Category Archives: technology

Slow, inexorable decline

Posted on August 3, 2021 by things magazine

The story of IT, how the Segway was hyped and boosted and failed to match sky high expectations (via MeFi). We have fond memories of zipping around the hangars at Farnborough Airfield with Dean Kamen back in the early days. … Continue reading →

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Extended insights

Posted on December 11, 2020 by things magazine

The Definitive Guide to the Doctor Who Theme Music / or recreate it on a Korg / Indie Retro News, old school gaming continuations. Related, Inside the obsessive world of miniature arcade machine makers / the Game UI Database (via … Continue reading →

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The Bland of Confusion

Posted on December 2, 2020 by things magazine

Histories and mysteries of the age. Towards a Cultural History of Plexiglass, in all our lives these days. For many, it never went away: ‘But in particular “fringe” businesses in contested neighborhoods, plexi refracts different politics and subjectivities; it marks … Continue reading →

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Off world

Posted on November 22, 2020 by things magazine

Brunel Manor was originally owned and designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel / compare and contrast with an especially cursed house / the hidden world of air crew rest areas / the HC-TT, a ‘human controlled tape transport’. Demo Video. A … Continue reading →

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On the spectral plane

Posted on October 28, 2020 by things magazine

How we made Ghostwatch. The show itself is all up there on YouTube, in bits and chunks, but searching for this kind of thing sends the site’s hyperbolist and tabloid-minded algorithm into absolute overdrive, so venture in at your own … Continue reading →

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“And the whip-poor-wills they make a din”

Posted on September 17, 2020 by things magazine

This new book, launched ahead of Open House London 2020, The Alternative Guide to the London Boroughs, is a very welcome addition to the chronicle’s of the unseen capital. Highly recommended / How taste gets made: Anne Helen Petersen on … Continue reading →

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The boys and girls in the bubble

Posted on May 15, 2020 by things magazine

How the band and its team created and curated the Radiohead Public Library, an impressive piece of digital archaeology / closely related, how private equity drained the record industry / this word does not exist / these creatures do not … Continue reading →

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Road trains and loud noises

Posted on April 16, 2020 by things magazine

For some reason, way back in 2013, we clipped this link about Melbourne’s East West Road Link back in 2013, a major infrastructure project that is still mired in controversy over cost, routes and delays. Road infrastructure projects are going … Continue reading →

Posted in ephemera, technology | Leave a comment

A big chunk of stuff

Posted on June 20, 2019 by things magazine

The mass death of a consumer robot / Fist of Jesus, a short, bloody film / How Technology Changed Music / ‘”Ghost Tape Number 10“, an audio mix the US military used for psychological operations in the Vietnam War’ / … Continue reading →

Posted in architecture, ephemera, technology | 1 Comment

Bold and bright

Posted on March 18, 2019 by things magazine

Pavilion fix. Help get Pricegore’s Colour Palace off the ground, a collaboration with the artist Yinka Ilori / The man who takes tech apart – so we can learn how to fix it, a piece on the photographer Todd McLellan … Continue reading →

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Accounting for

Posted on March 8, 2019 by things magazine

Book things. Money, money, money, 404 Ink on the economics of contemporary publishing. Matching publishers with corresponding dinosaurs. a series. Both via the always information Mr Benneworth-Gray / ‘Dieter Rams “regrets contributing to culture of overconsumption” says documentary director‘ / … Continue reading →

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Clone wars

Posted on November 23, 2018 by things magazine

Charge promise to build an all-electric version of the ‘classic Mustang’ / paintings by Amy Dennis / sort of interconnected, How does someone build a rich, connected, creative life? versus Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Revised for Modern Civilization / beautiful … Continue reading →

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Cutting through

Posted on September 14, 2018 by things magazine

Friday randomness to follow. The Rise and Fall of the Supercut, which the article puts down partly to waning attention spans and our grudging acknowledgement and acceptance of trope and cliche, without needing it artfully presented. Kottke was always good … Continue reading →

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Click and collect

Posted on September 12, 2018 by things magazine

At the Flip of a Switch, the light switch in culture / Amazon has patented a system that would put workers in a cage, on top of a robot, at The New Aesthetic / still excited about the Teenage Engineering … Continue reading →

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Space Brutalism

Posted on August 10, 2018 by things magazine

Martian concrete: Four of the entrants into NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge, hosted at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center YouTube page: Team Kahn Yates; Team Northwestern University; Team SEArch+/Apis Cor; Team Zopherous / My First Pritzker, Ombu Architecture / wasn’t this … Continue reading →

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Please enjoy your day on this planet

Posted on August 6, 2018 by things magazine

Starring the Computer, a website dedicated to the use of computers in film and television. The IBM AN/FSQ-7, a key component of the USAF Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE). With its many panels of flashing lights and general air of futurism, … Continue reading →

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First Class, all the way

Posted on July 17, 2018 by things magazine

The MGM Grand Air Service was a high rollin’, first class only plane ride between LAX and New York, founded by the late Kirk Kerkorian and as abjectly 90s glamour as you can possibly imagine. Inside the 727 / back … Continue reading →

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Full of stars

Posted on July 11, 2018 by things magazine

Outer space vs inner space. NASA images by Thomas Struth at the Galerie Max Hetzler in Berlin (via Anne Bernecker) / The meaning of the ending of 2001 according to Stanley Kubrick at Kottke. One for the Coudal Kubrick Archives … Continue reading →

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The city’s spiky skyline

Posted on June 18, 2018 by things magazine

24 Hour London, a time-lapsed hi-res panorama of the city / a collection of Serpentine Pavilions / Knobs is a Youtube channel dedicated to way out effects / some analogue media finding its way back into the world of the … Continue reading →

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The right to roam

Posted on April 2, 2018 by things magazine

The rise of the ‘walking simulator‘ suggests virtual tourism is a thing, albeit a thing in its infancy. The most intensive and sophisticated virtual worlds tend to be those created as the backdrops for big budget games, so the news … Continue reading →

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