Links for 2005-04-11

Posted April 11, 2005 1:18 AM.

• syncOtunes
  A nice little thing that synchronises iTunes libraries across multiple computers...
• accessTunes shares your iTunes library as soon as you turn on your computer
  You don't even have to have iTunes open. I think this is interesting mostly because I don't think it'll take off. This needs to be a component of something that gives you a direct reward or it won't spread...
• Blog Business Summit is down on RSS feeds, claiming that although people do subscribe to RSS feeds they never read them
  There's something in there about 'design' mattering as well. I'm a bit conflicted by this one - do people who don't have time to read their feeds have time to roam across the web either?
• Virtual Magic Kingdom: It’s a Virtual World After All
  Terra Nova comments on the Disney idea to make a MMORG or social avatar-based space online that resembles the Magic Kingdom...
• Nicolas Ducheneaut's home page
  "My research focuses on software and technologies that support and enhance social interactions. I observe interactions in online environments; I build tools to analyze these interactions further; and I design, deploy and evaluate new social technologies"
• IT Conversations
  Awesome, if slightly geeky, podcast site that should explode in popularity when Odeo gets out..
• Pete Barr Watson on an Apple themed UI for mobile phones
  It's very very pretty, although it still looks a little too much like a phone OS, which is never good...
• A glorious response to essays on Hackers and Painters...
  "Great paintings, for example, get you laid in a way that great computer programs never do. Even not-so-great paintings - in fact, any slapdash attempt at splashing paint onto a surface - will get you laid more than writing software"
• Japanize your ass!
  A beautiful and intriguing historical and cultural tribute to Japan's considerable lead in the International Poo-handling Race
• Lee Bryant talks about the Six Apart weblog conference thing I talked at and makes an interesting point about pent-up demand for this kind of event
  I couldn't agree more - I would like to attend, and would be prepared to speak at and help organise if that was any incentive (unlikely), other social software events in London...
• Lightspace Corporation - Cutting Edge Interactive Lighting Surfaces
  They make shiny walls and interactive floors and stuff. It's very prety and cool and I suspect might eventually seem natural and obvious...
• I've made the populicio.us 48 hour view my homepage
  It's probably the best way to keep up roughly with what's going on in my community and it's slow enough not to drive me nuts if I don't read anything else...
• Omniglot is a fascinating guide to written language that I can't get enough of...
  It has stuff on various alphabets and syllabaries, abjads (like alphabets but with a different handling of vowel sounds) and scripts that defy translation...
• The Pentagon's Flying Saucer
  Fascinating and awesome-looking hovering beastie developed by the US defence department...
• The dictionary definition of Vambraces
  Vambraces are armored protection for your forearms, like Wonder Woman wears!
• What would Googlemaps look like from the ground?
  This has been everywhere, but it's good and it's funny and it's well assembled. So I don't care.
• Prospect brings together a panel of thinkers to discuss what it means to be British
  Which is far from an obvious question if you're English, Welsh, Scottish or from Northern Ireland. Good, well-terrier-ed stuff. No real conclusions, though...
• The EFF has offered guidelines on how to not get into trouble as a work blogger...
  The advice is pretty simple, be vague and keep it anonymous. The interesting part of all of this for me is how squarely the issue of publishing in public but only meaning it for a few friends is at the heart of it all...
• The US TV series "Lost" will be broadcast on Channel 4 later this year (and by the way Desperate Housewives season two will be on C4 too)
  Finally all my friends who have heard me raving about Lost will be able to see for themselves...
• Independent music labels are protesting the launch of a downloads chart when they're as yet unable to get their music on iTunes
  iTunes apparently has 80% of the downloads market in the UK and that means that songs that aren't on it pretty much can't make it into the charts...
• Bronze Shields is a photoset on Flickr for images averaged from all the squared circle images that were around earlier in the year
  When smooshed together they look startlingly beautiful in a burnished copper kind of way. Interesting.
• TypeNavigator - visual font identification system
  It's not as powerful as Identifont or What the Font, but it is quicker and easier to get to grips with...
• FF Alega font family
  Currently much loving this intriguing little font. Doesn't look too good in the previews, but I think it has some interesting applications...