January 2010 - Waxy.org

January 31, 2010

HacKey, chart popular keys in your Last.fm favorites — 38% of my favorite songs are in C (via) #

Kate Beaton illustrates the Gorey book covers — so good #

January 30, 2010

Echo Nest previews new APIs — the search_tracks method sounds amazing #

Bram Cohen takes on Freenode — even if the policy's dumb, this isn't the way to handle it #

January 29, 2010

How to Report the News — from Charlie Brooker's News Wipe (via) #

The Virtual Piano — way more fun than it should be (via) #

Alaska Nanooks 2010 Hockey Intro — true to the spirit of the original, though more polished #

Comedian asks New Yorkers to carry him across Manhattan — 155 people carried him 9.4 miles in below freezing temperatures (via) #

January 28, 2010

Steven Frank on the iPad and a generational shift in computing — the single smartest essay I've read about the iPad yet #

xkcd's Spirit — NASA's own WALL-E #

Brandon Boyer asks indie game all-stars about the iPad — new music apps, cocktail-style gaming, and more complex game genres #

J. D. Salinger, dead at 91 — "Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody." #

Rafe Colburn on the iPad and the closed future of consumer computing — I'm concerned it'll shift creation to consumption; even the iPhone was better on that count #

January 27, 2010

The Prisoner's Dilemma recreated in Mechanical Turk — gauging altruism and how priming changes behavior #

Anil Dash on geek attention on the iPad vs. tonight's State of the Union — a little perspective #

Apple iPad official promo video — starts at $499, unlimited AT&T 3G for $30/month; see Gizmodo's roundup and hands-on #

January 26, 2010

Nieman Lab's interactive calculator for estimating effects of newspaper paywalls — uses some best guesses from the NYT as an example, though 60% seems insanely optimistic #

David Cole on metagaming and boundaries in reading the web — thoughtful and cleverly designed (via) #

If Global Warming Is Real, Then Why Is It Cold? — cliche watch from editorial cartoons and the funny pages #

Directed Edge opens up recommendations API for free non-commercial use — the first recommendations service worth using #

Roman Cortes' 3D coke can in pure CSS — view the source and the can label #

App.itize.us — the iPhone app blog I've been waiting for, carefully curating underrated gems from the App Store #

Lookwell — new-to-me 1991 pilot starring Adam West, created by Conan O'Brien and Robert Smigel #

Bandcamp starts record "unlabel" with first vinyl release — no ownership over music, just recouping costs and splitting profits with the artists #

Wisconsin jail bans Dungeons & Dragons — the inmate was serving time for killing a man with a sledgehammer; a new trend? #

Confessions of a Book Pirate — a voracious reader, each book takes him at least 5 hours to scan, OCR, and proofread #

January 25, 2010

Weird Al directing his first feature film for Cartoon Network — he's writing and directing in the live-action movie, but will only cameo (via) #

Gnop — control the ball (via) #

Robin Sloan on telling stories with interfaces — riffing off the Google Search Stories ads #

Vanishing Point — I'm waiting for real-time music visualizations like this (via) #

January 23, 2010

VVVVVV — Terry Cavanagh's brilliant new platformer built around a single game mechanic #

CNN's 360° video of Port-au-Prince — don't miss the second and third videos (via) #

January 22, 2010

YouTube's Music Discovery Project — Pandora-style playlists based around an artist #

January 21, 2010

Caleb Larsen's sculpture perpetually sells itself on eBay — here's the currently active auction (via) #

OK Cupid's myths of profile pictures — more amazing data diving #

Zeldman on posthumous hosting and the fragility of the creative web — maybe a nonprofit focused on archiving individual authors? Archive.org's wonderful, but it's darkweb #

Joseph Ducreux, 18th century French artist turned 4chan meme — "I've acquired 99 predicaments, but a wench is not one of them" (via) #

Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer are engaged — that's a celebrity couple I can get behind #

The Sixty One undergoes major redesign — compare with the old version; some beautiful, risky decisions #

January 20, 2010

Enter The Magical Mystery Chambers — Wu Tang vocals with beats built from Beatles samples #

Lukas Ketner's retro style artwork for GET LAMP — from the artist behind the Panic Atari 2600 boxes #

New York Times to charge for frequent access next year — subscribers get unlimited access, everyone else can view a set number of articles per month #

January 19, 2010

Charting the Beatles — gorgeous work visualizing collaboration, song keys, work schedule by month, and more (via) #

General Larry Platt's "Pants on the Ground" — I can't get this out of my head, so you'll suffer too; the General was a crusader in the Atlanta civil rights movement #

Caterina Fake on participatory media — a rebuttal to Jaron Lanier's paranoid WSJ op-ed #

GameSetWatch's Best of the 2009 Demoscene — if you have a PC that can handle it, watch it real-time instead of the videos #

January 18, 2010

OK Go explains why their new YouTube video can't be embedded — a microcosm of the current state of the music industry (via) #

WSJ writer follows a man trying to rescue his family in Haiti — the story's being updated in real-time on Facebook #

Baratunde Thurston speculates how MLK might have used Twitter — "I just became mayor of The Albany Jail on @foursquare!" #

ASCIImeo, Vimeo videos in text — the block mode is my favorite #