100: So far

                November 2, 2012

            100: So far

Hello.

I've gone back through the archives and selected the best link from each of the 99 letters so far. Enjoy.

1. Jonathan Coulton - Make good stuff
"Make good stuff, then make it easy for people to buy it. There’s your anti-piracy plan. The big content companies are TERRIBLE at doing both of these things, so it’s no wonder they’re not doing so well in the current environment. And right now everyone’s fighting to control distribution channels, which is why I can’t watch Star Wars on Netflix or iTunes. It’s fine if you want to have that fight, but don’t yell and scream about how you’re losing business to piracy when your stuff isn’t even available in the box I have on top of my TV..."
http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2012/01/21/megaupload/

2. http://fuckyeahfreeinterns.tumblr.com/

3.  Wired: Andy Baio - Pirating the Oscars
"The MPAA is winning the battle to stop screener leaks. A record 37 films were nominated t his year, and the studios sent out screeners for all but four of them. But, so far, only eight of those 33 screeners have leaked online, a record low that continues the downward trend from last year. ... While screeners declined in popularity, 34 of the nominated films (92 percent) were leaked online by nomination day, with 25 of them available as high-quality DVD or Blu-ray rips."
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/01/oscar-screener-battle/

4. "Today was a good day", rapped Ice Cube. But which day, exactly, was he talking about anyway? The clues are there if you know where to look, and this guy manages to work it out by an impressive process of elimination.
http://murkavenue.tumblr.com/post/16553509655/i-found-ice-cubes-good-day

5.  The best bit of writing about death and computer games you'll read today
"Death in games is not death in the real world, but it was never meant to be. This is confusing because “death” in games shares a name with something bigger, stranger, both more and less meaningful. The purpose of death in games is to tell us about life. To remind us to try things we don’t know."
http://www.hideandseek.net/2012/01/31/dying-and-living-to-tell-the-tale/

6. Quadrotors
"Experiments performed with a team of nano quadrotors at the GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQIMGV5vtd4

7. Videos of people singing or rapping drive-through orders date back a long way. The most famous example is probably http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sw2OvIgoO8from, which spawned uncountable parodies and copies and even 'inspired' this revolting ad for Taco Bell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USzVqwHR61g. All of which made this glorious bit of drive-through amazingness from http://www.youtube.com/user/321GGO, captured by his friend in the back seat, all the more welcome. I love every second and especially the fact that the person taking his order can't stop giggling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGDTfoVyr5Y

8. Aleks Krotoski writing thoughtfully about why your Klout score is meaningless (and let's not be in any doubt, it really is)
"...our past actions can't predict future intentions. They can only signal our past reliability and suggest what we might do in the future. Regardless, an entire economy of ideas is based on online reputation, because it's the people with the reputations and the social currency who get people's attention. "Attention" has become a synonym for "influence". And that's nonsense."
http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/03/ideas-bank/aleks-krotoski

9. A rap battle between Blizzard (a student) and a teacher (that's a teacher, not his teacher), Mark Grist.
"I hope you drop dead. If I punch you in the face, who are you going to call? Ofsted?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp4wEewrQdU&t=1m6s

10. Robot readable world
"How do robots see the world? How do they gather meaning from our streets, cities, media and from us? This is an experiment in found machine-vision footage, exploring the aesthetics of the robot eye."
http://vimeo.com/36239715

11. Literally Unbelievable, Stories from The Onion as interpreted by Facebook.
I'm glad someone is collecting these.
http://literallyunbelievable.org/ (see also http://leasthelpful.com) 

12. Future Hipsters
Funny video. Apparently it's an advert for Social Media Week. I remain mercifully hazy on what Social Media Week might be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGi_r9xlvqE [via @suttree]

13. Two of my favourite podcasts combined in an unexpected way recently. The softly-spoken distinctive-voiced genius that is Ira Glass (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loxJ3FtCJJA) appeared as a guest on Dan Savage's Savage Love sex advice podcast. In case you've somehow missed him, Dan Savage is the guy behind the It Gets Better project (http://www.itgetsbetter.org) and also the reason 'Santorum' has an additional meaning, http://spreadingsantorum.com/). If you've ever wanted to hear Ira Glass utter the phrase "take his cock out of your mouth", now is your chance. 
http://www.thestranger.com/SavageLovePodcast/archives/2012/01/31/savage-love-episode-276

