blech + via:antimega   67

The Facebook Problem | Martin Parr
'The more drink is taken, the bigger the “Facebook Problem” becomes. You walk into a crowded bar or party, lift your camera and everyone in front of you starts posing and smiling, producing the kind of image in the past associated with the social pages in magazines, but now the stock that fills up Facebook." "The image is unlikely to disappear, as they have probably been photographed many times already that night on countless mobile phones."
photography  facebook  culture  martinparr  via:antimega 
12 weeks ago by blech
The American bus revival | BBC News
The BBC on US coach travel: "Rising petrol prices and a new breed of British-owned discount operators, based in the densely populated north-east corridor, have made the coach a viable alternative to the car, plane or train for a growing number of travellers." "Inter-city bus travel grew by 7.1% in 2011, compared with 1.5% for air and 1.16% for rail, according to DePaul University."
us  transport  bus  coach  stagecoach  firstgroup  via:antimega 
february 2012 by blech
City braced for rubbish news | Citywire Money
"Renew currently has 50 bin/screen units in the heart of London, and this will rise to 200 in time for the Olympics. The company calls the idea 'the first of a new generation of “on-the-go” media', and says the editorial team behind the plan will cover breaking news, weather, the arts and sports."
uk  screens  advertising  dooh  twitter  ifttt  via:antimega 
january 2012 by blech
The Very Model of a (LEGO) Architect | Architectural Record
"Tucker, who designs stone-faced architecture sets for Lego in his Arlington Heights studio and has created 11 kits so far -- from a 546-piece replica of Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House in Plano to a relatively modest, 208-piece Guggenheim Museum -- had delivered, as promised, another retail-friendly Lego interpretation of iconic architecture. In fact, it was his biggest, most ambitious set yet.
lego  architecture  design  toy  building  via:antimega 
january 2012 by blech
Headphones With Swagger (and Lots of Bass) | NYTimes
On Beats headphones, which are expensive and (some say) terrible but popular despite that.
nytimes  headphones  audio  consumption  via:antimega  from instapaper
november 2011 by blech
London’s latest landmark | FT.com
A Financial Times article on the construction of the Shard, including a sequence of construction photos, and some details about the way they plan to use an internal crane to finish the construction. Worth battling the FT's crazy article limits for.
london  shard  architecture  construction  photography  via:antimega  from delicious
february 2011 by blech
the Film | The Pruitt-Igoe Myth - a Documentary
"At the film’s historical center is an analysis of the massive impact of the national urban renewal program of the 1950s and 1960s, which prompted the process of mass suburbanization and emptied American cities of their residents, businesses, and industries. Those left behind in the city faced a destitute, rapidly de-industrializing St. Louis , parceled out to downtown interests and increasingly segregated by class and race. The residents of Pruitt-Igoe were among the hardest hit." A companion piece to Utopian London, of sorts.
film  documentary  planning  infrastructure  housing  us  via:antimega  from delicious
january 2011 by blech
5 Broadgate, London - review | The Observer
"A pedestrian route across the site will be closed, forcing people to squeeze round the edges of the new building's bulk. A covered arcade through the block might have been possible, but this is banned for security reasons, as are shops or cafes at the building's base. The ban is a deal-breaker, apparently: if the City's planners insisted on these humanising touches, UBS would up and go – to Canary Wharf or, worse, Frankfurt." Rowan Moore's worth-reading dissection of Make Architect's plans for 5 Broadgate. (Only 20 years old, yet still down for demolition and rebuilding.)
london  architecture  observer  rowanmoore  broadgate  finance  via:antimega  from delicious
january 2011 by blech
San Francisco’s Lively Literary Scene | NYTimes.com
"San Francisco, the home of many of the very technologies that have drawn a bead on the book, visitors will find a living, historically rooted literary scene that, though it has surely heard the news of its own demise, isn’t buying it." A very grateful hat tip to Chris for posting this.
sanfrancisco  books  shopping  via:antimega  from delicious
december 2010 by blech
The analogue Facebook | Creative Review
"[DDR Paris] realised that while people may share their most treasured memories and photographs via Facebook, the constantly changing nature of the site means that they can quickly be forgotten, or lost amongst the amount of info stored in a profile. So Bouygues Télécom created the option of turning your Facebook profile into an actual book." Of course, James Bridle did this with Twitter years ago, but it's interesting to see this turned into more of a turnkey application, and as a kick back against the perceived fragility of online data.
