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Sean Jackson

Web Developer / Designer • My Resume

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
Leonardo da Vinci

Profile

Sean Jackson

Computer Software | Toronto, Canada Area, CA

Summary

I am a highly motivated and experienced web developer, layout/graphic designer and problem solver who loves to create unique, exciting user experiences, explore new ideas and build them to excellence. I have many years formal experience in software development from desktop applications to large scale web applications. I am also skilled at designing user interfaces and can build any and all aspects of a great product from start to finish. My passion and goals always revolve around learning new technology and building cutting edge products.

Experience

  • Apr 2010 - Present

    Senior Developer/Designer / Hii Def Inc.

  • Jan 2007 - Apr 2010

    Senior Developer/Designer / Mahalo.com

  • Mar 2006 - Apr 2007

    Lead Developer - Site Creator / Popcurrent.com

  • Jun 1996 - Jan 2007

    Lead UI Designer/Developer / Genesys Conferencing

  • Mar 2005 - Jan 2006

    Software Developer / Thunderstone Media

  • Mar 2005 - Jun 2005

    Designer / Podiobooks

On LinkedIn.

Posts

  • August 08, 06:21 PM

    Charlie “The Spaniard” Brenneman at the weigh-ins for UFC 117, sponsored by Flavors.me. Unfortunately, The Spaniard lost in the second round by TKO. Look at that those abs though! Next time.

  • August 02, 07:27 PM

    Soundcloud - We Move Music

    It’s no secret that we are big fans of Soundcloud. Based in Berlin, the company makes it easy for artists to share their digital music online. Besides being incredibly passionate about music, they are serious audio engineers. Soundcloud is ideal for musicians, record labels and other industry professionals.

    Distributing music online can be a real hassle. File sizes are often large, FTP is too technical and no artist wants their hard work covered in remnant ads on a fly-by-night file hosting site.

    Soundcloud gives musicians a private, collaborative web presence and social network for their music. Each track has its own dedicated page with statistics, comments, a clean URL and can be embedded using Soundcloud’s slick audio player. There are no file size limits and Soundcloud sorts out the mess of format conversion for AIFF, WAVE, FLAC, OGG, MP3 and AAC files.

    For a real world application of Soundcloud, we need to look no further than Flavors’ very own designer, Jack Zerby. A lifelong musician with three albums and two EPs under his belt, Jack recorded a theme song called “From Down Here” for a new sitcom pilot. After uploading the master to SoundCloud and sharing it privately with the producers for feedback, the song was chosen as the TV shows introduction music!


    Flavors supports full audio playback of Soundcloud tracks, sets and favorites. If you create music or work with those who do, sign up for a Soundcloud account and connect it to Flavors.

    And for inspiration, check out these existing Flavors + Soundcloud combos:

  • July 30, 10:12 PM

    Color transparency for the About and Content sections coming very soon, courtesy of Sean. It’s some next level work.

  • July 25, 01:37 AM

    Rob’s Fresh New Profile

  • July 22, 05:44 PM

    The New Directory!

    About a month ago, the Flavors Directory, which Jack had originally jury rigged by hand, completely stopped working…

    Way back last November, Demetre Arges, one of our first beta users, declared Flavors “the new WhitePages”; it’s a characterization that has always resonated internally. The difference is, Flavors-powered sites introduce an incredibly rich visual element that is missing offline and elsewhere, but core to the modern web experience.

    So less than two weeks ago, we resolved to re-build the directory from scratch. John took on the herculean task of developing an automated snapshot system to generate high-quality images with support for @font-face fonts; few of us believed it was even technically possible. For bonus points, he added Name and About search, plus a basic, but very helpful tagging system. Sean and Jack stayed up way past their bed times with some final nips and tucks like multi-views! And voila, the new Flavors Directory is finally ready for prime time!

    All paid accounts can be included in the Directory. And those that shine will be featured prominently. Everything is optional. We hope it will make finding Flavors sites far easier and more enjoyable. Please excuse any hiccups that you encounter over the next few weeks :)

  • July 15, 02:10 PM

    The Faces of Flavors

    Today we give names to the faces of our recent ad campaign, which you may have noticed on your favorite sites and apps.

    Each of these users has created a unique web presence with Flavors. Take a look at their sites to get inspired and discover what you can create using Flavors.

    Designer and dreamer Anna Hiort

    Artist Benjamin Lotan

    Singer and former American Idol hopeful Keia Johnson

    Artist and singer Heather Lynn

    Interior designer Heather, a.k.a Hrrrthrrr

    Self-described geek, musician and photographer Paul Hammond

    Gawker Editor-in-Chief Richard Blakeley (photo by Diana Levine)

    Creative director and copy writer Sean Patrick Sullivan

    Designer & photographer Steph Goralnick (photo by Dan Busta)

    A photo by writer Tyson Wray (Tyson himself is not pictured)


    We’ll be featuring more standout Flavors sites as we come across them. If you’d like to be considered, 1) Create a unique and vibrant Flavors site that reflects who you are. Quality gets noticed naturally., 2) Use the Promote option in the design panel to let your followers know you’ve connected Twitter to your Flavors site.

  • July 01, 11:20 PM

    Rob is working on some new layouts in the HiiDef design lab. The sentence structure is a web classic that we have long fancied. Layering in the service data will add another visual dimension and really bring the sentence to life. Best of all, its likely to use our yet-to-be-released lightweight (text) posting functionality. Stay tuned!

  • June 30, 10:41 PM

    Squared Layout, Share Button and Digg Service

    We recently rolled out a few new features to help you further customize and publicize your Flavors site.

    Squared Layout

    First, we’d like to introduce a new layout, available exclusively for upgraded accounts: Squared.

    Squared is similar to the Grid layout, which is already a fan favorite. The difference is that, rather than presenting featured content at the top, each service is presented in a square module. Squared shines when you’ve added three to six services, making your content easy to absorb at a glance. Check out how Christine Tsang, aka Tineey, is using it on her Flavors site:

    To take advantage of Squared and get the full Flavors experience, upgrade your account by clicking on the pink Upgrade button at the top of your settings or site page.

