Currently listening: Arcade Fire, The Suburbs

By gavin | Published: August 9, 2010
arcade-fire-the-suburbs-thumbjpg.jpg

“The bulk of The Suburbs focuses on this quiet desperation borne of compounding the pain of wasting your time as an adult by romanticizing the wasted time of your youth.”

Pitchfork even gave it an 8.6.

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This is how you did Industrial Design in the 1960s

By gavin | Published: August 5, 2010

Design story: The Decanter from Landor Associates on Vimeo.

“The Decanter,” a promotional film produced by Walter Landor and Associates in the 1960s, shows the start-to-finish process of several of Landor’s designs for Old Fitzgerald whiskey. Narrated by Walter himself, the film depicts creative teams illustrating and critiquing designs, industrial designers fabricating models, and research teams conducting focus groups and testing in Landor’s supermarket laboratory. All takes place on the famed Klamath ferryboat docked at San Francisco’s Pier 5, which housed Landor’s offices for some 20 years.

Thanks to Core77 for discovering this gem.

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AT&T & Apple: Suits, not lawsuits

By gavin | Published: July 19, 2010

When an AT&T representative suggested to one of Jobs’ deputies that the Apple CEO wear a suit to meet with AT&T’s board of directors, he was told, “We’re Apple. We don’t wear suits. We don’t even own suits.”

Bad Connection: Inside the iPhone Network Meltdown

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I See Steaks In My Sleep

By gavin | Published: July 2, 2010

I See Steaks In My Sleep from Department of the 4th Dimension on Vimeo.

Keep an eye on the knife. Envious of his facility with that thing.

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Aruliden’s Ping Pong Table for Puma

By gavin | Published: June 25, 2010
Aruliden PUMA Chalk Ping Pong Table

“The After Hours Athlete. Introducing the CHALK ping-pong table, designed by aruliden for PUMA. Redefining the ping-pong table for that after hours athlete. Made by hand, the chalk table incorporates ash wood legs and a ceramic chalk surface – bringing a whole new spin to the game. Now available at The Conran Shop.”

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Before there was Megamind, there was Lord Insidious

By gavin | Published: June 18, 2010

From the description:

“This commercial for online storage site driveway.com came out in 2000, and featured a parody of a supervillain, Lord Insidious, which I created. This spot was even featured at Cannes that year. Now Dreamworks is coming out with their movie, Megamind, about a giant brained supervillain in a black outfit with a high collar and cape. Coincidence? Yeah, probably. Let my lesson be one to you all: don’t wait a decade before working on the film treatment for your own good idea.”

For you film buffs, this spot was shot by Bennett Miller, who a few years later got some love from the Academy when he directed Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Capote.”

A little blast from my past. Thank you Bonapa!

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Diapers & Soap & Our Robot Overlords

By gavin | Published: June 13, 2010

Enjoyed this video from the Singularity Hub article “What’s The Secret Behind Diapers.com Success? A Kiva Robot Warehouse“.

Did you know most online retailers use 5-6 different box sizes? Diapers.com uses 20. Plus they have some fancy computer science going on with their box packing software. Interesting stuff.

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A turn of the century workspace

By gavin | Published: June 1, 2010
Edgar Degas palette

I have a fascination with the areas people carve out for themselves as they go about their life’s work.

One of my new favorite blogs, Lines and Colors, has an article on the palettes of the masters. This one belongs to Degas.

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Martin Gardner on The Nature of Things

By gavin | Published: May 28, 2010

The Nature of Things / Martin Gardner from Wagner Brenner on Vimeo.

Watched this last night. Like many, I first discovered Martin Gardner while attempting to read Scientific American as a kid. This video reminds me why he was so interesting: math, juggling, puzzles, magic tricks and even computers. Check out the segments with John Conway (Mr. Life) or Bill Gosper (Mr. Lisp) or the “Dean of American Magicians” Jay Marshall. Martin Gardner was such a fascinating guy.

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Cooktop or iPad?

By gavin | Published: May 19, 2010
Fishers Paykel cooktop

So I was checking out some new kitchen gear the other day and noticed how similar the fancy new induction (glass, ceramic, all touch, etc. etc.) cooktops are to the handheld touch devices like the iPad.

Jazz Mutant Lemur sample

In particular, the touch devices running audio/dj sorta apps. This is a sample of the Lemur from Jazz Mutant. Not an iPad, but you can connect the dots.

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