Monday, July 31, 2006

Boston : Day Three (Siggraph 2006)

Boston : Day Two

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Work In Progress: TigerFly


Algorithm is currently working on the online portfolio of artist, illustrator and photographer Mary Kamphausen. The brand is being developed under the name TigerFly, and the site's infrastructure is Blogger-based, allowing more of a photo diary styling. The work ranges from local portraits from around New Jersey, floral work, and some wonderful portraits from recent rock shows.

Boston : Day One

Click the image to start the slideshow

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On The Way To Boston (Siggraph 2006)

Digg Labs : The Real-Time Web

Found at Universal Desktop

Digg Labs - Tracking the web in real-time with Rich Internet Applications

I'm a bit late to this, but it wasn't until last night, when I received an email from Kendall Whitehouse of The Wharton School that I stopped to take a long look at the new services on Digg Labs. In the email, Kendall described them as offering "a glimpse at the possibilities of RIAs to deliver a real-time experience to the web." As I look at both stack and swarm I think he's right.

How useful are these two services? Not very, but they do showcase the kinds of things we can do with the vast amount of data that exists, and how that data can be used to create a unique experience. I think digg is a phenomenal social experiment, and I echo the sentiments of Michael Arrington that it has the potential to really disrupt old media like the New York Times. What makes digg so great is the critical mass of the user base. Stack and Swarm give us a real-time view of what that user base is doing, what they're thinking, and what they are interested in. That's an incredibly powerful thing, although one that most people won't get right away.

The world works in real time. Stock quotes, conversations, events, all of it is in real time, and the web shouldn't be any different. Being able to experience that event in real time is something that could be a huge draw for users. Why do people pay so much money to go to a sporting event or to a concert? Because of the experience. They're surrounded by fans, they're seeing everything with their own eyes and therefore creating their own perceptions. That kind of experience, in real-time, collaborating with peers, is immensely valuable, and digg labs gives us a small window into the kinds of things that are possible. I'm looking at what my peers are doing in real-time, with data visualizations from digg. It's a very thought-provoking example and it could be a very big first step in the evolution of how we interact on the web.

Friday, July 28, 2006

Just Added : More Cavalier King

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Sony Qrio

Monday, July 24, 2006

WindFire Cursor™ Kite


Quad-line control,http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif asymmetrical framing, invisible stainless fittings, and opposed-bow tensioning for the sail make this incredible kite look digitally pasted right into the sky. But it isn't. Carefully designed by Tim Elverston, this high-end addition to the WindFire collection marks the beginning of the WindFire OS Series.

WindFire Designs

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Just Added : More Dialogue

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Wal-Mart Tries To Be MySpace... Seriously


From AdAge.com

Retailer's 'Social' Site May Be too Unhip and Strict to Catch Teen-Apparel Dollars
By Mya Frazier

It's a quasi-social-networking site for teens designed to allow them to "express their individuality," yet it screens all content, tells parents their kids have joined and forbids users to e-mail one another. Oh, and it calls users "hubsters" - a twist on hipsters that proves just how painfully uncool it is to try to be cool.

The Hub is where teens can go and register to become 'Hubsters' - Wal-Mart's ideal of a hipster.

Desperate to appeal to teens with something other than pencils and backpacks during the crucial back-to-school season, Wal-Mart is launching a highly sanitized, controlled and rather unhip site at walmart.com/schoolyourway. Teens are invited to create their own page, "show it to the world and win some fab prizes," including a chance to have their videos appear in a Wal-Mart TV commercial. Wal-Mart's agency is GSD&M, Austin, Texas.

The opening page shows video of four teens - a bubbly fashionista, a Texas football player, a quirky skateboarder and an aspiring R&B singer from New York - who are clearly actors reading a script, although the videos are positioned to appear authentic. Within, there are pages such as "Beth's Backyard Club," where you find a picture of her in a strapless prom dress above the approved quote: "I'll school my way by looking hot in my Wal-Mart clothes to school to catch a cute boy's eye. ..."

'Are these real kids?'
The site is an attempt at closing the trend gap Wal-Mart now faces as Target wins more teen-apparel dollars. But if Wal-Mart thought it could win over Amy Kandel, 14, of Columbus, Ohio, it was wrong. "Some of the kids looked like they were trying to be supercool, but they weren't at all, and they were just being kind of weird," she said. "Are these real kids?"

Nor did it impress Pete Hughes, 18. "It just seemed kind of corny to me," he said.

Wal-Mart declined to comment.

No doubt leery of all the problems with MySpace.com, Wal-Mart's site disqualifies any video with "materials that are profane, disruptive, unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or racially or ethnically-motivated, or otherwise objectionable." That's why "pending approval" notes dominate pages already created and content is limited to a headline, a fashion quiz and a favorite song. Wal-Mart also plans to e-mail the parents of every registered teen, giving them the discretion to pull a submission.

Moreover, the retailer reserves the right to edit the commercial created with the winning video, obviously hoping to avoid the fate of Chevrolet's Tahoe, which allowed consumers to create their own video spots unchecked and ended up with some unflattering results.

Don't expect a subversive, ironic ad
So a subversive, ironic ad by a savvy teen on how her dad's hardware shop closed down after the retail goliath rolled into town would likely be "otherwise objectionable" to Wal-Mart.

The tight controls will work against Wal-Mart's goal to make the site more edgy and will instead cement the retailer's image as a conformist brand, said Tim Stock, a researcher with New York-based Scenario DNA, a research firm devoted to studying Gen Y.

"The second you try to create boundaries and draw a line around content and put a box around content, it becomes something else. Teens aren't searching for what a company deems relevant, but what they deem relevant," Mr. Stock said. "You can't own it. When anyone tries to own it too much, then it becomes a problem. That's the impression I get on this site."

A lot at stake
And there's a lot at stake here. "Wal-Mart really needs this to work," said Irma Zandl of youth-marketing firm Zandl Group. "Over the last year, we have been getting increasingly bad feedback from teen girls about Wal-Mart in contrast to Target -- especially Wal-Mart's apparent lack of cleanliness, messy layout and lack of stylish attire. This attempt at 'we media' is terrific. We'll have to wait and see if it's enough to overcome in-store issues."

But it won't change the shopping habits of Molly Morgan, 14, who goes to Wal-Mart only when her mom does to buy groceries and spends her monthly $150 clothing budget at Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister and Nordstrom.

The Columbus teen doubts she'll submit a video or enter the contests because "it, like, takes a lot of time, and it's not very likely you'll win."

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Just Added : Dialogue Live At Gunter Murphys

Monday, July 17, 2006

Just Added : Cavalier King

Photo : The Trash Bar, Brooklyn


Gentlemen's Restroom, The Trash Bar, Brooklyn NYC

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Sunday, July 16, 2006

Just Added : Medication

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Super Old, But Great


One of my all time favorites, a staple of all mixtapes (and CDs... and these days mp3 imixes etc. I guess). I almost can't believe I found this - here's the long forgotten (but not by me) Paris Angels, and the lo-fi madchester video for 'Perfume'. Classic indie at its finest.

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A Scanner Darkly



Some beautiful web design over at Warner Independent Pictures for the upcoming Scanner Darkly feature by Richard Linklater.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Just Added : Time Machine

Monday, July 10, 2006

One Block From Work...


An explosion and fire shortly before 9 a.m. today collapsed a building in a residential area of the Upper East Side of Manhattan, on 62nd Street between Madison and Park Avenues.

The owner, and apparently sole occupant of the building at 34 East 62nd Street, Dr. Nicholas Bartha, was extracted from the bottom of the pile of rubble shortly after 10 a.m. He was evidently in critical condition with burns and other injuries, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said.

Dr. Bartha, whose has medical offices and a residential apartment in the building, contacted fire officials after the explosion by portable telephone and helped guide them to his location, Mr. Scoppetta said.

There were other civilian injuries, Mr. Scoppetta said, evidently to people who were on the street when the building exploded. He said their “injuries are not serious.” Several firefighters were injured as well.

He said that some residents of the area had reported smelling gas and that Consolidated Edison trucks and crews were in the area when the blast happened. Mr. Scoppetta said a gas explosion appeared to be the cause of the blast and that it happened in the lower part of the building.

He and other authorities have ruled out a terrorist attack.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

A Sad Ending To A Great Story...

Saturday, July 08, 2006

A World Of Fun, All In One ToolBar


Except if you're on a mac apparently.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Just Added : Fourth Of July

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Waiting For : Spiderman 3

Just Added : Kathleen Kamphausen

Monday, July 03, 2006

Just Added : Trapped On The Tarmac


Algorithm is now regularly producing posters for Chicago-based Indie-rock band Fourth Of July. They will be releasing a new song every Tuesday through their MySpace page, and each one will feature new artwork from Algorithm.