In 1997, a new search engine calling itself AskJeeves was introduced to the internet. The website had adopted Jeeves, a character from the stories of P.G. Wodehouse, as a sort of mascot – seemingly the ideal symbol for a search engine. Like Sherlock Holmes or Dumbledore, Jeeves is one of those literary characters whose wisdom never fails.

“Here he was, with his head bulging at the back and on his face that look of quiet intelligence that comes from eating lots of fish,” Wodehouse writes in his novel Carry on, Jeeves. “I knew from experience what a wizard he was at removing the oppressed from the soup.”

However, upon closer inspection, the company’s use of Jeeves is anything but obvious. How many people nowadays read Wodehouse? How many have even heard of him? But according to Patrick Crisp, the Director of Public Relations for Ask.com, Jeeves’ genius side was never the real point.

(more…)

Ask anyone associated with traditional, British mod culture, and they will tell you that when it comes to scooters, there are two iconic designs. If you wanted to be a mod, you simply had to ride a proper scooter. While the Vespa has been experiencing a surge in popularity following the reintroduction of the scooters to the US market, the other scooter has been sadly absent … all of this is about to change, however, with the reintroduction of the Lambretta motor scooter to the United States. (more…)

A in-depth retrospective complete with the history and evolution of the Mac - complete with posters!

Visit the site

Oh yes, the world has been waiting for yet another MySpace rip off (or I should say, Friendster rip off as MySpace was indeed a rip off of the original Friendster). This time, it’s Wallup.com - an old idea with a new twist: Good UI design. Or maybe not. As it is currently in beta, we have no way of seeing the actual interface in action. Others have tried to develop large database driven Flash environments and most have failed due to bandwidth, browser/platform and integration issues. In a way, I do give props to these guys for attempting to create a SN site where actual thought is put into the design, however MySpace’s severe lack of design fortitude obviously has had zero impact on their success.

Nathan True has built what he calls a “Time Manipulation Fountain” or “Backwards in Time Fountain”. Whatever you want to call it, it is a beautiful demonstration of technical ingenuity and installation art. He used a battery powered fountain combined with florescent ink and strobing LEDs to display the effect of time with water. The strobes can be set at different intervals to create faster/slower or even “Backwards” time.

View the video and DIY instructions