It’s nice working in an environment that can produce something like this. I remember vaguely talking to one of the people behind this earlier in the year and while I thought it sounded like a fun idea, that was about it. Who’d've thought that the project by Boredom Research (via the National Centre for Computer Animation at Bournemouth University) would end up covered by so many people.

If you’re unfamiliar with ‘Real Snail Mail’, it’s basically this:

An e-mail is sent to a tank containing snails fitted with RFID chips. If and when a snail wanders by the e-mail collection site, its RFID chip will pick up the message. Then, if and when that snail wanders by the drop-off point in another area of the tank, the e-mail will be delivered (at that point, via the Internet, of course).

Genius! I believe it’s just had it’s proper exhibition at siggraph 08 but the snails have been hard at work for months now, with varying success. You can check the progress of each ‘agent’ (and add your own message!) at the official site - Real Snail Mail.

Just a brief bit of randomness that made me smile because I’m slightly unsmiley right now.

Photoshop managed to successfully fuck me over by corrupting a file I’ve been working on for a good couple of months. That’ll learn me for not making copies / saving versions. Bah.

Anyway, as I said, this image made me smile.

It’s funny cuz it’s true.

Tagging is not an art form or about expressing oneself. It is vandalism and the destruction of private and public property. Tagging is any unauthorized marking, etching, scratching, drawing, painting or defacing of any surface of public, private, real or personal property.

Brilliant. You couldn’t make this up. I actually agree with some of the criticisms of tagging but really, is this the best way of clamping down on it(?) I know my parents wouldn’t've been reading any Plymouth City Council things about graffiti when I was a wee lad for example and I doubt that too many people are bothered about this.

Still; good work.

http://www.ci.santa-ana.ca.us/pd/Graffiti.asp

via Wooster

Stumbled on this last month on cpluv but didn’t actually get ’round to watching it so it’s just festered in my ‘don’t forget to look at this at some point’ bookmarks folder for all that time. Finally made 5 minutes to watch it last night and it’s uber cool.

On a cold Saturday in New York City, the world’s largest train station came to a sudden halt. Over 200 Improv Everywhere Agents froze in place at the exact same second for five minutes in the Main Concourse of Grand Central Station. Over 500,000 people rush through Grand Central every day, but today, things slowed down just a bit as commuters and tourists alike stopped to notice what was happening around them.

The reactions of people walking around are what makes it. Great stuff.

Go and watch: http://improveverywhere.com/2008/01/31/frozen-grand-central/

Some assorted youtube goodness that’s worth a watch if you’ve got a spare few minutes.

Wu Tang & El Michels Affair -”Bring Da Ruckus”

I’ve had the MP3’s of this session for a while now, and though the majority of the Clan are missing, they’re still quality recordings. What’s been lacking for a while however, are any accompanying videos.. But no longer! Youtube comes through again..

tsatsulo street soccer

Ridiculous. Just ridiculous. I like to think that I’m an alright footballer but seriously.. Ridiculous.

bonus: the new FIFA Street 3 viral ain’t too shabby either..

DJ Sara and DJ Ryusei

If only I’d've got my Technics 10 years earlier, then I too could’ve been a superstar child DJ. But I didn’t. So now I can’t scratch for shit. But these kids can.

Wasn’t that fun(?)

Terrifying.

From a collection of photos here. I have no idea what they’re about (anybody care to translate?) but some of them are fun.

Billboard adverts are done to death. No-one cares about them anymore. Some places even ban them completely because it’s 100% agreed that they’re ineffective (at least, I’m pretty sure that’s the reason). So if you’re in advertising, what do you do(?)

A. You get into the minds of people walking past them. Obviously.

This new billboard for the tv series ‘Paranormal State’ (which, btw, sounds like a quality production *cough* Most Haunted *cough*) effectively tricks people into thinking they’re mental by sending sound straight into their tiny little brains.

Mounted above the billboard, the system projects an isolated beam of sound down onto a targeted area of the sidewalk - from seven stories up! People who pass by the billboard are startled and entertained by the sudden message, and their attention is drawn directly to the billboard itself. Meanwhile, quiet is preserved for all of the neighbors.

Lucky neighbours! Not so lucky innocent people walking past who don’t actually want to pay attention to your poxy advert. Apparently, ‘the sound of a women’s voice whispers, “Who’s that? Who’s There? …It’s not your imagination.”‘, which in my book is really creepy. By ‘creepy’ I mean ‘irritating’. By ‘irritating’ I mean ‘a ridiculous invasion of personal space that should surely be illegal or something’. It’s tantamount to those people who block your way on pavements by holding up luminous signs with ‘Unlock your phones! Next street across!’ on just following you down the street all up in your face going ‘ooohh, you love your phone being unlocked don’t you.. oooh…’.

It’s not on really is it(?)

That said, it’s very clever :). If only these powers could be harnessed for the power of good..

more info: http://holosonics.com/PR_AE.htm

(Click on the image to view it full size)

Nice visual representation of ‘beautiful’ html code.. Something to strive for if your code comes across as an illegible mess of random characters, overused div ID’s and inline styles.

I don’t think it’s too much to ask for web developers to output tidy code; it makes it so much easier to work with. Worth the extra minute or so that it takes to produce.

Still at work, having to listen on FiveLive, which isn’t normally too bad (but still no substitute for watching it) but the commentary is via mobile phone because radio lines are down from Moscow. Ridiculous. But still, come on England!!

edit: 5:52pm.

Shit.