Offmessage

It was only a few weeks ago that we were all wowed by the content aware image resizing demo on youtube.  And now you can already do it in the browser.  Awesome.

The final frames of 110 classic movies.  Gorgeous.

I’m very late on this, and I’m sure it’s not really true, but what a fantastic idea.  Apparently (allegedly, whatever) Pete Doherty is Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty’s latest project.

We bought a squeezebox for the office a month ago.  In so doing we took the music from being either my or Doug’s choice (we were the only two with speakers attached to our machines) to being anything anyone has brought in, democratically served up on a first come first served basis.

Things we’ve learned?

• It was a fantastic idea.  For a rapidly growing company the music we play in the office has been culture forming, and democratising it was the best thing we could have done
• Man’o'war are shit
• The new UNKLE album is ace
• Pure Reason Revolution are amazing
• Switchfoot are hugely overrated
• Early Iron Maiden is better than I remember
• Lost Horizons by Lemon Jelly is really good
• Almost all post-rock is dreary poo, except one band, God Is An Astronaut, who are very good, but I can’t quite work out why.
• No-one in the office apart from me appreciates Talking Heads
• No-one in the office apart from me will own up to liking the Fields of the Nephilim, but they all nod along when they think no-one’s looking

If you are so inclined you can see what we’re listening to right now over at last.fm, where we scrobble as Isotoma.

The final really didn’t let us down.  To the wire, between two old rivals (and two nations who really can change the shape of international cricket too).

Some say that Twenty20 is a flash in the pan, not real cricket.  Others say that it is the future of the game.  I, for one, have enjoyed the tournament way beyond my expectations.  I am a 5 day cricket lover above all other forms of the sport, but after the dreary fiasco of the World Cup this ICC World Twenty20 has been a real shot in the arm.

Friends who have repeatedly told me that cricket is boring have watched matches without my encouragement.  Friends who are cricket fans who were bored by the world cup have talked incessantly about the performance of teams they previously could not have cared about.

It has been an eye opener.  And it made my experiences of One Day Internationals over the last few years seem rather dull in comparison.  Fifty over cricket has a problem.

Simply put, between overs 20 and 40, with the fifth bowler at one end and the slow guy at the other the match is dead.  We go to the bar, we converse, we wait for the tempo to pick up again.  As Lawrence Booth says, unless teams start thinking that 180 off 20 should equate to 350 off 50 the fifty over game is in trouble.  And if Twenty20 is to replace it, I’m not sure I’m that worried.

Just please please please don’t bugger up 5 day cricket along the way.

A sporting competition ended up with the right result, it would be the word Twenty20 final being India Pakistan.  Here’s hoping it lives up to the billing.

Fascinating piece by Joel Spolsky on the future of application software.  I have a feeling he’s on to something…

Strategy Letter IV

Yes, yes, I know, another LOLTHING post, but this one really has something.  A cross between postsecret and LOLCATZ – LOLSECRETZ.

Today is, as all self respecting Internet junkies know, International Talk Like A Pirate Day.  The image below represents the pinnacle of our office conversation today.  I am so proud of what we’ve created.

That’s I Am Not A Designer, obviously.  The design of offmessage pays relentless homage to subtraction.  I hope it’s different enough to not be a rip off, but there’s no doubting the fact that I think it’s the finest looking site on the web at the moment.  Some context: New Minimalism in Web Interface Design