A few technical links / ponderings for your consideration:

• HipHop for PHP - Facebook developers have released an open source project for PHP that compiles the code directly into C++ before running; making execution times and CPU stress much improved. It's about the worst name you could give a project but the idea behind it is rather appealing.
• Last.FM Recommended Radio in iTunes - why does this require a hack-y Python script? Why is there no standard M3U stream to snag? Anyone have insight on this?

I've always had the utmost respect for Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson. He created, in my opinion, the greatest / most timeless comic strip known to man and he never tainted the experience by licensing their likeness for profit. In this interview he speaks to what life is like for him after 15 years of the strip being done; and 10 years of not really taking any interviews. It's a rather short piece but this struck a chord with me:

It's always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip's popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now "grieving" for "Calvin and Hobbes" would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I'd be agreeing with them.

I think some of the reason "Calvin and Hobbes" still finds an audience today is because I chose not to run the wheels off it.

Somehow I respect the man even more now than I already did.

It's been awhile since I've put up a mix of all the stuff I've been listening to lately and, turns out, a lot of that stuff is the same adorned goods that most of the Internets are digging. Thats to say, there's not a ton of obscure stuff on here - this ended up being a collection of recent heavy hitting indies mixed in with some other goods I've been enjoying.

It should also be noted that I intentionally put Phantogram and Beach House next to each other because I am personally convinced that the Phantogram album is superior to Beach House, despite not getting anywhere near the same press. It's more diverse in its execution but similar in style. Both are great but I wish Phantogram would get the credit it deserves.

Please don't let the presence of so many familiar names get in the way of enjoying the mix as a whole - it's a nice balance of familiarity and newness. I hope you enjoy.

→ Download 'The Grip' Mix

Retronaut has, among many other intriguing items, a small series of photos taken in 1940's London with color Kodachrome film. The Picadilly Circus images are particularly worthy of note.

Really enjoying the portrait work from Elizabeth Weinberg. There are a few familiar faces in the mix and every image properly tells a story (love the Jeff Barnett-Winsby shot.. go find it).

Also spend some time with the other portions of the site - Musicians, Lifestyle, Reportage, etc... lots of goodness to see throughout.

Via Jeremy.

Out of Print celebrates the world’s great stories through fashion. Our shirts feature iconic and often out of print book covers. Some are classics, some are just curious enough to make great t-shirts, but all are striking works of art.

It's unclear why these Book T-Shirts are so alluring but there is no denying it, they absolutely are. It's probably a bit unfortunate that my favorite is not a book I've actually read but there are plenty of other candidates worthy of note and possible purchase.

I have been remiss in not informing you of the blog of my friend Jed Sundwall. His site has a clean design that is pleasing to the eye but it's the content that's really worth your while. Every time he posts something new I find myself bouncing around the archives finding plenty of amusing and educational content. And I guess that's the appeal for me - aside from being the personal blog of a friend - is that the text contains some actual substance and it's a pleasure to read.

Now that I've done the right thing and let you know about the site, it's up to you to carry the torch and keep up with it. You won't regret it.

Everything about this tour of Mike Tyson's abandoned mansion reminds me of the web back in the late 90's. The layout of the page, the subject matter and the questionable story behind it. Did this guy really go to Tyson's mansion and photo document it on his own? Was this even Tyson's house? I choose to believe so and feel quite entertained after giving it a good browsing.

After some aggravated frustration with Photoshop picking up on my mouse movements as "gestures" that I never intended I decided to take action - I googled a solution. Turns out I'm not the only person that doesn't want to activate the "Rotate View Tool" accidentally. Adobe has a Disable Trackpad Gestures Plugin that has already made my experience working exclusively on the laptop (no external mouse) much more serene.

It's Friday! It's snowing here and I'm looking forward to a low key weekend. I hope you are too.. Here's the playlist:

• Bear vs Cat - I am an absolute sucker for stuff like this. Deal with it.
• Videogame Skateboarding Dog - so dumb / fake but the Big Trick at the end is so worth it.
• How to Report the News - if you muted this, you'd think you were watching a real report, not a faux report on the language of a news report.
• Jeff Garlin in Local Commercial - why not use my brother in law!?
• Rethink Scholarship - not so much funny as it is an incredibly well done bit of animation.

BONUS GOODS:

• Funny or Die Presents... Trailer - some insight on that new HBO series.
• Hedgehog in the Fog - Chad recommended this 1975 animation to me and I've yet to watch it.. must remember to watch it.

Have a great one.

New single serving blog Unhappy Hipsters has been making the rounds and I suggest you partake. The images could be construed as humorous on their own but you really must read the captions in order to get the full effect - some hilariously great entries.

