September 2024 blend of links
Some links don’t call for a full blog post, but sometimes I still want to share some of the good stuff I encounter on the web.
A.I.: A Means to an End or a Means to Our End?・A truly excellent — albeit very long — read, from Stephen Fry’s talk at King’s College in London. Possibly the best link that has — and will — ever appear on this blog. (via Meanwhile)1
WordPress Vs. WP Engine? It Doesn’t Matter. It’s Bad For The Internet.・A great piece by Ernie Smith on the matter, which was also very well summarised by Kev: “this is what happens when millionaires get butt-hurt…” (via Dan Gillmor)2
Miami Vice - In The Air Tonight Scene・Get ready to have this song stuck in your head for days after watching this great scene from the pilot episode. I never really watched Miami Vice because I think I was too young when it was on TV, and I never caught up. As a big fan of Michael Mann — who was the very influential executive producer of the show — and a fan of his movie Miami Vice (2006), maybe I should give it a go.
Nic Chan’s new website・Website/blog design of the year?
Tipping Point: The True Story of “The Limits to Growth”・I haven’t listened to this yet but it sounds very interesting, and everybody seems to be recommending it. I really like this kind of short-lived format: the podcast is only three episodes long. It reminds me of the “pop-up” style newsletter from Craig Mod. (via Kottke)
tapedeck.org・I love this so much. I’m not a graphic designer, but if I were, the design of audio cassette tape labels would certainly be one of the main reasons I’d have become one. I used to love writing on them, filling out the information and sticking them to the tape as if I were performing open-heart surgery, all for a bunch of songs cheaply recorded from the radio. (via Dense Discovery)
Kurono watches・These watches, only available in limited numbers, are quite hard to get but they have to be among my favourite watch designs around. Oh, by the way, on a totally unrelated note, my birthday is coming very soon.
How To: Highlight Text Fragments When Linking・A cool little trick from Rogue Amoeba’s Paul Kafasis: with a bookmarklet, you can share a specific part of a webpage, which becomes highlighted when opened. Also, Rogue Amoeba just updated their apps — including the great Piezo — to be easier to install, as if they needed more reasons to be recommended.
The Torment Nexus・Mathew Ingram recently launched his own publication/newsletter on Ghost, and, as a long-time reader of Mathew’s work — from his days at Gigaom, I believe — I can only highly recommend that you check it out if you are interested in the role of technology in society, media, and culture.
P&B: Justin Duke’s interview・”Writing to me is sort of like exercise. It’s very easy to say ‘ah, I don’t have time to do this’ and give it up, and then discover that there is some sort of gap in your soul, a bit of a spiritual unease and languor that comes from lack of creation and reflection.”
More “Blend of links” posts here
I agree that “AI” is harder to read than “Ai”, but I prefer to write “A.I.” ↩︎
See also Michael Tsai’s post on the topic. ↩︎