Author: Chris

A Post in Which I Claim to Have Predicted the Future

Nearly a year ago I wrote a blathering rant about how the common aspect ratios of video is largely irrelevant on the web. To quote myself:

Television has set the standard of common resolutions and aspect ratios for years, but not everything seems as smooth as it should. For one as we are becoming increasingly more web-centric in our distribution models why are we sticking by these ancient limitations of size and shape.  Isn’t there something inherently more flexible with the web? Let’s challenge those norms and create something new with video.

And then today I saw these:

Interesting, no?

Update: I clicked around a littler further and found the blog of the creator of the second video. On Jesse Rosten’s blog he shares very similar thoughts regarding nontraditional video.

Axe Cop

I’m not usually one to enjoy bizarre nonsensical comedy, but the Axe Cop series is freaking hilarious.

The story is written by the 5 year old brother of the 29 year-old artist, Ethan Nicolle. Their collaboration is pure win and is only rivaled the  series of reader submitted questions answered by Malachai in “Ask Axe Cop“!

Oh, and I totally want a shirt that says:

CHOP!
PUNT!
PSHEW!

The Courier That Never Arrived.

Microsofts Courier digital journal: exclusive pictures and details

Gruber:

It’s a demo of a concept. I’d wager money that we’ll never see an actual product from Microsoft that works like this.

I think the Courier demo is really, really neat. Watching that video makes me want one, now. Unfortunately it will never be as cool as what we’re seeing in these videos.

That’s a big difference between Apple and other tech companies. They demo a product a few months before it ships, in it’s near final form. Microsoft announces products years beforehand and by the time it arrives it’s behind the curve.

A Day in the Life of My Mouse

After reading about a program called Mousepaths on Scott Hansen’s ISO50 blog I thought I’d give it a try myself.

Mousepaths (now called IOGraph) tracks your mouse movement in the background. When your mouse is inactive it builds a black dot, that grows as more time passes. Clicks appear as white dots.

click to embiggen

It’s interesting to see after 7 hours of work where my mouse spends most of it’s time. Apparently I rarely use my secondary monitor, mainly to move something back and forth. I also would like to state that the two big black dots are lunch and a meeting. Most definitely not me slacking off.

You can download IOGraph from Anatoly Zenkov’s site. It’s cross-platform and a fun passive activity while you toil away.