Saturday, July 18th, 2009
I’m very picky about where I get my haircut. I hate going to one of the big chains and shelling out $15 only to come back the next day or go somewhere else to get my hair fixed. For the last couple of years I have been going to Big League Haircuts. They only offer haircuts for men and boys, give you your own TV to watch during the cut, and hook you up with a massage at the end. I love it and will continue to go there for as long as they’re open and I live in Orlando. So, one day I was waiting for my name to be called and flipping through an issue of ESPN The Magazine. I came across an article by Bill Simmons. Now, I am not a Bill Simmons fan. Mainly because he hates on the Magic and Dwight Howard. However, on this day I overlooked my distaste and was pleasantly surprised to read one of the best articles about the effect of Technology on sports fans. Click on the link below to read it.
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Friday, July 17th, 2009
My father was the first person that told me about this website. He described it as the future of search engines. The next big thing. I was skeptical, but wrote the name down to research later. Wolfram Alpha is an odd name, but mercifully not a goofy web 2.0 generic Google, Bebo, or Qoop. After loading it up in my browser and searching “Orlando Web Design” I was not impressed. Not only did my website not show up in the rankings, there were no rankings. All that was displayed was “Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input.” I closed the window and didn’t think much of it until I read about the website a few months later in a copy of Wired. It turns out the website is not a search engine, but a way to organize and display useful data based on the user’s keywords. Upon returning to the site and doing a search for “Orlando, Florida” I was given a litany of statistics and information. Everything from the city population to the approximate elevation was at my fingertips. I could see the potential moving forward if the technology caught up to the idea. Imagine planning a vacation to Jamaica. You would type in “Jamican Vacation” and Wolfram Alpha would output the most scenic locations, hotels with ratings and reviews close to those locations, as well as images, maps, and plane ticket prices. It’s really what the future of technology is all about. Gather and exhibit the useful while trashing the unnecessary. Harness the vast array of information on the web in a way that my Grandmother would find easy to use. If they continue to develop this technology Wolfram Alpha will be the Encyclopedia Britannica to Google’s Yellow Pages.
Posted in Search Engines | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
This guy did a great job re-imagining some movie posters and other iconic imagery.
Beautiful Modern Vintage Illustrations by Tom Whalen
I wonder sometimes how I might have stacked up to some of the amazing graphic designers and illustrators out there if I would have fully pursued graphic design. In the end I know I made the right choice focusing on web programming. You have to have a certain vision to be a truly unique and successful designer and to be perfectly honest I don’t think I have it.
Posted in Graphic Design | No Comments »