The sports Big Picture posts are my favourites. Some amazing images in this set including a horse in full flight beside the riders.
The Big Picture: Tour De France ∞ (15th of July, 2008)
Customer in iPhone line calls out asshole reporter live ∞ (13th of July, 2008)
“This is not smart. this is journalism to you?”
While I think waiting in line is stupid and easily avoidable by delaying a few hours (or, the unthinkable, days), asking the people in line if they’ve seen a girl naked is an asshole thing to do.
Via Daring Fireball.
iPhone 3G
12th of July, 2008
It was never the plan to buy iPhone 3G the day it was released but the excitement around the App Store and MobileMe going live was irresistible. I walked into the Optus store at midday and waited behind just one customer (that wasn’t buying an iPhone). Mine is the 8GB, they were all out of 16s, not that I wanted one. The plan I chose was the $59 cap, $350 worth of calls and text, 500MB of data per month. I’ve been convinced that this will be enough but I’ll talk about it more further down. I haven’t yet paid a cent for the phone — repayments are $2 a month over 24 months. After almost 24 hours of use, playing and real world, these are my thoughts. Continue reading →
Email addresses it would be really annoying to give out over the phone ∞ (10th of July, 2008)
Hilarious.
MikeUnderscore2004@yahoo.com
MikeAtYahooDotCom@hotmail.com
Mike_WardAllOneWord@yahoo.com
AAAAAThatsSixAs@yahoo.com
One1TheFirstJustTheNumberTheSecondSpelledOut@hotmail.com
Via Kung Fu Grippe.
Butterflies are free, so why aren’t iPhone apps?|http://news.cnet.com/8301-13509_3-9984637-20.html ∞ (8th of July, 2008)
The Macalope on software that costs money vs. ad supported software. Given the choice I will always pay money for software without ads. If the alternative is using nothing at all, I’d rather use nothing than have ads syndicated to my desktop.
If Juno Was 10 Times Shorter and 100 Times More Honest ∞ (7th of July, 2008)
Exactly how I feel about the movie Juno, in fantastic, satirical screenplay format.
Conditioned ∞ (7th of July, 2008)
To quote myself:
Before phones, no one would ever drop whatever they’re doing because someone wants to talk to them. It doesn’t even happen with face to face conversation, no one demands attention like a ringing phone does.
Via Lachlan Hardy.
Australian iPhone Optus Plan Prices
6th of July, 2008
Five days before it’s released, just one of the three initial Australian iPhone carriers has announced full plan details and prices. Since owning a mobile phone Optus has been my carrier and the carrier I planned to use with the iPhone. My experience with phone plans is slim, I’ve used the same pre-paid SIM card and very few phones over the last 5 years. Continue reading →
Consciousness Raising
6th of July, 2008
I’m half way through The God Delusion. Much of the beginning is dedicated to arguing how naive belief in God is. Not necessarily deliberately turning a blind eye to evidence against a God (which many still do) but genuine, indoctrinated belief of God in the children of religious parents for example. People that aren’t aware there’s alternative theories or that they’re even capable of considering other ideas. Consciousness raising is a technique for opening minds to the alternatives. I love Dawkins’ example. Continue reading →
Making Floor Plans
30th of June, 2008
The problem with trying to create your own, accurate floor plan is that it requires tools beyond the most basic while the more advanced is massive overkill. You want it to look clear enough for what’s in your head to be accurately presented but you don’t want to spend hours learning how to use something as complex as AutoCAD. In between tools exist but in their quest to make it easy they apply so many constraints it’s a frustrating battle to create what you really want. Continue reading →
A Visual Comparison of the Nokia and Apple Ranges of Phones
29th of June, 2008
This is why I’ve never cared about mobile phones and why I’m so excited about the iPhone.
Ron Mueck: Hyper-Realist Sculptor ∞ (27th of June, 2008)
An Australian sculptor who’s pieces look breathtakingly real. Some are much larger or much smaller than the real thing adding an extra layer of surrealism. I love it!. Via Daring Fireball
My Ideal House
25th of June, 2008
The space around you is important. I don’t think people spend enough time thinking about and trying to improve the space they spend most time in. The options for someone like me, a 20-year-old still at home but almost finished university are few — stay at home (not an option) or move into a house with roommates. My own house would be too expensive and a small apartment can only be found in expensive areas I don’t want to live in anyway. I want to live in a house with the advantages of a house — backyard, verandah, a window on all walls — but I want to live alone and don’t want more than I need. I drew up a floorplan of my ideal house. Continue reading →
Android Expectations ∞ (25th of June, 2008)
John Gruber:
My obsession is with wonderful, thoughtful software and gadgetry. I love the iPhone because it’s fucking amazing, not because it’s from Apple.
