Flash at Mundi Design Studios
Good Use of Flash, Part 1: Yes, Flash is useful for a few things; Mundi Design Studios has created a series of Flash movies that explain colour theory and the principles of graphic design.
October 2000
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October 31, 2000
PageLab.com
John McWade claims to be the "first desktop publisher in the world," and as the first commercial user of PageMaker, perhaps he was. His site at PageLab presents some clean ideas for creative and simple design.
October 29, 2000
flash is like the force
Macromedia CEO Rob Burgess admits what many of us have known for a long time: Like The Force, "Flash can be used for good or evil ... That's not the problem of the tool. That's the problem of the designer." - Discuss at Metafilter.
October 28, 2000
ieconal.com/Art Attack
robbieconal.com/Art Attack: "I grew up as an 'art brat' in New York City. My friends and I got kicked out of every major art museum and every public library in town. I got psychedelicized at San Francisco State University in the '60's and professionalized at Stanford University in the '70's. In the '80's, encroaching adulthood forced me to integrate my personality--get my art and social concerns together--and finally make pictures about subjects that were important to me: politics, power, and the abuses of both. I quickly realized that art institutions are a severely limited arena of reception for ideas about public issues, so I made posters of my paintings and ran around the streets, spattering glue in every major city I could get to on my no budget, non-skeddo, total loss, rock'n'roll poster tours...building up a volunteer guerrilla postering army as I went. If I can give people a surprise 'one-liner' on their way to work in the morning--tickle them with a little infotainment--and get them to think along with me about issues I think are important, then I'm happy."
October 19, 2000
For Sale: The History of Usenet
Deja.com is putting its archive of Usenet news, covering a period from 1995 to the present, up for sale. As you might have noticed, for some months now Deja's archive of older (pre-1999) news has been unavailable. They had claimed the situation was temporary, but now it appears to be permanent. This leaves me with something of a sick feeling. While much of late-1990s Usenet is junk, it has both practical and historical significance. The notion that archiving Usenet is not commercially viable does not bode well for saving other parts of the Internet's history. - Discuss at Metafilter
October 17, 2000
fake snuff
Brothers charged with spreading fake snuff porn on Internet: From Canadian Press, "Two brothers have been charged with making obscene material for their Internet site, including pornographic videos that feature simulations of women being killed ... Wayne Harrison of the Ontario Provincial Police said they looked at the possibility of laying hate-crime charges against the pair because of the way women were depicted in the material ...
"Unfortunately the hate laws in Canada do not include gender as a group that can be the victim of a hate crime," he said. "
Obscenity law is a bit of a patchwork in Canada, but the kind of obscenity they are talking about in the article is a matter of federal criminal law. Mixing explicit sex and violence is generally considered obscene and "harmful" in Canada. Until this past summer, even bondage videos were generally unavailable in Canada and routinely ceased by wonderful Canada Customs. However, I have heard that bondage videos have started to appear in Quebec video stores, passed by the video classification board. I am not sure if that is the case in Ontario at this point.
rebecca's html reference and links
Also from Rebekah Blood, who I mentioned yesterday: rebecca's html reference and links.
October 16, 2000
Weblogs: A History and Perspective
Weblogs: A History and Perspective from Rebecca's Pocket: "In 1998 there were just a handful of sites of the type that are now identified as weblogs (so named by Jorn Barger in December 1997). Jesse James Garrett, editor of Infosift, began compiling a list of 'other sites like his' as he found them in his travels around the web. In November of that year, he sent that list to Cameron Barrett. Cameron published the list on Camworld, and others maintaining similar sites began sending their URLs to him for inclusion on the list. Jesse's 'page of only weblogs' lists the 23 known to be in existence at the beginning of 1999... Suddenly a community sprang up."
October 15, 2000
If Monks had Macs
If Monks had Macs was the best bit of hypermedia I came across before the Web. Released in 1988 as a HyperCard stack, I have been waiting for the new version for ages.
October 2, 2000
Saving Usenet 2
It would seem that Deja.com, formally DejaNews.com, is not longer making available its archive of Usenet posts dating from 1995 to approximately 1999. They claim that the situation is temporary, but I do fear that they have used their hardware move as an excuse to discontinue what might well be an unprofitable service.
The Usenet community, such as it is today, has noticed this, and one of the efforts underway is a petition that anyone may electronically sign.
As well, the Oldnews Usenet Archive, collecting many posts from 1981 and 1982, seems to be down for good due to too much traffic.
Finally, RemarQ.com has been purchased by CritialPath, turning their Usenet access service commercial. I am not sure what level of archiving they did, or if Supernews offers anything similar. I doubt it.
I understand that the Internet Archive has a substantial Usenet collection, but it is not open for mundane browsing from what I can tell.
All this leaves me with something of a sick feeling. While much of late-1990s Usenet is junk, it has both practical and historical significance. The notion that archiving Usenet is not commercially viable does not bode well for saving other parts of the Internet's history.
