Well, we dunno, but as usual got our hands on some pictures. And as usual we can't guarantee they're the real deal, though we are pretty confident in their source. So, let's go over it: these were sent to us detailing it as a Microsoft portable media player, which wouldn't be too far off from what Jobs and BusinessWeek both prophesied Microsoft doing (despite being pretty broadly denied from within).

Now, here's the tricky part with these pictures - what's with the keyboard and stylus? Because the last time we checked, their Portable Media Center (PMC) OS didn't have (known) support for touchscreen and keyboard input. So is this some new portable OS platform running on CE.net? Or perhaps it's just a fat little Pocket PC device with some media software? Or something totally different - could Microsoft beat Apple to the punch with the first serious touchscreen portable media device? Or maybe, just maybe, it's that ultramobile lifestyle PC Microsoft was talking about recently. Kinda seems like no matter what the answer, we're all gonna be pretty surprised (for better or worse) come announcement day, March 2nd, being that Microsoft's "not in the hardware biz." (No, peripherals don't count.) But hell, we can't even tell you for sure if these photos are legit, so here we are.

P.S. There's one thing we are indeed fairly sure about: that it's not that prototype "Origami" device announced by National Semi in 2001. Seriously, c'mon, a device from 5 years ago is what Microsoft's got Scoble buzzing about? Bigger pics of this Origami after the break.