facebook  papernet  print  books  via:antimega  from delicious
november 2010 by blech
Euromap | t-reichling.de
A Lego map of Europe, complete with notable buildings in the style of the Architecture series. Impressive.
lego  map  europe  building  architecture  via:antimega  from delicious
november 2010 by blech
Fixing the Bus System | Artsy Techie
"As a puzzled, stressed and curious newcomer, whether I quickly and fully embrace a system, or whether I avoid it for a long time is an interesting measure of how “usable” the system is." An interesting look at some issues that put people off buses. (I'd say London does reasonably well on these, assuming you speak English, but it's far from perfect even so; nobody knows about the five bus maps you can get, for example.)
transport  technology  bus  cities  urbanism  design  via:antimega  from delicious
august 2010 by blech
clipper futures | tecznotes
"[MTC have] begun to provide free personal monitoring services to users of Clipper. It's now possible to access to a complete, up-to-the-minute stream of your own card usage (including the geographic location of each beep)". This for Oyster, please. The Bay Area may be slow to start but they're getting that bit right early.
sanfrancisco  bayarea  transport  informatics  data  ubicomp  information  rfid  oyster  via:iamdanw  via:antimega  from delicious
june 2010 by blech
That crass and overly commercial cycle hire logo | MayorWatch
"I’m sure we’re all very grateful to the shareholders of Barclays for spending some of their marketing budget on slapping their logo all over the bikes and uniforms of staff but frankly this new roundel brings crass commercialism crashing down to whole new levels of bad and for that we have to blame Team Boris."
london  cycling  cyclehire  boris  mayor  barclays  sponsorship  branding  tfl  transport  via:antimega  from delicious
june 2010 by blech
How the English breakfast has changed | Times Online
"What do the once-traditional fried breakfasts on offer around Britain say about how our cultural landscape is changing?" A very good read.
times  food  culture  fullenglish  breakfast  via:antimega  from delicious
april 2010 by blech
Harry Eyres - Transports of delight | FT.com
A hagiography of sorts to Frank Pick and the art and design of the Underground in the first half of the twentieth century, contrasting it with the more recent efforts of Art on the Underground.
london  underground  art  frankpick  history  via:antimega 
march 2010 by blech
Legible London | Slate Magazine
Part of Julia Turner's series on signs and wayfinding, subtitled "Can better signs help people understand an extremely disorienting city?" The answer seems to be "yes".
london  wayfinding  geography  maps  legiblelondon  design  slate  via:antimega 
march 2010 by blech
London in 2010 – as predicted in 1990 | The Observer
Will Wiles scanned a magazine supplement late last year, and now the Observer has gone back to the original authors to follow up their predictions with what actually happened.
observer  uk  newspaper  urbanism  prediction  history  future  via:antimega 
january 2010 by blech
LT Museum Launch Film Archive | Londonist
The Londonist post announcing the London Transport Museum online film archive. No doubt this'll prove distracting.
london  londonist  transport  tube  film  trains  via:antimega 
january 2010 by blech
London in 2010 | Spillway
"The Observer devoted its colour supplement to speculation about what London might be like in 20 years - in 2010" and Will Wiles has preserved it so you can compare it with what came to pass. For example: "The second vision... mostly consists of the removal of things that they don't like [such as] 'high-rise housing' in general." Well, not entirely wrong. "Mostly, these are replaced with open space." Um.
london  observer  uk  newspaper  urbanism  prediction  history  future  via:antimega 
december 2009 by blech
Mapping the Sites of Con Ed’s Stray Voltage | NYTimes.com
On exposed live cables (or "stray voltage") in New York. "Since the start of 2008, only about eight shocks per month have been recorded, down from almost 24 a month in 2004, according to the foundation’s Web site. The number of electrified objects has risen steadily, to more than 900 per month this year, the data show." America is a bit broken.
