Sites like this make me reconsider Flash

Let me clarify that - I think Flash is misused. I'm no evangelist like Nielsen, but I think the technology is often wasted on whiz-bang sites that for the most part would be just as effective (and much more usable) in HTML/CSS. Once in a while, however, a site comes along that uses Flash so beautifully it makes me reconsider. This Sony Style website is one of these. Granted, the navigation could have been more exploratory, but for the most part a great effect.

I'll be creating a 'mini blog' for links soon

But in the meantime I'll just post them here. Here's a link to a worthwhile read for designers: 'How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Relinquish Control'

Five blades

I'm a huge fan of The Onion, and this time they've really outdone themselves. They called the release of the 5 blade Gilette razor a year before it was released. Have the clever R&D people at Gilette been getting inspiration from satire?

Another application for Google Maps

Ever wonder if you dug hole in the earth where you'd end up? Here's your answer. Funny enough if I dug from my present home (Sydney, Australia) I'd end up not so far from my birth home (Montreal, Canada).

For those of us with imagination...

...and no drawing talent. Strip Generator.

Tedious.

It'll cost about as much as your iPod itself to get it covered in crystals, but who would argue it's not worth it?

And before you start on the child labour this is likely to involve, consider the fact that it's actually 2 girls in New York City working tirelessly while taking time out from hob-nobbing with celebrities to customise your piece of consumer plastic. Now there's a worthy cause.

Here fishy

This brainteaser was reportedly written by Einstein, who said that 98% of people could not figure it out. Which percentage are you in?

There are five houses in a row in different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The five owners drink a different drink, smoke a different brand of cigar and keep a different pet, one of which is a Walleye Pike.

The question is-- who owns the fish?

Hints:
1. The Brit lives in the red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the left of the white house.
5. The green house owner drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Malls keeps birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhills.
8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk.
9. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
10. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the one who smokes Dunhills.
12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Princes.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

There are no tricks, pure logic will get you the correct answer. And yes, there is enough information to arrive at the one and only correct answer. If you get the correct answer, congratulations, you are one of the exclusive group of 121,348,731 people in the world who can.

Yes please.

Update, Sept 14, 2004
It's only been out for a few days and the folks at ARS have already taken it upon themselves to destroy one and gut it.

Pharrell in French Vogue

This is one for the girls. The man is godly. See the whole spread at the Star Track website.

Your patience is appreciated

You might notice there's a few renovations going on here. I'm just switching over to a new content management system. Everything's still here, it just looks a little funny while I do a little nipping and tucking. We'll be back to normal in no time.

Image protection

As I'm building an online photography portfolio at the moment, I've become interested in ways to prevent image theft. While there's no real foolproof way to do this, there are several techniques that can be used as a deterrent. Some interesting reading here.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid! Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh, and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.

NOTE: I read this somewhere and I just had to pass it around. I do not know the origins of the text.