    Share

    The Share button is an extension of the Promote options we recently rolled out. Promote allows you to publicize your site through popular social services; Share is for your readers. The new Share button allows anyone viewing your site to send it to friends or share your Flavors URL via a wide range of social services, like Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Google Buzz.

    Digg

    Digg is the newest addition to our growing collection of services. With it, you can display your Diggs, Favorites or Submissions on your Flavors site.

    We’ll be posting more updates about news and features here. To get the scoop, be sure to follow us on Tumblr or add us to your RSS reader!

  • May 05, 03:49 PM

    Presenting "Grid" Layout

    Today we launched our biggest feature endeavor yet, a new layout called simply called “Grid”. Although it’s a simple and straightforward name, the process of creating it was anything but simple. The biggest challenge on Flavors has always been designing for dynamic data. This means trying to account for a million different possibilities and combinations. The design approach had to be systemized, or else it would be insanely complicated to maintain. Allow me to describe the system.

    20+ Services with 1-4 sub-sections each = 80 designs
    Each service on Flavors may have anywhere from 1 to 4 subsections. (Example, Facebook has Status and Photos). If I tried to design a unique layout for every one of these subsections I would have jumped off the design cliff a long time ago.

    Break down “Services” into “Sizes”
    I first started by separating the different ways each service can be presented. I can take these views and mix and match them in any number of layouts.

    • Default
    • Large
    • Medium
    • Small

    Break down “Sizes” into “Types”
    After designing services in Flavors you start to see many similarities between them. Each size gets its own design for each type. Here’s how a few services share similar data designs.

    • Blog (Tumblr, RSS)
    • Gallery (Vimeo, Youtube, Flickr, Picasa)
    • Status (Twitter, Facebook)
    • List (Lastfm, Foursquare)
    • Audio (Soundcloud, Tumblr audio)

    Productivity
    This speeds up the process of us adding new services by 100x. We want to add a new Blog service? Sure, create 4 size views and use the “Blog” css style for each size. Baddabing!

    Hierarchy
    My design partner Rob Morris came up with the brilliant idea of creating a hierarchical algorithm within grid. We realized that people may want to organize their services based on personal importance. If they move a feature to the #1 spot, its large, if they move it down to spots 2-7 it becomes medium, below that its rendered small.

    Limited space
    The hardest part of this layout was trying to fit data into a 300 x 300 and 170 x 170 box (medium, small). Using custom scrollbars and dropdowns, we managed to fit every single piece of data into the medium sizes and bite-sized bits into the small sizes. Our awesome dev Sean Jackson came up with the idea of showing scrollbars and arrows on hover so that the page would look less cluttered when first loaded.

    Performance
    Since this is a LOT of data, Sean is going to be implementing lots of new speed features that will dramatically decrease load times. Right now we have deferred image loading and lazy loading js scripts, to make sure things are only loaded as needed. This is an ongoing process and will continue to get better over the coming weeks.

    The future
    Now that we have all of these sizes to play with, there is UNLIMITED ways we can combine these to create new layouts. In our view, Flavors has gone from a “great little aggregator” to a full-fledged data visualization and personal identity magical machine.

    Thanks
    Big thanks to Rob Morris, Sean Jackson, Jason Moiron, Ray Salinski, John Wehr, and Keith Bourgoin.

  • February 14, 12:13 PM

    jonathanmarcus:

    Real-time analytics for http://flavors.me will be available in less than 10 days!

  • January 28, 02:11 AM

    Doing it live

    As a designer, I like speed and hate friction while I’m designing.

    Friction could be defined as:

    Design/Save/Preview/Go back/Design/Save/Preview/Go back/Design/Save

    Even reading that gives me anxiety…

    So far the pure design parts of Flavors are as frictionless as I could get them. Colors update immediately, as well as fonts and images. However, the biggest hole we had in the system was showing the user how their service content affects the page.

    I realized that often times designers are accused of treating text like objects and not really even reading it (I’m guilty). We may add a period, take out a line, or come up with our own weird abbreviations for words (for example: wrds), just to make it fit within the design. So why weren’t we treating content the same as the other design elements? (layouts, backgrounds, fonts, and colors)

    “Ok then let’s do it.”

    “Do what?”

    “Bring everything from the Info/Services section and put it into a controller thats not even 300px wide”

    That’s a challenge. So here’s what I came up with and is in production right now. Everything will be updated live as you type and as you add services.

  • December 30, 11:57 AM

    Themes vs. Uniqueness

    When Jonathan and I first discussed the design customization on Flavors, our first instinct was to offer various themes. After giving it some thought, I realized that I didnt think themes were the best way to allow the user to create something unique.

    The whole goal with Flavors is to give people a tool to create something personal, something special, something different.

    That can’t be accomplished when you give people options like “Duckhunt”, “Steampunk”,  or “OMG Jonas Brothers Theme”.

    The argument for themes comes from the fact that most people aren’t designers, so if you give them the final product and allow them to slap their name on it, it becomes theirs.

    My argument is that people may not be designers, but they are creative.

    Using Layers instead of Themes

    I came to a solution when I broke down elements of my own design process.

    • Wireframes
    • Fonts
    • Colors
    • Images

    I obviously dont do any of this in any particular order, but every time I sit down to design I have to manipulate these elements to achieve my desired result.

    Using this guide I created 4 sections of design options in Flavors.

    • Layouts
    • Fonts
    • Colors
    • Backgrounds

    This allows the user to arrange these various elements in millions of different combinations, yet still staying within specific design contraints.

    Design Controllers

    There are many different approaches to design controllers.

    1. Top drawer (via Tumblr)

    2. Bottom drawer (via Squarespace)

    3. Sidebar (via Soup.io)

    4. Draggable (via Flavors.me)

    I tried a ton of different approaches and finally settled on a draggable design controller.

    The reason why I chose this approach

    - If you’re designing and you want to move the controller away from where you are focusing.

