Ligature Laboratories is officially launching its new blog this weekend called Dialogue.

Currently writing for with us some of you may know already: Jim Anderson, Brendan Griffiths, Michael Hersrud, Susie Neilsen and my co-founder Ksenya Samarskaya.

I will no longer be maintaining Thought, as I will be turning my energy to Dialogue and some other projects we are working on over at Ligature Laboratories.

I hope that you will all visit Dialogue and we hope to engage you in a fierce discussion on the current state of design.

Dialogue . www.ligaturelaboratories.net






As you may have noticed the postings have run bit dry in the past few weeks. I have recently focused all of my attention to getting a new blog up and running.

As part of a collective that I am co-founding called the Ligature Laboratories, we are starting a blog called Dialogue to pique, and stimulate interest in interdisciplinary, collaborative and holistic design practice.

Currently writing for with us some of you may know already. Jim Anderson, Brendan Griffiths, Michael Hersrud, Susie Neilsen and my co-founder Ksenya Samarskaya.

Our goal is to launch the first of the month. Please check back for the address and to engage in a dialogue about contemporary design practice beyond the corporatized pages of How, Print, CMYK and the like.

I look forward to conversing with all of you in the near future.

Cheers,
+kieran.




I tried to download a copy of Internet Explorer for Mac today and Microsoft quit developing it the end of last year.

« In June 2003, the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit announced that Internet Explorer for Mac would undergo no further development, and support would cease in 2005. In accordance with published support lifecycle policies, Microsoft ended support for Internet Explorer for Mac on December 31st, 2005, and is not providing any further security or performance updates.

Accordingly, as of January 31st, 2006, Internet Explorer for the Mac is no longer available for download from Microsoft. It is recommended that Macintosh users migrate to more recent web browsing technologies such as Apple's Safari. »

Now if they would only stop developing it for PC, everytime I get something working well in Firefox or Safari, the moment I open IE something is screwd up.

« Internet Explorer 5 for Mac »




A great review of Drawing Restraint 9, the newest film by Matthew Barney, staring himself and Bjork. Did you know they were dating?

« The Bjork-Barney Enigma . via NY Times »




« Design, as a strategic corporate revenue builder, is in the midst of a classic case study as applied by McDonald's Corp., Oakbrook, Ill., the world's largest restaurant chain. An estimated 7,000 U.S. restaurants will be rebuilt, relocated or refreshed as part of the far-reaching plan to upgrade its public persona with updated restaurant designs intended to boost the bottom line. »

« A Plan to Win . McDonald's New Prototype Takes a Holistic Approach »

I noticed this trend when I walked into the train station in Rome a couple months back. The McDonalds there looks like a B&B Italia store not a grease hole. No matter how beautiful a façade you build, it is still only a façade. I always appreciate business that appreciates good design, and I believe in the power of design to help business. Yet, in the case of McDonald's but most specifically with the sub-heading of the mentioned article, McDonald's is far from a holistic design practice.

If you consider a physical totality, sure McDonald's is dominating, but money cannot buy truth, and holistic design practice is about truth, and seeking something more in a world of empty form and empty ideas. Holistic? I don't think so.

McDonald's interiors emulate McDonald's ads, and essentially the whole world of commercial design. It is beautiful, sexy, you desire it, you want to live it, but in the end, you, me; we all become victims of empty form! But empty form translates to dollars, and McDonald's is just "Lovin' It!"




Have a new Intel-based Mac?

« Boot Camp lets you install Windows XP without moving your Mac data, though you will need to bring your own copy to the table, as Apple Computer does not sell or support Microsoft Windows.(1) Boot Camp will burn a CD of all the required drivers for Windows so you don't have to scrounge around the Internet looking for them. »

« Apple . Boot Campe »




While checking out some of the new features of the new Google Maps API I came across Google Local, or more specifically Google Maps for your mobile phone. I decided to download a copy, and it is pretty incredible. You have all of the functionality of the Google Maps, but in your cell phone.

