Capn Design

January 2007

This month I posted 24 entries, listened to 343 songs, watched 7 videos, bookmarked 5 sites, took 10 photos and favorited 3 things.

Our Long National Nightmare is Over: Barbaro is Euthanized

Look, I love horses but this was ridiculous. There must have been a dozen front page stories on NYTimes.com about Barbaro. Sorry you died, but I think it's time the country moves on.

An Autistic Woman Shows Her Language and Translates it to Ours

Be sure to read the mefi thread, as she responds to people's comments, in addition to watching the video (the translation part begins about 3 minutes in).

Muji Opening Two Stores in NYC

This is fantastic news. I hope they have the full line of products (food, clothese, furniture, etc.).

Tsk Tsk: MLB.com

Posted January 26, 2007

You've been good to me (see: MLB Game Tracking Options), but your emails are getting ridiculous. I understand that you need to peddle your wares and update me on exciting news, but this subject is pure madness:

Watch exclusive coverage of U.S. Figure Skating Championships

Seriously? I'm sure you struck some deal that included an email on figure skating, but you're barking up the wrong tree. I've always thought MLB abuses their email list, but whoever green-lighted this should consider a frontal lobe replacement.

Forget the Film, Watch the Titles

A small but growing selection of film title sequences

Defective Yeti Sums Up My Thoughts on Deal or No Deal

He proposes a new show called, "Ten Grand Or Tennis Ball To The Nuts?"

HD-DVD is Going to Win

Posted January 21, 2007

You're likely wondering how I can be so confident, but this NYT piece about the porn industry had this important quote:

The pornographers' progress with HD may also be somewhat slowed by Sony, one of the main backers of the Blu-ray high-definition disc format. Sony said last week that, in keeping with a longstanding policy, it would not mass-produce pornographic videos on behalf of the movie makers.

Poor Sony and their puritanical views.

I also recommend reading the the full article, whch discusses how the porn industry is having a tough time with HD because it shows too much. "'The biggest problem is razor burn,' said Stormy Daniels, an actress, writer and director." They're right — today's times do call for the times. I consider this essential information.

NYC's 911 and 311 Systems Will Soon Accept Photos

This reminds me of Andrew Rasiej's bid for Public Advocate; this was one of his big ideas.

Trailer for Sunshine, a New Danny Boyle Film

The film is out in March and here's the official site which includes a production blog.

Uniqlo Mixplay Does the Robot Really Damn Well
How Surfing Helped an Autistic Boy Find Happiness

It's long, but incredibly uplifting.

Two Nifty Design Items

Posted January 17, 2007

For a blog with the word "design", I don't really talk about it all that much. I'm hoping to change that some. Here are two cool things I happened upon this evening.

Media Skin Cell Phone

Media Skin Cell Phone

The Media Skin phone is apparently a pretty standard cell phone for the Japanese, but it looks pretty amazing. In my mind the plastic has some texture and give to it. This is pretty. [via Gizmodo]

Cam Firth Self-Portrait

Cam Firth Self-Portrait

I found this on Moco Loco and I think I'll just quote them directly: "Designer Cam Frith at the University of Alberta's Industrial Design department recently created his "latest piece of self-gratification" with more than 14 000 holes of differing sizes drilled partway into a piece of red MDF. Cut using a CNC router, this fantastic self portrait fits nicely somewhere in that grey area between art and design." Head to the Moco Loco post for some more photos.

Next Season CBS Will Debut New Shows Online

Not just new series, but almost every new episode

Netflix Unveils "Watch Now", Allowing You to View Your Movie Online

For every dollar you spend per month, you get an hour of online viewing ($18/mo = 18 hours of viewing). They're starting with 1,000 movies and PC only. I love the concept and can't wait to see how it effects subscriber stats.

A Quick Defense of the Bears

Posted January 15, 2007

I am a Bears fan and I am happy (the Bears beat the Seahawks yesterday to move to the NFC championship). Despite my happiness, I'm getting annoyed with the sports press. I understand the Bears are far from rock solid, but they're not that bad. It's hip to think the Bears are crappy, but this seems to come after wins. The writer rarely talks about the apparently crappier team who walked away with a loss.

The article usually goes something like, "if the Bears could just play well, they'll win." Um, yes. I admit the Bears can be wildly incosistent, but they've won fourteen games this year; you think that'd be enough to convince most people.

I'm glad to get that off my chest. Can't wait for next weekend.

Feltron's 2006 Personal Annual Report

Damn, I have to do one of these this year.

Finally, the iPhone

Posted January 9, 2007

20070109iphone.jpg

This was the beginning of a conversation I had with my cousin and I love that he seriously questioned if I would buy twelve iPhones. The truth is, if there were some benefit to having 12 I would consider it. This thing is amazing.

In case you haven't seen it, here's a photo. Go watch some videos at the iPhone site too, because you'll get as excited as I am, even if you're not a fanboy.

20070109iphone2.jpg

You Can't Tell People What They Want

Posted January 8, 2007

I just got through listening to the Hivelogic Podcast and remembered something I find to be a universal truth: you can't tell people what they want.

Dan Benjamin and John Gruber were chatting about what's forthcoming during tomorrow's Macworld Keynote and how the Mac Tablet will definitely not appear this year. I agree and it's because the average Mac user has no need for one. The biggest tablet users are in the medical industries (and people who run warehouses, I suppose) and these people don't use Macs. If that ever changes, you can be sure that'll change.

This is also why the Zune's social features are a non-factor. Before the Zune came out, were you thinking "Gee, I'd love to share this song with my friend who is sitting across from me, but there's no way I'll let him listen to it on my Zune." If I want someone to hear a song, I'll hand them my iPod or I'll send them a link to a free mp3. This is why Cnet found just one person in SF with the social feature on.

Using this logic, here's what I think has an excellent chance of showing up tomorrow.

True Video iPod: A year ago it wouldn't have been true, but people are now looking for a good way to watch video on the go. I'm often seeing people watching TV shows on their iPods on the subway and airplanes.

iPhone: People have cell phones. People have iPods. People only have so many pockets. It was just a matter of time before they combined the two.

iTV (duh): We knew this was coming, but it's definitely time. People are downloading video podcasts and tv shows like crazy. It's silly to watch them on your computer screen or iPod when you have a new HDTV. It's also silly to buy things twice (first from DirecTV, again from Apple).

These are two things I wouldn't be shocked to see:

Ultra-portable MacBook Pro: Business people love a tiny, powerful computer. The lack of tiny, powerful computers gave rise to the Blackberry. If Apple is missing one thing in their computer line-up, it's this. The reason I'm skeptical is that most of the business world is still on PC and graphics professionals prefer a larger screen.

Apple HDTVs: Apple has great LCD technology and people buy these things like crazy. They'd be stupid not to do it now that they're getting into the living room.

I'm sure they'll be other stuff announced (10.5, iWork, iLife), but these are the big ones I think could make it. We'll find out very soon.

Mono's Holiday Greetings Face Card

The card lets you combine elements of all the staff members' faces. Great execution.

Proof that NYC is Freaking Dirty

This is a picture of two guys power-washing a building on the Lower East Side [via kottke]

Nintendo Sony PSPboy

Nerdy + Frivolous + Cool-Looking = Quick Post

What Does 200 Calories Look Like?
Dubai Gets an Underwater Hotel

It'll cost $590m and have 220 suites. Sounds pretty awesom to me.

2006: Where I Traveled

Posted January 1, 2007

Another year, another list of cities I visited. I was bit more thorough this year (asterisks stand for multiple visits):

New York, NY*
Riverwoods, IL*
Chicago, IL*
Gunisao Lake, Manitoba, CA
Palm Desert, CA
West Dover, VT
Cherry Hill, NJ*
Philadelphia, PA*
Hoboken, NJ
Los Angeles, CA
Binghampton, NY


You may also be interested in last year's list.

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