Japanese rubber band assault rifle
Every reason to live in terror of a resurgence in Japanese militarism. Someone spent months making this thing.
The Content Factory
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Journalism
NPR: the perfect promo video?
OK, so it’s a little stiff-kneed, but this is actually a perfect promo video for its audience – honest, well-edited and informative. I’ll live without the tricksy cuts and in jokes: I wanted to go try and site at the end of watching the flick.
Why charging may be good for journalism
So the European Court of Justice decides that even a snippet of text from a newspaper can be enough to break the law, in the same week that The Associated Press decides to take aggressive steps to protect its content.
First, here’s the predictable response that the web’s most vocal analysts are barking to anyone who’ll [...]
The little trio of journalists that could
I work in an industry that’s obsessed with its own demise. The newspaper business spends its days planning its own funeral party (crisps, anyone?), while ironically enjoying an online gold rush (in traffic, anyway). My Google Reader feed is a river of contradictory figures and silver bullets. Snake oil salesmen? The web wrote the book. [...]
The real reason why the football team lost
Look at the date of the last post. Years ago. But then, I have been busy. Or maybe it just feels like I have.
Since the last missive (which wasn’t a missive really – I mean, you can’t call a video embed a cogent thought, can you? Can you?), some water has flowed under some bridges.
In [...]
How to stop your audience from feeling used
The virtuous circle from Digitaldickinson on Vimeo.
I spent two days last month discussing the future of journalism at the University of Central Lancashire with a group with representatives of all corners of the UK media scene. Fascinating two days, not least for the wealth of disagreement (no bad thing).
It’ll come as zero surprise to know [...]
Telegraph redesigns, a tab at a time
Once upon a time, I made magazines. When we wanted to change that magazine, we would gather three, four or five of our shiniest brains, stick them in a room for a period with a half-decent brief, and out would pop a fresh magazine – better organised, more contemporary, and all-new.
This morning, I opened Firefox [...]
Wordpress for iPhone hits the Store
The theory is that the new iPhone 3G is not a converged mobile at all, but the world’s first truly personal computer.
And here’s some evidence that this is true – my first post using the brand new Wordpress App.
It took under 30 seconds to set up. And if you can see this, it works.
Is your next car a skin job?
Many years ago, I was lucky enough to meet Chris Bangle, BMW’s design guru.
Mad bloke: made noises with his tongue to describe shapes. Walked away with the uncomfortable impression that he was performing a precised magic routine to keep the idiot (me) amused. When I look back, the inanity of my questioning deserved nothing [...]
BBC News refresh: air’s in
Open Firefox this morning, and an old friend shows a new face. The Beeb revamp sparked a fair flurry of debate among colleagues: one camp decided that it was too conservative, while the other concluded that Aunty had shown the maturity you’d expect.
I sit in the latter camp. The design has shifted to the centre [...]