Links & notes for this month

• • E-Books – The Bigger Problem, Part Two of Three. | Dangerous Precedent
    "With every piece of metadata that you don’t throw away, you gain a factor more potential ways of slicing through your content and delivering it as a separate product, simply as a result of a database lookup. In the case of Vogue today, say, commissioning an editorial product that simply shows every dress designed by Christian Dior that appears in the archive would involve weeks of intern-work, instantly making it unprofitable or too late. A metadata-complete archive in the future would give you that with a single line of code." Hammersley on the value to journalism of sensible datastorage. Data-driven journalism in the sense that it is not *about* data, but in that it is *treated as data* - and from this more stories can flow.
    (tags: publishing journalism benhammersley data content metadata storage intertwingly )
• • Assassin’s Creed 2: 0 out of 5 stars « Chungking Espresso
    "How does a game about killing people, the Old Testament, and the Borgias completely bore an Italian Jew?" Simon Ferrari didn't like Assassin's Creed II; he explains why. It's entertaining, for sure (but I'm still going to pick it up).
    (tags: games simonferrari writing assassinscreed2 )
  • BLDGBLOG: Leviathan: An Interview with Richard Mosse
    Wonderful interview with Richard Mosse, who photographs (quite beautifully) plane wrecks.
    (tags: photography landscape ballardian aircraft wreckage disruption art )
  • The Escapist : Gaming Isn't Brain Surgery
    "I wonder what Tulon Ethabathel the Dwarf is doing right now." A US brain surgeon talks about his interest in gaming, the amount of time he gives it - very little - but the nontheless-important role it plays in his life. Lovely article, really; well-crafted and thought-provoking.
    (tags: games lifestyle life culture medicine pasttimes )
  • Andy Huntington Interaction & Sound » Datadecs
    "For Christmas 2009 the Really Interesting Group wanted to create a a gift comprising a series of 4 unique decorations based on each recipient’s use of the Flickr, Dopplr, Last.fm and Twitter. Having used a couple of the software APIs they were thinking about using (flickr and dopplr) and with experience of rapid prototyping we worked together to turn the data into something physical." Can't believe I haven't linked this already. Ours were wonderful; many thanks to RIG and Andy.
    (tags: datadecs data christmas design rapidprototyping rig andyhuntingdon awesome )
• • Tuper Tario Tros.
    It's Mario. And then it's Tetris. And then it's Mario. And then it's Tetris. Copyright-infringing Flixel awesomeness - much better than the concept initially sounds. You should check this out.
    (tags: games flash flixel mashup mario tetris )
• • trails - Intuitive GPS tracking on the iPhone
    "Trails is the first GPS iPhone app that allows you to record, import and export tracks onto your iPhone." Also, it's not *too* battery intensive, has a really well thought-out UI, and wasn't too expensive. Very nice.
    (tags: gps tracklogging gpx kml location geotagging iphone app )
• • Critical Distance | 99 Free Games from 2009
    "The following is a list of 99 free games (in no particular order) that I’ve enjoyed this calendar year, nearly all of which have been released in 2009 or very late in 2008. So why don’t you take a break from funding corporate overlords and see just what a feast there is out there in the wide world below the big ticket level—all you can lose, really, is just a little bit of time." Turns out I've played a lot of these. Many are good; some are excellent.
    (tags: games free lists endofyear )
• • Jcrop - Deep Liquid
    "Jcrop is the quick and easy way to add image cropping functionality to your web application. It combines the ease-of-use of a typical jQuery plugin with a powerful cross-platform DHTML cropping engine that is faithful to familiar desktop graphics applications." Wow - snappy, well-made, and very impressive.
    (tags: jquery dhtml javascript programming image editing )
  • Slammer - Designer's Geometry Box
    "Slammer gives you any grid you want, anywhere you want: Typographic Grids, Golden Sections, Fibonacci series or Rule of Thirds. Thats not all, Slammer also has Rulers, Crosshairs, Magnifier, Measurements & Screenshots. Slammer is a must have for any designer."
    (tags: grid layout design osx application utility tools )
  • Every day the same dream - molleindustria
    Bleak, stylistically lovely, flash game about the drudgery of existence. Not cheery, but some beautiful touches. And I loved the cow.
