Itchy Robot Witty Saying Goes Here.
GMH
Authors TB (9)
JFB (524)
CNE (257)
ES (6)
SMF (29)
HMK (132)
GMH (262)
KC (0)
RAM (1)
MZ (1)
Archives Advertising (18)
Art (49)
Books (14)
Carnegie Mellon (21)
Culture (108)
Design (64)
Film (39)
Humor (96)
Innovation (42)
Itches (36)
Itchy Robot (13)
Lincoln (11)
Magazines (5)
Miscellaneous (138)
Music (134)
People (151)
Places (21)
Politics (27)
Products (11)
Robots (51)
Street Art (1)
Technology (54)
Television (33)
The Web (71)
Typography (28)
War (8)
Settings
Notes
What kind of genius are you?
By GMH, Archived in Culture



Ze Frank's The Show, thinking so you don't have to (this is the best thing I've seen in a long time).
By GMH, Archived in Humor



A nice animated music video by Eugene and Louise
By GMH, Archived in Film



Two new videos for the new Smog album, and two more for the Silver Jews album.
By GMH, Archived in Music



Sleepless in DUM DUM DUMMMMMM Seattle
By GMH, Archived in Film



Cats.   In.   Sinks.
By GMH, Archived in The Web



Ladies and Gentlemen, The Tables Have Turned. (Sorry, I had to turn off comments. Spammers were hitting the site so hard I was getting warnings from my hosting company.).
By GMH, Archived in Itchy Robot



Kills Giants Dead™
By GMH, Archived in Humor



New Silver Jews record Tanglewood Numbers due out in October.
By GMH, Archived in Music



FINISHED (enlarged view)
By GMH, Archived in Humor, The Abominable Mister Pants



I live in number 90, used to live in number in number 115 and work in number 91 (and everyday I take the train through numbers 1 and 40). The 150 most expensive ZIP codes in the country.
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous



Creature Co-op Dance Party!
By GMH, Archived in Music


Metro logos rock.
By GMH, Archived in Design, Kottke



Oh Boy! That tickles. NSFW
By GMH, Archived in Humor, Via BB



Ladies and Gentlemen, that right there is the 1,000th Found Type photo here on Itchy Robot. Whoo Hoo!

So many letters, so little time.
By GMH, Archived in Itchy Robot



One says of ones cat: my cat is the best; he is not like all the other cats; he has a personality. I do not say these things about Abraham Lincoln.
By GMH, Archived in Lincoln



Mansfield Ohio is the newest home of the world oldest robot, Elektro.
By GMH, Archived in Robots, Via /.



Which Colossal Death Robot Are You?
I'm Gigantor. Bigger than big. Stronger than strong.
By GMH, Archived in Robots



Paul Ford's My Three Favorite Computer Games of 2004, including Will Oldham's Adventure as Best Role Playing Game.
By GMH, Archived in Humor



Squirrel vs. Penguin, The Duel.
By GMH, Archived in The Web



The NYT finds [misspelled] typography.
By GMH, Archived in Typography, Sucky registration required


The Bear. He is lonely. But he finds some Donald Judd and all is OK.
By GMH, Archived in Art



What happens when cartoon characters die.
By GMH, Archived in Art



CMU student geeks out as he wins on Jeopardy!.
By GMH, Archived in Carnegie Mellon, Via BB



Best jack-o-lantern ever.
By GMH, Archived in Politics



Poop Valhalla. Triumph visits the Spin Room.
By GMH, Archived in Politics



Tune in Tokyo Karl Rove
By GMH, Archived in Politics



Due to CNE's complaining I've made a couple of changes to the categories: There's now Politics, War and Products categories. California has changed to Places (there were more posts about Pittsburgh than California). Industrial Design, Graphic Design and Interaction Design are now simply Design. I've also moved the Street Art posts into Art. And sadly the Westinghouse category is no longer, one post over two and a half years just didn't cut it.
By GMH, Archived in Itchy Robot



