NIXON*NOW

Tour de France in Google Earth

Sunday, May 28, 2006 11: 07 PM

The 2006 Tour de France course is available for Google Earth here. Geekery + cyclery = goodnessy.

Travel-time Maps

Friday, May 26, 2006 07: 10 PM

Travel-time Maps. Originally uploaded by NIXON*NOW.

"These are much more complicated questions than those about individual journeys, but one thing they all have in common is transport: can I get to and from the places I'm considering quickly and easily?"

The maps on this page show one way of answering that question. Using colours and contour lines they show how long it takes to travel between one particular place and every other place in the area, using public transport. They also show the areas from which no such journey is possible, because the services are not good enough."

Via "Travel-time Maps and their Uses" on mySociety

Great combition of visual effect and usefulness. (Src. Boing Boing)

Let's See Your Tag Graph

Friday, May 26, 2006 04: 13 PM

NIXON*NOW as Tag Graph. Originally uploaded by NIXON*NOW.

HTML consists of so-called tags, like the A tag for links, IMG tag for images and so on. Since tags are nested in other tags, they are arranged in a hierarchical manner, and that hierarchy can be represented as a graph. I've written a little app that visualizes such a graph, and here are some screenshots of websites that I often look at.

Via Aharef with many examples. Drop in any URL at the Websites as Graphs applet. (Src. Cameron Moll)

The Sheep Market

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 11: 12 AM

The Sheep Market. Originally uploaded by NIXON*NOW.

Thousands of workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk webservice were paid two cents to "draw a sheep facing to the left." Their sheep drawings were collected and printed on collectable stamps. The stamps, as well as animations of their drawing process, were shown at the "Lost in Border" exhibition in the New Wight Gallery at UCLA.

The project continues at www.TheSheepMarket.com.

Interesting project created by Aaron Koblin and thousands of mouse toting "artists" — there is a mind-numbing 10,000 sheep on the site. The Sheep Market project site. (Src. we make money not art and information aesthetics)

Jumping Project at Flickr

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 10: 21 PM

More Jumps. Originally uploaded by Marcelo Rodini.

Random guy jumping. I've discovered the Jumping Project pool on Flickr and me likey...

Water Bottle Carriers at the Giro

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 09: 57 PM

Cycling is traditionally divided into stars and water-carriers and while battle rages at the top of the Giro d'Italia rankings between stars such as Ivan Basso, José Gutierrez and Paolo Savoldelli, a literal contest among water-carriers has been going on further back.

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport Quick-Step's José Antonio Garrido recently set a new record by carrying 16 water bottles simultaneously from the team car to his team-mates. With one bottle in his mouth, two in the cages on the bike, two in his pockets, six under the front of his jersey, and five under the back, Garrido lugged over five litres of water to his team-mates.

In yesterday's stage, Fabio Sacchi (Milram) beat Garrido's record by carrying 18 water bottles simultaneously, but Garrido thinks he can beat the Italian. "I've already done a test, and think I can manage 20 bottles," he said.

There's more than just bragging rights at stake too. At the end of the Giro on Sunday, Italian cycling legend Francesco Moser will present a prize to the man who manages to carry the most bottles: a bottle of wine for each of the bottles carried. "It will be a kind of miracle: water will be turned into wine!" said Moser.

Via cyclingnews.com. Classic.

Cervélo Cycles on R&D vs. Ads.

Monday, May 22, 2006 04: 29 PM

This relentless pursuit of excellence will continue to remain our focus. We figured that each time we go to the windtunnel it cost us about $25,000. It might make more sense to spend that same amount of money on ads and marketing, but that won’t get you a better bike. We apologize in advance if our ads look like they were written by engineers. We figured you would rather read an ad designed by an engineer than ride a bike designed by the marketing department.

- Cervélo Cycles About Page

The proof is in the pudding. Team CSC rider Ivan Basso is riding away with the Giro d'Italia (W) right now on a Cervélo.*

* Great bikes indeed -- but it also helps when you're Italian and promise your mother just before she died of cancer that you will one day win the premier road cycling race of their homeland -- with motivation like that, Basso could probably win the race on a beach cruiser...Cervélo beach cruiser of course.

Le Parkour Photos.

Monday, May 22, 2006 02: 46 PM

Speaking of Le Parkour.

The Movie Binge.

Monday, May 22, 2006 12: 14 PM

The Movie Binge launches today.

"From Memorial Day to Labor Day, the Movie Binge team will watch every major movie released. Are we crazy? Stupid? Attractive? The answer is always yes. Follow along as we try to watch all 85 films."

I just want to see if the team can pull it off. The chronological list of film release dates alone is worth the bookmark. (FYI: Matt is also working on an .ics calendar file of release dates that you can import into iCal, Google Calendar, etc. Can't wait!)

Near the top of my list this summer: District B13. This film looks crazy - in a le parkour, gun-weilding totally non-realistic, but with real, non-cgi stunts sense...I'm a sucker for movies like this. (Src. Capn Design)

Distractions.

Friday, May 19, 2006 05: 38 PM

First Dunstan points me to this "crazy never-ending fractal-esque photo viewer thing" and I can't stop clicking. Then Greg points us to a Robot Chicken stop motion Star Wars classic and I can't stop laughing. This Friday is a wrap. Everyone punch out and go home!

NIXON*NOW v14 - Less Noise.

Thursday, May 18, 2006 02: 37 PM

If anyone can recommend a good design psychologist that can help explain why I have to keep blowing up my site, then please do. In the meantime NIXON*NOW v.14 is live — bringing back a little bit of that chronological column flavor from NiXLOG v.12. As an individual and designer this year has personally been themed around creating two things: less noise and more focus. I'll start here.

Update: Feel free to leave comments on Flickr.

Online Video Guide.

Thursday, May 18, 2006 02: 19 PM

The May issue of Wired has an interesting guide to the online video universe. Check out the "Plus" section for all the links — if anyone needs me I'll be in the corner with my Powerbook and headphones. I have some serious catching up to do...

Electric President.

Thursday, May 18, 2006 05: 41 AM

Now in regular listening rotation — Electric President. Dreamy electro-pop from a Florida duo that recorded it in a tool shed and bedroom. Free MP3 downloads at 3hive. Reviews on Metacritic. The Album on iTunes.