Waxy.org: Links Archives: July 2009

Jude Buffum's Mushroom Recession (8-bit commentary on the recession, and explains where those pits go) [via]

Sam Winston's portfolio of word and letterform art (don't miss Romeo & Juliet, Dictionary Story, and Pencil Drawing) [via]

GameSetWatch interviews Vector Park's Patrick Smith (if you still haven't bought Windosill, we have nothing to talk about)

Panic cofounder Steven Frank's quitting the iPhone (Arrington made the same move today, both fed up by idiotic recent App Store decisions)

Brent Simmons' anatomy of a feature ("piece of cake") [via]

MoneySeize, maddening and addictive Flash platformer (losing your mind? try the walkthrough video)

Golan Levin at TED on using technology to make synesthetic art (great followup to his 2004 presentation)

How to Avoid Ads in Gmail (just add tragic words to your signature) [via]

Launch years of today's most popular websites (from IMDB in 1992 to Bing earlier this year) [via]

Yahoo! Developer Network on the Microsoft announcement (BOSS and Searchmonkey up in the air, everything else unaffected (directly)) [via]

Leaked images from Epic Mickey, dystopian Disney videogame led by Warren Spector (fantastically bizarre, and the biggest Cory Doctorow bait I've ever seen)

Loren Carpenter's Vol Libre, fractal CG short film from 1980 (online for the first time, with a wonderful backstory)

Kirrily Robert's OSCON keynote about women in open-source projects (lessons learned from two OS projects with female majorities; related: this contentious comments thread) [via]

Computer vision project reconstructs 3D cities/landmarks in hours using Flickr photos (they generated a skeleton of Rome in 21 hours using 500 compute cores and 150,000 photos) [via]

Mark Andrew Webber's six-foot-long linocut typographic map of Paris (he's already done NYC, London, and Amsterdam; I also loved his ice type) [via]

Ars Technica on AP's confusion over their own technology (Yoz Graham interviewed the lead hNews guy, and there seems to be a gap between reality and the AP)

Conan O'Brien & Andy Richter dub "Ghost In The Shell" (anime, not manga)

Yahoo gives up on search in 10-year Microsoft agreement (the press site is the worst of both worlds; what's the fate of Delicious, BOSS, Search Monkey and their other search projects?)

Ctrl+F'd, bookmarklet to censor any webpage (reminds me of Motion Theory's Google Chrome ad)

Cory Arcangel's YouTube mashup of cats playing Arnold Schoenberg's Op11 (absolutely brilliant, don't miss the MP3 and his methodology) [via]

5-year-old boy performs Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" (more insane mega-cuteness here) [via]

A Cyst, A Scalpel, and Lots of Beer (not safe for anyone; Internet, you never let me down)

Mechanical Turk Diaries (unedited stories collected from the turker community)

Moot's update on the now-lifted AT&T block on 4chan (any bets on what the mystery news is, coming later this week?)

Andrew Plotkin's talk on rule-based programming in interactive fiction (extended thoughts on Inform 7 and why existing languages don't work well for IF) [via]

Preview demonstration of Spotify's iPhone app (it supports offline music listening, a first for streaming apps; Spotify's coming to the US later this year) [via]

Disney Imagineer unearths 50 minutes of unseen footage of Disneyland's construction (time-lapse of every section of the park with wonderful narration) [via]

AT&T DSL blocks access to 4chan (possible explanation: AT&T working around the ongoing DDOS against 4chan)

AP to crack down on article linking with impossible vaporware (related: Associated rePress, a tumblelog I just created in five minutes using the AP's own RSS feeds) [via]

Chicago Public Radio helps indie bands fact-check their Wikipedia entries (not very rigorous in its methodology, but still funny) [via]

Tron Legacy trailer (directed by the guy who did iSpec; I like the little viral site, with imaginary Space Paranoids machine)

Jason Scott's uploading five years of 4chan to Archive.org (it's vital Internet history, but are there privacy concerns when most everyone's anonymous? update: not so fast)

"It's the Internet, not English class." (related: "It's the Internet, not *.") [via]

Kickstarter and the 1,000 True Fans (94% of projects that hit the 25% mark ultimately hit their goal)

Anil Dash on the Pushbutton Web (the best articulation of the current real-time web trend I've seen)

Joel Johnson bought Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work (and offered up lovely high-quality scans; related: his awesome About page)

Harry Potter's media counterparts (Nick Denton as Severus Snape: "Is he evil? Is he good? What does he have up his sleeve?")

Vanish, self-destructing digital data (the encryption key's distributed to multiple nodes and dissolves over time) [via]

Lisa Katayama's NYT profile on otaku with "2-D lovers" (it's okay to love cartoons, as long as you don't love cartoons) [via]

Comic themes for iGoogle (Renee French, R. Stevens, Jeffrey Brown, Dan Clowes, James Kochalka, Jim Woodring, and more)

One-Man Rock Band (playing Rock Band's guitar, bass, drums, and vocals at the the same time)

James Paterson's 3D illustrations with Rhonda (from the creator of the Sonic Wire Sculptor) [via]

Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition released for iPhone ($7.99 and 350MB of space)

Tanaka's Friendly Adventure (tiny, adorable freeware Windows game)

Steven Frank's Internet Garage Sale (I keep waiting for someone to replace eBay, since fraud made it completely useless)

Sam Raimi to direct World of Warcraft movie (two hours of the protagonist grinding to level 60) [via]

Khoi Vinh on two projects reviving newspaper comics in print (see also: Newspaper Club and the upcoming McSweeney's newspaper project)

Kevin Spacey shows Twitter to David Letterman (Letterman gets about 3.5M viewers nightly, about 425% more than Spacey's followers)

Kernest (like Typekit for free, legal typefaces)

MapQuest releases driving directions web service (as Adam points out, now someone could overlay MapQuest routes on Google Maps) [via]

Threadless prints Three Keyboard Cat Moon shirt (the meme mashup earned the highest score and most votes ever) [via]

WSJ on Michigan credit unions using the lottery effect to encourage saving (they offset the winnings with a slightly lower interest rate) [via]

Engine Yard's SHA-1 programming contest (the approaches include crowdsourcing from Zappos and Dolores Labs, but the current leader is using 4 Nvidia GPUs)

Retro/Grade, rhythm-based shmup played in reverse (you can optionally use your Guitar Hero controller to play)

Apollo 11 lunar and command module software open-sourced (hand-typed from original scans by the Virtual AGS project; in the comments, numero mysterioso and hope hope hope)

Jonas Jaeger's augmented reality business card (also, James Alliban's talking augmented card)

Pterodactyl Squad's 8-bit tribute to Weezer (the Tugboat, PDF Format, and OxygenStar tracks are all great) [via]

DJ API's algorithmic remixes (created entirely with the Echonest Remix API, no audio editor required)

Apollo 11 live TV coverage (40 years to the second, starting at 1:10pm PST)

YouTube removes PS22 chorus' account for violating "Terms of Use" (over 7 million views, gone with no clear explanation why; they're being added back here)

Threadless Cakes (highlights include Noah Express, Catburger, Long Journey, Children Under the Bed, and Piece of Cake)

NYT's texting while driving reflex game (the virtual version of this non-scientific test) [via]

Crazy 4 Cult 3D, artwork inspired by cult movies (too many amazing ones to list, reminiscent of I Am 8-Bit)

Prove You're Human

Origins of videogame character names (staggering amount of research into name etymology)

David Rosen on meta-games and creating the illusion of accomplishment ("does our game make players happy when they play, or just make them sad when they stop?")