Terrist-terrist-terrist-terrist. Clips from the GOP convention. Kind of old, but still creepy.
By GMH, Archived in War



Here's why American commercials suck.
By GMH, Archived in Television



The days of our robot overlords grow ever near (and only $4,500 for your very own!). Heeeeeya!
By GMH, Archived in Robots



CMU engineers build a Jesus-bot (water2wine module still under development).
By GMH, Archived in Carnegie Mellon



Lincoln, or not Lincoln? You decide!
By GMH, Archived in Lincoln



"The cool cowboy flicks his cigarette butt into the street. But he lives in an old movie" and other Japanese smoking notices.
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous, Via The Lost City of Cardhouse



ROCK!
By GMH, Archived in Humor, Via WR



Hello ... smog.
By GMH, Archived in Design



Go Rummy! Go!
By GMH, Archived in People



The New York Times has an article about the resurrection of Family Guy. Not only is it coming back (thanks to strong DVD sales and Cartoon Network ratings), but it is being joined by another show called "American Dad" about a conservative CIA agent.
By GMH, Archived in Television



The NY Times has a short article about the amazing Jane Jacobs, author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities and more recently Dark Age Ahead.
By GMH, Archived in Books



Mr. Vice-President! Tsk. tsk. tsk.
By GMH, Archived in People



ROBOTS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!!!
By GMH, Archived in Robots, Via Gizmodo



A letter from Sir Archibald Clerk Kerr, H.M. Ambassador in Moscow, 6th April 1943.
By GMH, Archived in Itches



Ladies and Gentlemen, a new magazine from Aesthetic Apparatus, looks like a collision of music and design, Minneapolis style. The limited edition of 1000 has a screen printed cover, a 12" record, rock interviews (including Bob Pollard and Jay Ryan), and tons of other stuff.
By GMH, Archived in Magazines



He's the president, and he can clean his glasses on whoever the hell he wants to.
By GMH, Archived in People



Tuesday: Bechtel reports highest profits ever
Wednesday: Whitehouse set to ask for $4 Billion more
By GMH, Archived in Culture



Listen Man — What part of "Democracy Freedom Stay the Course Terror Terror" don't you understand?
By GMH, Archived in Humor



The White Ninja gets bunny slippers.
By GMH, Archived in Humor


Who needs The Grey Album when you've got The Slack Album, a mix of Jay-Z's The Black Album and Pavement's Slanted and Enchanted.
By GMH, Archived in Music



Clinton. Cosby. Gates.
By GMH, Archived in Art, Via LF



LemurBots, The League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots. Slightly creepy noisy robots.
By GMH, Archived in Robots, Thanks Mr. Schwartz (see previous post)



CMU Geek creates home-made SteadyCam (the thing that keeps the camera still in those big budget blockbusters). The page even has some super-steady footage of geeks playing sports.
By GMH, Archived in Carnegie Mellon, Via BB



"Cool looking posters for Ready.gov all over New York City, check."
Apparently Ready.gov has been pasting some posters around New York reminding people how to prepare for a terrorist attack. Witold Riedel (a recent favorite blog, and another guy who draws like a maniac) has created a template so you can make your own, like so:

By GMH, Archived in Advertising


Such pretty drawings. Biro-web
By GMH, Archived in Art, Via typographica



Turn your iPod into a pet! There's some robot stuff in there too.
By GMH, Archived in Technology, Via BB



"Uh, yeah. Thanks guys, but..."
Al Qaeda endorses Bush.
By GMH, Archived in People, Via And Then...



1984, 2004, same thing
By GMH, Archived in Advertising, NYT reg. req.



Moog the Movie. Coming to a theatre near you. I bet it'll be bigger than Jesus.
By GMH, Archived in Music


Death by iPod
By GMH, Archived in Technology, yes, it's fake



Note to self: Don't try to use novelty one million dollar bill at Wal-Mart.
By GMH, Archived in People



The found type of Disneyland.
By GMH, Archived in Typography, Via Typographica



If your cursor ever asks where baby cursors come from, just show it this.
By GMH, Archived in Art



Ch-ch-check-it out. An all new Itchy Robot! Well, all new except for all of the old content, but you know what I mean. It features Flip-Out Comments , author pages and some cleaned-up JavaScript and CSS. Titles are set in Christian Schwartz's fancy-ass typeface Amplitude.
Most things seem to work in most browsers, although the comment "remember info" option seems to only work in Safari right now. If you notice anything else send me a note.
By GMH, Archived in Itchy Robot



Hey You! Don't Copy That Floppy!!!
By GMH, Archived in Technology



Happy Birthday Lincoln!
By GMH, Archived in Lincoln



Hmm, sorry about all the unfunctionallity over there. I think I may have overused my MySQL usage for the billing cycle. Thanks to Memepool for the link though.
Strange, it all seems to be fixed now. Maybe because I payed my bill. Maybe not.
By GMH, Archived in Itchy Robot



Quotes from either President of the United States George W. Bush or Senator/Chancellor/Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars movies from McSweeney's.
By GMH, Archived in Humor, Via Kottke



I made a picture, wanna see it, here it goes:

shooooes


By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous



Check this out:
Because "clean" people wipe up so much, they often end up spreading bacteria all over the place. The cleanest kitchens, he said, were in the homes of bachelors, who never wiped up and just put their dirty dishes in the sink.
I always knew that that pile of dishes was good for something.
By GMH, Archived in People, Yeah, registration required.
Via TMN



Now even the kids can enjoy a few rounds of Russian Roulette!!
By GMH, Archived in Culture



Crazy! Danish scientists genetically modify flowers to change colors when they grow near land mines.
By GMH, Archived in Innovation



Remember that anti-Bush ad contest that MoveOn sponsored, the winner of which was supposed to air during the superbowl? Well, CBS has refused to air it.
By GMH, Archived in People



Wazoo?! Found Typography is one of today's "New and Notable Sites" at Yahoo!.
By GMH, Archived in Itchy Robot



Get your Mars on.
By GMH, Archived in Humor, Via BB


WTF? After cancelling and postponing several Heathrow to Dulles flights due to security concerns, the TSA lets a Sudanese man get past Dulles security with five bullets in his coat pocket. Don't you feel safer?
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous, NYT Registration Required Yadda Yadda



No no, don't cut my hot dog!! Oh, phew, you've got the new SawStop Brand Table Saw.
By GMH, Archived in Innovation


Mr. Pants is back! Mr. Pants is back! Holy Shit, Mr. Pants is back!
By GMH, Archived in The Web



Mr. Picassohead!
Here's mine. I call him "Le Frenchman."
By GMH, Archived in Art, Via BB



"American Hammer surrounded by Potential Victims" and other treats from Cardhouse.com's scrupulous review of the Arizona State Fair.
By GMH, Archived in Culture



Cool! Design yourself a police car!
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous, Via BB



As the astute among you may have noticed, I've updated the Found Type page a bit. It now shows just 25 thumbnails at a time, which means the page should load much faster (500 images was a bit much, no). It also has a text description of where the picture was taken (If I could remember), and occasionally a note saying something silly. The little foundtype thing to the left now shows the location as well. Enjoy y'all!
I haven't tried it on a Windows machine, so if there are any problems, email me. I know it looks like shite in Netscape 4.7, then you are smarter than that, aren't you?
By GMH, Archived in Itchy Robot



Welcome to the Geektrix.
By GMH, Archived in Humor



The Knowledge for Thirst, a beverage-centric website operated by two gentlemen who really enjoy juices and sodas.
Yes, yes they do enjoy them very much.
By GMH, Archived in Humor



Senator Trent Lott says the situation in Iraq is "…a little tougher than I thought it was going to be." But that's ok, at least he has a plan: "If we have to, we just mow the whole place down, see what happens."
By GMH, Archived in People


FIGHT BACK!
By GMH, Archived in People, Thanks Jevaun



Now that you know how to ask for a raise, and those elevator shoes got you some extra cash, go out a get yourself a nice dinner at one of them fancy restaurants. But before you go, just make sure that you know how to dine properly.
By GMH, Archived in Culture, Via S vs. N


Sucks to be short! Tall people make more money, an average of $789 per inch per year.
By GMH, Archived in Culture, Via /.



Um, remember last year, when I won that T-Shirt design contest? Well, uh, I did it again, except this time it was the official Judges' Choice instead of the Popular Vote. Here's what it looks like:

Two's Company

By GMH, Archived in Typography



Oh. Crap. The Kindergarten Cop is our governor. Oh. Crap.
By GMH, Archived in Places



Proof! Fox News makes you stupid!
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous, Via Be



Engrish in Reverse or How I Learned to Love My Crappy Tattoo.
By GMH, Archived in Typography



Well, lookie thar. Joe Kral has finally released his personal site, joekral.org, chock full for graphic goodness (including at least as much Found Type as we have right here). It also has some nice photographs of Joe's massive book and magazine collection.
By GMH, Archived in People



Holy crap, Time's latest "Next Big Thing" issue has an article about Spoon called These Guys Just Might Be Your New Favorite Band.
By GMH, Archived in Music



JFB posted something about this a while back. Toynbee Tiles are strange plactic resin tiles embedded into streets around the eastern US. They each say "TOYNBEE IDEA IN KubricK's `2001 RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPiTER." The Kansas City Star has a recent article exploring the phenomenon. but what does it all mean?
By GMH, Archived in Art, Via Slashdot



What I did on My Summer Vacatation by Kevin Fanning and illustrated by Reuben Stanton.
By GMH, Archived in People



Note to self: Don't fly plane through golf-ball-sized hail storm.
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous, Via BB



Pork Rinds Online. Serving all of your cyberpork needs.
By GMH, Archived in The Web



aw man, they totally stole my URL:
www.grahamforpresident.com
By GMH, Archived in People



Fotolog.net has an interesting little feature. Send a fax to 1.775.640.0148 and it will be posted here.
They say "We believe fax_machine is the quickest, easiest way to upload miscellaneous debris to the internet." So true.
Here's my fax.
There's a little more about it here
By GMH, Archived in The Web



Dooce hates Olive Garden, as we all should.
By GMH, Archived in Culture, Via Cardhouse


How much do you want to bet on the end of the "Information Awareness Office" once the general public finds out about this, the Pentagon's plan to let people bet on future terrorist attacks and assasinations of middle eastern leaders.
What do I win Mr. Poindexter?
By GMH, Archived in Culture



Finally! The medicine I've been waiting for. And maybe I'll take one of these, just in case. More here
By GMH, Archived in Humor



The Video Beatbox Sequencer
By GMH, Archived in Music



I think God sneezed.
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous



"I've seen it wink at me. That horse has probably winked like twice, one time before I met my ex-wife and another time before I ended up buying a car for a really good value."
Those old Rolling Rock commercials (Windows Media format) with Jim Gaffigan. There's more of his crazy commercials and stuff here.
By GMH, Archived in Advertising, Humor



mmmm. new meshy G5
By GMH, Archived in Design


Sony Interaction Laboratory has created a really nice interface/device called Gummi. It's controlled by bending an deforming the shape of the device, along with a couple of trackpads. Definitely watch the video. Another interesting interface, GeoVector's technology lets you interact with objects in the real world by pointing at them with a handheld.
By GMH, Archived in Design, That last one is via /.



