Link Drop Contextd for the Week Ending in Friday the 9th (January 2009)

I’m ending Link Drop as I know it and starting Link Drop Contextd. I’ve experimented enough with grabbing interesting stuff and pulling the first couple lines from the site to give a feel for what you could expect if clicked on it. It was the easy way out. All those previous links were there for a reason, I just didn’t bother mentioning why. I’ve asked people in the past about what they thought of the Link Drop. For the most part its been positive, though it seemed liked I was missing an element of why people bothered checking out my blog in the first place – my voice. So I’m continuing the experiment by placing everything in context. Hopefully you get more out of it.

After seeing the less than exciting Apple Keynote presentation that I felt lacked vision into the not so distant future, it was Dell that kind of excited me w/ their 12” laptops which makes this post about Intel all the more interesting in Here Come The 12 Inch Netbooks, And Intel Isn’t Happy About It. And what’s up with iTunes Variable Pricing?

Where has i [love] marketing. been hiding? I only came across the blog a couple days ago via my google alerts. Once I started going through it there were quite a few posts that I wanted to save to delicious. I kind of liked this post talking about an alternative to Nike+ titled introducing healthy competition. is Nike+ bound to become a runner up?

The design geek in me has always been fascinated by street signs and their systems. Steve Portigal posts about Street sign information hierarchy where practical and more interesting info can go hand in hand.

I was happy to see the Bush Bash site get off the ground after Lindsay Ballant described it to me over lunch a couple weeks ago. I really like the use of the downloadable vector templates located in the downloads part of the site under “Make your own poster”.

A designer took it upon himself to redesign this book cover under the post The type on Annie Leibovitz’s new book is total bullsh*t.

There’s been some interesting discussion going on now that Innovation is out and Transformation is in. Especially over here, too bad it’s private at the moment. Here’s a public post titled Innovation, Transformation, Therapy, Practice.

I think Russell Davies might be on to something when he talks about the right size relating to espresso cups and mini discs. Do they fit into some sort of golden proportion?

While most people are sad that JPG magazine ceased to exist for the time being, JPG Magazine Can’t Stay Afloat with Inexpensive User Generated Content makes an interesting argument. “”Do we inspire our readers with content where they can say “I could do that” or do we give them aspirational content so they say “I wish I could do that.”

And if you are one of those people that are sad, here’s all the Downloads Archives.

Did you know there’s a U.S. National Design Policy Initiative? I didn’t. Here’s 10 Design Policy Proposals.

I’m still not tired of Helvetica but in case you are FontFeed can help with Helvetica and Alternatives to Helvetica.

And on the opposite end of Helvetica there’s graffiti tags. Taxonomy compares letter forms from various graffiti tags explains just that.

What’s going on in Gaza is pretty ugly no matter what side you’re on. Mashable has a post HOW TO: Track the Israel Gaza Conflict Using Social Media that helps you find info about what’s going on. And here’s the problem with Israel-Palestine blogging.

If everyone is a designer, Who Isn’t A New Media Strategist?

Here’s a primer on the 4 Fields of Industrial Design: (No, not furniture, trans, consumer electronics, & toys), by Bruce M. Tharp and Stephanie M. Tharp.

Do you make wireframes? If so you might want to check out Wireframes Magazine.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Jay–Z, who knew that all it would take is combining Radiohead with Mr. Z to make the music more interesting. It’s called Jaydiohead.

Spend five minutes skimming through the World Question Center 2009 and you’ll feel a bit smarter about things.

You print people might want to consider something other than paper as Nieman Reports: ‘Journalism’s Digital Future’.

But paper people don’t fret. It might take a bit longer for digital to catch up to how great book covers look like at the Book Cover Archive proves.

And last for this Link Drop Contextd is My visit to American Apparel.

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