Mark Bult Design: San Francisco, CA, Established 1988

Thursday Top 5+1

Anti-Theft Lunch Bags
Simply brilliant.



The Crisis of Credit Visualized
A pretty good visual explanation of a very complex situation. The guy who put this together has some other cool stuff on Vimeo.



Tourists reenacting the cover of Abbey Road
This time-lapse video was mildly interesting until 1:34, when I cracked up and had to re-wind. Was the guy getting his, um, picture taken? I don’t see a photographer. I just can’t figure it out. [via BoingBoing]

Blame Ringo
If you like the song on the above video, blame Ringo. From the band’s MySpace page: “Blame Ringo are a band on a unique mission. They are using the power of song to blame Ringo Starr…for everything. Originally billed as ‘Goodnight Vienna,’ the band had to change its name in late 2007 after being threatened with legal action by a Richard Starkey Jr. [aka Ringo Starr]. Apparently ‘Goodnight Vienna’ was the name of Ringo’s fourth studio album and although he ‘thoroughly enjoyed the music,’ he was ‘obligated to dissuade any profiteering which resulted from the use of his intellectual property.’ ”

Outtakes from the Abbey Road photo shoot
www.flickr.com/photos/dagb/2333221401/

10 privacy settings every Facebook user should know
Everyone on Facebook should set aside a little time to read this and follow the tips.
www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/

Labels: animation, design, distractions, Facebook, humor, music, photos, Thursday top 5, videos

Posted by espd at 7:34 AM | 
Share and enjoy:  | Email this:

Thursday Top 5

The magenta wars
A meme has been rounding the Internet based on the article “Magenta ain’t a colour”, in which author Liz Elliott appears to make a sound argument for the fact that magenta does not, in fact, exist in the color spectrum. Since magenta is probably my least favorite color, I was at first keen on the idea, but, generally speaking, I have a hard time believing someone when they tell me something doesn’t exist when I’ve actually seen that something with my own eyes. To wit: I’ve seen magenta. I’ve seen magenta things. For one thing, Elliott’s very article contains a magenta dot, so I must either question her sanity or her eyesight. For another thing, magenta ink is one of the four colors that makes up nearly every printed-on-paper item on the planet, so unless they just all disappeared in the moment since I last looked at pretty much anything on my desk or in my office (and keeping in mind that this idea does actually appeal to me on one level, as it would make a splendidly absurd plot addition to a new Hitchhiker’s novel), I’m fairly certain that this has not happened, and just to make sure, I’ve been glancing at pieces of paper every few words as I type this. Thirdly, there are quite a few naturally-occuring magenta things in the universe, like flowers for instance. So unless all the magenta flowers have disappeared...well you know the rest. And fourth, as if we really needed any more ammunition at this point in our defense of the color magenta (perhaps all the flowers and pieces of paper in your part of the galaxy have just vanished?), there comes this rather good response article by Chris Foresman, from which I learned a thing or two: “Yes, Virginia, there is a magenta.”



ABC3D



Japanese Spiderman
Spiderman vs. giant transforming robots? Only in Japan.



Have you seen this cat?

Matt Mullenweg
Short interview with the founder of WordPress.

Labels: cats, design, distractions, humor, music video, tech, Thursday top 5, videos

Posted by espd at 7:42 AM | 
Share and enjoy:  | Email this:

Thursday Top 5

Steve Jobs demos Apple Macintosh, 1984
A short video of the historic unveiling (unbagging?) in 1984 of the first Mac, during which Steve Jobs introduces the Macintosh, and the Macintosh introduces Steve. At the end, when the camera pans back across the Flint Center in Cupertino, people are practically leaping out of their seats with applause (where, incidentally, my high school graduation was also held, just four years after this video). Brings a tear to this geek’s eyes. *snif*



1983 Apple Keynote: The “1984” Ad Introduction
Many people remember Ridley Scott’s famous 1984 TV ad and think of it as the first salvo in the war between Apple and Microsoft. But it was really IBM that Apple was gunning for at the time.



