By John Gruber
Mux — Video for developers
Linked List: November 19, 2008
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
- Frenzic for iPhone ★
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I’ve played a bunch of iPhone games that, while fun on the computer, just don’t translate well to the iPhone. Games that are best suited to control using a keyboard, joystick, or mouse often just aren’t fun when using the accelerometer or touch screen for input.
Frenzic, a joint production of The Iconfactory and ARTIS Software, is the other way around. When Frenzic came out for the Mac in February 2007, I thought it was a neat concept, but it required far too much precise mousing for me to find it fun. It’s so perfectly suited to touch screen controls that it’s hard to believe it wasn’t designed for the iPhone all along. $5 at the App Store.
- A Two-Year-Old Smoking ★
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Some of these photographs in Google’s new Life archive make me insatiably curious about the articles that accompanied them in the magazine. Like, say, this series from 1959 featuring a two-year-old cigarette smoker.
- Chuck Klosterman Reviews ‘Chinese Democracy’ ★
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Chuck Klosterman:
Reviewing Chinese Democracy is not like reviewing music. It’s more like reviewing a unicorn. Should I primarily be blown away that it exists at all? Am I supposed to compare it to conventional horses? To a rhinoceros? Does its pre-existing mythology impact its actual value, or must it be examined inside a cultural vacuum, as if this creature is no more (or less) special than the remainder of the animal kingdom? I’ve been thinking about this record for 15 years; during that span, I’ve thought about this record more than I’ve thought about China, and maybe as much as I’ve thought about the principles of democracy.
- The Penguin Blog: Designing Classics ★
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Exquisite book cover designs by Coralie Bickford-Smith for Penguin’s new range of hardback classics. See more images in Penguin’s Flickr account. (And how cool is it that Penguin has a Flickr account?) (Via The Book Design Review.)
- NumberKey ★
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$2 app turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a numeric keypad for your MacBook. I have no need for this personally, but I can’t help but link to it given that one of the themes matches the Apple IIgs ADB keyboard.
- Jason Fried: ‘Why the Drudge Report Is One of the Best Designed Sites on the Web’ ★
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Jason Fried:
To clarify, my definition of design goes beyond aesthetic qualities and into areas of maintenance, cost, profitability, speed, and purpose. However, I still think that the Drudge Report is an aesthetic masterpiece even though I also consider it ugly. Can good design also be ugly? I think Drudge proves it can.
I agree completely.
- PC Magazine Ceases Print ★
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I have a feeling that print publications turning into online-only publications is going to be a recurring theme during this recession.