Surfin' the 'tinterweb... so you don't have to #4

Here's some more links for you... stuff I spotted while *trying* to rest.



First up is this fab post on Boing Boing that talks about stickers on laptops. I'm not one for stickers on my tech... apart from my work's IBM T41 that has an Apple sticker on it like the old powerbooks. Kind of quirky... and slightly rebellious.

As I said... I'm not a big fan of stickers on laptops but my etsy find for today could persuade me otherwise...



I really like this graphic. I connect with it as I sit here with headphones beside me watching the birds at the fatballs and seeds at my front window. All good design should encapsulate meaning... and this does for me.



This brings me to some fab iPhone wallpaper via Smashing Magazine (thanks James for the heads-up). Some fab resources here... I knew about poolga and Pixelgirl but this post highlights a number of other sites for keeping your iPhone presentable. My personal fave [ so far ] is the Star Wars one... but then you knew that.





On a music tip... I am loving Jesse Somfay's mix for allez-allez. Its more a collection of great tunes than a fancy mix... kind of like the stuff I used to do for Orange Noise Radio a while back.



The mix is one of five volumes... the other 4 are available here albeit the pipe's pretty slow (or maybe that's just me).



Another music thing I'm really excited about is http://www.tentracks.co.uk/ where for *ONE POUND* you get 10 tracks from some sweet indie labels to enjoy/sample/make into fab compilations etc. Labels like one little indian and soma have some fab tunes available. The Soma one features some seriously super techno/electronic goodness such as Vector Lovers, Slam, Silicone Soul and Funk d'void. Its a fab way to hear new music. I hope it catches on.



Speaking of catching on... I spent a while on nyctaper last night. Downloaded shows from Sigur Ros, Death Cab for Cutie, Deerhunter and Mum. Haven't listened to them yet. Got a bit carried away... like a kid in a sweetie shop.

Thing is... the site has seen some serious bandwidth since they posted the Animal Collective gigs and are struggling a bit, to be honest...

The problem of course is that the drastic increase in volume crashed the server on Wednesday morning. We allocated more memory (at more cost) on three separate occasions on Wednesday and Thursday and finally just moved the Animal Collective files to archive.org. The high volume of visits continue and more downtime resulted today. Ultimately our host server responded with a virtual shrug of the shoulders. We paid extra for a private server, but apparently this kind of traffic is not even something that upgrade can handle../

The long and the short of it is... they need donations and a "white knight" sponsor... so if you enjoy what they provide... send them a wee something... and hope, as I do, that their "Prince Charming" will come along and give them what they need.



Once last thing... I thought this article on trendland was pretty special... all about "transparent design". I hope its something else that catches on.

That's me... if I haven't accredited you for a link then I'm sorry. Enjoy.

My iPhone wallpaper...

My iPhone wallpaper..., originally uploaded by Headphonaught.

Moment of clarity here: I am such a geek!

Let's see your current wallpapers... post a pic and leave a link.

4) star wars #3 - Luke (26/365)

4) star wars #3 - Luke (26/365), originally uploaded by Headphonaught.

Picked this shirt up for £5 in the sales... I loved the original pic - it makes for a sweet tee.

Surfin' the 'tinterweb... so you don't have to #3 :: supplemental...

Thought I'd post the in rainbows video contest winners ::



[ Weird Fishes ] by Tobias Stretch



[ Reckoner ] by Clement Picon



[ Videotape ] by Wolfgang Jaiser and Claus Winter



[ 15 Step ] by Kota Totori

Truly creative awesomeness...

When my budgies came to visit...

Posted with LifeCast

Surfin' the 'tinterweb... so you don't have to #3

Hey... I know I should be reading or watching some TV... but this is fun.



My etsy find is this "WE" necklace. I love its simplicity and yets profound message. Its about the collective not the individual... and this can even be displayed on something so deeply individualistic as jewellery. Nice.



I have to admit to a certain voyeurism... I love watching people make stuff on makezine.tv/. I am completely useless at making the kind of stuff they make... but thought this article on installing Mac OSX onto a Netbook to be intriguing. Anyone want to spot me £300 and I'll give it a go? If you've got the money... I've got the time..! Anyone???



Next up is a video from Shepard Fairey on the art of beautiful mistakes (part of psfk's LA conference). He makes some excellent points including this one:

I think almost everything I’ve achieved has come from me perusing what I felt really strongly and passionately about and not second guessing my instincts and trying to have a level of authenticity.