nytimes  data  electricity  energy  via:antimega 
november 2009 by blech
Partnership with location-based service Foursquare | BART
"Bay Area Rapid Transit has become the first transit agency to partner with the location-based mobile network Foursquare, with the goal of encouraging public transit use."
bart  transport  trains  foursquare  lbs  via:antimega 
october 2009 by blech
Guardian gagged from reporting parliament | The Guardian
"Today's published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found. The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret. The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck." Time to read Hansard...
guardian  media  parliament  newspapers  journalism  via:andym  via:antimega 
october 2009 by blech
Mayor orders Thames back on map | BBC News
Well, there's a surprise. Boris Johnson finally gets wind of the minor press flap over the Tube map reworking, and blows a fuse. "I hope Londoners will imagine the Thames in place until it reappears on the maps, and will not forget their beautiful river."
london  map  tube  boris  design  minimalism  usability  thames  via:antimega 
september 2009 by blech
France's Concrete Dreams- Utopian Housing near Lyon | NYT
'Started in March by Lyon’s urban regional authority, the tour spotlights four avant-garde housing projects and one priory, all within easy reach of central Lyon. Along the way, it traces “the development of a new language in architecture,” said Gilles Ragot'
architecture  travel  france  modernism  nytimes  via:antimega 
august 2009 by blech
London Cross | Pikle
"The basic concept of this book, London Cross, is simple - to describe a walk across London along a route that sticks as closely as possible (without trespassing) to a straight line." Having done about a third of this (Muswell Hill - Croydon, and Mile End - Acton), albeit a long time ago, I appreciate the amount of writing he did.
london  walking  crisps  psychogeography  via:antimega 
july 2009 by blech
Gulliver: Berlin's S-Bahn shambles | Economist.com
"for the first time in its 85-year history the S-Bahn has been forced to cut its service dramatically—by 70%—for technical reasons"
transport  berlin  germany  sbahn  trains  economist  via:antimega 
july 2009 by blech
The Late Arrival Of The Fast Trains | New York Magazine
An article from September 1968 about the two planned trainsets for high speed rail from Washington to Boston. Acela still pays the price for the failure to lay new track forty years ago. Choice quote: "A single rail track [has] been shown to have the same hourly passenger capacity as 24 lanes of expressway auto traffic."
transport  railway  1968  magazine  newyorkmagazine  history  future  via:antimega 
july 2009 by blech
Station Usage Notes | Office of Rail Regulation
PDF containing a list of caveats for the data the Guardian has published. "The usage information is based on ticket sales in the financial year 2002/03 and covers all National Rail stations. It does not include those stations that are owned by TfL. ... The ticketing system does not record certain journeys made using TfL bought travelcards, TfL Freedom Passes, staff travel passes. ... Care should be taken when using the usage figures for stations within Travelcard zones. Where possible, journeys in such areas are allocated to a particular such based on modelled assumptions."
guardian  railways  transport  data  figures  caveats  pdf  via:antimega 
july 2009 by blech
Wall Street on the Tundra | vanityfair.com
On Iceland's financial collapse. Lots of cod psychology (and in fact, cod play a bit of an important role), but definitely interesting, and worth a read (although it's a proper pre-internet long article).
iceland  economics  fishing  psychology  culture  via:antimega 
march 2009 by blech
Reports of Vélib’s Demise Greatly Exaggerated | Streetsblog
"The BBC's portrayal of a mortal threat, they say, is best understood as a negotiating ploy on the part of JCDecaux." This makes sense, I must say. I also liked Dan Hill's comment on the original BBC story: "It's public transport, not a profit-making enterprise. Funny how this crops up in a crunch."
bicycle  paris  transport  velib  news  journalism  reporting  via:antimega 
february 2009 by blech
Nokia Map Loader for Mac | Nokia
Ah, handy. I've been having trouble with the PC map loader; maybe this will be happier. (Edit: it wasn't. Maybe the N73 isn't supported any more?)
nokia  maps  n73  mobile  data  macosx  application  via:antimega 
october 2008 by blech
Bloom | Apple App Store
"It's like having Brian Eno in your pocket" says one UK review. "Part instrument, part composition and part artwork, Bloom's innovative controls allow anyone to create elaborate patterns and unique melodies by simply tapping the screen." $4/£2.40.