    - If you’re done designing and you want to hide it to see what the final presentation will look like.

    - Doesnt bump your screen up/down or shrink the actual workspace.

    Some things Id like to improve:

    - Colors: A better way to show a user which color affects which area of the page. I tried highlighting the area affected when mousing over the color swatch, but that was really distracting.

  • December 24, 12:27 PM

    Behind the brand

    The Flavors brand started as a tree.

    That’s because at the time, I didnt really care about the brand, I just wanted to start working on the product.

    What does a tree have to do with the word Flavors? Nothing…but it looked cool.

    Jonathan and I work well together because he knows when I’m half-assing it. So after he called me on it, I ditched the tree and started at square one. (no pun intended)

    Baskin Robbins has a lot to do with flavors. All 31 of them.

    Everyone knows the colorfully delicious grid of ice cream behind the counter of a Baskin Robbins.

    I started with circles.

    That looked way to girly, as my wife Marisa told me from the other couch.

    I tried squares, starting with a single square at 150px x 150px.

    After that I realized I was on to something. We created this site to allow people create something unique. Every flavor at Baskin Robbins is unique, BUT it’s still ice cream. Every page on Flavors.me is unique, BUT it’s still within boundaries. (My sister Kayla just said she likes that line)

    So I colored up these bad boys…

    Now I had a grid to work with. Every page was born from this grid. I usually don’t use really strict grids (I forget most of the time), but this time it became such a part of the brand, I had to use one.

    First the homepage…

    Then finally the settings page…

    The moral of the story is don’t half ass it. Was there a time when if someone hadn’t called you out, you would have missed creating something much better?

  • December 24, 10:02 AM

    Do you like the idea of posting via Flavors.me? Do you have any suggestions or feedback?

  • December 22, 11:47 PM

    Myspace vs Facebook

    My first website was awesome. A picture of janet Jackson with Hendrix playing the national anthem. Hosted on Geocities.

    Creating “web-site-pages”, as my Dad still calls them, was reserved only for nerds. My friends and my girlfriends mother were very impressed.

    Then along comes Myspace.

    Myspace wasn’t designed to allow the gorgeous plethora of amazing glittery spinning gifs. It was a hack. However, it gave millions of people the ability to create a unique presence on the web. People with no coding experience spent hours decoding CSS, just so they could make their name pink instead of the default black. I was really blown away by it.

    Then something began to happen. Just because its unique, doesn’t mean its usable. I could have designed my own car back when I was 15, but I don’t think a 15 foot spoiler and fiberglass wings would have done well on Interstate 80.

    Then Facebook catches on…

    People realized that Facebook was simpler. It was free of the Myspace auto-play music feature that blasted “Barbie Girl” in your dorm room when you could’t get to the volume knob in time.

    The shift from Myspace to Facebook was remarkable. People were willing to give up their uniqueness and become a spreadsheet entry. Granted, Facebook has come a long way, but when the shift happened it was pretty basic.

    The challenge: How do you allow people to create something unique, but also usable?

  • December 22, 11:20 PM

    The challenge of dynamic design

    As a designer, you’re in control of everything. I’ll spend hours tweaking the space between a headline and body text, adjusting line heights to fit the containing box perfectly, aligning a photo to wrap perfectly around a paragraph.

    What happens when you are designing something that has to design something else?

    What happens when you are designing something that is completely unpredictable and has to account for almost every possible combination of text, shapes, and imagery ?

    No more control…

  • December 22, 11:00 PM

    The Flavors.me Design Process

    I’ve spent the last 1 1/2 years working on Flavors with Jonathan and so far it’s been a amazing ride. It all started with an idea Jonathan had about bringing in content from API’s which had much more potential than the widget craze.

    At first, and I’ve told Jonathan this, I wasn’t too crazy about the idea. As we discussed it further. I realized that it could be more then just an “aggregator”, of “social networks” (insert awesome social media jargon here).

    During my 3 years at Pentagram Design, I worked under partner Lisa Strausfeld. Besides being the smartest, kindest, sweetest person I’ve ever known, she taught me a lot about data visualization. I got excited when I knew we could do anything with the data that was imported.

    I’m going to use this blog to share ideas, document the process, and hopefully get feedback from users and other people interested in Flavors.

I'm working On.

Posts

Stuff I Like.

Posts

Guess What? I Like This Too!

Posts

  • September 04, 12:14 AM

    Exec at troubled hedge fund busted for operating "complex" weed farm in her home

    Teri Buhl at Forbes reports on a sign of the times:

    "An executive at a billion-dollar Connecticut hedge fund was arrested on felony charges of allegedly running a huge year-round pot farm inside her home. But her boyfriend says the cops have it wrong, that they're goat farmers, not dope farmers."

    (Image: A CC-licensed photo by Flickr user r0bz.)



  • September 04, 01:05 AM

    Canada may send flight data to US Homeland Security

    A bill introduced in Canada's House of Commons would give US Department of Homeland Security officials "final say over who may board aircraft in Canada if they are to fly over the United States en route to a third country." (via @ioerror)

  • September 03, 08:10 PM

    Mary Roach: Death In Space


    For some uplifting weekend reading, I suggest Mary Roach's excellent Boing Boing special feature "Death In Space." From the intro:
    The U.S. has plans for a manned visit to Mars by the mid-2030s. The ESA and Russia have sketched out a similar joint mission, and it is claimed that China's space program has the same objective. Apart from their destination, all these plans share something in common: extraordinary danger for the explorers. What happens if someone dies out there, months away from Earth?

    Swedish ecologists Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak and Peter Mäsak are the inventors of an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation and burial, called Promession. The technique entails freezing a body, vibrating it into tiny pieces, and then freeze-drying the pieces, which can then be used as compost to grow a memorial shrub or tree.

    "Death In Space"



  • September 03, 07:16 PM

    Interview with James Howard Kunstler, author of The Witch of Hebron

    Matt Staggs of Suvudu interviewed James Howard Kunstler (The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century) about his forthcoming novel, The Witch of Hebron, which is anther novel set in the same universe as his end-of-cheap-energy novel, World Made by Hand (which I liked and reviewed here).
    Staggs: Both World Made by Hand and The Witch of Hebron take place in the world of The Long Emergency, which you’ve written about in the non-fiction title of the same name. Could you very briefly explain what the Long Emergency is for our readers?

    Kunstler: The Long Emergency is the culminating crisis of modernity, growing out of the limits to growth, resource scarcity, and the collapse of the complex systems that keep us going — everything ranging from industrialized farming to oil-based transportation to electronic communication. It can also be described as the crisis of over-investments in complexity — resolving in a traumatic wave of sudden de-complexifying.

    Staggs: Reading your novels, I find myself in some ways envious of the sense of community enjoyed by the residents of Union Grove, yet I remain aware of – and wary of – the incredible loss of life that our world would experience following a collapse of our oil-based infrastructure. On the whole, would you imagine that we’d gain or lose more in such a world?

    Kunstler: It’s part of the tension of the story that we are constantly having to measure what’s been gained against what’s been lost. The losses are perhaps more obvious: comfort, certainty, and the whole prosthetic nimbus of technology that we are so used to. The gains are perhaps more subtle: making your own music, enjoying the sounds, scents, and sensations of nature much more directly, the blessed absence of cars and other motor-driven annoyances, unmediated relations with family, friends, and community members, a reconnection with the elemental ceremonies of birth, death, the harvest, the coming of spring, etc.

    Interview with James Howard Kunstler, author of The Witch of Hebron



  • September 03, 06:20 PM

    Adorable baby octopuses, living happy and free

    To make up for the research kittens.

    Note: This starts out somewhat depressingly, with the body of a female octopus that died after reproducing—as all octopuses, male and female, do. But it quickly gets past that, and on to the wee, baby octopuses, floating around the sea. Turn off the sound to block out the sad song, and focus on that.

    From jenniel, via Submitterator



  • September 03, 05:52 PM

    Research on horribly cute kittens is kind of horrible looking

    "In order to study the way that experience can influence the brain, there has been a great deal of research done on the visual cortex of the kitten."

    Oh, this is going to end badly, isn't it?

    This short documentary from the 1970s explains, in depth, some research that I mentioned earlier this year in a BoingBoing article on fetal senses. Long story short: Kittens are born blind and do a lot of their sight-linked brain development in the first few weeks after birth. Because of this, they make a handy model for studying how the brains of human fetuses form neural connections and how our sense of sight develops in the womb. It's important research that has helped medical science better understand how to care for premature human babies, besides adding valuable details to our understanding of the brain, in general.

    Unfortunately, because kittens are adorable, said very important research looks almost comically evil when filmed. Seriously, this video is one "Thittens" joke away from working as a segment of Look Around You.

    So, thanks, blorgggg (Thorgggg?), for sending this video in via Submitterator. I'm sure the Moderators will be thanking you (and me) as well. I do ask that, as we get into the inevitable discussion on animal research, you remember that the scientists involved did not raise kittens in completely dark rooms for sociopathic shits and giggles, but because they thought the potential benefits of the research outweighed the (mostly temporary) damage done to the kittens' visual abilities. You may disagree with that calculation—and you're welcome to do so. In fact, I think that complex discussion about ends and means in specific studies is valuable. And interesting. Far more so (on both counts) than simply labeling anyone who uses animals for research as a for-kicks abuser of fluffy baby kitties.



  • September 03, 05:51 PM

    What Things Do: excellent webcomics


    Panels from "Unraveling," part 2, by Jordan Crane

    What Things Do is a stunningly good webcomics site, launched by comics artist Jordan Crane and featuring some of the best independent comics artists around, including Gabrielle Bell, Abner Dean, Sammy Harkham, Jaime Hernandez, Kevin Huizenga, Ted May, John Porcellino, Ron Regé Jr., Steve Weissman, and Dan Zettwoch.

    Many of the artists here seem to have been mildly influenced by Tintin's Hergé (and Joost Swarte). This is not a big surprise, since Jordan Crane selects all the artists for his site, and Crane himself shows a little Hergé in his work. (I can't think of a better artist than Hergé from which to draw inspiration.)

    The comics in What Things Do all have the same yellow-gray color scheme (with a few exceptions) that give the site and elegant cohesiveness. The comics are large clear and readable.

    In addition to showcasing the work of contemporary cartoonists, What Things Do, runs "decades-old work" from worthy but not-so-famous cartoonists, as well as articles about comics. What Things Do: excellent webcomics



  • September 03, 05:53 PM

    The Imp, a great journal about comic books, now as free PDFs


    Daniel Raeburn has done the world a favor by creating free PDF versions of his outstanding self-published journal about comic books, The Imp. Though he published only four issues (I have them all in hard copy) Raeburn's journal is regarded as a masterpiece of comic book criticism. Each issue covered a single subject: Daniel Clowes in Vol 1, Jack Chick in Vol 2, Chris Ware in Vol 3, and Mexican "historietas perversas" in Vol 4.

    The Comics Journal called The Imp “One of the very best things to come out of comics.”

    Here's what This American Life creator Ira Glass said about The Imp:

    It was clearly the work of an obsessed person, in the very best way possible. A really smart obsessed person. There was a kind of Talmudic completeness to the whole thing, in a way that journalism rarely even aspires to. Not much journalism tries to be so emotional, and funny, and analytical, and thorough. There’s really very little like it out there. The closest you get is one of those big stories they used to do in the old New Yorker, where at the end you feel like there’s nothing else that needs to be said on the subject. I read it admiringly and jealously. In the years since I read the Chris Ware issue I’ve actually become friends with Chris Ware, real friends, we talk all the time, and probably a third of what I know about Chris still comes from that issue of The Imp. It was that complete and emotionally insightful.

    Stefan Jones, who also bought The Imp in hardcopy says,

    The issue about Jack Chick is an amazing piece of journalism. It makes you feel some sympathy for the loon behind all of those hate-filled comic tracts.

    Much of issue 3 was reprinted in a monograph about Ware. I prefer The Imp version, which resembles one of Ware's big-format comic collections.

    Volume Four was mind-boggling. I'd never heard of the Mexican comics in question. I keep meaning to get my hands on some.

    Download The Imp here



  • September 03, 05:02 PM

    Cannabis Catering


    Cannabis Catering offers gourmet meals laced with pot. The delivery service isn't cheap, around $100/person, but damn those pot-atoes look tasty. And yes, you need a medical marijuana card to order. From Fast Company:
    The idea for Cannabis Catering came to (Chef Frederick) Nesbitt when he learned that his friend's diabetic mother had been diagnosed with cancer. "I would bring back edibles [from the dispensary], but they're so high in high-fructose corn syrup that she was high off sugar rather than being medicated," he says. So Nesbitt began experimenting with his own pot food--starting with mashed potatoes.
    "Meet the Personal Chef of Pot" (Thanks, Mathias Crawford!)



  • September 03, 04:46 PM

    WTF stamp


    For all your puzzlement needs: the self-inking WTF stamp.

    WTF Stamp (Thanks, Alice!)



  • September 03, 04:27 PM

    Jewelry made from laminated, polished cross-sections of books


    UK designer Jeremy May makes jewelry by laminating and polishing pages from old books together to make striking pieces: "The beauty of the jewels extends within the piece: text and images pass all the way though the object, only exposed at the surfaces - giving a tantalising glimpse of the book within."

    LITTLEFLY (Thanks, Irene Delse via Submitterator!)



  • September 03, 03:53 PM

    Flying carpet sofa


    Tonio de Roover's East meets West sofa is meant to evoke flying carpets. I can't figure out how comfortable it'd be, but it looks great.

    East meets west (via Craft)



  • September 03, 03:50 PM

    Old tabriz rug becomes bear rug


    An unnamed artist transformed a worn antique tabriz wool rug into a wonderful, fanciful bear rug. I imagine the reported "repaired knots and moth damage" just enhance its charm. 87" x 59", $1800 from CS Post.

    Repurposed Antique Tabriz Wool Rug (via Make)



  • September 03, 03:45 PM

    Resignation cake sender has invoice cake delivered to People.com

    Last year, I posted about how W. Neil Berrett quit his job by presenting his boss with a resignation letter on a sheet cake. Here's the story behind Berrett's latest cake document, a frosted invoice delivered today to People.com:
    Today I sent an invoice on a cake to People.com. I'm demanding $500 from them after my Cake of Resignation photo was used without permission and without payment.

    Here's a timeline:

    On August 10 this year I received an e-mail from an employee of People Magazine requesting permission to use my cake resignation photo in an article. This is shortly after the Jet Blue Steward event, prompting many 'Weird ways people have quit their jobs' news stories.

    I replied to People and said they needed a license to use my photo - meaning they have to pay me to use it. I did not receive a reply.

    On August 11 my image was used without authorization and without payment on People.com, in an article titled "Take This Job and Shove It! 8 Memorable Quitters".

    I sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding my image be removed from their website. Six days later I receive an e-mail stating my image had been removed from their website. I received an offer at that time of $75 for the use of my image. That may have been reasonable if my photo's copyright had not been willfully infringed and used for six days.

    So, today I sent the photo director an invoice for a usage license of my cake resignation photo. This cake was delivered today, September 3rd.

    Invoice Cake to People.com (Thanks, Jess Hemerly!)



  • September 03, 03:33 PM

    Russian mobsters taking over French Riviera

    "They're into everything, from the Russian prostitute rings in resorts like Cannes and St Tropez to gassing tourists in their villa and stealing everything they've got. Bosses are now based here permanently, with foot soldiers working for them, often flying in for set periods before returning home with their profits in cash. The numbers really are unprecedented at the moment."—a French police officer, on the "military-like precision" with which Russian mafia are said to be taking over the French Riviera. (Telegraph UK)

  • September 03, 03:45 PM

    The Student Loan Scheme: gateway drug to debt slavery

    Information designer Jess Bachman has a new piece out which isn't so much an info-graphic as a graphic article. Jess explains:

    It deals with the nightmare that has become student loans. Default rates on student loans are worse than sub-prime mortgages, and the total debt is bigger than all our credit card debts combined. It's a huge issue than many people are keeping quiet about. College students are a hugely under-represented and unadvocated group in Washington, and what we and the government are doing to them is just wrong.
    Link to the full-sized graphic on CollegeScholarships.org.



  • September 03, 03:16 PM

    Woz and Jobs, phone phreakers

    Adafruit Industries has posted a pair of terrific videos in which Apple's "Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs talk about their short career building illegal telephone equipment, aka 'blue boxes.' Interesting how their two stories differ...the engineer and the marketer." Bonus: Cap'n Crunch!

  • September 03, 02:58 PM

    Hai Karate


    Axe is for wimps. Hai Karate: "Be careful how you use it." (Thanks, Mark!)



  • September 03, 02:54 PM

    How to make Sriracha "rooster" hot sauce at home

    Well, I know what I'm doing this weekend: here's a recipe for how to make sriracha hot sauce, the ubiquitous Asian restaurant condiment in that clear plastic bottle with the little white rooster on the side. (via Farhad)

  • September 03, 03:04 PM

    Friday tunes: "Chola Maati Ke Ram," from the Peepli Live soundtrack

    I drove south last weekend to a predominantly Indian suburb of Los Angeles to catch Peepli Live (Wikipedia) at a movie theater that plays only films from India.

    Its was terrific, a poignant and LOL-filled commentary on the state of Indian news media, and the injustice and tragedy that rural communities face. Unsurprisingly, the soundtrack was full of great tunes. My favorite was the song embeded above, "Chola Maati Ke Ram," performed live here by Nageen Tanvir at a launch event for the film.

    The lyrics of this song are about human mortality. Loosely and imperfectly: Time spares no one... death spares no one... our bodies are clay robes that will eventually disintegrate, so it is best to dedicate our lives to honoring Lord Ram, and all that is eternal.

    Incidentally: Today, Kamla Bhatt will be interviewing the Indo-fusion rock band Indian Ocean, who performed several songs in the Peepli Live Soundtrack, at 12.30 pm PST on Stanford radio station KZSU. Listen online here.



  • September 03, 01:51 PM

    The physics of breaking stuff with your fists

    iO9 recently ran a story on how martial artists are able to break boards and cement blocks, using their hands rather than mystical powers. I thought it was pretty neat, but then I read an interesting counter-analysis by science journalist (and, significantly, martial arts practitioner) John Rennie.

    iO9 is right about the lack of magic powers, he says. But they got the physics wrong. Key slip-up: Assuming martial artists strike like a cobra—fast punch, with a quick pull back at the end—when they have their smashing fun times. iO9's theory was that that movement caused the boards to bend and snap. But that's not how it works, Rennie says. In fact, martial artists are taught to follow through with their punches, aiming not at the board-to-be-broken, but at a point beyond it.

    So how's the breaking really done? Rennie quotes an episode of the awesome old PBS show Newton's Apple:

    One key to understanding brick breaking is a basic principle of motion: The more momentum an object has, the more force it can generate. When it hit the brick, [karateka Ron] McNair's hand had reached a speed of 11 meters per second (24 miles per hour). At this speed, his hand exerted a whopping force of 3,000 Newton's -or 675 pounds-on the concrete. A slab of concrete could likely support the weight of a few people weighing a total of 675 pounds (306 kilograms). But apply that amount of force concentrated into an area as small as a fist and the concrete slab will break.

    The fact that martial artists also pick their materials very carefully doesn't hurt, either.

    When breaking wooden boards, you use pine (not oak, not mahogany) that isn't marred by dense knots, cut ¾ inch thick and about 12 inches on the diagonal; you hit them to break along the wood's natural grain. (It's not playing by Hoyle but some breakers have been known to bake their boards in ovens before demonstrations to make them more brittle.) One good board, if held securely so that it won't move on impact, is so easy to break that even those with no training at all can be taught to do it in under five minutes.

    P.S.: Rennie's blog, The Gleaming Retort, is part of a new family of science blogs, hosted by the Public Library of Science—a non-profit that publishes open-access science journals. I highly recommend checking out the entire PLoS Blogosphere.



  • September 03, 12:56 PM

    Cock-touching forbidden in Kyoto


    I didn't touch it.



  • September 03, 01:05 PM

    The Wilderness Downtown: Chrome experiment by Chris Milk and Arcade Fire


    The Wilderness Downtown is perhaps the best browser-dominating Net art piece I've experienced since Jodi.org's best work more than a decade ago. An experimental, interactive film by Chris Milk, it's a tour-de-force for the Chrome browser and a lovely visual poem to accompany Arcade Fire's excellent "We Used To Wait" from their album The Suburbs. I won't give the "story" away, but I found it to be a deeply personal and moving experience.
    Choreographed windows, interactive flocking, custom rendered maps, real-time compositing, procedural drawing, 3D canvas rendering... this Chrome Experiment has them all. "The Wilderness Downtown" is an interactive interpretation of Arcade Fire's song "We Used To Wait" and was built entirely with the latest open web technologies, including HTML5 video, audio, and canvas.
    The Wildreness Downtown (Thanks, Jean Hagan!)

    "Behind the Work: Arcade Fire 'The Wilderness Downtown'" (Creativity Online)



  • September 02, 04:49 PM

    Thanks for reading and "May the scientific method always be with you."


    Phylomon cards: "EUROPEAN HONEY BEE, I CHOOSE YOU!"

    I had a great experience here at Boing Boing, and want to send on a big thanks to Mark, Cory, Xeni, David, Rob and the rest of the crew for letting me spend some quality time here. I'm also grateful to the many museum folks who let me chat with them, and so graciously showed me their projects. Kudos especially to Bob Bloomfield for the warm welcome and the many discussions on biodiversity advocacy. Hopefully, my posts didn't dilute the overall awesomeness here at Boing Boing, and at the every least, I hope a few more people are interested in Nagoya COP10. Also, it was fun to do my part to increase the Chewbacca quotient (even if only slightly) here at the site.

    With that, I'd like to end with two last requests. Both related to biodiversity: one is kind of worthy, the other a little goofy. One requires folks of the artistic bent, the other maybe a more scientific approach.

    First, if you haven't already done so, do please check out the PHYLO project. If you don't know what it is, think Pokemon but with real creatures, and then read the about section (or this previous Boing Boing post). Although the project is being hosted by my lab, it is hardly my project. Basically, all images, web infrastructure, game rules, IP advice, and educational discussion, to make the 180 or so cards currently available (new one every weekday!), has been produced solely from the fine act of crowd sourcing. Everything is open source and open access, completely free, so that all you really need is a printer, some paper, and you're good to go. It's been very cool to watch it progress, but I'd love it if more people came by to contribute. In fact, if it sounds interesting to you and/or your kids, you can even start playing it right now.

    In particular, we'd like more artists to participate. You'll note that the artwork for the cards is pretty freakin' excellent (see the image above), and we're hoping for a wider pool of people to contribute. Doesn't matter what the organism is: it can be one you've already drawn, or one where you try your hand at something that's not currently a card (for instance we are well represented by birds and mammals, but poorly lacking in things like reptiles, insects, aquatic plants, and still no blue whale yet). Heck, in honour of the Boing Boing community, I think we can even open the doors for unicorn submissions, but ONLY if you also provide a picture of a real creature (NOTE: you might wonder where a unicorn card might fit in with a biodiversity project, but we are not above a little parody in the project - see if you can find the one other fictional card already hidden in the collection).

    Anyway, how do you submit? Well, there is a special Flickr pool just for art submissions, but if it's easier you can also pass on a link to your art in the comments below (make sure the link also has a way of contact so that we can follow up); do the same via this post; or, if you're on Deviant Art, by sending on a note to my deviantart.com account. All in all, any help is greatly appreciated.

    We're also now at the stage where we can begin to construct locale specific starter decks. In other words, with our card numbers continually expanding, we can provide pdfs of decks that make sense to a particular city or region, as well as decks of cards chosen to support the exhibits at learning institutions (I'll be making one for the Natural History Museum for example). This would have awesome educational potential, so it would be great if we could get locale specific "champions" to help with this.

    Finally: wouldn't these cards look cool on a smart phone? Maybe there are biodiversity type apps out there that would like to add a "card" layer to their functionality. Or maybe just a way to play trumps or some such similar game with the cards? Just saying.

    Second, here is a request that involves the blue whale I wrote about earlier.




    Photo by Stuart Pearce (link)

    During construction (of the whale model), workmen left a trapdoor within the whale's stomach, which they would use for surreptitious cigarette breaks. Before the door was closed and sealed forever, some coins and a telephone directory were placed inside -- this soon growing to an urban myth that a time capsule was left inside. The work was completed -- entirely within the hall and in full view of the public -- in 1938. At the time it was the largest such model in the world, at 28.3 m in length, though the construction details were later borrowed by several American museums, who scaled the plans further. (Wikipedia)

    Isn't that wonderful? I've also heard other stories about what might be inside the belly of this whale (including one that mentioned a distill), and have increasingly heard the term "Narnia doors" around this museum. Apparently, the museum is so vast and so twisty-turny that it's not uncommon to open a door and end up somewhere totally unexpected.

    In fact, the idea of the blue whale possibly harboring some secret inside is such a delicious notion, that I'm a bit disappointed that someone like J.K. Rowling didn't lend her considerable imagination to include it in her vast Harry Potter iconography (although I might pursue this myself in a children's science culture/novel I'm working on). Anyway, in this respect, I'm curious to find out more. To be specific, I was wondering if:

    1. Anybody knows more about what might be inside the whale, and

    2. Without having to open up the huge hollow model, what technical options (high tech or better yet DIY) are there to take a peek inside?

    And with that, this is where I'll sign off. Thanks for reading and playing along, and "May the Scientific Method always be with you."



  • September 03, 03:52 PM

    Nagoya COP10 Primer #4: with reference to Twitter

    Continuing from:

    Nagoya COP10 Primer #1: with references to Star Wars Nagoya COP10

    Primer #2: with a reference to Kevin Bacon Nagoya COP10 sidebar: UNFCCC YOU!

    Nagoya COP10 Primer #3: with a small reference to LOL cats

    So what should be done at Nagoya? This is the 20 million species plus question. And for all of the criticism that I've (and others) have proffered, we should appreciate that the task at hand is going to be quite the challenge. If nothing else, this is immediately clear from the often anthrocentric (humans rule the Earth and are just playing our role on the evolutionary front, so deal with it!) commentary left on biodiversity pieces throughout the internet.

    There is a somewhat official Strategic Plan document out there, one that (with a remarkable lack of brevity) highlights 2020 goals and attempts to identify the process and partners to be involved. It's worth a look, although probably best absorbed by taking in the tables shown on page 19 on. It involves a list of some 20 different target statements. Some of which are short, bouncy, although still vague like a twitter tweet:

    1. By 2020, everyone is aware of the value of biodiversity and what steps they can take to protect it.

    Others are more to the point:

    11. By 2020, At least 15% of land and sea areas, including the most critical terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats, have been protected through effectively managed protected areas and/or other means, and integrated into the wider land- and seascape.

    A few establish direct talking points for individual COP members:

    16. By 2020, Each Party has an appropriate, up-to-date, effective and operational national biodiversity strategy, consistent with this Strategic Plan, based on adequate assessment of biodiversity, its value and threats, with responsibilities allocated among sectors, levels of government, and other stakeholders, and coordination mechanisms are in place to ensure implementation of the actions needed.

    And this one, almost works as a haiku:

    3. By 2020 Subsidies harmful

    to biodiversity

    are eliminat...

    Well, maybe not a 5-7-5 haiku. Still, the 20 targets make for a good, if detailed, read. I'm actually tempted to see how they might fare as a poem: if I stack them one by one, and then giving it the title, "By 2020."

    The purpose of this long and comprehensive list of targets, of course, is to address the vagueness discussed before. This is a good thing: but how wieldy these discussions will be, especially in the context of 190+ COP members needing to reach an agreement remains to be seen. In light of this, maybe structuring this discussion around a more simple list is better.

    I quite like the suggestions laid out in this recent paper, "Biodiversity targets after 2010" by Mace et al. (pdf). For starters, it's written in a pretty readable fashion, but more importantly, it tries to break the targets into three defined categories, as described in this box.




    This seems pretty clever to me. Let's break up the priorities depending on: (1) whether the loss in biodiversity is directly "bad" for you (as well as anthrocentric commenters); (2) whether the loss in biodiversity results in a loss of sociological and/or cultural value (i.e. makes you "sad"); and (3) what kind of things are needed in order to tackle the previous two. If viewed in this manner, the hope is that everyone can find something of value in this process. In fact, I think an important part of 3 (or the blue target) is to also showcase how closely tied 1 and 2 are to each other (things that make you "sad" are often things with a direct "bad" effect - often an effect you're not necessarily prepared for).

    In any event, let's end with a list of priorities, whittled from our "By 2020" poem, and worded explicitly for those of you who don't wish to read the strategic document outlined earlier. In fact, let's borrow from a great list seen at the IYB UK website. Here they suggest that at the very least, Nagoya COP10 can provide the following:

    1. A new set of targets to protect our natural resources that are achievable and measurable.

    2. A protocol for fair access to, and sharing the benefits from, the world's genetic resources. This is called the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) protocol.

    3. The need to put a fair economic value on nature's services that are currently used for free, such as fertile soil, pollination of our crops, and flood defences. This will be based on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) report.

