The Hollywood sign

Did you know that the Hollywood sign was originally built to advertise a housing development called “Hollywoodland” in the eary twenties? I didn’t!

Iggy Pop concert rider

As if you need another reason to love Iggy Pop, the veteran rocker (and his band The Stooges) have the single most entertaining concert rider TSG has ever obtained. The document–all 18 pages of which you’ll find below–describes Iggy’s requirements in terms of amplifiers, security, lighting, stage set up, and dressing rooms. But unlike most similar documents, Iggy’s rider is written in a rollicking, stream-of-consciousness fashion that delivers multiple laughs per page. Apparently written by roadie Jos Grain, the Iggy rider is peppered with witty gems, tasteless asides, and typos. For example, in describing how Iggy’s dressing room should be made to “look less like a typical rock & roll dressing room,” the rider suggests that promoters “just let someone loose with a little bit of artistic flair…Er, do you know any homosexuals?” Explaining the need for two heavy duty fans, Grain notes, “So that I can wear a scarf and pretend to be in a Bon Jovi video.” Also, don’t miss the backstage requirements of a Bob Hope impersonator and “a copy of USA Today that’s got a story about morbidly obese people in it. Most amusing!”

Sizer

Sizer is a handy little Windows app for web developers that lets you resize any window to defined sizes, using a variety of methods.

Single Sign On. Again.

The title is cynical because, let’s be honest, SSO’s been done before; however I think Yahoo probably has a better chance of succeeding than Microsoft or Sun. Either way, it’s great to see Yahoo continuing to embrace open source and open ideas with BBAuth.

I still think YUI is the best documented Javascript UI library out there; although I have to confess I’ve moved to jQuery now for ease-of-use and speed.

19yo Diebold Technician Wins Presidency

19 Year Old Diebold Technician Wins U.S. Presidency
In a dramatic development that has come as a surprise to pundits and the public alike, a youthful technician with Diebold, Inc. has emerged as the unlikely winner of the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. The president-elect, 19 year old Billy Pustule of Green, Ohio, reached via SMS at the garage apartment by his mother’s house in which he currently resides, said he was “real psyched about being the president” and “had big plans for the inauguration party”.

Space heaters make great house-warming gifts

Ajaxy Yahoo Mail has an interface very like thick mail clients, including To and Cc field labels that double as buttons that bring up the address book. Instead of copying the thick client pattern of a static label for the Subject though, they included another button, which makes it look nice and uniform; and it works, giving you a random subject every time you click it. And that is why this post is titled as it is. I just thought it was f*cking funny, as Denis Leary would say.

Well worth trying if you haven’t played with it already btw, particularly if you still lean towards thick clients. It’s very close to Outlook, in fact I’d go so far as to say that it’s probably better. Yahoo’s UI guys are very good.

The 400 Richest Americans

No millionaires left in the Forbes 400 I’m afraid, these days you have to be a billionaire to make the de facto rich list. I remain befuddled as to why anyone in their right mind would want or need to accrue that amount of money. It’s disgusting.