Randomness

~ 24 December 2008 ~

Catching up on a few things spotted recently. Merry Christmas to all!

The Big Picture: The year 2008 in photographs: Boston.com’s The Big Picture is easily the best thing to happen to blogging in 2008. There’s also part 2 and part 3 of the year in photographs.
Waveform wrist cuffs by Sakurako Shimizu: Ellen Groskorth, Veer:

This one is very cool. It is created using a laser cut of the waveform of a church bell. The artist is a Japanese artist by the name of Sakurako Shimizu. Other examples include giggles, yawns, sneezes created in necklaces, brooches and earrings.
Mike Precious, multimedia designer: Talent.
Ski Lodge for iPhone: Trail maps, snowfall, weather, live cams, and more (U.S. and Canada). That is, of course, if you’re planning to carry your iPhone on the slopes.
CSS iPhone gallery: A gallery of iPhone-friendly mobile sites.
New Mint.com iPhone app: It’s pretty basic, but perhaps that’s the point — at-a-glance info rather than fully featured.
24 ways: Making Modular Layout Systems: Jason Santa Maria’s how-to for creating a modular layout similar to the one he uses on his site. I’ve not read all the articles, but 24 ways 2008 seems to have been one of the best years yet.
A history of the esszet or ß: I’m particularly fond of this character, probably because it sits atop my letterpress poster.
The German character ß includes the only surviving form of the long s in modern typographical usage. Since its sound is ss, it might be thought to be a ligature made up of ƒ and s, to be used at the end of a word or a syllable. But the matter is not nearly so simple.
RetailMeNot: One of the better coupon code sites around, this one includes sparklines (see Tufte) that indicate the success rate of the code over time. One of the more utilitarian implementations of sparklines that I’ve seen so far.
Optoma PICO Pocket Projector: I’m very intrigued by this, largely because I expect to see this technology built into consumer mobile phones by 2010, maybe even the end of 2009 (there are a few devices already being prototyped). The PICO measures about 2” by 4”, weighing 4.2 ounces. Maximum 65-inch image and 480px by 320px resolution. David Pogue’s review is positive overall.