Comic Sans Criminal is a single-serving website dedicated to the education of crimes against typography.. specifically in the realm of abuse of the Comic Sans typeface. Basically it gives a little history of the type and explains, rather rationally, why there's no way you should be using it for anything. I'd say anyone reading this site is probably well aware of this fact but the layouts / overall design / experience of the site is so pleasing that I can't not recommend taking a look at it. Congrats to Matt Dempsey on the successful undertaking.

TechLand has an interesting list of the Top 25 Tech Fails of the Year and, unsurprisingly, BP's Oil Spill is #1. What is surprising is that Google Wave is way down the list at #25 - if there's someone out there that doesn't feel like that was more of a failure than Tumblr's one day of downtime I'd be rather surprised. I disagree with the inclusion of Google Buzz (though, the privacy issues were a concern for some) and whole-heartedly agree with the inclusion of iTunes Ping and 3D TV.

Despite it being originally posted a few years ago I was quite interested in this io9 article, 10 Comic Creators We Wish Would Make Movies Instead of Frank Miller. Basically it's just a referential list on some progressive creators excelling stylistically and embracing an intriguing plot - two elements that many movies lack these days. I want to dive into some Chris Ware and Carla Speed McNeil over the impending break.. sounds like a worthwhile endeavor.

Things to look at on the Internet:

• American Songwriter's Top Photos of 2010 - lots of good musical related shots in this compilation.
• It's Not Christmas (If You're Not With Me) - new little Christmas song from Pico vs. Island Trees.
• Adobe BrowserLab - free for a year if you sign up before April. Not as ideal as having an actual emulated OS in front of you but handy in a pinch for comparing website rendering across a wide variety of browsers.
• ClipIt Flash Drive - PaperClip design + 4GB's of data = brilliant. via Ronnie.
• Jay Howell on Tiny Showcase - at this time, there are about 50 pieces left for his 7"x9" print - I suggest snagging.

I'll admit that the above image is somewhat terrifying but before you judge - know that it is the album cover to a brand new Hands Down Eugene album, Narceologist, that was just yesterday released for free download. Recorded a few years ago and then lost amongst a shuffle of mislabeled hard drives and other studio nonsense after a robbery it was assumed that it would never see the light of day but Christmas is kind and the album has been revived. I realize few people are interested in procuring new albums this late in the year but I'm smitten with how good it sounds. Their previous record - White Stone / Black Witch - was one of my favorite releases of 2008 and I can easily see this making its way into heavy rotation in no time flat.

So, despite the slightly creeptastic album art, please take the time to download it and then read the absurd backstory to it all.

With the holidays gearing up you're likely to have a little more free time than usual. Why not take some of that free time and soak in the argument put forth in The Hazards of Nerd Supremacy: The Case of Wikileaks. It's a long read but it tackles a pretty hefty subject; the mythos around Wikileaks and the throngs of nerds coming to its aid. Personally, I am torn on the whole Wikileaks topic so I find this quite compelling - it's just a lot of information to soak in. While it may be a bit dramatic, I do like his closing statement quite a bit:

A perfectly open world, without secrets, would be a world without the need for trust, and therefore a world without trust. What a sad sterile place that would be: A perfect world for machines.

While this certainly doesn't negate the need for a counter balance such as Wikileaks, it is a statement worthy of pondering. There are loads of gems such as that in the article.. assuming you take the time to take them in.

Jed summed it up for me quite well yesterday: "I'm not pro-wikileaks, but I'm definitely anti-anti-wikileaks."

When Parents Text is an amusing repository of, you guessed it, text messages received from slightly technologically inept parents. Actually, that's not entirely true - they are adept enough to be texting so they're leaps and bounds ahead of a lot of parents but the questions they pose / statements they make are ridiculous at times. Just go read it.. you'll see what I mean.

via Casey.

According to this blog post it seems that Instagram - the photo sharing iPhone app - has reached a million users. Congrats to them! It's a great, simple, app worthy of a huge user base. In fact, it's kind of what I'd expect from a Flickr app in terms of photos coming in via a feed - instead of just a way to view collections. Highly recommended if you're into taking random photos of things and putting pre-made filters on them (as I am).

Tumblr recently launched a new tool to help discover content beyond following other users. Basically, it's aggregated feeds of certain hashtags as curated by some vetted Tumblr users. Here's the background info but, really, you should just dive right in to the News Topic and see what it's all about. Given that these four Tumblr users are the current curators (plus Mark Coatney) I'd say it is in good hands. Looking forward to the new stream of content.

Described by Tim Burton as "a cross between 2001 and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" - The Arctic Circle is an engaging piece of work. Stop motion animation in the style of the old Christmas specials but with one mysterious storyline. Really enjoyed it..as well as the rest of the demo reel from Kevin Parry.

via Kevin.

• KOD - a "programmer's editor" for OSX. The screenshot looks like Textmate and Google Chrome had a baby - I think I can get behind that. via Juan.
• Impact JS - I don't do a ton of Game development (okay, I don't do any) but this looks like a fantastic way to just dive right in and start accomplishing things without the hassle of building all the basic components first. via Will.

• The Top 50 Documentaries of the Decade - how many of these have you seen? If the answer isn't "All 50" - then you've just found something worthwhile to spend your time with over the upcoming Christmas break.
• Hollywood Reporter's Roundtable - I need to find an hour to sit down and watch this roundtable discussion from a load of notable directors (Aronofsky, Peter Weir and David O. Russell among them). From the writeup, it sounds like the chat is worth listening in on. Related: Roundtable discussions from actors, writers and Actresses.

The RGB Project from Carnovsky (Francesco Rugi and Silvia Quintanilla) is absolutely brilliant. I am smitten! The duo designed a number of full-size room pieces comprised of layered primary colors. Depending on the color of light cast on them the pieces reveal different singular layers of the overall composition. I imagine the initial undertaking of deciphering the right paint vs light combo took some clever researching but it was well worth the effort - the results are phenomenal.

via Public School.

Casey alerted me to the existence of Isle of Tune - a musical website that uses street layouts for loops, suburban placeholders for sounds and cars as instrument progress. It is incredibly difficult to describe but rather engaging to browse through. Start with something familiar like Pink Floyd's "Money", Michael Jackson's "Beat It" or even MGMT's "Kids" to get an idea of exactly what's going on.. and then try making your own. Even if you have no idea what you're doing (like myself), it's fun to tinker around with.

Thus far my experience with the iPad has been fairly limited in terms of wild success stories - I like it as a device but, on the whole, I've not really found a proper place for it in my browsing habits. One such exception to this is Flipboard - an RSS reader that beautifies your feeds into a consumable magazine format (remember?). They recently launched new upgrade that adds a load more Social interaction into the app. While I often think such things can be overkill, they seem to have done it right. Yet another reason it stands out to me... good work guys.

It's been awhile since I visited the miniature works of Lori Nix. This image was so compelling when I saw it a few years ago I've never forgotten it - the dystopian future library is compelling, depressing, fascinating and absolutely miniature in every way. Her latest completed set of works - The City - takes her prior work to an entirely new level. Every one of the new worlds created is on par with that image of the library - dilapidated studies, ravaged laundromats, etc. etc. Each and every one is worth poring over - and imaging the process of building something like this is mind boggling.

Reminder via FCD.

According to this teaser it looks like Grain & Gram have another piece launching this year featuring yet another fine craftsman. And, as a bonus, the music was provided by previously featured pal Greg Perkins. Looking forward to it...

Hopefully I've got one more Friday Video compilation left for the year and then off to break for a little bit. But that's next week - neither here nor there at the time being - so enjoy the playlist for now!

• Fried Gnocchi - the laugh this guy gives is perfection. Wait for it...
• Filmography 2010 - probably the best compilation of films from the past year you will see. Also possibly the only compilation you will see because it's an insane amount of work but worth it.. super impressive.
• Bagger 288 - starts out terrible and then explodes into such a bizarre pace that you can't even imagine it. Even having told you that it's going to get wacky, you have no idea what's in store. via Jamie.
• Not You - Not You, Not You, Not You, Not You, Not You.
• Not In Kansas Anymore - compilation of this line being used, over used and completely abused (pardon the terrible rhyme). It is astounding this has been done so often and even more ridiculous that someone was able to compile so many together.
• Bobby Conn - Never Get Ahead - I think this is probably old news to everyone else but this performance by Bobby Conn is legendary - the best / worst lip syncing ever combined with some equally impressive hair and awkward dance moves. Bobby Conn wins.
• Christmas Trololo - while I am pleased to see the Trololo guy get his wish and have his bizarre song spread throughout the world I wish it would be done in a manner not quite as terrifying as this. Innocent enough but nightmare fodder in its own special way. via Zach.

Have a great weekend!

It's tough to encapsulate the allure of Timba Smits in one image (or even a few). Everything from the original illustrations, the fantastic use of type, the color schemes and the logo treatments are top notch. He also publishes Wooden Toy Quarterly; "the only quarterly boogazine (half book half magazine) that comes out once per year." Loads to see, dive right in.

via Madrid.

The inquiry of "What would your last meal be if you were on Death Row?" is a classic amongst friends; which is what makes this Julia Ziegler-Haynes photography undertaking that much more engaging. She recreates last meals as requested from actual Death Row inmates and photographs them on extremely vivid backgrounds - an odd counterpoint to the subject matter at hand. You can check out this limited slideshow for a sampling of the project. The photos are nice but there's an underlying creepy vibe when you remember their original intent.