- ReclaimPrivacy.org | Facebook Privacy Scanner
If you're staying on facebook, I thoroughly recommend that you use this, to be absolutely sure of what your settings are. Remember, if you don't set everything correctly, you friends can share information about you without your knowledge, so do make sure to check…
- People are walking architecture, or making NearlyNets with MujiComp – Blog – BERG
Yes, someone at BERG has done a thing, and I'm linking to it again. What this thing is is a short exploration of bottom-up ubicomp, and how it is making our cities come alive. Cleverness is basically the art of drawing useful connections that others don't, and Matt Jones is bloody good at it, skating here from Archigram to Clay Shirky via Muji and Guy DeBord, and laying out a way of bringing on the future of our public spaces. Plus, I love the idea of the porch being the point where the public and the private mesh. Much friendlier that the computer-nerd term DMZ, much more useful.
- Museum of London – Street Museum
Nifty little app for visually mining the history of London while out and about.
Tag: cities
Bookmarks for April 27, 2010
- jQuery Masonry · David DeSandro
Nice JS framework that makes some more interesting web layouts possible.
- Frameworks for citizen responsiveness, enhanced: Toward a read/write urbanism « Adam Greenfield’s Speedbird
Adam Greenfield has some notes on the future integration of technology and the city – city as development platform.
- Geocities-ised ala.sda.ir
A timewarp all the way back to 1997. It's the spot on music that really sells this one, I think.
- Stages of a Photographer
Well, I've never fallen in the HDR hole – I think it's a cheap effect, a way to get around weaknesses in technique, or a substitute for an actual idea – but on the other hand, I've taken so few photos I like in the last year, it's ridiculous. But that is less about my ability, and more about the fact that I haven't been carrying a camera enough, or taking enough pics. Time to do something about that.
Bookmarks for September 22, 2009
- David Byrne’s Perfect City – WSJ.com
A quote by David Byrne from Matt's article that I thought I was worth saving in it's own right:
"A city can't be too small. Size guarantees anonymity—if you make an embarrassing mistake in a large city, and it's not on the cover of the Post, you can probably try again. The generous attitude towards failure that big cities afford is invaluable—it's how things get created. In a small town everyone knows about your failures, so you are more careful about what you might attempt." - The City Is A Battlesuit For Surviving The Future – Future metro – io9
Matt Jones on the future of cities, their place in sf, and well, a typically smart piece of joined up thinking. Just go and read it.
- YouTube – Outlaw commentary highlights
This is one of the funniest bits of DVD commentary I've heard in ages. I am genuinely unsure if this is a joke or not, but still, it's hysterical.
- The Ultimate Uncluttered Tube Map – Londonist
This is inspired. I recommend this map to all vistors to London. It really does contain 90% of everything tourists need, and for the other 10%, just ask a native. (Assuming you know any. If you don't, then how the hell are you reading this?)
Bookmarks for July 10, 2009
- Top 10 comic book cities | The Critics | Architects Journal
Some really interesting picks here. I think I'm going to have to make efforts to acquire a few of the works mentioned in here that I've never read.
- Metropolitan Police Service – About the Met – Photography advice
Advice about dealing with Photographers given to officers by the Met. Sensible, clear, know your rights stuff. If an officer talking to you does *not* know your rights, then you might try giving them this, because after all, it's their boss telling them what they're allowed to do.
Bookmarks for April 9, 2009
- David MacKay: Sustainable Energy – without the hot air: Download
I want to sit down and read this properly when I get time – an actual accessible book on the maths of energy consumption vs. possible energy production, as opposed the usual waffle.
- Coilhouse » Blog Archive » Latex/Guns/Gnosis: The Matrix Turns 10
A short retrospective of the first Matrix film, as it turns 10. a) it is horrifying to me that that movie is ten, because it means I am very old, and b) I particularly love the title of this article. It occurs to me that I have never satisfyingly run a game with all three of those elements, and I really must get around to having a go at that.
- Cory Doctorow: Getting tough on copyright enforcers | Culture | guardian.co.uk
I think this is a fair trade. I will accept a three strikes copyright warning system only if all copyright enforcers are held to the same standard: three wrong accusations, and they're out, too. Want to bet me that they'd all be gone before the rest of us would?
- Focal point (game theory) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Must remember this on in future – the basis by which two parties that are unable to communicate will still be able to select the same focal point in a game/challenge.
- re: diverselessness (tecznotes)
A companion to the other piece on monoculturalism, this dealing with internet communities and the origins of elites, and the social effects of these technologies, and some opinions on where these phenomena are likely to lead to.
- Whimsley: Online Monoculture and the End of the Niche
Why recommendation engines are creating even more of a mononculture than we had beore, even though everyone feels like they're finding more niche stuff.
- BLDGBLOG: Postopolis!
I have significantly less than fuck all architectural training, but it hasn't escaped my notice over the last few years that many of the most interesting creative types I know do have some history with the discipline, and I've increasingly found my own interests tending that way – not literally in the designing buildings sense, but in the sense of being aware of people's relationship with the space around them, and how to optimise that space to get the best out of life.
Postopolis therefore sounds like it would have been a fascinating event to be at, even if 90% would have gone sailing over my head. Any chance of holding the next one in London? It's at least as interesting as LA… - cityofsound: Postopolis LA
Dan Hill was at Postopolis and has written an excellent series of posts on it, and on LA in general. Thoroughly recommended reading.
Bookmarks for April 4, 2009
- D'Blog of 'Israeli: Lowlife: Creation Part Five: All The Joy I See Through These Architect's Eyes
British art stalwart D'Israeli take a look at the architectual and design history of one of the greatest of all the future cities: Mega City One.
Bookmarks for April 3, 2009
- John Thackara – Designing for Business as Unusual – Core77
He starts out spelling how we're fucked on an economic and environmental level. And then he gets in to what we're doing about it. Some of this shit is fascinating – a set of tools for a completely new system of economics.
- 19.20.21.
By the end of the 21st century, there are predicted to be 19 cities with a population of over 20 million. London is one of them, currently has a population of around 7-8 million, and large parts of it's infrastructure are creaking at the seams. We urgently need more thinking on how we will cope with the supercities of the near future, and I'll watch this project with interest.