music  iphone  ipodtouch  brianeno  via:antimega 
october 2008 by blech
Crime mapping test site | Metropolitan Police Service
As Chris says, not a bad start. Nice use of glomming together wards at different zoom levels.
london  crime  maps  police  via:antimega 
august 2008 by blech
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 | DPReview
Candace has the Leica-branded version of previous model, and complains about the noise above ISO 100. This has the same number of pixels in a bigger sensor. It'll be interesting to see if they can convince the market, but we're tempted.
camera  panasonic  lumix  leica  tobuy?  via:antimega 
july 2008 by blech
Patrick Barkham sheds light on pharology | The Guardian
Visiting all the lighthouses in Scotland. There's plenty in England and Wales too (run by a different authority) to visit as well.
lighthouse  uk  scotland  travel  holiday  guardian  via:antimega 
july 2008 by blech
Is it a secret river, or a sewer? | The Guardian
An interesting piece by Ian Jack in the Guardian on London's lost, including Skylon, the Euston Arch, and (in the main) the Thames tributaries, and the temptations of recreating history.
london  architecture  geography  history  thames  rivers  transport  via:foe  via:antimega 
july 2008 by blech
Finland's largest harbour crane | Helsingin Sanomat
1,200 ton harbour crane for the Vuosaari harbour. Ordered by Finnsteve Oy, probably the best company name I've seen in a while.
crane  craneporn  news  finland  helsinginsanomat  via:antimega 
june 2008 by blech
everything i.e. anything | anti-mega
Chris Heathcote argues that Clay Shirky's much-linked talk on "social surplus" is weirdly anti-consumption and values the Internet more highly than TV for no good reason. Can't say I entirely disagree (cf growth of web video).
consumption  media  wikipedia  television  internet  web  via:antimega 
april 2008 by blech
jaiku | dw.blah
"jaiku is now being run as a '20%' project by the jaiku staff who joined google when they were bought out." I can't read the original post, but somehow this has the ring of truth. Meanwhile, people discuss Friendfeed as a post-Twitter site. Sigh.
jaiku  google  twitter  friendfeed  aggregation  via:antimega 
april 2008 by blech
Instant Photography Cameras | Unsaleable
If you're willing to pay the premium to avoid eBay, here's where to get your Polaroid cameras.
camera  photography  polaroid  shop  tobuy?  via:pfig  via:antimega 
april 2008 by blech
KORG DS-10 | AQ INTERACTIVE
After Electroplankton: Korg! In a DS! Only 4,800 yen (about twenty five quid)! But: *FOR JAPAN ONLY. Boo.
nintendo  ds  music  software  via:antimega 
march 2008 by blech
Take Your Time | Olafur Eliasson
A lovely little PDF booklet. I might have to print bits of it out. Reversed, so they don't use up all the toner.
art  book  pdf  photography  architecture  drawing  olafureliasson  via:antimega 
december 2007 by blech
Things I Am Not Talking About | this is aaronland
Interesting talk proposals, their rejections, and elaborations. Lots to unpack in here.
internet  culture  presentation  talk  abstract  conferences  via:antimega 
december 2007 by blech
Coming Soon to London | hitotoki
"Hitotoki is a website of personal, singular experiences, inseparably tied to a specific place. It's a project that started in Tokyo in May 2007, and is expanding to other cities around the world"
london  writing  via:antimega 
november 2007 by blech
YouTube - Today's Special - Tea Rooms
As the description says, "One of a series of 3 films by director Paul Kelly about London's disappearing cafes."
london  tearoom  tea  cafe  film  documentary  via:antimega 
october 2007 by blech
[this is aaronland] “Aware of only one voice from above”
"I went to the Apple Store yesterday and were the WiPods able to see, and play, music from shared iTunes folders I probably would have bought one." But of course it doesn't. I wonder what will emerge from his cloud? (I wish he had proper permanent links)
apple  ipod  itunes  sharing  daap  cloud  via:antimega 
september 2007 by blech
fabulous food for all | BAA Terminal 5
"Exclusive to Terminal 5 will be a breakfast menu" "Traditionalists can also plump for the more straightforward full English breakfast, or the US favourite of pancakes and maple syrup" Full English at Wagamama? That's just wrong.