    (tags: flash games life experimentalgameplay )
  • GeSHi - Generic Syntax Highlighter :: Home
    "Welcome to the home of the Generic Syntax Highlighter - GeSHi. GeSHi started as an idea to create a generic syntax highlighter for the phpBB forum system, but has been generalised to this project." As seen on the Panic blog: very impressive, in particular, the clickable documentation of Objective-C keywords.
    (tags: programming syntax languages highlighting tools utility )
• • Learn to Let Go: How Success Killed Duke Nukem | Magazine
    "...the Duke Nukem Forever team worked for 12 years straight. As one patient fan pointed out, when development on Duke Nukem Forever started, most computers were still using Windows 95, Pixar had made only one movie — Toy Story — and Xbox did not yet exist." Fantastic, dense, Wired article on DNF from Clive Thompson
    (tags: games business take2 3drealsm dukenukemforever technology development failure )
  • Panasonic Lumix GF1 Field Test — 16 Days in the Himalayas
    "For 16 days I lived with it strapped to me as I climbed through the valleys of central Nepal up to Annapurna Base Camp at 4,200 meters." Wonderful review of the GF1, framed as a travelogue, with real photographs. I'd be quite happy if all camera reviews looked like this.
    (tags: photography camera panasonic travel review gf1 )
  • How do I know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? I was in the room | Mark Lynas | Environment | The Guardian
    "Copenhagen was much worse than just another bad deal, because it illustrated a profound shift in global geopolitics. This is fast becoming China's century, yet its leadership has displayed that multilateral environmental governance is not only not a priority, but is viewed as a hindrance to the new superpower's freedom of action." Mark Lynas on the reality of China's actions at Copenhagen. Worrying.
    (tags: copenhagen china climatechange politics environment )
  • kung fu grippe : Making the Clackity Noise
    "Little stories are the internet’s native and ideal art form." Yes. This is a good one.
    (tags: writing creativity stories storytelling culture online merlinmann )
• • Grit: The skills for success and how they are grown | The Young Foundation
    "Grit: The skills for success and how they are grown, a new Young Foundation book published on Tuesday 30 June argues that Britain's schools need to prioritise grit and self-discipline. Drawing on evidence from around the world it shows that these contribute as much to success at work and in life as IQ and academic qualifications."
    (tags: education learning difficulty challenge via:matlock )
  • Movement Mechanics in “The Legend of Zelda” « Troy Gilbert
    "What’s happening here is a very neat trick. While Link can move a single pixel at a time, in any direction, the longer he continously moves in any direction the more he gravitates toward aligning himself with the underlying grid of the screen." Lovely little analysis of the different ways the original Legend of Zelda, and the subsequent Link to the Past, subtly correct the player's input to ensure they never feel cheated by pixel-perfect hit detection.
    (tags: games nintendo zelda movement design interaction )
• • Insult Swordfighting: Games of the decade: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time -- Video Game Reviews and Rants
    "Then, after the Prince topples the evil Vizier and rewinds time, back to before the Sands destroyed everything, it's as though they've never met. When we realize that the Prince has been talking to Farah all along, and not to us, it is a perfect storytelling moment: funny, surprising, achingly romantic. I don't remember if Farah falls in love with the Prince after that, but I did." Mitch writes about Sands of Time in his end-of-decade list. It's still, I think, my favourite game of the decade.
    (tags: games sandsoftime princeofpersia mitchkrpata writing )
• • : Charis Wilson | The Economist
    "In [Nude] she was always sorry for the clumsy pins, and the uneven parting in her hair. But Edward Weston regretted the shadow on her right arm, which spoiled the symmetry of her body curving like an architectural form or a tree, or like a curling wave on the coast, lines as lovely as any in Nature. To her lasting astonishment, he had glorified her." I love Economist obituaries, and this one - of Charis Wilson - is no exception. Lovely.
    (tags: photography economist obituary art chariswilson via:blech )
  • Twitter / @HATProject/HomeAlone
    "All the characters fom Home Alone, the project starts on the 22nd." 22 Twitterbots, performing Home Alone, in realtime, starting Dec 22nd. Awesome. Bonkers, but awesome (and takes the concept I used in Twit 4 Dead to a new level).
    (tags: drama performance twitter bots homealone narrative distributed )
  • Connosr - The Whisky Social Network (Beta) - Discover, Review and Share Single Malt Whisky
    "The whisky social network". Ooh. Has potential, at least.
    (tags: whisky community online social network drink )