ConfCon 2009 (phone phreaking conference held, appropriately, on a five-hour conference call) [via]

Spotify to expand to U.S. in late summer

Amazon ironically removes books from the Kindle (they should remove Fahrenheit 451 next; related: Amazon's Final Message to Its Creation)

Janey Thomson's Marathon (like Desert Bus meets Track & Field; send me a screenshot if you win) [via]

Image: Vague Scientist ("the magazine for people who try to have conversations about science news") [via]

The Google Doodle Triforce Conspiracy (the artist has been hiding a triforce in the logo illustrations)

Global Gaming CEO confirms Pirate Bay switching to pay site ("If the new owners will screw around with the site, nobody will keep using it.")

Slate on Spotify (best streaming service ever, the celestial jukebox done right)

Citizen Media Project on the legality of Techcrunch publishing stolen Twitter docs (publishing trade secrets and receiving stolen property are both illegal under California law)

Augmented reality iPhone app finds the closest NYC subways (from the creators of Nearest Tube)

Star Wars Uncut (473 fans remaking Star Wars in 15-second chunks) [via]

Matt Haughey on Metafilter's 10th Anniversary (happy birthday, blue; see you on Saturday!)

Kickstarter's $60,000 day (and the site's still invite-only for project creators; related: the five best updates so far)

System and method for creating exalted video games and virtual realities (insane patent application from Internet crackpot/Pepperdine professor Dr. Elliot McGucken)

Christopher Baker's Murmur Study (a live, physical visualization of Twitter on ticker-tape)

Dave Chappelle performs unannounced midnight Portland show to thousands (he was expecting 200 people for the rumored appearance, which spread quickly through Twitter)

Hid.im, convert torrents into PNG images (turn any photo sharing site into a torrent hub) [via]

Leonard Richardson's Let Us Now Praise Awesome Dinosaurs (he posted a deleted scene and other notes on his weblog) [via]

YouTube phasing out support for IE6 (unfortunately, most IE6 users simply can't upgrade)

Yahoo Query Language lets you INSERT INTO the Internet (insert into {table} (status, username, password) values ("new tweet from YQL", "twitterusername", "twitterpassword")) [via]

Loyola professor griefs City of Heroes players, then surprised they hate him (on his blog, he seems impossibly tone-deaf to community norms)

Weird Al's "Skipper Dan" (familiar tale of lost dreams in Adventureland, animated by Divya Srinivasan)

Jay Smooth on Michael Jackson (the last word)

Drastic ANSI, online ANSI drawing tool (my Lazyweb request on Twitter turned up exactly what I wanted) [via]

Mark Frauenfelder's Miniature Bottle ($11, cheap) [via]

Google users wonder, "What is Twitter?" (it's the top search suggestion for "what")

Paul Constant reviews Twitter for The Stranger (written in 140-character chunks, drafted on Twitter itself) [via]

The Sixty One (turning music listening into a MMO, with achievements and quests)

Enviro-Bear 2010, bear driving simulator for the iPhone (the very funny winner of TIGSource's cockpit competition)

Buzzfeed illustrates ReCaptcha phrases (looks like SomethingAwful started the game)

Metafilter user spots digital photo manipulation in the NYT (the photographer lied to the NYT and they pulled the photos immediately)

Auto-Tune the News #6 (someone explain why these guys don't have a TV deal) [via]

Into the Night with Chris Crawford and Jason Rohrer (German TV show follows two generations of game innovators around San Francisco)

The Onion: New Live Poll Allows Pundits To Pander To Viewers In Real Time (I'm waiting for a talk show to start a real-time Twitter sentiment tracker) [via]

Pew Internet's chart of U.S. Internet usage from 2000-2009 (over 50% finally go online daily, but only a fraction using IM, blogs, social networks, or watching videos) [via]

Elliot Malkin reconstructs his parents' 1974 home movies (related: Clarisse d'Arcimoles's meticulous remakes of childhood photos)

Experimental Gameplay Project relaunches (the prototyping collective that led to World of Goo and Crayon Physics)

Jeff Atwood on the evolution of Evony's online advertising (see also: they're electing a queen)