I am excited, I always manage to forget the directions, or forget the street something is on. No more!

« Google Local»

p.s. GOOGLE SCARES ME!




Version 2 cleans up much of the API and improves performance and stability in fundamental ways based on the feedback of many API sites. It also includes a number of frequently-requested features, including:

* Much smaller JavaScript download. The new Maps API JavaScript file is about half the size of the old JavaScript file, which should improve user experience on your web site.

* Two additional satellite zoom levels. Increased imagery resolution and coverage in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Japan, Europe, and almost every major city in the world.

* Overview map. Our new GOverviewMapControl control displays an attractive and collapsible map in the corner of the screen.

* Extensibility and a new GMap2 class. The GMap2 interface has been redesigned to allow API users to extend it. We now have documented ways of creating custom map controls, custom overlays, and even custom map types.

* Fewer memory leaks. The API now includes a GUnload method that you can call in the unload event of your page to destroy most circular references, including those formed implicitly during event registration. On Google Maps, this has virtually eliminated memory leaks in IE.

* Debugging log. A simple, floating debug window used internally by the Google Maps engineering team allows you to print debug information easily without blocking program execution or interfering with the UI. Just replace your alert() calls with GLog.write().

* Last but not least, a GLatLng class that is distinct from GPoint. You no longer need to reverse your latitude and longitude to construct a geographic point!


« Google Maps API v 2 »





Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of the One Laptop Per Child, gave his first preview of the the $138 laptop he hopes to "distribute 5 million to 10 million of the systems to children in India, China, Brazil, Argentina, Thailand, Egypt, and Nigeria in the first quarter of 2007."

« The system will use a 500MHz processor from Advanced Micro Devices with 128MB of memory. It will use 512MB of flash memory and no hard drive, he said. The biggest remaining cost is the display.

The system will use a dual-mode display with a black-and-white, 1110-by-830-pixel mode in sunlight and a 640-by-480-pixel color mode otherwise. »

« Negroponte: Slimmer Linux needed for $100 laptop . via C|Net »




A week or so back Google released its new beta site Google Finance with minimal press, I stumbled upon it through a blog posting from another site and was instantly drawn to its simple interface and the breadth of information available. Detailed stock prices for the past three years, tucked nicely into an easy to use interface, company facts, market statistics, company information, related companies, and a list of mores resources. Of course this information may be culled from a number of sites around the internet, centralized or not, this information is by far readily accessible - whether it be this centralized or not.

Yet in-between quarterly profits and management Google slipped in three subtle tools to help in your financial planning, and may draw unwanted attention in the financial world to companies shady dealings in the globalized world. Recent news articles, and blog posts about the listed company and the ability to start a discussion. All three of these went unnoticed the first time I visited the site, yet something caught my eye this time around.

« India: Police Investigate Death of Coca-Cola Bottling Plant Opponent »

Two years ago I heard of a world-wide boycott - that never quite caught on - of Coke products caused by the disappearance of over 500 union organizers at Coke plants in Columbia in two years - of course Coke has an anti-union policy in place in their plants. I never was a Coke fan, their advertisements are garbage - sorry Wieden + Kennedy - I do not much care for the taste, and I could really pass on purchasing from a company that is remotely connected to killing anyone.

What prompted this look into Coke's stock was that Erin - my girlfriend - owns a couple of shares of Pepsi and had no idea how much they were worth, so I decided to take a look. Prompted by my own curiosity, that the Pepsi brand for the first time in history surpassed Coke in market value a couple of months back, I wanted to know how they compared. Pepsi is still on top. Coke is struggling and despite their new full scale advertising campaign to promote declining interest in the Coke brand, their stock price is still stale.

I a cyclical way this brings me back Google, and socially responsible investment choices. Potential investors now have at their fingertips not only the tools to asses potential growth, but more importantly more tools to asses liability. News is great at informing us of mergers, and scandal, and bloggers have an amazing knack for uncovering the shady details in the paper trails of corporate trash.

Once again Google creates a simple tool that changes how we deal in information and once again, Google scares me, but at least I am informed in my fear - I Googled it!