14. Louis vs Rick
If cats could IM, they'd still be dicks.
http://louisvsrick.com/ 

15. Ready for your eyes to fall out and your brain melt a bit? Here's '99 Problems' using film clips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5Cxl0BGBa4 
After which, you should probably watch 'Hello' to calm down again.
http://vimeo.com/35055590

16. Ghostface Killah’s Advice On How To Make Your Girl Happy
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/ghostface-killahs-advice-on-how-to-make-your-girl
[via @mattsimpo] 

17. nvALT
Brett Terpstra's tweaked and improved version of Notational Velocity, I use this to write text files for first drafts of things, notes to self, work in progress.... everything really. It's a lot like having a whole bunch of text files (in fact, depending on how you have it set up, it can be exactly like that) but with a really fast way of navigating between them. It's powerful and simple. The best bit though is hooking it up to the http://simplenoteapp.com/ service, which means it syncs my files with the global information super-cloud, meaning I never have to worry about moving from one computer (or device) to another. Handy.
http://brettterpstra.com/project/nvalt 

18. Roo's Letter has a jingle. Yes, an actual jingle, with words and a tune and everything. You were not expecting that, I bet. Even more surprising is that it's actually a rather haunting little piece which wouldn't be out of place on something late at night on Radio 4.  The lovely @wesayso wrote in to say that whenever he opens the Roo's Letter it makes him feel strangely sentimental, and tried to recreate what he hears in his head when he reads it.  He sent this in. Thanks, Wes. Personally, I think this may be one the best 5 seconds in the history of recorded sound, and it would make me happy to think of you all listening to this every time you open one of these newsletters. So I'll just imagine that happening now.
http://db.tt/8PiJu2Mu [mp3]

19. I continue to find this tip from Ze Frank (way back in 2006) helpful.
"This is my baseline"
http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/12/121906.html

20. Programmers being dicks
http://programmersbeingdicks.tumblr.com/ 
[via @monkchips]

21. The Pre-taped call in show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrlS9_n8GX4
[via @nicepaul]

22. Jesse Thorn : 12 Point Program for Absolutely, Positively 1000% No-Fail Guaranteed Success
I love Jesse. I trust you're already listening to http://www.maximumfun.org/shows/bullseye and especially http://www.maximumfun.org/shows/jordan-jesse-go? If not, you might want to try them.
http://transom.org/?p=24153

23. "Taking the sport of aqua climbing to a whole new level"
http://www.aquaclimb.com/prod-sport.php
[via lots of people]

24. James Bridle, A Ship Adrift  
"A Ship Adrift takes the data from that weather station and applies it to an imaginary airship piloted by a lost, mad AI autopilot. ... If the wind whips eastwards across the roof of the Southbank centre at 5mph, then the Ship Adrift floats five miles to the East. See the sharp tack the Ship made on the night of the 27th / 28th January? That’s the weather turning"  
http://booktwo.org/notebook/a-ship-adrift/ -> http://shipadrift.com/

25. Heinz 404 page
http://www.heinz.com/404.aspx
[lovely. Via @jameswebb]

26. US Patent #5443036
"A method for inducing cats to exercise consists of directing a beam of invisible light produced by a handheld laser apparatus onto the floor ... then moving the laser so as to cause the bright pattern of light move in an irregular way fascinating to cats"
http://www.google.com/patents?id=OfwkAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false
[via @direthoughts]

27 .Pictures of People Scanning QR-codes
http://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/

28. "A TED talk, at this point, is the cultural equivalent of a patent: a private claim to a public concept."
http://theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/03/how-ted-makes-ideas-smaller/253994/
[be sure to watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDHET3aCI2U too]

29. "Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head."
Banksy on 'Brandalism', from his book 'Cut it Out' which you can find quoted extensively at http://thefoxisblack.com/2012/02/29/banksy-on-advertising/
[There's a slightly different version of the same text on page 160 of 'Wall and Piece' http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wall-Piece-Banksy/dp/1844137872/]

30. Super Morrissey Bros.
http://soundcloud.com/lazyitis-1/super-morrissey-bros
[via http://b3ta.com/newsletter/issue519/]

31. Awkward Family Photos
http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

32. Report on the organisation of the permanent civil service, 1854
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northcote-Trevelyan_Report
"It would be natural to expect that so important a profession would attract into its ranks the ablest and the most ambitious, of the youth of the country; that the keenest emulation would prevail among those who had entered it; and that such as were endowed with superior qualifications would rapidly rise to distinction and public eminence. Such, however, is by no means the case. Admission into the Civil Service is indeed eagerly sought after, but it is for the unambitious, and the indolent or incapable, that it is chiefly desired."
http://www.civilservant.org.uk/northcotetrevelyan.pdf

33. James Whittaker: Why I left Google
"The Google I was passionate about was a technology company that empowered its employees to innovate. The Google I left was an advertising company with a single corporate-mandated focus."
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jw_on_tech/archive/2012/03/13/why-i-left-google.aspx

34. Andy Baio: How Yahoo Weaponized My Work
http://wired.com/epicenter/2012/03/opinion-baio-yahoo-patent-lie/

35. Ira Glass: "Regrettably, we have discovered that one of our most popular episodes was partially fabricated. This week, we devote the entire hour to detailing the errors in 'Mr. Daisey Goes to the Apple Factory'"
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/blog/2012/03/retracting-mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory

36 WSJ: How To Be Creative
"creativity is not magic, and there's no such thing as a creative type. Creativity is not a trait that we inherit in our genes or a blessing bestowed by the angels. It's a skill"
(A good long read)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203370604577265632205015846.html

37. Otters Who Look Like Benedict Cumberbatch: A Visual Examination.
http://redscharlach.tumblr.com/post/19565284869/otters-who-look-like-benedict-cumberbatch-a

38. Entypo"Entypo is a set of 100  carefully crafted pictograms available as an OpenType font, vector EPS and web font. All released for free under the Creative Commons license CC BY-SA."
http://www.entypo.com/
[via @boagworld]

39. Matt Haughey’s Webstock Talk: Lessons from a 40 year old http://a.wholelottanothing.org/2012/03/my-webstock-talk.html [via @jaggeree]

40. Ryan Gosling Tumblrs
I watched 'Crazy Stupid Love' last night.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/stacyl3/the-ultimate-ryan-gosling-tumblr-list-4f2w

41. NONONONO Cat (Hip-Hop Remix with lyrics!) (I think the lyrics(!) might be what make this so amazing.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIBrutiKbUY [via @doctoe]

42. 
A Short Lesson in Perspective
Even if you're busy (and I know you are), it's worth the two or three minutes it will take to read it. Why? It's the most powerful thing I've read about the state of the "creative industries". I agree with pretty much every word and I definitely agree with his conclusions. I can only wish that I'd had the experience and bravery required to have written it myself.
http://www.thesfegotist.com/editorial/2012/march/14/short-lesson-perspective

43. Google Street view adds its first train track
"The images were recorded in October 2011, using a 360° camera mounted on a tricycle which was loaded onto a flat wagon propelled by a Stadler Allegra electric multiple-unit. "
http://www.railwaygazette.com/index.php?id=44&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=15020
[via @kcorrick]

44. TacoCopter: Flying Robots Deliver Tacos To Your Location
I, for one, welcome our quadrocopter  overlords
http://tacocopter.com/

45. Turning down Zynga: 'Why I left after the $210M Omgpop buy'
Shay Pierce says "the company's values are completely opposed to my own values, professionally and creatively. Because I believe that developers are at the front lines of game development and deserve to be treated well, and I didn't trust Zynga to do so."
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/167244/Turning_down_Zynga_Why_I_opted_out_of_the_210M_Omgpop_buy.php

46. "... computer security expert Ben Laurie has stated, Sudoku is 'a denial of service attack on human intellect' ..."
http://norvig.com/sudoku.html

47 .Pushing Buttons Like the Jetsons
http://mises.org/daily/5154/Pushing-Buttons-Like-the-Jetsons
[via Rina]

48. Designing for information
http://blogs.edgehill.ac.uk/webservices/2012/03/30/designing-for-information/

49. "There’s no need to sharpen my pencils anymore. My pencils are sharp enough. Even the dull ones will make a mark" 
Ze Frank is back!
http://ashow.zefrank.com/episodes/1

50. Style in the Wire
"This video essay explores the style in the television series The Wire." - 35 very interesting minutes.
http://vimeo.com/39768998
(via @diemkay. Thanks Andrea)

51. Jerry Seinfeld’s productivity hack
"Don't break the chain"
http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret

52. Rev Dan Catt points out that The New Aesthetic is not about 8 bit retro.
"a response to new markings appearing in our world"
http://revdancatt.com/2012/04/07/why-the-new-aesthetic-isnt-about-8bit-retro-the-robot-readable-world-computer-vision-and-pirates/
(This was perhaps the most useful thing I've read on the subject in a while. Dan rocks. 

53. John Cleese: "creativity is not a talent, it is a way of operating"
http://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/20795598521/time-and-time

54. Valve Handbook for New Employees
"We want innovators, and that means maintaining an environment where they’ll flourish."
http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1074301/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.pdf [PDF, obviously]

55. VIM Adventures
"Learning VIM while playing a game"
http://vim-adventures.com/

56. What Your Klout Score Really Means
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/04/ff_klout/
(via Lee on Delicious, who accurately tagged this with 'arseholewhuffie'. Thanks, Lee)

57. Text-Only Instagram
"Condensation forms on a tasty beverage as folded sunglasses rest nearby"
"Portrait of a dandelion with a suspiciously shallow depth of field for a cell phone"
"Latte with foam shaped like a heart."
https://twitter.com/textinstagram

58. James Rolfe reads out a YouTube comment
"LIVE LIKE A WINDRAMMER..."
I'm pretty sure the guy behind the comment is being intentionally funny. See http://fighthardyeah.blogspot.co.uk/ and also @FightHardBolg, which has some amazing gems in there. "Inspirate:#19" and #20 especially.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX30rK-lCOc 

59. Dan Hon: Myself, quantified
http://danhon.com/2012/04/28/myself-quantified/

60. How Blind People Use The iPhone
"Tommy Edison, who has been blind since birth, demonstrates how people who are visually impaired use the iPhone 4S"
I'm working with someone who is blind and uses the iPhone just as quickly as I do. Here's how.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0nvdiRdehw

61. Whorf, denied
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edflm7Hh3hs

62. Werner Herzog’s Note To His Cleaning Lady
http://www.sabotagetimes.com/tv-film/werner-herzogs-note-to-his-cleaning-lady/

63. 'Has the internet run out of ideas already?'
Um... No. No, it really hasn't. I don't normally link to things that make me angry but this is utter balls.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/29/internet-innovation-failure-patent-control

64. What the Space Shuttle booster saw
"You've likely seen other videos taken from cameras attached to the Space Shuttle and its boosters, but this is one is exceptional in two regards: it's in HD and the sound has been remastered by Skywalker Sound."
http://kottke.org/12/03/what-the-space-shuttle-booster-sawhttp://kottke.org/12/03/what-the-space-shuttle-booster-saw

65. Girls and Robots
http://www.deusexmachinatio.com/blog/2012/5/8/girls-and-robots.html
(Heartbreaking. Read the comments too.)

66. The first ever demonstration of autonomous bird-like robot perching on a human hand
http://engineering.illinois.edu/news/2012/04/27/first-ever-demonstration-autonomous-bird-robot-perching-a-human-hand
(via Helen Keen and Wes West. Thanks, both)

67. Phil Gyford is righteously, and rightly, indignant about 'blog' vs 'blogpost'
http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2012/05/09/blog-blogpost.php

68. Robert Krulwich: Who Killed Men's Hats?
"Why did guys stop wearing headgear in midcentury America?"
http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/05/04/152011840/who-killed-mens-hats-think-of-a-three-letter-word-beginning-with-i

69. Crap Brapps 
"Welcome to the world of crap branded apps"
http://crapbrapps.tumblr.com/

70. Adjective order
Why does "little old lady" sound better than "old little lady?" Why does "big girl's blouse" work, when  "girl's big blouse" doesn't? Because you're used to adjectives being in a particular order.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjective#Adjective_order
(Via @timpaul. Thanks, Tim)

71. IGNORE HITLER
http://ignorehitler.tumblr.com/

72. How Yahoo Killed Flickr and Lost the Internet
http://gizmodo.com/5910223/how-yahoo-killed-flickr-and-lost-the-internet

73. Things Riding on Things
I made a little website. A growing collection.
http://thingsridingonthings.tumblr.com/ 
There's a handy matrix at http://thingsridingonthings.tumblr.com/matrix and you can contribute videos at http://thingsridingonthings.tumblr.com/submit

74. 25 words that don't exist in English
#2 is my favourite. I'm surprised British English doesn't have a term for this, but perhaps it's for the same reason that fish probably don't need a word for water.
http://sobadsogood.com/2012/04/29/25-words-that-simply-dont-exist-in-english/

75. E. chromi
Don't you dare stop watching without having got to 2:51, "... an easily visible output"
https://vimeo.com/19759432

