February 28, 2010
February 22, 2010
I need Adobe Caslon Italic...
NB: It’s a long one. With lots of words—over a thousand of ’em. And no pictures.
You’ve been warned.
February 20, 2010
Wonder-Tonic’s ShadyURL.com is a brilliant bastardization of URL-shortening sites like TinyURL.com
ShadyURL becomes: http://5z8.info/amazon.com-phish_u0z4i_malicious-cookie
TinyURL becomes: http://5z8.info/manhunter_m5b4l_refugee-murder
Idolize Your Killers becomes: http://5z8.info/trojan_f0x1i_turkeyporn
Good times.
February 1, 2010
Information / Graphic Designer Nick Felton recently released the 2009 Feltron Annual Report, a rather intimate window into his life in 2009, including eating habits, mood, discussion topics, etc. This time around (number five), Felton’s methodology draws solely on second-person data, with as much pseudo-scientific rigor as social media can afford.
Each day in 2009, I asked every person with whom I had a meaningful encounter to submit a record of this meeting through an online survey. These reports form the heart of the 2009 Annual Report. From parents to old friends, to people I met for the first time, to my dentist… any time I felt that someone had discerned enough of my personality and activities, they were given a card with a URL and unique number to record their experience.
It’s an admirable undertaking, to say nothing of the beautiful end-product.
Check out the rest of his portfolio online; you may be familiar (as I was) with his commercial work for the likes of the New York Times, CNN, WSJ and a handful of Condé Nast titles.
Filed under: Design · Tags: Design, graphic design, internet
January 24, 2010
Nice to know that IYK is among 47 million new websites. There’s also numbers for e-mail and social networks. Definitely worth checking out: Internet 2009 in Numbers.
Taking a step that has tempted and terrified much of the newspaper industry, The New York Times announced on Wednesday that it would charge some frequent readers for access to its Web site — news that drew ample reaction from media analysts and consumers, ranging from enthusiastic to withering.
Starting in January 2011, a visitor to NYTimes.com will be allowed to view a certain number of articles free each month; to read more, the reader must pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers to the print newspaper, even those who subscribe only to the Sunday paper, will receive full access to the site without any additional charge.
Executives of The New York Times Company said they wanted to create a system that would have little effect on the millions of occasional visitors to the site, while trying to cash in on the loyalty of more devoted readers. But fundamental features of the plan have not yet been decided, including how much the paper will charge for online subscriptions or how many articles a reader will be allowed to see without paying.
–The New York Times recently announced that it is going to start charging online readers (in 2011) with a ‘paywall’ system. Or, as Gothamist bluntly puts it: “the Gray Lady’s going to start making bitches pay.”
–Apple has announced that it will unveil its “latest creation”—the digital world is certain that it will be an Apple tablet—at an event next Wednesday, January 27th. (Engadget; also on NYT, the Guardian, etc.; rumormongering has also caused a backlash in the world of tech journalism)
–P.S.1 just announced that Brooklyn’s SO-IL (Solid Object Idenburg Liu) is the winner of this year’s Young Architects Program design competition. Arch Daily has more pics and info.
Filed under: Assorted Links · Tags: Apple, architecture, China, Google, internet, NBA, NYT, PS1, Technology
January 19, 2010
So I’ve finally finished importing the first months’ worth of (mostly China-related) original posts from the makeshift blog that I set up on my old/new portfolio site, Who Are Who—old because it’s been my home on the web for some time now (and will be so for the foreseeable future); new because I was redesigning it from scratch at the time.
As I have mentioned before, I’ve left the old blog more or less intact, though I have seen fit to make minor revisions and omissions during the process of reformatting the text and images for the new (current) version of IYK.
Additionally, I’ve decided not to import the series of “Drawings” posts to Idolize Your Killers: these now constitute a ‘drawing log‘ (=glog?) on Who Are Who.
That said, I would also like to take this opportunity to announce that the aforementioned portfolio site, Who Are Who, is more or less finished—I still need to sort out some browser compatibility issues and I may continue to add content, but it’s entirely functional (and hopefully decent-looking) at this point, which is what counts.
Of course, that’s the easy part… now to actually create some artwork..
