In the fun department: Banner ads we'd like to see. And: More banner ads we'd like to see. [JD's New Media Musings]

Fantastic article on the process by which Apple used in-house and external contractors to design, build and manufacture the iPod.

"The value is putting it all together and optimizing the design to eke out the best performance, get the best power utilization, the best audio performance," says Wolfson's Hayes. "That is not a trivial task by any means. Sometimes it's very difficult in a cost constrained [situation] and small form factor to get the performance." Factors that can influence the final sound can be the circuit board layout, the circuit design itself, the handling of the power supply and the overall implementation.

[boing boing blog]

Optimal Rock-Paper-Scissors software. It turns out that Rock-Paper-Scissors has strategy! A programming contest demonstrates that there are optimal, non-random strategies that involve anticipating your opponents (provided that they, too are engaged in optimal, non-random strategies that etc...)

Dan has written an incredibly strong Rock-Paper-Scissors program, which simply dominated every aspect of the competition. Of the 25 independent tournaments run for the Open Competition, Iocaine Powder won ALL of them. In the six sets of 25 tournaments conducted for the "Best of the Best" competition, Iocaine Powder finished first every time.

In many ways, Dan's program is a generation ahead of it's time. I believe it would have been a worthy winner of the second RoShamBo competition, after all the lessons had been learned and ideas shared from the first set of tournaments. By co-operating with his fellow alumni from Caltech, he greatly improved on a previous version of the program which was already strong enough to win the competition!

[Boing Boing Blog]

Great collection of Emigré schwag, magazines and postcards for sale on eBay.

There are over 50 pieces in this collection, and they do NOT have any mailing labels on them. Use them as inspiration for your next design project, learn from the innovative typographic and design styles, or just plaster them up all over your cubicle to say, "Hey, I'm in the design elite." Quite a lovely find, and they smell good too (kind of like an old person's house.)

[Boing Boing Blog]