myFry for iPhone →

Trust Stephen Fry to be behind the wheel of one of the first mainstream hypertext books where the form is just as interesting as the content.

# Wednesday Oct 20, 2010

Jonathan Franzen glasses thief speaks →

In short, a drunken impulsive prank. Favourite line: "To bide me some time, I remember shouting as I snatched the glasses off the bewildered man's face that I was with Channel 4 doing a comedy stunt. Looking back, I'm not exactly sure what that meant or why I said it."

# Monday Oct 11, 2010

Jon Ronson meets the Insane Clown Posse →

'"Well," Violent J says, "science is… we don't really… that's like…" He pauses. Then he waves his hands as if to say, "OK, an analogy": "If you're trying to fuck a girl, but her mom's home, fuck her mom! You understand? You want to fuck the girl, but her mom's home? Fuck the mom. See?"'

# Saturday Oct 9, 2010

Alan W. Pollack's 'Notes on...' series →

Alan W. Pollack's exhaustive analysis of the music of The Beatles. He wrote these over the course of 11 years, starting in 1989, in weekly posts to the rec.music.beatles usenet group. For example, in his 'Notes on "Hey Jude"', he says "The bridge features a Bach-like walking bassline which, by the way, is a key source of the perceived contrast between the bridge section and its surrounding verses; the bassline of the verse, after all, simply follows the roots of the chord changes." Fascinating and edifying. Bonus.

# Friday Oct 8, 2010

iWatch →

When Apple demoed the new iPod nano last week, I mentioned on twitter about how much I liked the look of its clock. It's more thoughtfully designed and better crafted than most watches.

Well, some wags have taken the obvious step by throwing a strap on the Nano and making it into a proper watch.

One thing Apple left off the new Nano with the redesign is the previous iteration's video camera. Is it so strange to imagine that a future redesign of the new Nano will re-add this feature? A front-facing camera with FaceTime? Suddenly we're wearing video phones on our wrists.

Oh shit! We're in the future.

# Monday Sep 6, 2010

How to Use Textmate →

Amazingly useful list of links on how to use Textmate properly, courtesy of Zeldman.

For example, did you know you can write a blog post in Textmate, drag-and-drop an image into the textmate window and it will automatically upload and insert the image into your blog post? I didn't. Mind = blown.

# Sunday Aug 15, 2010

Spoilers →

it's time to stop DVR-ing the series and start watching it live. You'll be happy you did, and you'll be happy to return to the cultural conversation. Let's bring a return of watercooler culture to the offices, chat rooms, and entertainment blogs of America. We're not arguing for spoilers; we're arguing against letting yourself get spoiled. Suck it up, America. Watch the damn shows.

New York Magazine - Spoilers: In Defense of the American Watercooler

# Friday Jul 30, 2010

Spoilers →

it's time to stop DVR-ing the series and start watching it live. You'll be happy you did, and you'll be happy to return to the cultural conversation. Let's bring a return of watercooler culture to the offices, chat rooms, and entertainment blogs of America. We're not arguing for spoilers; we're arguing against letting yourself get spoiled. Suck it up, America. Watch the damn shows.

New York Magazine - Spoilers: In Defense of the American Watercooler

# Friday Jul 30, 2010

Great FAQ Answer →

Real helpful. Thanks, Microsoft.

Q:Is there a maximum number of Points that I can have in my balance?

A: Yes, there is a limit. When you reach that limit, you will be notified that you've reached the maximum number.

# Wednesday Jul 28, 2010

Great FAQ Answer →

Real helpful. Thanks, Microsoft.

Q:Is there a maximum number of Points that I can have in my balance?

A: Yes, there is a limit. When you reach that limit, you will be notified that you've reached the maximum number.

