Real People Real Stuff.

This is a really neat concept - half craigslist, half YouTube, it allows people to show their stuff via video and sell it online. Click here or on the image above to see the woefully-underpopulated New Orleans section.
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Warp Zone Beauty

Isn’t it great how creativity kicks in when times running out. Take for example this incredible and beautiful installation by artists Dan Havel and Dean Ruck a few months before this house was to be demolished…. I’m guessing they saw any opportunity to do something freaking crazy cool to a space that was going to be destroyed and turned this old house into a trippy wooden warp zone! [more]
from designverb
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My Fave is the Liger.

A photo provided by the Zoo Safari and Hollywoodpark Stukenbrock shows the zebra and horse crossbreed 'Eclyse' during its presentation to the public in Schloss Holte, Germany, on Wednesday, June 27, 2007. The father of 'Eclyse' is a horse from Italy, where the crossbreed filly was born in 2006, her mother is a zebra from the Safari park.
(AP Photo/uripress.de, Udo Richter)
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Apple's $3000 iPhone.

By Sinead Carew Tue Jun 26, 4:11 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc. said on Tuesday its hotly anticipated iPhone could cost as much as $3,000 with a required two-year service contract, but a handful of eager fans still lined up early to spend their money.

A small clutch of gadget enthusiasts staked out spots in front of Apple's store on New York's Fifth Avenue, days before the iPhone goes on sale on Friday evening 6 p.m. local time.

Plenty of potential iPhone consumers have said they would wait for Apple's next versions of the device to buy it, hoping for a lower price and faster network connection.

But industry analysts expect the first iPhone to sell quickly, at least in its initial months. Jessica Rodriguez, a 24-year-old student from the Bronx, seems to agree with them.

"I love everything Apple, and this is going to be something that goes down in the history books of cell phones," she told Reuters. [more]

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He told me to burn things.

Thanks Bec - good stuff.
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TV-B-Gone™

TV-B-Gone™ universal remote control turns off virtually any television! It's the ultimate jammer tool for reclaiming public space. It works at airports, bars, offices... any place that needs a break from the idiot box. Clarity of mind, one click at a time.

Click here for details and how it works.
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Lawyer's $65 Million Pants

Washington Post, 26 Apr 2007

When the neighborhood dry cleaner misplaced Roy Pearson's pants, he took action. He complained. He demanded compensation. And then he sued. Man, did he sue.

Two years, thousands of pages of legal documents and many hundreds of hours of investigative work later, Pearson is seeking to make Custom Cleaners pay -- would you believe more than the payroll of the entire Washington Nationals roster?

He says he deserves millions for the damages he suffered by not getting his pants back, for his litigation costs, for "mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort," for the value of the time he has spent on the lawsuit, for leasing a car every weekend for 10 years and for a replacement suit, according to court papers.

Pearson is demanding $65,462,500. The original alteration work on the pants cost $10.50.

By the way, Pearson is a lawyer. Okay, you probably figured that. But get this: He's a judge, too -- an administrative law judge for the District of Columbia.

What a prize. If you would like to leave a message expressing your outrage you can snail mail to:

Pearson, Roy L Jr
3012 Pineview Ct NE
Washington, DC 20018-1617

Or leave a message on his answering machine (he doesn't answer his phone directly anymore): (202) 269-1191

Or send him an email: roypearsonjr@verizon.net

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MySpace vs. Facebook

Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace

Danah Boyd
June 24, 2007

Over the last six months, I've noticed an increasing number of press articles about how high school teens are leaving MySpace for Facebook. That's only partially true. There is indeed a change taking place, but it's not a shift so much as a fragmentation. Until recently, American teenagers were flocking to MySpace. The picture is now being blurred. Some teens are flocking to MySpace. And some teens are flocking to Facebook. Who goes where gets kinda sticky... probably because it seems to primarily have to do with socio-economic class. [more]
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It's All About the Benzene Man.

GE this month sold its storied plastics division for $11.6 billion to Saudi Basic Industries Corp., said Padraic Cassidy in Marketwatch.com. Both Jeffrey Immelt and Jack Welch, GE's current and former CEOs, cut their managerial teeth in the plastics business, which has suffered in recent years because of the rising price of benzene, a key raw material. "The Saudi company stands to benefit from its position in its oil-producing home country, which can supply cheap benzene."

From The Week.
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Rewinding.

Tapedeck.org is a project of neckcns.com, built to showcase the amazing beauty and (sometimes) weirdness found in the designs of the common audio tape cassette. There’s an amazing range of designs, starting from the early 60’s functional cassette designs, moving through the colourful playfulness of the 70’s audio tapes to amazing shape variations during the 80’s and 90’s. [more]
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Dangers of Glare

This Polaroid spot/minisite is suspiciously close to the Milwaukee's Best Beer Cannon. I guess that shooting things from cannons has become its own genre. How viral.
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Music. Dance. Clock.

Incredible Flash-based apparel site. Check out the screen savers.
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Site Entrance Hurdles

It's not unusual for a site to position a long sequence of hurdles just inside their entrance. Someone walking in the door might have to clear some or all of these hurdles before they can even try out the site:

1. Figure out what the service does, and whether it meets their needs. This can be a lot harder than it sounds. The site might describe itself in text, images, or Flash demos. Even assuming the user has Flash installed, sitting through a demo can be tedious. The worst case: the site already assumes visitors know what it does.

2. Find the entry point for signing up. You'd think this would always be obvious, but on some sites it's not.

3. Pick a user ID. Often the first thing the service wants a new customer to do is pick an identifier such as a user name with which to identify themselves to the site later. If the site doesn't use email addresses as IDs, the user generally picks some variation on their own name. If they have a common name, they might have to guess several times before they find a variation of their name that hasn't already been picked as an ID.

4. Enter their email address. If the user ID isn't an email address, the user almost always has to enter their email address separately. Even if the service can be used without an email address, the site is eager to obtain this critical piece of marketing data from the user.

5. Pick a password.

6. Enter the password again to confirm it.

7. Pick the password several more times to comply with arbitrary security requirements.

8. Write down their password somewhere before they forget the new variation of their usual password that finally made it past the arbitrary security requirements.

9. Enter personal data used to configure the service to their needs.

10. Comply with (or carefully turn down) requests for demographic data for marketing purposes. This may include opting out of requests to be added to email newsletters.

11. Agree to terms of use and other legal agreements.

12. Activate their account. The user might need to switch to a completely different application—their email client—and look for a message from the service. They might have to wait for a period of time for this message to arrive. The length of this time period is unknown: it could be a few seconds, or a few days. When the user finally receives the message, they have to find a link somewhere in it that they need to click on in order to verify that they are, in fact, the proper owner of the email address.

13. Download software. If the service entails client software or browser plug-ins, the user has an additional dozen hurdles to jump through: the browser's save dialog, progress dialog, "Are you sure you want to run this?" dialog, an elevate-to-administrator security dialog, and probably a firewall dialog—not to mention the software's own overly long sequence of setup questions.

And finally, after all this, the person gets to try the actual service—and decide whether it's worth using.

With all these hurdles, it's a small miracle some web-based services end up with any users at all. Each hurdle constitutes an opportunity for the user to leave. The site is effectively asking the user, "Are you sure you want to use us? Are you really sure? How about now? Are you sure you're sure? Hmm?" Some users are going to take one of these opportunities and leave. People are growing increasingly leery of starting down the hurdle-strewn path of a new site. They've been down similar paths so many times that they've concluded the experience won't be worth their time unless they're already confident the site will provide substantial value.

From flow|state
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Liberators or Occupiers?

BBC is running this in NYC, allowing viewers to text their vote in. Click the image above to see the whole series. [read more]
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The Rise of Consumer Power

By Marie Jackson
BBC News

The makers of Mars bars have done a swift U-turn over plans to use animal products in their chocolate, to avoid a public backlash.

It appears the parent company Masterfoods did not reckon on the UK's vegetarians and their supporters being quite such a force.

















But as a growing tide of consumers are prepared to use their shopping basket to make a point, companies are increasingly having to watch their step.

A shift in consumerism seems to have taken place as shoppers become increasingly health-conscious and environmentally aware.

From prices and food labelling to sourcing and ingredients, there is little that does not come under the scrutiny of buyers.

And if it is not to their taste, consumers are prepared to reject it.
[read more]
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Microsoft Surface

Pretty neat. Take a look.

Brand America

America - Home Free?
America has been, for at least a century, the most powerful brand on the planet. That's not a metaphor: it's the literal truth. The ways that people all over the world think about, talk about and relate to America are exactly the same ways that people think about, talk about, and relate to great brands.

Brand America - Taming Wild Perceptions.
But has America's Western star lost its luster? A recent BBC World Service poll contacted over 26,000 people in 25 countries and found the image of the US deteriorating. Only 29 percent of those surveyed felt the US currently has a positive influence on world affairs. It would seem that the image of the lone cowboy no longer plays well overseas.

Highrise Hijinks

Kind of an inside joke - my sister and I both worked at The Clorox Company in Oakland, at their corporate highrise on Broadway. While I was there, working in the Creative Services department, I'd done a photo shoot with a lot of Pine-Sol product, and ended up with a few gallons of it that I needed to get rid of. I was working long hours, and was pretty beat, with a long commute back into the city coming - so I went to the men's bathroom and dumped the leftover Pine-Sol down a toilet and flushed.

Big mistake. I didn't realize it at the time, but when the offending load of cleanser hit the lowest point of gravity in the building - the basement - it exploded into a massive cloud of foam, blowing out pipes and flooding the mailroom and basement facilities with lemon and original scent Pine-Sol foam. Maybe some 'rain fresh' as well. My boss at the time, who is a great guy, sucked it up and shielded me from full-on trouble...

Live and learn.

Sneaker Freaker

Nice. From Dork Magazine - click the image or here to see more.

The Long Hallway

You've heard of the long tail and the long walk home. Now, for all those micro design firms looking to grow to the next level, there's the long hallway - the distance between the physical working spaces of the individuals that comprise virtual companies - which may be as short as a few miles across town or as long as thousands of miles across continents and oceans.

In the past five years, due to the ever-increasing speed and wide availability of broadband data pipes, the virtual company has grown in popularity as an organizational strategy for businesses in tech-centered fields. The virtual company structure allows employees to integrate their work and lifestyles as they see fit, living where they want and working when they want. If your micro design firm has taken on a project that's too big for your current capacity, if you need a representative in a new market, or if you want the best talent but can't find it locally or affordably, you may choose to work with people who share your vision, but not your physical location... [read more] from A List Apart

Technology Use Survey

By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer Sun May 6, 9:39 PM ET

NEW YORK - A broad survey about the technology people have, how they use it, and what they think about it shatters assumptions and reveals where companies might be able to expand their audiences.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project found that adult Americans are broadly divided into three groups: 31 percent are elite technology users, 20 percent are moderate users and the remainder have little or no usage of the Internet or cell phones. But Americans are divided within each group, according to a Pew analysis of 2006 data released Sunday. The high-tech elites, for instance, are almost evenly split into:

"Omnivores," who fully embrace technology and express themselves creatively through blogs and personal Web pages.

"Connectors," who see the Internet and cell phones as communications tools.

"Productivity enhancers," who consider technology as largely ways to better keep up with their jobs and daily lives.

"Lackluster veterans," those who use technology frequently but aren't thrilled by it.

John Horrigan, Pew's associate director, said he started the survey believing that the more gadgets people have, the more they are likely to embrace technology and use so-called Web 2.0 applications for generating and sharing content with the world. "Once we got done, we were surprised to find the tensions within groups of users with information technology," Horrigan said.

Many longtime Internet users, the lackluster veterans, remain stuck in the decade-old technologies they started with, Horrigan said. That a quarter of high-tech elites fall into this category, he said, shows untapped potential for companies that can design next-generation applications to pique this group's interest.

The moderate users were also evenly divided into "mobile centrics," those who primarily use the cell phone for voice, text messaging and even games, and "connected but hassled," those who have used technology but find it burdensome. Mobile companies, he said, can target the mobile centrics with premium services, especially once faster wireless networks become available.

The Pew study found 15 percent of all Americans have neither a cell phone nor an Internet connection. Another 15 percent use some technology and are satisfied with what it currently does for them, while 11 percent use it intermittently and find connectivity annoying.
Eight percent - mostly women in the early 50s - occasionally use technology and might use more given more experience. They tend to still be on dial-up access and represent potential high-speed customers "with the right constellation of services offered," Horrigan said.

The telephone study of 4,001 U.S. adults, including 2,822 Internet users, was conducted Feb. 15 to April 6, 2006, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Find out which category you fall under.

Inspiring Adverts

I love these really cool examples of great 'interrupter' communication. These have made the rounds for quite a while, but I still get a kick out of them. Seen any? Send them my way.

Local Wildlife

I don't know where to start with this one. I'm a vegetarian. Love the illustrations. This struck me as really bizarre initially (I'm a city-dweller at heart), but this stuff's probably healthier and safer than most of the mass-produced food product sold in chains. Still - muskrat?

Brandalism

Flea Market Remix

I love this, from UK graffiti artist Banksy. I was driving down Airline Highway the other day, and stopped at a light in front of the entrance to a gated community. I noticed that there were cameras everywhere (on the public streets). Who's watching? Why? It's Metairie, for God's sake.

So Far Ahead, We're Behind.

I had the pleasure of visiting the folks at Dirty Coast the other day. If you don't know of them, they've got some spectacular NOLA-centric apparel and merchandise for sale here. The above tee is among my favorites. Get yourself one for $20.

If you don’t understand this shirt, you don’t understand New Orleans. The rest of the country has torn down neighborhoods and built strip malls and sprawl to the horizon till they have lost all their quality and character. Not NOLA. By default, we are behind the curve and ahead of the pack.






It’s good to be backwards sometimes.

We're Behind was designed by Mitch Paone, who's got a badass design site.

GenPets Hoax

From artist Adam Brandejs: Accessability to art is limited, so Genpets.com exposes the piece into a more public sphere, that encourages discussion and potentially promotes awareness of current issues. This discussion is quintessential to developing our understanding of science, life and the merging controlled relationship between the two.

While the piece functions aesthetically far better in person, pets moving, lights blinking, sound bleeping and spanning a wall in front of the viewer, the gallery is not an accessible outlet for mass distribution, especially not for an emerging artist such as myself. (If however, you’re interested in displaying Genpets, please do contact me).

Welcome to the Machine

Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality

Each item was purchased, taken home, and photographed immediately. Nothing was tampered with, run over by a car, or anything of the sort. It is an accurate representation in every case. Shiny, neon-orange, liquefied pump-cheese, and all.

See the photos here, courtesy of the West Virginia Surf Report.

Constance 02

Constance is now accepting visual art and writing submissions for Issue 02, Delicate Burdens.

Delicate Burdens seeks work that confronts the everyday experience of making New Orleans home. Bring honest and uncompromising portrayals of yourself, your city and of those that look on or even look away. There’s a double meaning to everything in New Orleans – an anger in the devotion, a pleasure in the pain – and we want you to define it.

Inquiries/Questions: inquiries@weareconstance.org

Annunciation Interactive

I'm pleased to announce that I have partnered with Jonah Langenbeck and Annunication Interactive, a little design and technology studio in New Orleans. We are in the process of launching the company while serving existing customers.