Pretty great video from Chicago’s ‘Ok Go’ -

How long will we wait to see a version of this on a TV commercial?

OK go

Hello campers. I went to the Speak The Web conference in Manchester’s Noho (that’s in Northern Quarter, yeah?) this week, to hear internet luminaries wax lyrical about their prospective fields and the future of net-land.

Speak The Web

The event included talks from Ben Childs (mobile web development chap), Dom Hodgson (SEO and all-around coding geekery), Remy Sharp (HTML 5 know-it-all) and the self-styled rockstar of CSS Andy Clarke (or ‘Clarky’ as he kept referring to himself).

It was an emotional affair, particularly with Remy Sharp’s explanation of HTML 5’s current limitations – he was showing examples of flash-less video content using only html, as well as showing how HTML5 will be able to communicate directly with MySQL without the dependence of PHP – if I’ve got that correct. Either way, it blew my tiny mind somewhat.

Even more rousing was Andy Clarke’s ‘Hardboiled’ or ‘no-compromise’ proponent of CSS3 usage, where he advocated graceful degradation of the more advanced CSS3 techniques – basically, he wants us all to build websites using all the latest CSS3 techniques available to us, and then work backwards to try and fix up horribly old and massively annoying browsers such as IE6. This was controversial in that most web designers have been under the mantra that ‘thou shalt make websites that work across all browsers and look and function the same’ – Andy Clarke simply stated that this was rubbish and if we don’t take advantage of the latest CSS3 offerings as well as the facilitations of the latest browsers, there may never be need for people stuck with IE6 to upgrade. Other than the frequent security risks that have been in the news a lot of late.

His talk drew the most criticism, but was thusly the most entertaining. There was also quite a bit of facial hair in the room. And much coding-knowledge-pugilism.

If you get chance, you should go along to another Speak The Web event as they’re focusing on the web-talent of North England, rather than doing what most of the other conferences do and just focus on London and Brighton, which makes a nice change.

View the website here: http://speaktheweb.org

…Well, that’s how it appears anyway…

Tokyo Flash sells watches, yes that’s right, watches- something that, in it’s fundamental design, is supposed to let you know the time of day at the glance of an eye rather than you having to lug around your sundial….What’s the problem?….none, I suppose, if in the time it takes you to read the time, the time has actually changed!

Perhaps I’ve just completely and utterly missed the point and it isn’t really about being aware of your time keeping, it’s all about having a snappy little number on your wrist…I wonder if it would be quicker to get my camera/mp3/radio player/calculator/GPRS/internet ready mobile out my pocket and call the Speaking Clock….

"...At the third stroke, the time from BT will be...."

or Park bench or Dustbin or even Stairwell….

Seemingly there’s some degree of creativity when it comes to discarding a banana skin (be it purposely or accidental…)
….So much so that S. Astrid Bin has created a gallery website, London Bananas, that is completely dedicated to documenting where those pesky skins find themselves in our capital metropolis….

Slippy little sucker....

I know Manchester & London are 2 very different cities but I wonder if our fair city has the same volume of rogue fruit remains….? …I’ll keep an eye out.

A good kern is something of an art in the graphic world. Many people believe it is a given for a designer, when in fact, it is very much a carefully honed skill, one not to be trifled with!

Courtesy of the lovely people at Veer you can test your kerning skills and stamina by clicking on the picture…(it’s not as easy as it looks, you know!)

I was simply shocked yet slightly amused to read yesterday that the dating site ‘Beautifulpeople.com’ had given the boot to around 5,000 members for putting on weight!

The site which is supposed to be the biggest network of attractive people in the world, said it has always had a vigorous selection process, and couldn’t allow members that had gotten fat since approval!

It does make me wonder if I would get by that selection process though… Perhaps I shall try!

Read more by clicking here

Another little gem from Suzanne’s archives slightly time-wasting, sometimes slightly annoying, online games…..

With tomorrow being Halloween, I thought I’d be topical and share with you a “Guess the Horror Film” courtesy of M&Ms. There’s 50 to find (and no asking Phil because he’s done it before!). Go on click on the picture and have a go, it’s easy…..

I’m not sure if you have seen or played “The Crimson Room” before…but when I first played this puzzle game, a few years ago, I drove me totally INSANE!!! I remembered about it over the weekend and thought I would be so kind as to share it with you too! (click on the picture to play..)

If you are indeed a glutton for punishment, there is also “The Viridian Room” and “The White Chamber” to challenge your Harry Houdini escapism skills…

Enjoy….(or search Google or You Tube for escape solutions…..)

kittenify is the new way to get rid of the dull or depressing images that are splashed over the internet today and replace them with images of… what else? cats of course!

Follow the instruction on the link and you can have kittens wherever you please! Enjoy!

Just found this great free application that converts any digital photograph into an instant Polaroid-style classic! Although you can’t beat the original Polaroid cameras, it’s pretty impressive how easy it is to do and how realistic the results are.

http://www.poladroid.net/

Me and Gracie before and after being Poladroid