PopArtMachine - free image search, covers Library of Congress collection

This is neato!

"Pop Art Machine is a CGI library that collects, curates and creates works of art. Our focus is the study of digital printmaking using public image sources as inspiration. Here you will find over 1,000,000 source images and countless finished prints side by side with the methodologies used to create."

As they put it over on boing boing:

"I found the photo via Pop Art Machine, which somehow has linked into the Library of Congress image database. The image search function through Pop Art Machine (I’m not sure what it’s really supposed to be for) is often better than the LOC search page."

Post-keynote thoughts on 3G iPhone

Mind y0u, I haven't actually seen the keynote yet, just read the coverage on Engadget and MacRumors.

So Mel & I won't be going to get his & hers iPhones tomorrow. We'll have to think of something else to do on my vacation day. (The boys will both be at their respective schools.) We won't even be getting them on July 11 -- we're going to be on vacation and we fly back to Seattle on the 12th, and arrive at Seatac too late to make it to the Apple store before it closes.

A few things are sticking out in my mind:

It's late! Yeah, I know, how can it be late, no date was announced before today - but why did AT&T put a vacation blackout on their stores from mid-June to mid-July if it wasn't supposed to come out now? Until we find out for sure, I'm going to assume the goal was to get it in stores in mid-June, but the date slipped. Still I wonder - what were all those mysterious brown boxes?

No 32gb option: bummer! I had a 30gb iPod, and it wasn't big enough for me - and that wasn't even a video model! I would've gladly paid $499 for a 32gb iPhone 3G. I have an 8gb Sansa e280r now and it's really not enough room for me. (I will probably keep using the Sansa so I can get 'all I can eat' music on Rhapsody To Go, at least for checking out new stuff)

No online purchases: confusing! When I heard they wouldn't go on sale for a while I figured I'd just order online. But they're not for sale on the Apple Store yet! I don't get this one at all. Unless... umm... they don't have much supply? They want to make people go to a brick & mortar store? I wonder if people buy more accessories from Apple if they go to a store vs. online, or they are more likely to also switch from PC to Mac if they go to a store? That's only wacky conspiracy theory though. I really can't think of a valid reason for this. (Ooh, looks like it might have to do with new rules requiring in-store activation -- intended to cut down on people buying iPhones to use on different carriers.)

No videochat: bummer! This would've been sweet for me to use to say hi to Mel & the boys while on business trips.

Price cuts, 3G, GPS and 3rd party software: sweet, sweet sweet!

No update or price cut for iPod Touch: wierd! Who the heck would buy an iPod Touch when an iPhone 3g with the same capacity costs $100 LESS? Yes, it is no longer possible to buy an iPhone 3G and not activate it, but still, something is seriously wrong here. Look at the prices:

8gb iPhone 3G: $199. 8gb iPod Touch: $299

16gb iPhone 3G: $299. 16gb iPod Touch: $399

Normally I'd guess that Apple ran out of iPhone 1.0 stock before they ran out of iPod Touch 1.0 stock - but why not cut the price to move the rest of the stock? This must be seen as yet more evidence that AT&T (in the US at least) is subsidizing the cost of the iPhone 3G.

Neil Gaiman on bipedal animals

Neil (author/creator of a ton of wonderful things, including Sandman, Stardust, and American Gods) wrote this to go along with a picture he snapped from his kitchen window, and it made me laugh in my coffee cup.

I took this yesterday from the kitchen window. As a small child, I was convinced that all animals walked around on their hind legs when we couldn't see them, and spoke fluent English; sometimes they wore clothes and probably drove really tiny, brightly-coloured cars down hidden streets between the bushes. This raccoon did nothing to disabuse me of the idea: