Merlin Mann, the cool uncle of the Interwebs, encourages himself and others to rise above the trite remarks, easy jokes, and poorly conceived and executed "user-generated" content permeating our culture, in order to create something better:
What worries me are the consequences of a diet comprised mostly of fake-connectedness, makebelieve insight, and unedited first drafts of everything. I think it’s making us small. I know that whenever I become aware of it, I realize how small it can make me. So, I’ve come to despise it.
So, here's to being exceptional.
And if you're unfamiliar with Merlin, check out 43 Folders, 5ives, or my personal favorite, You Look Nice Today.
Nice design and illustration over at Studio KXX. I really dig the horizontal navigation, but I wish there was a big link at the end to send you back to the menu. Oh well.
Ever wanted to create your own isometric pixel picture, but didn't know what the word isometric meant? Well, now you can fulfil your wildest dreams with Cubescape!
Good, pointless fun. See mine, or create your own.
UPDATE
I created a movie of one of my designs animating, and I also created an open Facebook group, "Cubescape Highlights", where people can share their creations. Go, cubes!
Nice work from Swedish graphic designer, Jens Nilsson. Check it out!
This guy has some great visual work that you should check out. Everything from websites to graffiti. I like how the creative characters found in his graffiti carry over to his design work, as can be seen in this piece, titled "best wishes 2008".
SafariStand is an InputManager for Safari, which basically means that it is a back-alley plug-in. Apple's web browser, Safari, does not have a supported plug-in architecture, which is a shame because that is the feature that I see as being the real draw of Firefox. Regardless, I use Safari as I find it to be the fastest, slickest web browser on the market. Luckily, mac developers have another route for adding new functionality to Apple's flagship browser through the use of InputManagers, such as the now infamous Inquisitor.
I had stayed away from SafariStand in the past as it has a complicated install process, and . The new SafariStand has some truly killer features though, and I was compelled to give it a try.
Among a host of features, there are two that stand out to me (admittedly a prototypical web geek) as must-haves:
History Flow
SafariStand saves a thumbnail of every page you visit, and then lets you browse them in a CoverFlow-like interface similar to that of iTunes. This is really best described visually:
This is a really clever idea, and has been very helpful. It is much easier to recall what a page that you visited at a week ago looked like than it is to remember the title or address.
Clip Web Archive
This feature allows you to right-click on any element on a web page, and grab the source as a web archive. When you choose "Clip Web Archive" from the context-menu it reveals a powerful menu that lets you grab the HTML source of that element or any of its parent elements. For instance if you click on a paragraph you have the option of saving an archive of just that paragraph, or, for instance, the article that paragraph is within. See below:
You also get the option to include a header in the archive that saves the page info and date recorded, as well as add a note. I have been using this to grab little pieces of info from around the web, and leave myself little notes about why I thought it was interesting. I find this to be much more powerful than just bookmarking an entire page.
I highly recommend installing SafariStand despite all the FUD surrounding InputManagers. Hey, if it's good enough for Jon Hicks, it's good enough for me.
Hulu is a video website, similar to YouTube, but offering "premium content" such as full-length movies and primetime TV shows. It is a joint venture between FOX and NBC (funny they capitalize FOX, is it an acronym? Maybe "Fucking obnOXious") so I was quick to dismiss it as a misguided attempt by the old guard to move into this new space. But I am pleasantly surprised as the whole package seems really well put together and offers something you can't really get anywhere else: a free, viable alternative to regular TV.
Some Things They Got Right
When grabbing the embed code, clicking on the Copy To Clipboard button generates a little checkmark to let you know that you are good to go. Smart.
Dim the Lights:
Collections: like playlists for videos. This will be huge once you can create your own.
Also, you can create your own clip by dragging the handles on the timeline. This is so clever... you can pick out your favorite scenes and share them. Here's mine:
