think demux

I like sitting in the dark watching pictures move. Is that a crime?

It was a perfectly acceptable pastime until it became more modish to watch things on a tiny screen. To cut things together yourself and anatomise the image on Photoshop.

Here are two projects that might excite the old-fashioned film fan with a digital eye.

The Art of the Title Sequence is a wealthy resource and lets you unpick those dense intros. Often the best or most memorable bit of a feature film. I’ve been watching a few intact. You pick up a lot fast, because the best ones are so tight.

Brendan Davies’ Cinema Redux takes it in the opposite direction. Each of his painstaking works captures an entire film in evenly spaced screengrabs. I found this just as enriching. You can tell so much by a glance at one image.

By training the eye to deconstruct moving pictures, you learn how to build them better. Or it’s just an excuse to peer in close at expertly good cinema. Either way - get these sites up on your little screen and enjoy.

The Scunthorpe Problem. Ring any bells?

Back in 1996, residents of Scunthorpe, Penistone and Lightwater were left in the dark by AOL when their town names were blocked by obscenity filters. Apparently Google did the same.

Thanks to the galloping speed of progress, we have an enhanced version of the Scunthorpe Problem. And here it comes courtesy of the right-wing press.

America’s OneNewsNow site has been autoreplacing the word “gay” with the word “homosexual”, rechristening Tyson Gay as the Fastest Homosexual on Earth.

Putting to one side the agenda of OneNewsNow, this raises a much broader question. The word vs. the image. While PCism continues to butcher the word, our visual filters are dropping and dropping. Aren’t they…?

Two counterpoints to conclude on here: a recently banned Heinz commercial, and the words of Paul Virilio. See what you think - which is harder? The word, or the image?

…in a rapidly globalizing world there is no longer, strictly speaking, either Right or Left, and … since the fall of the Berlin Wall, these things no longer have any meaning. All that remains is the great audiovisual dilemma, the conflict between the soft (the word) and the hard (the image).

Paul Virilio, The Information Bomb

Meant to share this a long time ago but I foolishly moved flat and left my internet behind.

I’ve been writing for a microsite all day and trying to get system language out of my head. Because it’s not how people speak, and it can take the fun out of playing with a website.

This is a slideshow by Erika Hall, co-founder of Mule Design Studio (via PSFK).

I think she hits several nails on their different shaped heads. Think of the websites you enjoy visiting most. You don’t even notice the interface language - it’s all part of the place’s personality. You’re playing, and you’re in conversation.

When it feels like a machine’s barking at you, you know you’re in the wrong place. And chances are you’ll leave pretty quickly. So the writer’s challenge? Help people play better.

Lovely work here by Marcelo Costa. Take something technological and simp it out.

It’s hugely satisfying to see such a beautifully simple idea done so well. Congrats, Marcelo! And a great choice of soundtrack - so crank your volume meter up.

ROJO®tv is now switched on. Broadcasting via internet from an HQ in Catalonia.

The “consortium” run visual rackets from Milan, São Paulo and Barcelona.

And with the quality coming out of Spain and Brazil in particular, you could almost shrug at this site for being excellent all over.

But it’s a hot day on the beach.

The video content is beautiful. The sun’s out. It’s worth having a bask. Warmed up a few ideas for me. 

These little outfits are, in order, Structurosa Script, Xtrude, Letra Libre and Brikd.

All are fonts designed by real-life, non-naked people using FontStruct. A real doll of a site. (via Slashdot.)

I’m prettying up a beautiful Q for the new Chester Draws typeface. Anyone else had a crack at making their own font?

Want to share?

Remember when tagging was something a graffiti artist did?

Here’s something a graffiti artist did at the end of Bethnal Green Rd. He - or she? I’ll finish with their tag so you can decide - made their mark with gold.

Whether you do it to walls, photos on Facebook or blog posts, you’re doing the same thing when you tag. You’re splashing on your own interpretation. You could be daubing shit, or you could add glitter.

What’s the nozzle? Can you add; can you do it with style.

No reason your attitude should be different on or offline. Frederik Samuel clocked Paint That Shit Gold this week. It lets you tag or graf any website you like with a gold spraycan.

Tagging keeps growing and paint gets splashed. You can see why.

We want to add our mark. And we’re getting better at it.

Previously: Brazilians tag Brighton. Who was the artist above? (click thumbnail to see the answer big.)

An item came through on the news-tape yesterday. I thought I’d seen it before.

Most likely I had. Because this year, the mainstream press has been hanging on to what it thinks it does best.

Madeleine still missing; Diana still dead; Amy Winehouse still a mess; footballers still roasting.

It’s like the sad end to a long relationship. The love has gone.

Now in its place, a clingy desperation. Hollow harking to the good old days.

But those days were spontaneous. They were full of wine and desire. Like Serge Gainsbourg when he met Whitney Houston.

However the presenter tries to translate it, you heard what Serge said.

It was mad. It was spontaneous. It was loveably news for one reason: you’d want to talk about it.

What was the last thing you found, or did, and wanted to tell people about?

Because that, my friend, is the news we want. Performance, not repeats.

I’ve been using Pando here and there since a helpful review in Wired. Anyone familiar with BitTorrent or programmes like Soulseek might think it’s too simple. But that’s the best thing about it.

You can send packages of up to 1GB at a time to friends. They’ll get an email to let them know. Once they’ve downloaded the Pando client, they can open their package and play.

Fast, clean and usable. I like it. It’s a great way to pick something particular for someone particular. A really satisfying way to share.

But if you think you might not be getting through with Pando, or any other site you use, you can try this:

Downforeveryoneorjustme only does one thing. You enter a URL and see if a site is down for everyone or just… you get it by now. Thanks to Iain Tait for this spot of helpful advice.

Without good advice, anyone can be an expert at failure. Think demux is now two weeks old. Some friends have shared thoughts about the site. Some people even appear to be reading it regularly.

But what do you think?

If you can post a helpful comment, I’ll have a better idea of where to go next. You’ll get a better read the next time you visit. 

We fail less by sharing more.

Thanks for reading. Until our minds meet again…

Not a bad job, really. Small office - but one whole wall for a window. Wow.

What are the tips like?

Wait a second… It’s just an ad. And from a company that speaks in German. Well that’s another opportunity lost.

Luckily for everyone in the first world, it’s easy to get a bad job. The trick is keeping it.

It’s harder to get hold of a good job. And when you do it might take hold of you. Pressing more buttons and a kicking when you don’t produce. Without regular oiling, it can make you click into machine mode to protect yourself.

Not in Japan. To evade assailants and superiors you can dress up as machine and stay safe. Although it would involve hours of standing still.

Best way to stay unspotted in the metropolis. But too much robot and no progress. Shame we do it most when there’s greatest pressure. Greatest sense of danger, in public or private.

You can switch off and relax. 

In Japan, crime rates are getting lower. The average age is getting higher. You’ll live, even if you’re a cyborg. You can get a job in a vending machine if it gets too much.

While we’re on that - milk two, please. Anyone else want a cup?