Fresh off of watching Helvetica (and then watching it again — big thanks to Lex), I enjoyed this recent post at Logo Design Love (once again via Google Reader rec).

“It’s becoming more and more difficult to execute original logo designs. No matter how clever your idea, the chances are someone has created a very similar logo. Why is that? We’re all surrounded by the same influences, exposed to the same shapes, forms and patterns. With the importance of branding in the marketplace, and thousands of designers working on similar projects, it’s obvious ideas will, from time-to-time, look almost identical.”

You can see what they mean (I knew Columbia Sportswear reminded me of something):

Wayback Machine and Google Blogoscoped

Sun Microsystems and Columbia Sportswear

Many more logos and logo-a-likes here.

And now some bonus material. Including: a breast massaging robot, a face-stealing robot, and mad Mac speculationing.

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I’m a low-level typography geek. I love reading the “About this Typeface” description at the back of a book*, and a manuscript or website using the default font just isn’t finished yet.

“Typography is what language looks like.”

Cameron Adams gets meta on type with his recent post on the handwriting of type designers (via Slashdot, via Google Reader Rec). And I love a bit of meta me.

“Hit pause for a moment and consider how greatly we – people in the digital age – are indebted to typographers. Almost all of our visual communication is delivered using the products of their craft: newspapers, SMSes, instant messages, emails, web pages, signs, posters, billboards; the list of purposes is endless.

In these days where looping strokes have been replaced by keyboard clickety-clack, typographers define the style and tone of our missives. Would you like to be elegant, modern, childish or … disturbed? Then you can choose between Garamond, Montag, Comic Sans, Zebraflesh, and a thousand more.
…
The handwriting of typographers intrigues me because it raises so many questions, big and small: Do typographers exert some extraordinary control of the pen that laypersons don’t? Does a typographer’s handwriting influence the typefaces they produce? Has the rise of digital communications made handwriting redundant? Do modern typographers, born of digital tools, lack the finesse of their more wizened counterparts? If so, does that change the way their type is designed?”

Personally, I’m a fan of Garamond. Palatino and Helvetica Neue Condensed Bold are elegant. And I think if you’re using Comic Sans in anything other than a comic, it’s a cry for help.
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This being the last Wednesday before the iPhone’s (insanely over-hyped) release in Canada I thought I’d cover the issues that surround the sleek little 3G hockey puck.

First things first - what exactly is 3G and why is it so important?
3G refers to third generation wireless capability. The little cellfriend you have now is probably (unless you bought it somewhere in Asia where 3G enabled phones are the standard) a 2G machine, which is why when you hear ‘internet-enabled’ what you really get is ‘darn slow transfer rates’. 3G phones change all that because as Wikipediastates:

“3G technologies enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency. Services include wide-area wireless voice telephony, video calls, and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment. Additional features also include HSPA data transmission capabilities able to deliver speeds up to 14.4Mbit/s on the downlink and 5.8Mbit/s on the uplink.”

Wicked cool right? 3G iPhone users will literally have no down time away from the internets. That is, not if they carry their phone with them everywhere they go (and don’t we all?)

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There’s a big fat post coming on open source and free software, but damned if I’m going to let the calendar get the better of me and miss a week.

And so…
Via BoingBoing: The Paper Version of The Web
A collection of the doodles that spawned some of the web’s more ubiquitous networking sites like Twitter and Flickr Places. That’s a small version of a Flickr Places sketch below (click to embiggen):

Via the PS3 store: The Linger In Shadows Teaser Trailer

Trippy “interactive art” coming soon to PS3s. And I quote “(t)he demo itself follows the ‘story-demo’ genre, revolving around a cat, a floating dog, a strange mechanical tentacled creature and a cloud of darkness”.

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So this is my first Wired Wednesday post (I forgot it was Wednesday last week, summer’ll do that to you), and in classic Miriam fashion, I want to really stretch the definition of what constitutes a “wired” subject.

See, I just came back from Detroit, where I was attending the Allied Media Conference, and I brought my computer and everything, because I am a technophile (with mild ADHD, natch) and I figured I would spend a lot of time listening to people talk and display PowerPoint presentations, leaving me with ample opportunity to do stuff like surf Metafilter or Favrd. That’s what you do at conferences, right? Show up, wear the badge and try to network. When not networking, stare at your laptop and “take notes” on the speakers.

Oh how wrong I was.

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(I cheaped it a little yesterday, so I’m doing a Wired Wednesday bonus round — Wired Wednesdays, now on Thursday!)

Over the last few months, and then twice today, CBC shows have featured stories on iPod and cell phone etiquette, noise pollution, safety and community.

Getting lots of air time are the people concerned about hearing loss, or the dangers of pedestrian oblivion. And the community-minded who worry about shutting out other people, creating barriers, and leaving us with cities filled with the walking dead. Plugged in and tuned out.

I’m not saying these aren’t fair points.

Some of the shows have been based in on-the-street interviews, and Ontario Today just wrapped up a call-in version. I had my (landline) phone at the ready, but missed the last time she gave out the number. I don’t call in to call-in shows. But I have been waiting and waiting (and waiting) for any of these episodes to say the one thing I keep saying out loud to our radio.

iPods
Well-represented are the single guys who mourn the loss of random conversations because all the women have their iPods on. Less opportunity for chats with a girl on the subway, or on the street, or at the gym.

But here’s The Thing.

I might not want you to strike up a conversation with me. iPods absolutely create a barrier. But I ain’t single, and I ain’t looking. For me it’s an intentional barrier, and a polite hint.

Being able to put up a barrier that helps take me out of the casual-conversation-that-might-go-somewhere-pool is a godsend to me. I go to the gym to work out not pick-up, I go to the grocery store to get milk, and I’m coming home from work because I don’t want to live there.
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I’m cutting it close, so super quick post:

Enjoy a Better Web

Download Firefox 3.0 today and help them set the Guinness World Record for most software downloaded in 24hrs. (That’s before 2:16pm if you’re in Toronto, a bit more time if you’re on the East Coast, lots more if we have readers in Tokyo).

Firefox FTW!

Yesterday’s discussion over donation programs reminded me that I’ve been remiss, in that I’ve never posted about the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization.

The short version is that OLPC started as an initiative out of the MIT Media Lab, where they attempted (and roughly succeeded) in creating a $100 laptop (it currently costs closer to $200), to be made available to countries which historically haven’t had the funds or means to have technology in the classroom.

There was huge interest from the public in this project, and, from tech nerds, in the laptop itself — prompting the “Give 1 Get 1” offer that ran at the end of last year. (OLPC is now set up for donations only).

When I first heard about the XO-1, what I was most attracted to was that they were running free and open source software (and, at least for now, still are). It was such a fundamental element of the project that its use was listed as one of OLPC’s 5 core principles.

Though now it’s looking not so fundamental after all, with Microsoft announcing that OLPC might be running XP as early as this month. (I’ll get into why that’s boo-able if there’s interest in a “Whatsa Free/Open Software” post. Until then I’ll put a sweater on over my “Free as in Freedom” tshirt.)
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Wired Wednesday is on auto-pilot this week. As I’m moving tomorrow, and even this post is written from the floor, using stolen wireless, eating a sad little muffin. So I give you a link medley week. Some newfangled things, and a bunch of classics. Hold onto your mice.

GAMES
* A teaser for a game I’ve been looking forward to forever (okay, since last summer) — Mirror’s Edge. Featuring a strong, smart, athletic, neither over nor undersexed female lead. Le drool.

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