Apple Computer History by OnlineSchools.org

September 30, 2010

Here’s a neat chart that details the highlights of Apple’s history from the good folks at OnlineSchools.org. Click on image for larger size.

Everything You Know is Wrong: Ancient Sculpture was Colorful

September 30, 2010

We all know that Nero did not fiddle while Rome burned – the fiddle wasn’t invented for another 1,500 years for one. Two, although he was generally considered one of the worst administrators among Roman emperors, he was tireless in his efforts to help his subjects after the disastrous fire in 64 A.D.

Nero was vacationing in Anzio away from the summer heat of Rome when he was first informed of the great fire. When he arrived the conflagration was so wide spread the horses he and his guards rode refused to enter the city.

“Speckled with soot, the emperor’s famous bronze hair appeared black; in the thick smoke he was virtually unrecognizable. Nero dashed from street to street, assisting the injured, offering aid, and even entering a burning building to help rescue a family. A man who did not recognize the emperor was so grateful for his help that he offered him a reward of gold coins. Nero declined the reward and revealed his identity to the startled man.”  – William Weir, History’s Greatest Lies

We also all know that ancient Greek and Roman statues were white, if marble or bronze colored, if made of bronze. Well, we are all wrong. ColourLovers reveals here that researchers like Vinzenz Brinkmann now believe that mineral and organic pigments were used to paint bright colors on statues and bas-reliefs.

An exhibition in support of these findings, ‘Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity’ features more than 20 full-size color reconstructions of Greek and Roman works, alongside 35 original statues and reliefs. is running at Harvard University’s Arthur M. Sackler Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

I was right! Everything I knew was wrong!

The Interwebs are Running Out of IP Addresses

September 30, 2010

“The Internet will soon be sailing in very rough seas, as it’s about to run out of addresses, needing to be gutted and reconfigured for continued growth in the second half of the 2010s and beyond. Originally, the idea was that this upgrade would happen quietly in the background, but over the past few years, it has become clear that the change from the current Internet Protocol version 4, which is quickly running out of addresses, to the new version 6 will be quite a messy affair.”

Iljitsch van Beijnum from Ars Technica explains why this is a problem and how solving it will be a protracted, messy affair here.

40 Extremely Useful Photoshop PSD Templates from Graphic Mania

September 30, 2010

Photoshop PSD templates for business cards, DVD labels and cases, web sites, task bar buttons, film strips, desk top wall papers, Android icons, folder icons, iPhone 4G art and much more collected by Rafiq Elmansy of Graphic Mania. Find them all here. Thanks, Rafiq!

More Free Paper Textures for Downloading from Save/Delete

September 30, 2010

A collection of 10 sites that provide free paper textures for both personal and professional use from the good folks at Save/Delete. Thanks, guys! Go here for the links.

You Need these T-Shirts. Trust Me. SNORGtees

September 30, 2010

I know the growth of the Interwebs has had the unfortunate result of proliferating T-shirt vendors like Mars flies in a Klein bottle. But here’s one that you should check out. Clever designs that are actually funny – and today we need all the good T-shirt humor this country can muster! Go here for SNORGtees.

10 Useful Mac OSX Apps from Smash!ng Apps

September 30, 2010

OK, you know the drill: the cool cats and kittens at one of our favorite sites Smash!ng Apps have compiled yet another great list of useful OSX apps for the Mac faithful. Go get ’em here. Now move along, nothing to see here. . .

Will Web Designers Become Obsolete?

September 30, 2010

Smashing Magazine has an excellent analysis of the future of web site design, and the news is not good for professional web designers. Could we become the next generation of typesetters – the well paying job that was eliminated with the advent of desktop publishing? There are lots of reason to think so. Function over Form. Content is King. Mobile Apps are King. Even (shudder) FaceBook.

Read this piece and a rebuttal, I Want to be a Web Designer When I Grow Up here.

My Dog Tulip – Classic Dog Book becomes Classic Animated Film

September 30, 2010

About 10 years ago I came across J.R. Ackerley’s book My Dog Tulip. It is, I think, the single best book ever written about the relationship between a man and his dog. It was first published in 1956 and failed to find an audience. Since then it has grown in reputation immensely.

One reason for it’s intital faliure was its utter lack of sentimentality and the unblushing accuracy of the physical functions of a female dog. Even today, you’ll find readers who are put off by the gorsser aspects of Ackerlys’ memoir. Personally, I react the same way to the mawkishness and treacle of contemporary books about dogs, like the hugely successful Marley and Me.*

Ackerley was a writer, arts editor of The Listener, the weekly magazine of the BBC, openly gay at a time when that was not the norm, and in mid-life still in search of a best friend or perfect life companion. He was not in any way prepared to be a dog owner and the German Shepherd Dog he adopted at 18 months old was not socialized or well trained. In the book the dog is referred to as an Alsatian, since the recent war made connections to Germany unacceptable to most, even in dog breed names. Misfits both, somehow they struggle together to accommodate each other and their love story, for surely that is what it is, ultimately, is one of the most moving, yet realistic I have ever read.

Now animated filmmakers Paul and Sandra Fierlinger have adapted Ackerly’s work for the screen and created a new vision of his book and it, too, is a classic. The character designs are perfectly suited to Ackerley’s prose and the lead vocal performance by Christopher Plummer is spot on. Read Ackerley’s book (it’s now available everywhere) and either get to a screening of the Fierlinger’s film or rent it when it comes out on DVD. I plan on buying a copy as soon as it is released. My highest recommendation for both!

Here are links for more information and clips:

mydogtulipfilm.com
YouTube – My Dog Tulip
Film Forum – My Dog Tulip
New York Times – Article

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*For a journalist I found John Grogan one of the least curious or insightful writers about dogs. Marley was certainly not the ‘world’s worst dog’ as Grogan labels him, but Grogan certainly failed as an owner to deal in a positive way with Marley’s separation anxiety or even basic obedience training. Don’t try this at home, should be stickered  across the front of each book cocver. Yet this has been the most successful dog book of the new century, proving that most people want the ‘Disney version’ of life with canines. (For a much better recent book I highly recommend Merle’s Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog by Ted Kerasote).