# Wednesday Jul 28, 2010

No Content Found →

There’ll be some discussion of the ending of Mass Effect 2, so if you haven’t played that game all the way through and you like your life spoiler-free, stop reading now

After about 30 hours of playing, I finally, finally finished Mass Effect 2. And having finished it now, I’m still happy that pretty much everything I said about the game still stands. There were a couple of side-missions that were time-based: you have X number of minutes to escape from X or to stop X from happening, but…

# Tuesday Jul 27, 2010

No Content Found →

A couple of days ago, I wrote about how Red Dead Redemption could be seen as a useful metric to demonstrate how far videogaming has come. Now I want to discuss the other side of that argument, how Red Dead Redemption represents how far videogames still have to go as a medium.

Let’s tackle the issues in reverse order

The Ugly

As Emmett points out, despite being labelled an ‘open world’ game, Red Dead Redemption does not offer the player a particularly satisfying level of immersion and…

# Sunday Jul 25, 2010

No Content Found →

Almost three years on, Clint Hocking’s Ludonarrative Dissonance in BioShock is still dangerous.

If you’ve got five minutes, you should go read his essay now, but if you had a quick look and you’re still all “tl;dr”, here’s the short-short version of Hocking’s argument: while the story in BioShock is all about freedom, choice and power, the story of player’s actions (what Hocking calls the ‘ludonarrative’ of the game) is restricted to one pre-defined path. So, despite all the talk of free…

# Wednesday Jul 21, 2010

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter →

I've spent a good portion of today checking out videos from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which just opened in Orlando. Sure, there's rollercoasters and all that junk, but what I love is the mise-en-scene of the whole thing. The attention to detail. Mobility scooters aside, Hogsmeade looks perfect.

The Ollivander's spiel made me wish I was 13 years old again (the 31-year old me couldn't help but see the genius of the scam behind it - what parent is not going to buy a wand for their child after it has 'chosen them').

The AttractionsMagazine youtube channel has tons more, if you're also a giant man-child and fancy wasting a couple of hours too.

# Monday Jun 21, 2010

Dangers of Self-googling →

The things you find browsing the Adrian Mole wiki at 1am on a Monday:

Sharon Bott

Adrian Mole’s first ‘lover’ and mother of Glen Bott (Adrian’s illegitamate son). Adrian and Sharon have nothing in common and were merely intrested in each other for sex. Sharon represents the underclass of Britain.

> >

My name is Sharon Bott. I was born in Oadby Leicester. I have never met anyone named Adrian Mole. My eldest child is the son of his french father. Sue Townsend did not ask me if she could use my name and if she had done so I would not have allowed her. She has defamed my name i am upset and emmbarrassed. and would sue if i could find a solicitor to help me, «email»@live.com.91.XXX.XXX.XXX 13:15, May 7, 2010 (UTC)

# Sunday Jun 20, 2010

Joystiq's Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Gallery →

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I am ridiculously excited about playing Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, set in renaissance Rome. The idea of shanking someone outside the Pantheon (in a videogame, of course) seems really cathartic.

# Thursday Jun 17, 2010

Joystiq's Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Gallery →

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I am ridiculously excited about playing Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, set in renaissance Rome. The idea of shanking someone outside the Pantheon (in a videogame, of course) seems really cathartic.

# Thursday Jun 17, 2010

No Content Found →

Audio

Vince DiCola's 'Training Montage' song from Rocky IV. If there's a better song to work out to, I'd love to hear it.

# Wednesday Jun 9, 2010

Sweating the Small Stuff →

Secret Lab tells us why the promotional images for the iPad show 9:41am (and the iPhones all say 9:42am). I love that even the trivial, incidental stuff tells a story.

# Wednesday Apr 14, 2010

Tremerz →

Flash game of "Tremors" - fuck yes.

# Monday Apr 5, 2010

The Movie Studios' Big 3D Scam →

I managed to catch Avatar in 3D when I was back home last month and I don't think the 3D helped at all. In fact, the few scenes where it really 'worked' for me just yanked me right out of the paper-thin story. I'd rather have seen it in 2D without the 30% colour-loss you get with the 3D glasses.

# Wednesday Mar 17, 2010