Digg's survey of IE6 users (77% of IE6 users can't upgrade or change browsers because of work)

Sockington is missing; update: he's found (false alarm; he was just spooked)

Negativland's Car Bomb (may prove useful in certain situations)

John Gruber puts the Chrome OS announcement in context (also: Anil thinks this signals a major cultural shift at Google)

Know Your Meme on Keyboard Cat (they also interviewed Brad O'Farrell in May)

The World Series of 'Tubing (augmented reality game performed live; see it in action on Rocketboom)

Evan Roth's letterform studies of Paris graffiti (see the interactive site to see all 2,400 tags)

The Globe and Mail's Metafilter profile on the 10th anniversary (including an interview with mathowie; reminder, the global birthday party's in a week)

Google adds Creative Commons searching to Image Search (also supports public domain and GNU licenses) [via]

Tom Armitage's roundup of text rendered into real-world locations (reminds me of Wayne White)

Lost Garden's guide to revenue models for Flash game developers (an alternative to Free, very applicable to web startups beyond gaming) [via]

Best of Wikipedia (surfacing some interesting entries, including the color of water and the Feynman point)

Causes Facebook app raises $10M in two years (half of that was in the last six months alone)

Techcrunch on Tiny Speck, the new company from ex-Flickr folks (I'm hoping for Game Neverending 2.0)

Code Rush documentary on Mozilla 1.0 officially released by director (as promised, David Winton's put it on Viddler, Blip.tv, and for download and he's digitizing unreleased footage soon)

Google announces Chrome OS (as predicted by Kottke in 2004)

ASCIIpOrtal (just watching the video made my brain ache)

Mega Man 2600, five screen demo for I Am 8-Bit art show (now available for download)

Prowl, push Growl notifications to the iPhone (brilliant, opens up push notifications from virtually any Mac app) [via]

oMaps, offline OpenStreetMap for the iPhone (perfect for travel, when data roaming is insanely expensive) [via]

NYT infoviz of American economic boom-bust cycles (don't miss the the last part, animating consumer confidence indicators before production output) [via]

Benjamin Pollack on Stack Overflow's user experience and hacker arrogance (the Y Combinator thread is hilarious, the worst of the "that's easy" mentality) [via]

Brandon Boyer on Treasure World, DS game that turns wifi hotspots into collectible treasure (to play the game, you have to explore the real world)

TweetCraft, in-game Twitter client for World of Warcraft (supports uploading screenshots with TwitPic) [via]

Augmented reality iPhone London tube station finder (I really could've used this last week) [via]

Sour's "Hibi no Neiro," crowdsourced music video (choreographing 64 fans with webcams) [via]

Slate's Chris Wilson tracks 10,000 random YouTube URLs for 30 days (3% hit 1,000 views, more than I would've expected) [via]

Pinboard, Maciej Ceglowski's lightweight del.icio.us clone (on the roadmap: "Get acquired by Yahoo and slowly grow useless")

Donkey Kong easter egg discovered 25 years later (created by DadHacker and discovered by Don Hodges, two of my favorite gaming nerds)

Newspaper Club (building a customizable newspaper printing service in 60 days; they're using InDesign as the backend)

Kevin Kelly's Death Clock in Futurama (this might seem morbid to some, but I find it inspiring)

Paul Lamere's Coolness Index (are female singers uncool?)

Kickstarter's Big Day (13 projects ended on July 1, raising an average 188% of their goals)

Anil Dash on Malcolm Gladwell's criticism of Chris Anderson's Free (I read through Gladwell's New Yorker piece twice, and the arguments seem petty and off base)

72-year-old retired boxer beats up knife-wielding knucklehead (the inane Facebook photos make this story even more delicious)

Pez sues Burlingame Museum of Pez for copyright infringement (so disappointing)

RIAA wins lawsuit against Usenet.com (judge rules Betamax case doesn't apply; every other Usenet provider is next)