Evolution of Dance
Dude must be freakin’ tired after this workout. [via Velma]



XXXS garments knit by hand for the movie Coraline

10 Things Science Fiction Got Wrong
A few of the things on this list bug me too, whenever I see them in a science fiction movie. Especially the first one: I hate it when filmmakers put sound in space. Spaceships don’t go “vrrrwhoooosh!” dammit! 2001 is practically the only film that gets this right. However, the rest of the article contains some pretty wild claims, some of them just plain wrong. The best part of the entire post is the comments, where a legion of often-self-proclaimed huge dorks pick apart the original article and provide endless evidence to counter the author’s claims.

Labels: animation, Apple, distractions, humor, sci-fi, science, Thursday top 5, videos

Posted by espd at 7:25 AM | 
Share and enjoy:  | Email this:

Checking your Seagate Barracuda drive’s serial number on a Mac

Some people have reported a problem with their Seagate hard drives that can make it look like your drive is gone or won’t mount. The affected products are Barracuda 7200.11, Barracuda ES.2 SATA, and DiamondMax 22. The problem has been tracked to a firmware issue, and Seagate has published instructions on their site to find out if your hard drive might be affected.

As is often the case, if you’re on a Mac, the instructions on Seagate’s website aren’t written for you, so here are the steps to follow:

A) Go to Seagate’s instruction page.

B) Skip Step 1 on that page, since it’s for PCs only.

C) Instead of Step 1, from your computer’s Apple menu (upper left corner of your screen), select About This Mac, then click the button More Info. This will open the System Profiler.

D) From the menu on the left, select Hardware > Serial-ATA, and you will see your hard drives listed.

E) Select each one, and look for the lines for Model and Serial Number. Those are the two you’ll put into the tools on the Seagate website.

F) Go back to the Seagate instruction page and follow steps 2 and 3.

Labels: Apple, how-to, Mac, tech

Posted by espd at 7:52 PM | 
Share and enjoy:  | Email this:

Thursday Top 5+1

Coraline trailer and two behind-the-scenes clips
Velms, this opens this weekend. Let’s go see it!



“The Obama Moment”
Next Agenda’s Peter Leyden gives a TED-style talk about the dramatic historical, technological, and demographic changes that are occurring in our lifetime, and how he believes they are affecting the current (and future) political landscape. It’s an hour long, but very interesting. My favorite quote, when he’s talking about how we are armed today with all the knowledge and technology needed to solve the world’s problems: “If you would have told Franklin Roosevelt or Churchill...that we’re going to give you a machine that you put in not just your desk, but your hand, and you can ask it any question in the world and get back all the world’s related information in a second, they would have said, ‘That’s magic!’. And we just call it Google.” The most appalling thing I learned: According to Leyden, Generation X (sadly, that includes me) is politically more conservative than the Boomers. Ugh, I think I may go barf.



“Blame Us”
San Francisco magazine asked a round-table of Bay Area progressive political figures to comment on the impact of the high tech and outside-the-Beltway influences on the Obama campaign. As usual from this publication, it’s perhaps a bit over the top in its self-importance, but an interesting article nonetheless. Those quoted include Craigslist’s Craig Newmark, DailyKos’s Markos Moulitsas, MoveOn founders Joan Blades and Wes Boyd, and Salon.com founder David Talbot.



Songsmith
Microsoft is um, going for what market here? Bad singers? [via Jason]



Weezer’s “Buddy Holly” remixed through Microsoft Songsmith
So. Very. Bad. There are a ton of these on YouTube if you really want to torture yourself.

The Future of News: How to Survive the New Media Shift
“News organizations cannot continue to ignore the global shift from institutionally controlled media to user controlled media. They have to redefine their processes and face the obvious question: Do we still need old media for news?...”

Labels: animation, design, distractions, film, media, music video, news, politics, Thursday top 5, videos

Posted by espd at 7:20 AM | 
Share and enjoy:  | Email this: