David Emery OnlineFriday Links XXXVII
9 November 2007
Andrew Kuo: No Lifeguard on Duty
I love infographics, and especially the colours used here.
EMI To Release Radiohead Boxset
What a utterly shameless cash-in on the hype caused by In Rainbows. I’ve heard that this box set was used as a threat by EMI when they were negotiating their new contract – no wonder they didn’t re-sign with those sort of tactics. I do kind of want that USB stick though…
Boing Boing’s new community features!
Interesting that they seem to be doing this all on top of Moveable Type. Does anyone really want yet another social network tacked onto a website, though?
FaceBook’s Hotmail problem
Seth has – as always – a good point, but he fails to recognise that the people that Facebook are selling to are advertisers, not the consumers looking at the ads. As long as the people book the ads think they work, then Facebook is ok. Also, I’m under the impression that Hotmail is still very successful.
2M
After having used it for a couple of weeks, I’m still very impressed by 10.5.
Try Again
“For heaven’s sake: Find someone, ONE person, with a unique vision. Lock them in a room with some programmers and a graphic designer. Twenty people, tops. Change the world. Quit re-hashing the same old bullshit and telling me it’s new, exciting, or in any way innovative. Be ready to fail, many times, but for love of all that is holy take a stand on something.” – I could actually quote that entire post; it’s all gold.
Coverflow for People
I think Coverflow could be applied successfully to almost every app in some way.
The ComScore Report
“Does a drug dealer make you pay upfront? No, a new customer always gets a taste free. To see how fucking good the drug is. The goal is to ADDICT the customer, so he’ll keep on paying until he dies. This is the way it used to be in the music business, in the sixties and seventies, when bands had CAREERS!” – Bob also makes the point that you can’t use the Radiohead experiment to prove anything, as they’re such a unique case. I’m very much in the agreement that spreading the word – for a new band at least – is by far the most important thing; way more so then making loose change from album sales.
2+2=5
It boggles the mind how stupid some people are.
Something’s Missing in Web Design
I think the comparisons Khoi makes here – to logo design, to poster design and to film titles design – are off base; web design is much more like newspaper, book and magazine design. It’s all about communicating content, and I’m surprised he of all people doesn’t acknowledge that.
The New Microsoft
Hugh hits the nail on the head (again).
Your Site Shouldn’t Have a Social Network
I couldn’t agree more. Maybe when things like OpenID and some form of open social graph have taken off and been adopted by the major players then it will become relevant again. As it stands now you really have to question why somebody would socialise on your site versus Facebook et al, when they’re not going to have the rest of their friend network on there.
How come Aperture gets to have all the fun?
This bugs me, but in the exact opposite way to (seemingly) everyone else on the internet – I want my menubar to be consistently transparent, including in Aperture.
Music blogs are killing music
While obviously a lot of music blog out there are of no consequence and written by obvious hacks, it’s worth remembering the same is also true of printed media. I find it amusing that the article in question was written on the Guardian’s music blog…
A Geeky Take on the WGA Strike
“And I hate to break this to you, but none of us are making any money out here.”
The ever-blurring line between art and advertising
Unlike the recent fuss over the Sony Bravia rabbit advert (which I don’t think was a rip off), no matter what Lowe London says this one is. Even if they came up with the idea independently, after seeing the pieces by Tim Noble & Sue Webster they should have either seaked their blessing or taken a different tack.
Sufjan’s Xmas Xchange
In these days of continuous copyright persecution, it’s nice to see someone taking the concept, twisting it around and having a bit of fun.
What makes the iPhone something to hate?
It’s a very odd reaction, which I guess is based on seeing lots of people being so passionate about something, and not understanding why. Apple gets this far more then most, because almost all of their competitors churn out mediocre drivel that will never generate a reaction, whether it’s good or bad.
“Not sensible, but, oh, the joy of it!”
This is exactly it. 100% right. No other opinions needed.
stereogum: Radiohead.tv
I watched pretty much all of this, and it was utterly stunning. It’s so rare that you get to see someone like Radiohead open up in this way, and while webcasting seems a little old hat these days it really added to that sense of it being an ‘event’. The knowledge that lots of people are all watching at the same time is very powerful. I would post a video of the mashup/rip-off of Se7en, but I can’t find a decent quality version. Needless to say, it was utterly brilliant…
UPDATE: Found it, courtesy of Adam Buxton’s Blog: