Author: smartpeopleiknow

Philip Johnson’s Glass House is officially opening to the public on June 21, ’07…

..my question is: why? What’s closed about it now? 🙂

For those of you who think about such things as I do, check out Memories of Life and Death in an Architectural Masterwork – New York Times

For such a slight building, it’s also very influential. I think the key to living there is good pajamas. And not scratching your butt. Or scratching your butt but not caring anyone might notice. 🙂

If you like to write, try Helium

Not the gas, the web site! What is Helium about?

Whether you care about pop culture or politics, Helium is for you. Helium is the best place on the web to post your perspective and read what others have to say. When you write at Helium, you receive instant recognition from an audience of millions. No one will delete your articles or skew your opinions. Your contribution remains whole. Helium is a free market, where articles on the same topic compete for the top spot.

When you share, Helium shares back. You earn a share of the advertising money earned here at Helium. If you write well, and write often, you earn more recognition and reward. It is that simple. Unleash the writer inside of you. Be passionate. Be opinionated.

Join the quest to build the best user-created reference there is. Say your piece and find peace. Find quality insight and stop wasting time searching for it. Help build a place where knowledge rules.

Poppleton (and Stella too)

I read alot of kids books. I enjoy them even when I am not reading them to little ones. Poppleton is my favourite series, with the possible exception of Stella and Sam. the Poppleton stories are wonderfully illustrated in watercolour, with plenty of small details to point out. The language is straightforward but not “Dick and Jane”, and the stories are fun to read aloud and to listen to. Even the characterization is good (yes, I know, they are only short books, but trust me. 🙂

I bought as many of them as I could find at Indigo. Here’s one, the first one we had.

Poppleton and Friends by Mark Teague

And here’s one of the Stella books:

Stella Star Of The Sea by M Gay

I highly recommend them.

Jonathan Coulton

It’s a small world. I came across the Code Monkey video at the Web 2.0 expo and posted it here on my blog which was read by my friend Leta who mentioned Jonathan’s web site, www.jonathancoulton.com, which I pointed out to some people a few months ago based on an article I read in the Nytimes.com!

So….check out his site. He’s got a great story, and lots of good music as well! Leta recommends: the acoustic version of ‘Baby Got Back’ is a treat

You’ve got a face with a view

I have a tremendous personal fondness for this song in this movie. But it is a great video nonetheless. From the great Jonathan Demme / Talking Heads film, Stop Making Sense, here is
The Talking Heads with This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody) Live

Hang in there for the wonderfully dance part with David Byrne and the lamp. I have a lamp like this, and I think of him whenever I see it.

Women in Art

This video is an astounding compilation of women represented in famous paintings. Each image transmogrifies into the next in a seamless way as if to suggest that all of western painting is a continuous work. You have to see it.

Women In Art

One thing that it made me think of is the actual women who model for the painters, as opposed to the painters and the paintings themselves. The ability of it to do this is remarkable.

One more reason why YouTube is great.

Design That Solves Problems for the World’s Poor


The New York Times has an article on a show at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York which includes many items to show a grasp of the depths of world poverty and ingenious ways to attack it. such as the 20-gallon rolling drum for transporting water, above.

The OLPC is also there, as well as the design of other things.

I thing there are things people need that are essential — whether they be materially well off or not — and things they don’t need. I believe the exhibit focuses on the former. For example, as Nicholas Negroponte says, the point of OLPC is not the laptop, it is the focus on education that the OLPC enables. It is not that every child in the world should have a new thing.

That said, I think some of the design is….cool. Now if someone would design a half decent cart to help me get my groceries home without a car, I would be happy. But I digress.

The Gadgets are coming!

Ok, I think there is alot of hype behind gadgets, widgets, etc. But there is also alot of potential power, as well. Technically your web site / page / blog / what have you ends up become much like a spreadsheet. Your blog+widgets = the next killer app. (There’s the hype thing again).

Anyway check out LabPixies and decide for yourself. For instance:

LabPixies – YouTube Top 10 – Coolest Gadgets on the Web!

Here’s the source:

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://www.labpixies.com/lib/lp_gadget_syndication.php?_gadgetid=37&_frame_color=light_blue”&gt; </script>

The great Kevin Kelly

One of FM’s author is Kevin Kelly, of Kevin Kelly — Cool Tools

He’s much more than this. He has been doing cool stuff for many years, whether he was working on the Whole Earth Catalog (the Internet in a catalog form 🙂 ) or helping launch WiReD (before it became TiReD). His cool tools section of his web site always has interesting articles in it.

It’s a shame the Whole Earth Review isn’t around anymore. But KK’s web site is: soak it up.

Learn more through Advertising

Federated Media Publishing says:

FM represents outstanding authors whose sites cater to cultural influencers, technology decision makers, early adopters and business leaders. Our first “federation,” focused on digital business and culture, reaches millions and millions of unique readers every month. New federations in the small business, media/entertainment and parenting categories, representing millions of entrepreneurs, upscale consumers and families, are in the process of launching as well.

So check out their author list: it’s a good one.

reCaPTCHA is a fascinating Web 2.0 idea

What is reCAPTCHA?

To quote the WiReD blog:

The idea behind reCAPTCHA is that, as long as we’re all solving these CAPTCHA puzzles, why not throw in some minimal additional data? By adding a second image with an unsolved word from the Internet Archive book scanning project, ReCAPTCHA allows users to channel their CAPTCHA solving skills into real world benefits.

To me, this is an innovative idea of putting the world to work. I wonder how many more companies are employing this approach?