Somebody made an oops.
By GMH, Archived in Technology



A little monster selling pies. A little monster selling lemonade. A little monster selling robots. You draw.
By GMH, Archived in Robots



Drainspotting "Manhole covers, drains, grates, trench covers--someone had to design all of these. Functional and ornamental, there's a lot of interesting stuff happening down by your feet."
By GMH, Archived in Culture, Via MeFi



Radio is now officially a dead medium.
By GMH, Archived in Music, Via /.



"A newspaper was sitting on the table. I folded it in half so that it would use up slightly less space, thereby freeing up an area on the table for other items."

Ladies and Gentlemen, The dullest blog in the world.
By GMH, Archived in The Web



Presstube is still completely insane.
By GMH, Archived in Design, Via k10k



ROBOTS!
By GMH, Archived in Robots



Jakob Nielsen Declares the Letter "C" Unusable
As always, he's right
By GMH, Archived in Humor, Via MeFi



So nice. Hektor is a spray paint robot printer artist thing.
By GMH, Archived in Robots


Ooooo new iPods, iTunes and the Music service that everyone predicted.
I can't say that I love the new iPod. Thinner is good, but rounding both sides kind of destroys the aesthetic and the four buttons across the top is just bad (at least make the outer edges line up with the screen). I never liked the touchpad "wheel" and buttons without any tactile feedback sounds like a usability nightmare.
The software sounds interesting though. The one thing that I have always wanted is the ability to create playlists on my iPod, which is now possible. The customizable menus sounds pretty interesting as well.
By GMH, Archived in Design, Innovation, Music, Technology



Western State No. 3 is up on Coudal, this time about Geoff McFetridge. It's better than No. 2, but not a good as No. 1. But then again, how can anything be better than No. 1, since it is, after all No. 1.
By GMH, Archived in Film



Finally, Family Guy on DVD!
By GMH, Archived in Television


Sweet! Too bad it doesn't snow in San Francisco.
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous



They caught the seven of diamonds! oh, oh! GIN!
By GMH, Archived in People



The latest weapon in this high-tech war: laser guided blocks of concrete
By GMH, Archived in Technology


mini bluetooth robots!
By GMH, Archived in Robots



Before shipping off to the Middle East a National Guardsman (from Ohio of course) changes his name to Optimus Prime.
By GMH, Archived in Robots, Via HipTop Nation



I so very much want to be in this band. The name alone would have women flocking. And the hair. the hair.
More insane Swiss Swedish [Thanks Peter] 70's bands here.
By GMH, Archived in Music, Via BB



My New Muffin Eating Technique is Unstoppable.
By GMH, Archived in Humor


I'm amazed that MSNBC seems to be the only major news site carrying this story: The FBI is looking into some of the "proof" that Iraq has a nuclear weapons program saying that it may be part of a foreign disinformation program to pit the U.S. against Iraq.
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous


There are some nice photographs by Marshall Sokoloff at The Morning News this morning. I especially like the disemboweled cable.
By GMH, Archived in Art


Don Johnson was caught trying to take a suitcase full of $8 Billion worth of stocks and bonds into Switzerland. What was Nash Bridges' reason for carrying so much money? "I was going to buy a car."
By GMH, Archived in Television



Of course, France, Russia, Pakistan, and China hate Bush, but even the church that the Bush belongs to thinks he's acting like a dolt. Hell, even his own father disagrees with him.
By GMH, Archived in Culture


Freedom Toast. This is what our Congress is wasting their time on. And Freedom Fries. Freedom Toast and Freedom Fries.
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous



Tired of having those pesky Nazis talk about you in that crazy babble "Enigma" code (I know they said something about my new tie-dye shirt, I just know it.). Well, why not just pick yourself up an authentic WWII Enigma machine on eBay? That'll teach em.
By GMH, Archived in Culture, Via BB



Just one more reason to want to move to Switzerland:
Zurich is named the best place to live in the whole wide world.
Not that I don't already live in the highest rated city in the U.S.
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous, Free NYT Registration Required



The very couch on the cover of the Silver Jews' album Bright Flight is now being auctioned off on eBay. Current price: $71
By GMH, Archived in Music