Inspiring!



My thanks to Gurdonark for giving me the heads-up to Isabella Gardner Museum and their classical music podcast. Some awesome live recordings all released with a Creative Commons licence to enable folks like me who'll probably never enjoy a live concert at the Museum to get something too. Nice touch folks. Oh and some of the podcasts feature the word "Baroque" which is word that gets my dad all geeky.



Keeping on the music tip... nyctaper has recorded the recent Animal Collective show at the Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom. Downloaded it but haven't listened to it as yet... haven't picked up Merriweather Post Pavillion and want to listen to the originals first.



Speaking of Manhattan... I really, really like this bag. Sorry... that just kind of came out. It is a nice bag.



Coming back to the AC tip... allez-allez.co.uk have a mix by Josh Deacon from Animal Collective. Its a fab 30 minute meander. Lovely.



Still on a music tip... DJ Earworm has a new mashup out that features Maroon 5. On his site he says...

I commend them on their spirit of experimentation, especially since they opened up their entire archive for me to interpret! I basically had the Pro Tools digital recording sessions for all their songs, so I could go in and grab whatever instrument or vocal I wanted. This is the first time I’ve gotten such a depth of data to work with.

I commend them too... and thank DJ Earworm for another supernice track.


The Global Hunger Epidemic from Oxfam America on Vimeo.

Speaking of commending musicians for their actions... I would like to commend Sigur Ros for donating their track Með suð í eyrum for OXFAM America's latest campaign. Please support OXFAM. I do.

Enjoy.

3) star wars #2 - Gamorean Guard (25/365)

3) star wars #2 - Gamorean Guard (25/365), originally uploaded by Headphonaught.

Picked this tee up for £5 in Urban Outfitters in late 2008. Its a repro of an old Return of the Jedi sticker series (of which I have one of the stickers) and I just fell in love with it. Its a "L" so I had to lose weight to fit into it. TBH its this tee that's been the motivation for me losing 12lbs - not the somethingbeautiful comp or my cholesterol :-)

They remove the destructive feeling of lonliness...

I don't know whether or not you saw this tweet? I sent it from my iPhone at 1637hrs on the 21st... not long after I had regained consciousness from my op and was back in my wee room. I wrote it in response to a message on Facebook... a dear friend was surprised I was back on Facebook so soon after my op.

Whilst in the hospital I had the need to feel connected... to feel part of something bigger... to be surrounded by my loved ones - family and friends - and to be, essentially, not alone.

At times I wasn't physically alone... when Olly was visiting or when the nurses were in... but, for the most part, I was alone.

Psychologically, I didn't feel alone or at least I didn't feel the destructive despair that comes with lonliness... because I was able to connect... able to reach out to folks or respond to their love and best wishes.

So when you ask me why I twitter... or why there is a constant stream of consciousness on Facebook... or I always seem to have my face in my iPhone... I think you'll understand a wee bit more.

I'm not saying that this form of remote, passive intimacy can/should replace more immediate, physical forms of intimacy... but I am making a case for its importance and consideration in more holistic worldview.

Never underestimate the power of a simple "hi... how are you?" on whatever medium you choose... if it comes from the heart and you are prepared to follow it through.

So yeah... thanks for all the tweets, FB messages, phonecalls, SMS', visits, cards, emails etc... it does mean the world to me!

I don't know what to think about this...

What do you do when someone comes in... rips you off and totally recontextualises your initial idea? I know there is no such thing as an original idea but this just annoys me.

I am annoyed that the wee organic, word-of-mouth thing we have going in our small niche in the twitterverse has been co-opted by folks that are, imho, too busy speaking to listen... too busy broadcasting to actually hear what's going on... to actually build up meaningful relationships with diverse people.

Maybe I'm being too hard and over reacting (as I am prone to do) but I feel this shows a complete lack of regard or sensitivity to what we've done and where we could have gone with this.

Oh and I hate the use of textspeak in tweets too!!!

Ah well... it could be worse. It could be co-opted for commercial gain... I can imagine the originators of the flashmob will be beelin' at this:



Any thoughts?

Say it with flowers...

My thanks to my folks for their kind gift. Possibly my second ever bunch of flowers.

Picture posted with LifeCast... slushy sentiment added later.