A beautiful look into the history of the desktop operating system: Check out these hand drawn prototype sketches of the Apple Desktop Interface starting in 1979.
Meanwhile, in a parallel universe billg was working on Microsoft Windows Version 1, Version 2, Version 3, and Version 3.1.
thanks to mastah programah isaac for the links.
The images in the news photo section of excite.com are helpfully divided by keyword. Thus one can click on blimp, or profile for example, and see appropriate images.
Currently the black images contains three images of black Americans, as well as a picture of a black bear. The white image section, on the other hand, contains five images of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
This means something.
Matt suggested I try something, so I spent a few minutes doing this and I discovered something odd. Goto your favorite domain registering place and type three letter acronyms totally at random. I did this for a significant amount of time and never got a single three letter domain.
I was so depressed by this I went home and ate four bags of marshmellows.
A few amusing details about Rob’s ‘Hello Microsoft’ post below:
Don’t worry, we only publicize your personal information when it amuses us.
While scouring our hightech counter information, it has come to our attention that somebody from microsoft.com is visiting us. I would like say “Hello!”.
I would like to give you big ups on some of your fine software products such as Notepad and Minesweeper. Neither have crashed on me and have made my life easier in some way.
I encourage you to continue visiting, and to encourage your friends to visit also. I also look forward to our first hits from cool .org’s.
Here’s to you, Steve. I’m raising a glass.
Normally when I talk about how I am an unappreciated genius no one takes me seriously which I can understand in my wisdom but perhaps you could take me a little more seriously as I discuss another unappreciated genius who is not myself: Kirby Ferguson.
Kirby’s final issue of IslandEdition is up and it is so good it has me shaking my head. Don’t get me wrong. I do think IslandEdition has done well, but after reading Kirby’s Web Publishing Advice, I can’t help but mourn Prince Edward Island‘s loss (Kirby is moving to TO).
In particular, read Kirby’s Web Publishing Advice. It may seem odd to say that it is brilliant, since the advice is so simple, but is it indeed brilliant. Every web developer, designer, and writer should read and obey.
We’ll miss you Kirby and we look forward to the future of IslandEdition.com
Magnolia:
Long + Involving + Depressing + Very long + Inexplicable events + Extremely well written, and acted = Pretty damn good really
Documentary on Canadian Women’s Waterpolo:
I don’t care what anyone says, CBCTV rocks. It does not however rock quite as hard as the Canadian Women’s Waterpolo team, medal favourites for the Sydney Olympics. I’m not kidding about this. Inexplicably good. Really.
Boxlor (see steve’s post below):
Inexplicable, and yet good.
Repeated use of the Word Inexplicable:
Fun in small doses.
Mike from Superfunk.com earns my respect with picnic table art.
Check out Boxlor while you’re there. I have reason to believe that I made these shorts in grade 7 Home-Ec class.
* I do not actually love the Internet.
Just finished reading No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies by Naomi Klein. It was an interesting book about the “brands, not products” phenomenon and provided a balanced historical look at the culture-jamming movement. Klein was careful to distance herself from organizations such as Adbusters that, despite earning my readership and respect, receive some much-needed criticism.
While interesting, No Logo does tend to drag a bit with an encyclopaedic style as is pointed out in a fine Slashdot review.
This probably shouldn’t matter, but I was drawn to the book in part by the fact that Klein is the wife of Avi Lewis who stands alone in the field of intelligent Canadian TV as host of the CBC’s Counterspin (Ralph Benmurgi is pretty cool too but I don’t know if he’s still on the air).