« Addendum . An interesting note to a recent Coke Ad »




« For more than twenty years, David Maisel has chronicled the tensions between nature and culture in his large-scaled photographs of environmentally impacted landscapes. In the multi-chaptered series Black Maps, Maisel's aerial images, printed at a scale of up to 48"x96", become sublime meditations on what the curator Anne Tucker has termed the "engaging duality between beauty and repulsion."

In Maisel's recent project, The Library of Dust, he continues to investigate a zone bordered by aesthetics and ethics, though by considering wholly different subject matter on a completely different scale. The Library of Dust depicts individual copper canisters, each containing the cremated remains of a patient from a state psychiatric hospital. The Library of Dust was featured in the Beijing Off-Biennial, Fall 2005. »

« The Photography of David Maisel »




« As Internet professionals, we often forget that a large part of our society is actually afraid of the Internet. Although online shopping is growing, most people still have concerns about online security and the impersonal nature of the web. Most people do not know how to surf efficiently and use only the default tools that are given to them when they take their computer out of the box.

And this is one reason that ugly websites can sell. The lack of professionalism and a polished look leads one to believe that they are dealing with an individual. Websites cannot be trusted, but individuals can be trusted. »

« The Surprising Truth About Uguly Websites




« Hello, let me introduce myself, my name is Gilles Trehin, I'm 28, I live in Cagnes sur Mer, near Nice, in south-east of France.

I'm told I have autism, some say I have Asperger's syndrome (it's very similar). Maybe it is the reason I have been drawing since the age of 5 and I have always been fascinated by big cities and aeroplanes.

In 1984, I started to be interested by the conception of an imaginary city called Urville. The name came from "Dumont d'Urville", a scientific base, in a French territory of the Antarctic. Since then, I made many (200) drawings of Urville, and I wrote a historical, geographical, cultural and economic description. I also have a book project, called "Urville Sightseeing Tour" that I'd love to publish. My greatest pleasure is to be invited to give a lecture on Urville because I can make it exist! »

» Urville »




Some interesting software experimentation in data visualization going on over at AT&T. What I find most interesting is that they have relased some of there software, or the algorithms under Open Souce.

« AT&T Information Visulaization »




« If You Can Point And Click With A Mouse, You Can Make $100,000 A Year Or More As A Desktop Graphic Designer

You don’t even have to be able to draw a straight line — the computer does everything for you.

You can work from home, set your own hours, and have every job be different and challenging.

'I make a six-figure income even raising three children at home!'

Read this letter and see if this career suits you, too. If it does, we might even give you your first job… »

This cracks me up! I am going to try and get a job with them!

« Make $100,000 a year! . via Design Observer »





Interested DJ types, Rane just released a performance mixer with Serato Scratch built in! I have been using Serrato for six or so months and it is amazing.

For all who don't know Serato allows you to play mp3 direct to your turntables using time coded records to tack the song. No need to cary around vinyl when you can load all of your music to your external drive.

« Demo Video . Rane Specs »




A new iPod Shuffle Skin addressing "non-communication."

« This design is a visual interpretation of one aspect from my current study about Acoustical Privacy: the iPod as a potential indicator for "non-communication". Through a playful approach the sticker either strengthens the wish for privacy but also offers the opportunity to break up the silence with the direct demand for conversation. »
-Marco Siebertz

« Do Not Disturb »




So I was looking for something in Google Labs today and I found Google Mars. What are these guys going to think of next?

« Google Mars »




« You write it the way you want, your grandma reads it the way she wants. Got no penmanship? Type your letter in Stenographr’s easy web-based form and our service prints and mails a hardcopy letter to anyone with a pulse and a zip code. »

Are you kidding me! For two dollars you can mail a typed letter. Maybe it is just me, but I have a printer, and "a pulse" so I am able to walk to the mailbox. The print is faux-cursive is my favorite. Can't write, no worries, we can fake it for you.

Funny!

« Stenographr »




The best work is never seen.