free variable

I noticed (via the MF catalog) that Electro-Harmonix has just released something called a “Bass Blogger.” In addition to being a colossally stupid, already-anachronistic name, this somehow sounds really dirty. From looking at the product description, I can’t tell it apart from their other 74 bass distortion pedals, but whatever.

I suppose that I either need to be less frugal with the “humor” and “snark” tags, or I need to start embracing more fully a new rôle as someone who will give the same story to get a bit of attention.

Graphic Design Goes to the Games: a very nice overview of Olympic branding from Khoi Vinh; scroll down to see some beautiful Swiss-influenced materials from the 1972 Munich Games.

Here’s your spot of D.C. nostalgia for the day: “The quotes are part of the phrase.” (See also here.)

Unfortunately, these videos of talks about the LLVM compiler infrastructure and virtual machine were released at precisely the moment when I have the least amount of free time in recent memory. (But you might be able to enjoy them now).

I’m finding it hard to suppress a big smile after reading Love At (Almost) First Email at Ben Brown’s site. (You might enjoy it even if you don’t know Ben.)

Mark Pilgrim: “I never really understood how people found bugs like this until I had kids.” My experience confirms that toddlers are experts at fuzz testing.

Whenever I talk to people I haven’t seen for years, I’m reminded of this classic Onion op-ed.

Amusing: “Ways to Lose at Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater,” from McSweeney’s

Audio Damage Automaton looks like a lot of fun.

Apparently, the USPTO has granted Dell a trademark on “cloud computing,” a generic term of art that (1) predates any mention of it by Dell and (2) describes a software model to which Dell has contributed approximately zero research or development effort. Words fail me.

I don’t use Microsoft Word, but I’ve seen enough invective directed towards it to know that if you do, then you will appreciate this gallery of glitches.

I’m not sure if these one-star Amazon customer reviews for The Little Schemer are amusing or just depressing, but I am sure that each reveals more about the reviewer than the reviewed.

Gary Hustwit is following Helvetica with Objectified, a new documentary about industrial design.

This real children’s book is so good that it almost — and I stress, almost — makes me want to stop reviewing fake children’s books.

It’s probably a little perverse that I think the two most compelling 3rd-party applications on the new iPhone are OmniFocus and BeatMaker. (It would be better, I guess, if my day job involved making beats.)

I hadn’t noticed Frutiger Serif before; it’s very nice. It’s too bad that (1) I’ve basically already decided on a dissertation typeface and (2) I’m too poor to license new fonts right now.

Thanks to Mark Eli Kalderon for bringing this cartoon to my attention.

In recent news of the absurd, I don’t know what’s less likely, that tampering happened, or that anyone can prove it happened. (RIYL: Favre, King, and Moss.)

Here’s Serious Sans, a typeface designed to keep the (vanishingly minimal) good qualities of Comic Sans and toss everything else. I’m holding out for “Tragic Sans,” in which locally optimal points and curves lead to a globally pessimal result.