Via Arlo and several others.

• The Increasingly Poor Decisions Todd Margaret Picked Up - if you haven't seen the clips from the pilot, I'd suggest watching them immediately.. so you can be completely excited about the full six episode series coming up.
• HBO Series: Funny or Die Presents.. - new series coming in February featuring a bunch of videos from the slew of great teams at funnyordie.com. Looks like it could be good...

So, by now, everyone has formed their opinion on the new Apple tablet device - iPad. The general consensus is that is an awful name and that it really seems like an oversized iPod Touch. These things are not easy to disagree with. However, I bring the following to the table for your consideration.. please investigate each fully and think about them properly.

• Original iPod Reactions - a thread from 2001 showcasing reactions to the original iPod. The sentiments are, for the most part, almost identical to what you are hearing now.
• I Need To Talk To You About Computers - an incredible writeup talking about the Old World of computing (wide open Windows, Mac, Linux boxes) vs The New World of computing (less multitasking, higher stability). It really is one of the best reads I've seen on the whole topic as it goes well beyond just the iPad.
• Barack Obama is Your New iPad - a quick writeup pointing out the absurdity of hope invested in this device. This sentence nails it: "Everyone was able to project their own fantasies and aspirations on a product with which they were mostly unfamiliar, only to sour on it once they realized that it did not live up to their impossible expectations."
• Free Publicity: Who do we help? - this one is less about the iPad itself and more about where our priorities lie. The author makes a myriad of fantastic points about how we give Apple massive amounts of free publicity by constantly writing about their products but only invest about 1% of that energy into our involvement with politics.

Is the device lacking features? Is it absurd that it doesn't have a camera? Is it frustrating that the walled off system that Apple has established is just being more and more accepted? Yes to all of the above. However, I don't think the device is "the next Cube" (or more appropriately, the "the next Macbook Air") but I do think it will take some time before it comes clear exactly how such a thing might fit into your life. I'm certainly not rushing out to buy one when they become available but I'm keeping an open mind.

It is entirely possible, and bear with me on this one, that you might not need this and maybe that's why it seems so frustrating.

It took me a minute after the onslaught of the last Best Of entry to get together enough new music to constitute a podcast worthy of download but I think this holds up pretty well. I managed to find a few new bands around town I'd not heard of and a couple that always seem to deliver something great. So, by all means, please go download Volume 31 of the We Own This Town podcast or stream it with the widget above.

• Download MP3
• Download Enhanced M4A (Chapter stops, artwork, etc).

Hope you enjoy!

Tyler Thompson has posted an interesting design problem regarding airline boarding passes - and the possibility of completely redesigning them. His argument is that the most needed information is usually quite difficult to glean from the airport issues passes and I can't imagine anyone disagreeing. I often have to stare at a boarding pass for a little while to figure out exactly what gate I should be going to, what flight number I should be looking for and exactly when boarding will begin. His (and many others) proposed solutions run a wide range of style - from the impossibly expensive to passably believable. It's certainly worth taking a look at and seeing if you'd prefer such a solution or not.

A few tidbits of the web worth taking note of:

• Hype Tumblr - Hype Machine has themselves a Tumblr now and the onslaught of music they post is almost too much to keep up with.. almost.
• Google Voice Web App - what do you do when Apple won't approve your App Store software? Make a web version that pretty much does the same thing. Granted, it's not making calls through the web (it's really a callback / connection service) but it's a helluva way to get around using your minutes.
• The House Behind the House - a pretty fantastic tale of a family buying a home in Mendocino and discovering an unknown house behind their property.. complete with crazy creepy hobo. Typically I'd say this is 100% faked out web fiction but there's a believability to it that turns on my Willful Ignorance switch so I may enjoy it entirely.

The work of Parliament is quite nice but I must admit that I'm pretty smitten with the design of their Headquarters. The office is spacious, well designed and has an excellent bit of uniqueness to it with the firewood walls. Be sure to click through all seven sets of images to get a firm grasp on how nice it is. Then click around the rest of the site; as it's a well designed beaut in its own right.

Them Thangs has returned with a new domain, a slightly different design and all of the same great content. If you are unfamiliar with this site be forewarned that it's heavy on the NSFW imagery. I don't know where this myriad of inspiring images come from but I am glad that someone's got a lock on them and is willing to put them out there in a stream of conciousness style.

The work of Clementine Derodit is, typically, very cute. This is not a bad thing. However, it does force you to take a moments pause when you see something like these portraits that delve into a less cute (but still cute) type of work. I'm a sucker for animals in human clothing.. mix that with some vibrant coloration and I'm sold!

Via Honor Student.