Interesting and/or cool stuff I've come across from art, design, technology, photography, movies I've watched and liked and, occasionally, my thoughts.
Collected bits and pieces I’ve noticed this month.
Some podcasts I’ve found interesting lately – firstly, AirBnB CEO Brian Chesky on the Decoder podcast talking about how he runs the company and what founder mode is; and photographer Tyler Stalman on The Talk Show, discussing iPhone photography with some cool tips and thoughts around the colour science and photography, from old film stocks to todays digital camera systems. Check also Tyler’s iPhone 16 camera review (Youtube) and also these by from Austin Mann, and Vjeran Pavic (Youtube).
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From Petapixel – the reason why old sports photos often have a rather pleasing blue background haze.
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A two-part series from Linear on how they approached a recent redesign of their app. It’s always interesting to read and think along with how Liner work.
Friend is a new AI gadget, positioned as a, well, friend, who’s always there with positive vibes. I kind of like this application of AI and don’t think a made up friend is a bad thing per se.
via ATP
VWFNDR Keirin. I find this concept camera interesting on a few levels. On one, it’s part of what seems to be a resurgence of niche but fun-looking devices with cool design and an attitude like the Playdate game console with its single colour screen and fun crank arm, or the Rabbit R1 (not the best-reviewed, putting it mildly) – intentionally limit the funcionality and tech and force yourself to come up with novel ideas to get around these giving the device tons of personality in the process. Design loves constraints. On the other, it leverages the relative freedom a large touchscreen gives to play with new interface design ideas. I was immediately reminded of the soviet Horizon panoramic camera that utilised a unique swiveling lens to take awesome panoramic photos on regular 35mm film stock. I’m rooting for Keirin to graduate from a concept to a product.
“Let’s make the indie web easier” by Giles Turnbull on making it easier for people to make and run their own sites rather than installing WordPress or simply giving up. I was so put off by the “it’s easy, just (insert tech acronym salad here)” when I tried to see if some modern web tech would make building and publishing a site like mine easier.
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And, found via Gilest, here’s Good Enough. I always like when a small team is making fun stuff.
Collected bits and pieces I’ve noticed this month.
Like many other platforms, Letterboxd posted their 2023 Year in Review.
Maybe I’m not using as many services anymore that can compile personalised a wrapped-style look back at a year, but I feel like I’m seeing fewer of them each year, which is a bit sad.
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Speaking of movies, here’s an over-analytical analysis of the styles (authors words) of two batman movies – The Dark Knight and The Batman – by P.J. Onori.
via Sidebar
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What I’m seeing more of than before is lists of 52 things (one for each week) someone has learned over the past year. Last year I found a list by Kent Hendricks, most probably via Jason Kottke who this time published his own, via which I discovered Tom Whitwell's.
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For even more lists, here’s The Atlantic’s 81 Things That Blew Our Minds and a of The Best Articles We Didn’t Publish jealousy list by Rest of World.
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I was watching the 25th Anniversary of Half Life documentary and found Gabe Newell’s “Late is just for a little while. Suck is forever.” version of a quote often attributed to Shigeru Miyamoto – “A delayed game is eventually good, a rushed game is bad forever.” – funny and no less educational.
~ Lightbeam by Anton Repponen is a beautiful photo essay.
via Readymag
Furia del Cielo – a series by photographer Jeroen Taal of an abandoned 16th-century villa in Italy, full of beautiful, colourful frescoes.
Nayenezgáni (Killer of Enemies) is a mythical hero from Navajo mythology who, along with his brother Tobadzischini, rid the world of the monstrous evil gods, the Anaye.
via reddit
Lux, the makers of the excellent iPhone camera app Halide, have penned a long piece on the camera module of the iPhone 13 and where (phone) photography is headed, with lots of pictures, too. Highly recommended reading if you too are thinking about the future of cameras.
via pixel envy
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Lisa Whittington-Hill likes biographies and memoirs and, having read a bunch of them, noticed that they tend to be gender-biased – all the dirty, spicy, private details are expected from women, at the same time, men can pretty much write about whatever.
Back, way way back, phones, the kind that are for making calls only were the electronic service. Hacking these telecom systems, be it with the help of electronics or social engineering, or both was called phreaking. This The Verge story is about one of the best phreakers of her time who suddenly pulled the disappearing act.
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While it undoubtedly helped spread some great ideas and inspired people with stories of human tenacity, the TED talk has also been rightfully mocked for being blind to its own hubris. Oscar Schwartz for the Drift mag on the history and legacy of the conference with notable moments, both good and bad.
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Held in the notorious Silivri prison, 90 kilometers from Istanbul, for the past six years, Fevzi Yazıcı designed a unique typeface. He drew it with a pencil in his dimly lit solitary-confinement cell and named it “Firdevs,” for his wife. - "Letters from a Turkish prison"
via Jeffrey Zeldman
Japan is littered with vending machines, always beaming, always ready to (mostly) quench your thirst, or appetite for pretty much anything you can think of. And not just in the cities – I once came across one, very conveniently, halfway up the hill at the Fushimi Inari-Taisha.
