Well, I am probably the billionth blogger to mention the $3.4bn buyout of macromedia by adobe, as well as being a day late to blog it…
This has it's advantages though, it means I am able to reflect on many peoples views about the whole thing.
Most people online seem to think it is reasonably stragegic and designed to boost profits rather than services. Many see the death of freehand, fireworks and golive…killed by illustrator, photoshop and dreamweaver. One view which I almost side with is that these are simply two dinosours joining forces to battle another dinosour (m$), as there is little room for the patented software-in-a-box business model in a socially constructed internet with Online apps such as picasa and flickr free for anyone to use.
Anyway, there is a really good (much better than mine) round up on a-list blogger [strike” alt=”">Leo[/strike” alt=”"> Jason Kottke's site. Might be worth a look if u r into the graphical tools world.
Roundup Here
A selection of works by a british 'artist' known as Dr.D specialising in hilarious 'liberations' of billboards around the captital…
Gallery Here
Was just procrastinating in my photoblogs bookmark folder, recently increased in size since the photobloggies awards.
This shot caught my eye…
Pause (photo) Here
The Narritive (photoblog) Here
What do you do when you are an artist who sits at a computer all day? Most use the computer to create art, this guy creates art from the computer by painting websites.
Great fun…and oh, so, pointless…!
Gallery Here
This is a superb epitaph to the computer software cracker. Wonderfully accurate, moving and troubling in some respects. This was written in the early days with BBS sysops and when phreakers ruled the phone lines. The piece is undated unfortunatly, but I would guess by the language and refrances it is early 90's. I quote a few select paragraphs…
Decryption and un-protection are his only goals. He does not care what the disk contains or how useful the program may be; breaking the code is far more challenging to him that completing ZORK III. He broke the ZORK series, but never played them. His purpose in life has become all-encompassing. He will get sick from lack of rest; he will have marathon sessions trying to undo the last protection check in the program, and, when he finally has reached his goal, he will experience post-partum depression.
He is not after money, he is not after fame. He just wants to prove to himself that he is more intelligent that the one who devised the protection scheme in the first place. He will relate his exploits to a very close circle of friends at the club, and, because they listened, he will give them copies.
He knows he will never get caught. He knows that, in reality, the ever-increasing complaints of software manufacturers, and programmers whose wealth and luxury are threatened by his actions, are but a reflection on their inability to effectively protect their treasures. He knows that if one man can do it, another man can undo it. He knows that computers have rules that must be obeyed, and that all bootable disks must start the same way. That is enough of a crack for him to get through.
You have to read the full piece to get the actual jist, it isnt all fun and games…
Complete Epitaph Here
Here's an interesting project, creating physical manifestations of layer-based work spaces…
The humorous artwork is made by Joel Swanson who is a digital artist, writer, and researcher investigating the interconnections of literary theory, art, and technology. His work involves the creation of multimedia narratives that exist within digital space (and sometimes within carton space too).
Would love to create a more detailed one of these with my usual rotation of apple applications visible, it would probably be pretty deep though. Actually I am pretty tempted just to fake it in 3dsmax, seems like avoiding small pieces of wire and superglue might be a good idea…
Gallery Here
Since Google Maps began a few days ago there has been some interesting satellite photos floating about. Google Maps is a service provided by google allowing users to see a photographic version of a normal map. Really cool, till u remember it is only in the US…cant wait for the whole world version 
anyway, this site sprung up with links to interesting places on google maps, the image above is of pollution controlling algae in san francisco bay…cool
Google Sightseeing Here
Been using this search engine alot recently, so much in fact that I decided to write a firefox search plugin for it. There wasnt one on the mosdev page…so why wait for someone else to do it?
It really wasnt very difficult at all, I just took the one for yahoo and re-wrote it to fit
Install Firefox Plugin Here
Featured on the YaGoohoo!gle Blog
This is a pretty neat idea, giving 50 artists the same toy and seeing what they do with it. Some really imaginative stuff here…probably helps that it was a very good choice of toy, cant see this happening with a britney spears doll, can you?
Would love to see if this same idea could be done in other major cities around the world, would be a fascinating view of culture and society…as well as generate quite a few sales 
Dunny Show Here
…because everywhere we look there is a billboard from the evening standard communicating doom and gloom. I wasnt the first person to notice this (by a long way), already a flickr group has sprung up to illustrate this.
This is the sort of thing the other mainstream media would love, im sure…
Standard Depression For London Here
Finally found the image of the akira scooter mod (silly smirk is optional), thought i would also grab a pic of the origional too. Really illustrates why Anime looks so much cooler than real life…still a pretty funky looking scooter, wonder if it has the obligitory 'L' sticker on the back?
Akira Bike (real) Here
This is taken from the yearly contest at MIT to create the weirdest looking magnetic field. This one didnt win, but i think it is by far the most interesting (of course, from a graphical non-scientific perspective).
More Winners Here
This site contains screenshots of the ending sequences from loads of games for the various consoles of yore.
So nice to see the endings for games I gave up on, usually cos i had broken too many controllers hitting them against stuff…as well as reliving those old memorys of the culminated 40hr effort in finishing the game. It was rarly worth it…and they look even more pathetic now…
Game Endings Here