london  airport  heathrow  wagamama  food  pressrelease  via:antimega 
september 2007 by blech
TimeDrawer for Mac
(Looks like a) Japanese application for revision control and managment with a spiffy overlay interface. It says it doesn't need an external drive (like Time Machine, which it's bound to be compared to), so where does it store files? Worth investigating.
osx  software  backup  revisioncontrol  via:antimega 
july 2007 by blech
FourDocs Archive - London - Patrick Keiller
One of the seminal London narrative/documentary films, now available free for streaming on the Channel 4 site. Seemed to work for me on Windows.
channel4  london  video  documentary  via:antimega 
july 2007 by blech
Amazon S3: Amazon Web Services
New Amazon S3 pricing from June 1st. Includes a charge per HTTP request, but data transfer costs go down (significantly so for uploads). "This new price structure will result in an overall price reduction for the vast majority of our customers." they say.
amazon  s3  storage  pricing  via:antimega 
may 2007 by blech
Shoot Experience - Photographic treasure hunts
An expensive, longwinded version of London Flickr Scavenger Hunts. Save £10 and have more fun anyway
london  photography  event  via:antimega 
march 2007 by blech
Nokia - Nokia Delivers Free Downloadable Maps to the Mobile World
"Nokia plans to start offering the smart2go application for free, on Saturday, February 10th, for selected Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile 5.0 devices"... "plans to roll out support for most of the major mobile OS platforms"
nokia  geowanking  application  mobile  via:antimega 
february 2007 by blech
101 Things You Must Do While in London by Virgin Vacations
Unbelievably bad. "Visit Grovesnor Square"? Only if you're a fan of concrete fortifications. "See where the Mayor of London lives: City Hall." I thought that was Finchley. And so on.
london  tourist  badadvice  via:antimega 
december 2006 by blech
[this is aaronland] Bake me a painting
Looks like Python for the S60 phones has, er, XML issues. Also, Growl tiein. Might be nicer. +1 on the call for a buddy icon API. (hmm, does Flickr let you get them?)
twitter  api  xml  python  mobile  growl  via:antimega 
november 2006 by blech
Independent Online Edition > Reviews > Pschyogeography
Jah Wobble reviews a new book on the subject by Merlin Coverley. A good overview and looks like it might be an interesting book too
books  review  independent  london  politics  via:antimega 
august 2006 by blech
Behind the Scenes | LUMIX | Digital Camera | Panasonic
An interview with the designer of Panasonic's new (first) DSLR, which as I noted when it was announced looks like a "proper" old-fashioned camera.
camera  product  design  lumix  panasonic  photography  via:antimega 
june 2006 by blech
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | The rise and rise of convenience food
"ready made beans on toast"? What idiocy is this? Even I can do beans on toast, for heaven's sake. I wholeheartedly agree on the tea granules too, although my tea making is hardly proper.
food  guardian  via:antimega 
may 2006 by blech
BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Ofcom rethinks ban on iPod gadget
"iTrips can be used in the US without disturbing the airwaves, so [Ofcom] must provide compelling evidence why they can't be used here."
itunes  music  radio  gadgets  news  via:antimega 
may 2006 by blech
Getting There - on the science of driving directions | The New Yorker
"Subway stations are not attributes; Navteq honors the primacy of the automobile" Satellite navigation (is that a British term only?) in a historical context
maps  geowanking  gps  navigation  travel  newyorker  via:antimega 
may 2006 by blech
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Going cheap
Cheap goods, their impact, spread, and the clouds on their horizons
politics  cheap  uk  via:antimega 
february 2006 by blech
Alternative photography | Unfrozen in time | Economist.com
Subtitled "The daguerreotype is back". Doesn't mention the patent business, sadly. There's a good story to be told there, though, I think.
photos  photography  daguerreotype  economist  via:antimega 
february 2006 by blech
The Observer | International | T-shirts on for an Arctic heatwave
Echoing Chris, I'd really like to visit too. Especially as it sounds more and more like Last Chance To See
global  warming  svalbard  norway  arctic  weather  guardian  via:antimega 
july 2005 by blech

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