Author: Mathew

The people at growthrock.co have shared their AB test and results for work on the kotn.com website. A really great and simple example of what AB testing is, and how useful / insightful it can be. Add to The $300 Million Button classic for future case studies.

Just on the phone with Virgin Media, and heard the hold music (Opus No. 1, by Tim Carleton and Darrick Deel) that was reported on in the Stuck in the Middle episode of This American Life. Cisco have an article about it now as well.

And once again, it’s now my earworm.

Me to. xkcd.com/2109

[we] are nothing but a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement.

David Hume, in A Treatise of Human Nature, Book I, Part 4, Section 6, ‘Of Personal Identity’

I’ve mentioned before that a friend once said something similar to this, in that ‘we are nothing but a collection of traits’.

While Hume said it more fancily, and perhaps validated my friend, I still like her version best.

Nukemap is an impressively scary tool.

Heard about this via the Atomic Tattoos episode of 99PI, where War Games also gets a mention. Damn, I wanted to be Matthew Broderick.

For some reason, every now and then – like now – I remember the Dinopocalypse episode of Radiolab. It’s such an awesome account of the science involved on the day the dinosaurs died. Give it a listen and stick with it if you’re not familiar with the comedic delivery of the main presenters.

So much of the science is unimaginable until you hear the physics explained bit by bit. Terrifyingly inspiring stuff.

In turn, reminding me of my favourite ever XKCD What If? What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?

Once again, Apple is inviting people to share their best photos in order to promote the abilities of the iPhone camera, and rightly so, it’s raised concern about giving credit where due.

In my opinion, both full credit and payment should be given. No question. Because while the iPhone camera is great, good photography (especially consistently good), is all about the eye behind the camera and practically nothing to do with the technology.

The case in point that comes to mind is – what must be the first ever ‘shot on camera phone’ ad campaign – the 2008 ad campaign for the ‘Samsung 8-megapixel Pixon camera phone‘.

This was not a good camera. Nor a good phone. But the project was super innovative for the time (2 years before instagram) and the choice of Nick Turpin was spot on. The photos from his month away were fantastic, and still hold up today I think, even if the website design and video editing have dated rather poorly.

Read and see more about the project here. View some of the project on Nick’s Flickr, for however long that lasts.

 

What a lovely animation. The sort I think I would have done in the parallel universe where I studied animation rather than graphic design.

99% Invisible, Mini Stories Vol 5 just reminded me of Chindogu. Irreverent objects that are designed to be all but useless, while also humerus and perhaps a little thought provoking. Like these classics:

In turn, this reminded me of the RuckJack, which is a jacket, that turns into a bag. Or a bag, that turns into a jacket.

Give it a moment. Think for a while about the RuckJack and try to imagine scenarios where it would be useful.

.

.

.

How did you get on? Personally I’m still at a loss for any real world scenario where having a RuckJack would be useful, beyond a Chindogu level of usefulness.

Bonus fact from the 99PI story: The selfie stick was invented in the 90s as a Chindogu.

Anyway, that’s a large part of what economics is—people arbitrarily, or as a matter of taste, assigning numerical values to non-numerical things. And then pretending that they haven’t just made the numbers up, which they have. Economics is like astrology in that sense, except that economics serves to justify the current power structure, and so it has a lot of fervent believers among the powerful.

This short musing amused me in Red Mars today. Also, one of those fourth wall breaking bits in a book, where the authors own opinions seem to pour out.