no2self.net

The project has won first prize at an awards ceremony. Perhaps I should ask for a cut of the winnings.

• del.icio.us direc.tor
  

  ‘…del.icio.us direc.tor is a prototype for an alternative web-based rich UI for del.icio.us…’

• Alfie on TV!
  

  Alfie spent yesterday promoting his new site: www.werenotafraid.com - if you missed it, here are the interviews.

• BBC NEWS: Couple break kissing world record
  

  I met this guy once. He asked what I did for a living and when I told him I was an architect he gave me the most unusual response I’ve ever had. (via understated.co.uk)

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The ISO paper size concept

In the ISO paper size system, the height-to-width ratio of all pages is the square root of two (1.4142 : 1). In other words, the width and the height of a page relate to each other like the side and the diagonal of a square. This aspect ratio is especially convenient for a paper size. If you put two such pages next to each other, or equivalently cut one parallel to its shorter side into two equal pieces, then the resulting page will have again the same width/height ratio.

The ISO paper sizes are based on the metric system. The square-root-of-two ratio does not permit both the height and width of the pages to be nicely rounded metric lengths. Therefore, the area of the pages has been defined to have round metric values. As paper is usually specified in g/m², this simplifies calculation of the mass of a document if the format and number of pages are known.

Ah, I see.

• International Children’s Digital Library - Read free children books online
  

  ‘…The mission of the ICDL is to select, collect, digitize, and organize children’s materials in their original languages and to create appropriate technologies for access and use by children 3-13 years old….’ (via Drawn!)

• nine inch nails: only. remix download
  

  Trent Reznor releases another single online to encourage people to remix

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Life is a wonderful business, though fools blow up London tube stations and sell each other crap and waste time with gossip about movie stars. If you can draw, you will always have a place to go that is beautiful and honest and true. As you sit in an airport you will find pleasure in the folds of a crumpled lunch bag. As you bide your time in a doctor’s waiting room, you will find peace in the arrangement of the shadows on the wall. Even without putting ink on paper, you will be able to slip in to Drawing Mind.

The point is not what your lines look like or how accurate your crosshatching might be.
The point is not the drawings on the page or the pages in the book.
The point is not the opinions of others who love/hate/ignore those lines you made on the page.
The point is not the money you make selling your work to galleries or publishers.
The point of practicing your craft is not to rise in the rankings of those who draw. It’s not to have your style dominate (sorry, Dan!).
The point is to more easily gain acces to the moment, to the deeper more peaceful recesses of your Self.
The point is to live as well and as fully as you can today, right now, whether your pen is in your hand or not.
The point is to See and to Be.

Danny Gregory

Grafedia is hyperlinked text, written by hand onto physical surfaces and linking to rich media content - images, video, sound files, and so forth. It can be written anywhere - on walls, in the streets, or on sidewalks. Grafedia can also be written in letters or postcards, on the body as tattoos, or anywhere you feel like putting it. Viewers “click” on these grafedia hyperlinks with their cell phones by sending a message addressed to the word + “@grafedia.net” to get the content behind the link.

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

(via Space and Culture)

• Gabion: Form defeats function: Renzo Piano’s Paul Klee Centre, Switzerland.
  

  ‘…a beautifully-made object lesson in precisely how not to design an art gallery…’

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Chris Heathcote over at anti-mega.com has put together a neat little hack between Google maps and Flickr. Photos tagged with gps info are located and previewed over a map or satellite image.

He’s published the perl so I couldn’t resist the temptation to try a page for myself. Here’s the city where I work and (occasionally) play:

http://rob.annable.co.uk/flickrcity/birmingham.html

I’m an architect first and a geek much later, so there are still plenty of teething problems with it. I haven’t really worked out how to do a proper job yet but I’ve sent Chris a message so I’m hoping he’ll be able to help. It’s a static page at the moment that I’ve manually renamed as I haven’t managed to get it to spit out the file with a suffix that a browser will render. I think it’s supposed to work on the fly rather than with a cron job. I’m also short of a way to distinguish Birmingham in the UK with other Birminghams around the world; some of the links take you off around the planet.

The other teething problem is the rather frustrating discovery that the satellite imagery for the UK’s second city isn’t up to scratch yet. The higher res stuff ends just at the edge of the city centre. Perhaps by the time I’ve worked it out there will have been time for the satellite to make a few more passes…

• City Comforts Blog: Built-world podcasts
  

  ‘…In light of Apple’s initiative into making the IPod a tool for Podcasting, I’d like to compile a list of radio shows which cover the physical environment, natural or built. Any suggestions?…’ - Looking forward to some useful links in the comments.

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I am presently, simultaneously, discussing the fine points of aid policy on the phone with NGOs, while conversing with European anrchists about the demerits of the corporate media, which they believe are many.

Paul Mason blogging live from the streets of Edinburgh with his PDA (via Bosh).