Filed under: Random · Tags: internet, meta, web design
January 12, 2010
Earlier today, Google’s SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond posted a potentially revolutionary announcement on the Official Google Blog: due to security issues and censorship-related tension, Google may go so far as to terminate its operations in China (pending negotiation with the Chinese government).
This astounding move is already being regarded as a shot heard ’round the world regarding the Western principle of free speech in the face of China’s draconian Internet censorship policy, as well as an opportunity for Google to live up to its pithy dogma, “Don’t be evil”.
As someone who has personally been frustrated by Chinese censorship, I fully support Google’s stand against the insidious authoritarianism still exerted by the putatively progressive state.
Incidentally, I was staying about half a kilometer from Google’s headquarters in Beijing.
The New York Times has more coverage, as always.
See also: Grass Mud Horse
December 15, 2009
As my readers probably know, the Chinese government is notorious for Internet censorship. Websites such as Blogspot and Mediafire, which cultivate freedom of thought and information, are inaccessible to Chinese netizens.
As you may or may not know, I am a huge Deerhunter fan. They have just released a collection of early recordings as a free download on their blog.
The problem, then, should be obvious. In formal logic, this is called a syllogism; in ordinary words: I’m fucking pissed that I can’t download the album.
So, loyal readers, this is your chance to fight the injustice faced by hundreds of millions of Chinese Internet users living in a semi-authoritarian state. If anyone could please download it and re-post on Rapidshare (which does work over here) or just e-mail the damn thing, I would be eternally grateful.
Source: Brooklyn Vegan, among other places, none of which have an alternate download available.
Filed under: Music · Tags: China, Deerhunter, internet, Music
December 9, 2009
Ah, liberated from the dark and gloomy confines of Who Are Who at last. This marks the first of many (hopefully) posts that will be composed, edited and published in WordPress (and, incidentally, the one-month anniversary of the blog). Of course, with great freedom comes great responsibility: while the frontier of WordPress promises plenty of exciting new content (and no more drafting in TextWrangler!), I’ll be spending the rest of the week formatting and importing the existing content.
Introduction to Blogging via WordPress.org. Truly enlightening.
Particularly faithful readers (who, in all likelihood, exist only in my mind) may have noticed my tendency to continue tweaking entries for a few days after they go live. I know this is a terrible habit—the flexibility afforded by digital media is perhaps a little too convenient for a perfectionist—and I will do my best to refrain from re-working posts in the future. That said, I’ve gone through and touched up many of the older entries, so whether you’ve already enjoyed them or ‘dog-eared’ (in a manner of speaking) them for consumption at a later date, I invite you to revisit them if you happen to have time to kill. (If you have no idea who I am or how you got here, ignore the last paragraph and pretend the writing was perfect to begin with.)
The blog re-design is just one facet of the ongoing restructuring of my online empire; the next step is setting up Indexhibit for my new portfolio website. You’ll also notice that the new blog, tentatively titled “Idolize Yr Killers”, is currently at idolizeyourkillers.com (explanation à la Lil’ Wayne in the byline); let’s just say I’m having propagation issues with idolizeyrkillers.com. In the meantime, I’ve managed to set up a new dedicated domain for my musical ventures (which, incidentally, were previously at idolizeyourkillers.com).
I was tempted, but I didn’t end up registering hipsterjamz.com. Music is now at khessel.com (in keeping with my DBA DJ name)—just a slight update on the minimal former site, no new hipster jamz.
I’d also like to thank Ben for his time and savvy.
Filed under: Design · Tags: internet, meta, web design
December 6, 2009
Is Carles the Iverson of the Blogosphere?
Hipster Runoff sucks Carles back into blogging
Just thought I’d share… though I realize that if you care, you’ve probably already heard from a more credible media outlet; if you don’t care, you’re probably wondering why I’m reading Hipster Runoff instead of working on real content.
Hell, I don’t even care… I don’t know why I keep bringing it up, I don’t even read or like HRO, I’m just here to buy soy sauce. Or maybe it was just an elaborate ploy to get me to blog about him…
The Chinese meme-machine is a slightly different beast, as they derive their significance largely from subverting censorship and/or outright absurdity: