Linked List: June 1, 2008

Sunday, 1 June 2008

New top-level domain (ostensibly from Montenegro). Apple has filed for “apple.me”, “ipod.me”, “itunes.me”, and, I presume, others. These domains are open for anyone to register starting June 6, but the actual .me top-level domain doesn’t go live until July 17. I think it’s merely a coincidence that this TLD is going live right around the same time that it appears Apple is set to launch a service called Mobile Me.

Programme Director/Curator, Stanley Kubrick Archive ★

Interesting job opening at the University of the Arts London:

Working closely with the Manager of the archive, your duties will include organising a bi-annual Stanley Kubrick programme, arranging the curation of regular exhibitions and leading cross-university research and academic programming. Everything will be geared towards maximising the potential of the archives and inspiring further generations of film makers.

(Thanks to Benjamin Miller.)

Gonzo ★

Trailer for the documentary Gonzo, “a probing look into the uncanny life of national treasure and gonzo journalism inventor Dr. Hunter S. Thompson”, with appearances from Johnny Depp, Pat Buchanan, and Jimmy Carter.

NYT on the Success of the Disney/Pixar Merger ★

Brooks Barnes on Disney and Pixar:

“Cars” tells the story. The film was regarded by some critics as one of Pixar’s weaker storytelling efforts, and it generated soft foreign sales when compared with hits like “Finding Nemo.” But “Cars” has pumped billions in profit into Disney via a wide range of ancillary businesses.

The film racked up over $460 million in global ticket sales and has sold 27 million DVDs. Related retail products have generated $5 billion in sales. A “Cars” virtual world is opening on the Internet, a “Cars” ice-skating show will begin touring the nation in September, and work is under way to bring an entire “Cars” experience to the Disneyland Resort in California.

WMD ★

Outstanding “what you see is what you mean” Markdown editor written in JavaScript. Best way to compose Markdown-formatted text in a browser textarea field I’ve seen, by far:

You can add WMD to any textarea with one line of code. Add live preview with one line more. There’s nothing to install on the server, and WMD works in nearly all modern browsers.

Update: Freely downloadable now, and author John Fraser is working on an open source release coming soon.