March 7, 2011
Waxy Goes to SXSW Interactive 2011
Every year, I think it’ll be my last, and every year, I keep going. Why? Because what makes SXSW Interactive special isn’t the panels, parties, BBQ, or endless free alcohol (though those all help). It’s the unique group of creative individuals that shows up in Austin every year — a wonderful mess of people, all stuck in the same city at the same time.
Those unique set of circumstances create a serendipity machine, and the people I meet each year keep me coming back, even as it busts at the seams. To that end, please track me down or say hi! That’s why I’m there. And here’s where you’ll find me:
Worst Website Ever II: Too Stupid to Fail
Monday, March 14 at 11am
Hilton, Salon D
After a three year absence, I’m bringing Worst Website Ever back to SXSW with an all-star lineup of designers, developers, and entrepreneurs. Join us as these very talented people pitch their worst website/app/startup ideas to a live audience in short, five-minute rounds.
This year, the lineup’s pretty amazing:
Gina Trapani (Lifehacker, Expert Labs)
Jeffery Bennett, (BetamaXmas, 2008’s runner-up with Image Search for the Blind)
Josh Millard, (Metafilter, viral musician)
Jonah Peretti, (Buzzfeed, Huffington Post)
Mike Lacher, (Wonder-Tonic, Wolfenstein 1-D, Geocities-izer)
And like last time, it’s judged by a real VC, Rob Hayes from First Round Capital. Winner gets funded!
ThinkUp: Austin Meetup
Saturday, March 12 at 5pm
The Ginger Man, outdoor patio
Curious about ThinkUp, or want to meet the people behind it? I’ll be joining Gina Trapani, Amy Unruh, Jed Sundwall, and other developers/users of ThinkUp at our second SXSW meetup. Come on out! We’ll be in the back patio of The Ginger Man, if weather permits.
Stalk Me
This year, I’ll be tracking interesting sessions on Lanyrd, and evening events on Plancast. And, of course, I’ll be mentioning any unusually great activity in real-time over on Twitter.
See you there!
Yu Suzuki reveals how Shenmue was meant to end
— Gamasutra has a post-GDC writeup of his Shenmue postmortem; also: the Another World, Marble Madness, Cave Story and Maniac Mansion postmortems #
Bluetooth fingerless glove lets you talk to your hand
— reminds me of SixthSense's feature to snap photos by making a frame with your fingers (via) #
Jacob Gilbreath's kinetic type treatment of Conan's farewell message
— expertly done student project (via) #
Bestselling Kindle author Amanda Hocking on reproducing her success
— "This is literally years of work you're seeing. And hours and hours of work each day." #
Black history charts from 1900
— hand-drawn by students from W.E.B. Du Bois' sociology class, they look like modern infographics (via) #
Play against the NYT's Rock Paper Scissors robot
— with a sneak peek into what the computer thinks you'll do next #
Reddit interviews a 4-year-old boy
— the dad did the same thing last year; it's like the Internet's version of the Up series #
37 Signals' Jason Fried on how to make money
— a quick dip into Jason's psyche in six personal anecdotes #
Help Archive Team save Yahoo! Video
— 7TB saved so far, they need geeks with bandwidth/storage and cash for hard drives ASAP #
Tissue engineer prints a new kidney on TED stage
— also: self-driving cars; this week, the future is in Long Beach #
Marble Run, collaborative HTML5 marble game
— winner of the Mozilla Labs gaming contest, with code on Github (via) #
Reddit interviews Ken Jennings
— "I can't go anywhere in public where there might be old people, like Hallmark stores or cemeteries." #
Gina Trapani on the case against drop-down identities
— related: the controversy over making gender a text field in Diaspora #
Warner Bros. acquires Blade Runner prequel/sequel rights
— there should be a law forbidding sequels to universally-loved 30-year-old films #
Snapshots from a rock n' roll marriage
— achingly personal story of the breakup of a Black Keys' marriage (via) #
Installing every version of Windows from 1.0 to Windows 7, in order
— surprisingly entertaining, window colors were retained from Windows 2.0 to Windows 2000 #
Esquire's profile of Ray Towler, a Cleveland man wrongly convicted to 30 years in prison
— no amount of money can make this right (via) #
Apple introduces iPad 2
— thinner than an iPhone 4, 9x faster, two cameras, cover, same battery life, same price #
Mitoza, surreal web toy
— then the evil eggplant opened an ice cream store inside of the giant egg... #
Thom Yorke Smashes Dead Fish on Washer-Dryer
— "sorry.? I like farts a lot. I'm from the fart generation." (via) #
Lanyrd's Guide to SXSW Interactive
— I'm putting on Worst Website Ever again this year with an amazing lineup #