People that use Apple products love them because they are good. They get excited about new Apple products because Apple has a reputation for making good products. No one wants competing products to suck because that helps no one. It’s in everyone’s (consumer’s, competitor’s, even share holder’s) best interest for competing products to be great, even better than Apple’s equivalent. Like Gruber, I also desperately want Android to be fantastic but I don’t expect it.
50 Logos for Inspiration ∞ (24th of June, 2008)
Usually lists like this are rubbish Digg attention whoring, this one’s no different except the selection and presentation are of a high quality. My favourites are the Zipliner, K12Reader and Core Cider logos.
Where the hell is Matt? ∞ (24th of June, 2008)
Fantastic video. I love his dancing style, it’s very fluid. He’s even been to Brisbane, my town. Via Garrett Murray.
Simpsons Quake III Map ∞ (24th of June, 2008)
Incredible detail. Even more detail than those crappy Simpsons themed games they sometimes make. Via Waxy.
Illustrated AIDS Posters ∞ (24th of June, 2008)
The Morning News’s Style Guide ∞ (23rd of June, 2008)
Follow it and you’ll be a better writer.
A Review of OmniFocus by Someone Who’s Never Used OmniFocus
20th of June, 2008
I’m a Things user and I’ve never used OmniFocus. I’ve been happily satisfied with Things from the first day I started using it over six months ago. But even when I’m satisfied with a software solution there’s potential for something better, features I didn’t know I was missing but could make my life easier or make my enjoyment of a task greater. When you’re interested in systems for getting things done and just plain software in general, it’s impossible to ignore the hype around OmniFocus.
Continue reading →
Another fantastic Letter from Paris ∞ (20th of June, 2008)
Rosecrans Baldwin:
I asked a French co-worker what the kids were celebrating. He squinted, looking into the sun. “That it’s May,” he said. “That they’re French, that they’re young. You will not understand.”
Full of more funny and interesting anecdotes. France is so weird.
Headquarters
19th of June, 2008
Almost exactly one year ago I started a one page website at me.jimwhimpey.com (now gone) where I tried to aggregate all my online accounts into one. It aggregated the latest content from the web services I use, provided contact information and linked to all my sites whether they were aggregated or not. I thought it was a great idea, attempting reign in all my online activity, so did others. Morten and I started converting it into a web application which stagnated. Months after deleting me.jimwhimpey.com I came across Matthew Bischoff’s homepage and was instantly inspired. Continue reading →
Olympic Preparations ∞ (18th of June, 2008)
One of my favourite posts from the fantastic new blog — The Big Picture — from boston.com. If you haven’t seen The Big Picture yet it’s an news presented in a series of large press photographs with captions. Worth checking out everything they post.
McCain is self confessed computer illiterate ∞ (14th of June, 2008)
Incredible. Clusterflock:
[...] computers are really not that popular, and I don’t think this Internet thing has much of a future anyway.
I think this is a great representation for how old and stuck in his old fashioned ways McCain is. Firstly he should realise how massive the part that computers play in modern, Western society is and realising that, he should make the effort to learn about them. Either he doesn’t realise how important and useful they are which shows gross ignorance or he does realise but won’t learn the basics of using them which shows stubbornness and unwillingness to learn new things or move with the times.
Patience
11th of June, 2008
Yesterday Apple announced the new iPhone would be subsidised by AT&T meaning an upfront half price iPhone. A condition of this is that AT&T need to activate the phone in-store, a process that, according to AT&T, takes 10 to 12 minutes. Greg Storey finds this terrible enough to cause a “bile inducing rage against stupidity”. Like watching someone else throw up can make you react the same way, not to the original source but to their reaction, I’m sickened by Storey’s response to the atrocity of a 10 to 12 minute in-store activation. Continue reading →
