Thursday 30 December 2010

The Year End Links Post

Ah, Christmas: the season of lists, predictions, and lists of predictions! By which definition, I suppose, a Links Post might not be wholly unfestive - especially one slightly more bloated than usual, and full of lists and predictions:

From Guardian Technology (Because otherwise I just don't get around to reading it now it's no longer in the print edition).

Guardian Technology's 20 most-read articles and 10 most-viewed photo galleries of 2010.

Forecast for 2011: The Guardian asks tech and web experts to make their predictions for the coming year.

"Media is a form of design... everything is a form of design": Justin McGuirk examines the argument behind Designing Media, a new book of interviews with major players behind the ongoing media revolution.

Merriam-Webster dictionary's Top 10 definition searches for 2010 speak volumes.

The best short films on the web: how the web is enabling a revolution in short film making and distribution.

Social Media

Facebook overtakes Yahoo as the third largest website in the world.

And it's now the most-visited too, according to Hitwise.

2010 in Twitter trending topics.

The 10 most-shared links of the year.

Books, Writing & Storytelling

"The publishing industry is in trouble - but not just because of the digital revolution": an illuminating interview with John Thompson, author of Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century.

The 10 most popular publishing stories of 2010 on GalleyCat, month by month - and some predictions for 2011.

Useful Apps, Utilities & Downloads

300+ resources to help you master WordPress, collated by Webdesigner Depot.

2010's top new and updated apps for Windows, according to Downloadsquad.

Disconnect: "a privacy patch for the web", available as an extension for Chrome and RockMelt (Firefox and Safari to follow).

Music

Gorillaz record an album on an iPad - then give it away to fanclub members. (Or you can stream it here, in exchange for your name and email address.)

And here are the 20 iPad music apps the band used - $120 for the lot.

Rundowns of the year's top albums, from: Drowned In Sound, Pitchfork, The Silent Ballet, Fluid Radio, eMusic.

Games & Other Distractions

20 free indie games you may have missed in 2010, selected by IndieGames.com.

Miscellaneous

11 'risky' tech predictions for 2011 from TECHi.com.

2010: the year in ideas, from The New York Times.


And finally...

"Seasons Greetings and a very Happy New Year!" from all at Radix.


Sunday 5 December 2010

The Weekend Links Post: No. 32

Welcome, again, to another entirely subjective selection of 15 links, humanely culled from my week's online reading and roughly collated under the seven broad categories seen below:

Selected Highlights from Guardian Technology (Because otherwise I just don't get around to reading it now it's no longer in the print edition).

Gawker's Nick Denton on the future of blogging.

CEO of Creative Commons Joi Ito on fair and innovation-friendly copyright tools for the web.

Google moves to stop bad customer service turning into good search rankings for online retailers.

Chromaroma game tries to achieve the impossible: making travel on the London Tube fun.

Social Media

Facebook wants to trademark the word 'Face'. (The cheek of it... etc.).

The persistence (or otherwise) of digital memories: preserving the digital self after death.

Books, Writing & Storytelling

A lengthy interview with William Gibson, cyberpunk writer and inventor of the word 'cyberspace'.

A veritable treasure trove of Samuel Beckett plays on film.

Useful Apps, Utilities & Downloads

The Top 50 free apps Lifehacker is 'most thankful for'.

AX: a free, time-saving utility for anyone who regularly has to type accents and special characters.

Music

Google Translate now speaks beatboxer... well, sort of.

Games & Other Distractions

The Infinite Ocean: an atmospheric, deeply-layered philosophical point-and-click mystery (more of an interactive narrative, than a traditional game).

Miscellaneous

Ads they'd never allow today, probably not even on Mad Men.

Virgin launches iPad-only magazine (to mixed reviews so far).

Man sells virtual asteroid for $635,000 - a $500,000 profit on his original purchase.