    4. Support for establishing a single source for access to reliable scientific evidence which can be used to inform policy decisions on biodiversity issues. This is called the Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and will operate in a similar way that the IPCC informs climate change policy.

    My favourite is the first one, which in a sort of grant-proposal-speak, is basically asking for a strong and kick ass Nagoya agreement.

    Now, what can you do to help move this along? Well, on the high effort scale, you can obviously get involved in various biodiversity outreach programs. I'm sure there are many in your local neck of the woods. However, at the lower end of the effort scale, just being vocal about such things is a good star (even if you disagree heartily about everything I've written). Dialogue generates more dialogue which then generates debate which then generates noise which then, if you're lucky, might generate notice from the government players, which is what you hope for.

    The timing is also interesting politically. For the US, biodiversity has inadvertently been pushed into the public's consciousness by the horrible Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The images and stories presented have been visceral and gut wrenching, and tragically informative in providing a look at how a locale is closely tied to its ecosystem. In the UK, Nagoya COP10 is Prime Minister Cameron's first real test on the environmental front - so there's lots of eyeballs monitoring his government's action. And in Canada, where my home is... well... Stephen Harper should be well aware that the sweater vests he loves so dearly are very much a product of biodiversity.

    Anyway, since this is my last Nagoya COP10 primer, I'm hoping you can just go on and make some online noise. For example, those four priorities above seemed primed for a twitter rework. Or maybe just come up with any creative/witty/funny/deep Nagoya related tweet. You can even stick a #nagoyaCOP10 hashtag in there. It would be interesting to see what great lines people can come up with.



  • September 03, 12:00 PM

    Crystal Jellybean Skull only $6 in Boing Boing Bazaar


    Who in their right mind wouldn't want a Crystal Jellybean Skull for only six dollars? Get yours now in the Boing Boing Bazaar.

    Crystal Jellybean Skull



  • September 03, 11:48 AM

    HOWTO: Tiny BBQ out of Altoids Sours tin


    Instructables.com contributor vmspionage built a tiny BBQ grill out of an Altoids Sours tin and computer fan grates. My 4-year-old (and I) would love this for making s'mores, one bubbling, tooth-decaying marshmallow at a time. Altoids Sours BBQ Grill



  • September 03, 11:11 AM

    SPECIAL FEATURE: Makoto Aida's Schoolgirls

    Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential: How Teenage Girls Made a Nation Cool, by Brian Ashcraft and Shoko Ueda, looks at how this archetype has become such a distinctive international symbol. Following is an excerpt, about the artwork of Makoto Aida, from the book. — Rob

    Read the rest



  • September 02, 04:35 PM

    Art, nature, the history of science, and whoa, aren't these are beautiful?


    Plate 73 of the John Reeves Collection of Zoological Drawings from Canton, China, 1774-1856. (© The Natural History Museum, London).

    Reeves was an English tea inspector, but also amassed a wonderful collection of Chinese drawings of plants and animals during his time in Canton.

    A few weeks back, I had a great conversation with Judith Magee, Library Special Collections Curator at the Natural History Museum. From this conversation, as well as others (thanks Peronel, Martha, Bergit), it soon became clear that there were many individuals within the museum that had a passion for things pertaining to the humanities and the arts (see also this previous post).

    In particular, the museum happens to house a vast collection of illustrations and paintings, many of which were originally produced as a way to scientifically document new species, new cultures, and other things observed during expeditions. However, it's also clear that apart from their historical value, these pieces of artwork also have immense aesthetic value. They. Are. Beautiful.

    And speaking to Judith, you can literally feel the enthusiasm and affection for such pieces. Judith talked to me about writer/artists such as Alexander von Humboldt, John Bartram, as well as the wonderful drawings collected by John Reeves.

    Best of all, it looks like the museum is now in the process of developing exhibitions around their art collection, and if you're the academic type whose interest is piqued by the mention of the humanities, the museum has a fairly new Centre for Arts and Humanities Research (you can see one of their projects here). This Centre has a mandate that:

    supports interdisciplinary research into the historical, cultural, social and economic significance of the library, archive and specimen collections of this world-class museum. It does this by enabling and promoting research into the collection through partnerships with universities, research councils, foundations, major museums and libraries around the world.

    Anyway, sit back and enjoy these other few images:




    "Humboldt and his party collecting plant." Specimens at the foot of Mount Chimborazo. Detail from Plate 25 Voyage aux Regions Equinoxiales by Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859). (© The Natural History Museum, London).

    Humboldt was well known as a wonderful writer. In fact, his works were known to have inspired Darwin as he traveled on the Beagle. As well, Humboldt's views on the "unity of nature" are often thought to have laid the groundwork for ecological study. In his art, he often included himself in the picture (the first Waldo?), again to emphasize the holistic connections in nature.




    "Nelumbo lutea, American lotus and Triodopsis albolabri, snail." Drawing 34 (Ewan 59) from the Botanical and zoological drawings (1756-1788) by William Bartram. Pen, ink and watercolour. (© The Natural History Museum, London).


    Bartram is often referred to as the "Father of American Botany," and played an important part in distributing American seeds to European gardeners. His artwork is also acclaimed as being one of the first to move away from the Linnaean practice of plant in isolation depicted in a position that best highlighted its anatomy. You can see here how Bartram has really attempted to present the various species as a community of players.



    "Bubo bubo bengalensis, Eurasian eagle-owl." Large Series plate 5, a watercolour from the John Reeves Collection of Zoological Drawings from Canton, China. (© The Natural History Museum, London).

    Reeves' collection presented a fascinating look at the wide variety of Chinese natural history. In fact, many of the species depicted by the images were, at the time, unknown to Western science.



  • September 03, 09:01 AM

    Boneless, clubfooted French Connection model invades Melbourne


    As seen tonight in the casino across from the Melbourne Convention Centre: a boneless, clubfooted French Connection model.

    Club-footed rubber-band woman visits us from the French Connection dimension, Melbourne, Australia



This too.