76. Lars Martinson (Cartoonist) writes about '3 Things I Learned When My Site’s Traffic Increased 25,000% in One Day'
"...the 48,342 people that visited my site resulted in an additional 23 e-comics sales compared to the previous day. So about 0.048% of the extra visitors made a purchase"
http://larsmartinson.com/3-things-i-learned-when-my-sites-traffic-increased-25000-in-one-day/

77. Adam Buxton reads out YouTube comments for Apple Mac Music Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx-WBaSNrTQ

78. Neil Gaiman: Make Good Art
http://vimeo.com/42372767 and http://zenpencils.com/comic/50-neil-gaiman-make-good-art/

79. The Wire: The Musical with Michael Kenneth Williams
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/414fa4b226/the-wire-the-musical-with-michael-kenneth-williams

80. Reddit: I've been playing the same game of Civilization II for almost 10 years. This is the result.
"There are 3 remaining super nations in the year 3991 A.D, each competing for the scant resources left on the planet after dozens of nuclear wars have rendered vast swaths of the world uninhabitable wastelands."
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/uxpil/ive_been_playing_the_same_game_of_civilization_ii/
(via Ben Jackson)

81 Satellite Eyes
"a simple Mac app that automatically changes your desktop wallpaper to the satellite view of where you are, right now"
http://satelliteeyes.tomtaylor.co.uk/

82. Paris Syndrome
"a transient psychological disorder encountered by certain individuals, in most cases from Japan, visiting or vacationing in Paris, France ... The susceptibility of Japanese people may be linked to the popularity of Paris in Japanese culture, notably the idealized image of Paris prevalent in Japanese advertising."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_syndrome

83. All Hail Sauron
James Bridle (@stml) is a genius.
http://twitpic.com/a4bc09
http://instagram.com/p/MttxqjiHP1/

84. Advice: Ship everything
http://www.manton.org/2012/06/ship_everything.html
(Thanks, John)

85: Eye to Eye Wearable Hummingbird Feeder
"If you are serious about hummingbirds this feeder will take your relationship with your hummingbirds to a whole new level"
http://www.heatstick.com/_eYe2eye.htm

86: Waterfall 2006 International Conference on Sequential Development (via @willhamill)
http://www.waterfall2006.com/

87: The Lion King Rises
Via everyone. Audio from DKR trailer brilliantly recut with video from the Lion King. This is brilliant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NRsPDhyHrc

88: Is Twitter Wrong?
http://istwitterwrong.tumblr.com/

89: NYT experiment with the effect of typefaces on credulity
"Comic Sans has the lowest rate of agreement, and one of the highest rates of disagreement."
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/hear-all-ye-people-hearken-o-earth/

90: Alan Rickman, Portraits in Dramatic Time by David Michalek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eob7V_WtAVg

91: Shaming cats and dogs
http://dog-shaming.com/
http://cat-shaming.tumblr.com/

92: Why Jason Bourne is our generation’s James Bond "They took everything he had, and promised that if he gave himself up to the System, in return the System would take care of him."
 http://www.metafilter.com/93504/You-carry-a-00-number-it-means-you-have-License-to-kill-not-GET-killed#3171708

93: Jon Stewart on the first Daily Show after 9/11
"I wanted to tell you why I grieve, but why I don't despair"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXcmc2AZ6ZE

94: Video: LEGO Great Ball Contraption (Utterly hypnotic. Where do these people find the space?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUtS52lqL5w - http://legokarakuri.blog91.fc2.com/

95: Underground Guerilla Signs
"Don't acknowledge fellow passengers"
http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2012/03/05/guerillas-on-the-london-underground/

96: YouTube: Baby Twins Dance To Dad's Guitar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8iOQ9zWP6A

97: Oli Beale subtly photoshops his friend James' face
"I like going onto my friend's Facebook page, taking photos of him, changing his face slightly then putting them back up on Facebook. He doesn't like me doing this." (Oli is a genius)
http://www.oliandalex.com/james-face/

98: YouTube: Catch the Ice Dude  
Programmes like You've Been Framed really only show the least funny moment from these sort of videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd7c5tQCs1I 

99: Typing Karaoke  
This is fun. I need to improve my typing speed to be able to keep up with 'Call Me Maybe'  
http://www.typingkaraoke.com/

Yours sincerely  
Roo

Roo Reynolds  
@rooreynolds  
http://tinyletter.com/rooreynolds

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