His Master's Voice is a "board game" created by an art collective called fur (creators of PainStation). Small spherical robots move randomly when they hear a certain muscial note. Watching the video of it in action is probably the best explanation. Very cool.
By GMH, Archived in Design


I wanna get me one of them 800mHz toasters.
By GMH, Archived in Technology, Via MeFi



Bush: "Size of protest -- it's like deciding, well, I'm going to decide policy based upon a focus group..."
God save us all.
Wait, God might be the problem in the first place.
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous, Thanks to tMN, of course



When Eameses Attack!
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous



OOOO, crazy japanese x-ray paper
By GMH, Archived in Innovation, Requires Quicktime



Want to see a crab get sucked into a 3mm slot while said slot is being cut into a pipe by an underwater robot? Well now you can.
By GMH, Archived in Robots, Via BB



Dude, you're getting community service
By GMH, Archived in People, Via MeFi



What's blacker than black? The new black, that's what. I guess that means black is the new black.
By GMH, Archived in Innovation



The I Don't Like Hard Things in Soft Things Manifesto from the always slightly insane Cardhouse
By GMH, Archived in Humor



"…the crowd can do nothing but scream in helpless laughter." Maybe more like scream in helpless terror (you know, run in terror from the midget riding the mutated zebra, of course).
By GMH, Archived in Humor



It's a truly magic bus.
By GMH, Archived in Design



What kind of polka do you like to polka?
Why, the Pittsburgh Steelers Polka polka.
POLKA!
Polka.
By GMH, Archived in Places, Thanks Ross MacPolka



Today's (and yesterday's) Test Pilot Collective First Page are by your truly.
By GMH, Archived in Design


Wi-Fi is geeky.
Theremins are extra-geeky.
But using your Wi-Fi card to turn your computer into a Theremin is just cool!
By GMH, Archived in Technology, Via BB



No this war isn't about oil … but we'll take it all anyway.
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous



Check it out, Hundreds of Thousands is up and running. It's a "wireless photolog." What the F does that mean, you ask? It means that I take little pictures with my Danger Hiptop and then send them directly from the device to the site for all to enjoy. Kind of like Hiptop Nation but without all the text. Fancy, huh?
By GMH, Archived in Itchy Robot, What I Did On My Winter Vacation



New PowerBooks were just announced too. As were web browser Safari (an attempt to replace Explorer?) and presentation software Keynote (to replace PowerPoint?).
By GMH, Archived in Technology



Whahoo! My t-shirt design won popular vote at the Typophile T-Shirt Contest. What did I win you ask? Well, just a couple of free shirts. And the privilege of knowing that type geeks around the world will be wearing my work.
Neck hole, counter-form, same thing.
By GMH, Archived in Typography



Looking for a new Ghettoblaster? Well, look no further. The Pocket Calculator Show offers pictures and desctiptions of tons of them from the large and supercomplex, to B&O's ultraminimal Beo 10. Or maybe you are in the market for a gold one with fold down turntable. Radical!
By GMH, Archived in Culture, Via BB



So this chick comes up to me and she's like "hey aren't you that dude" and I'm like "whatever." [Real Video] Brilliant new music from the man behind Olly of the infamous sockpuppet duo Sifl and Olly.
By GMH, Archived in Music, Via Peterme



Everybody hates us. Ah, well, except for the Russians, they love us more than ever.
By GMH, Archived in Culture



Bush meets Clippy
By GMH, Archived in Humor, Via BB



After buying up all of the little design shops during the dotcom gold rush, Razorfish finally gets eaten by a bigger fish.
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous, Via K10k



Awww he's sooo cute, can we keep him, can we?
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous


Giant Lincoln made from very many dominoes.
By GMH, Archived in Lincoln, Via BB



Pope tells italians they're not having enough sex.
By GMH, Archived in Itches



Boilerplate was a mechanical automaton created by Professor Archibald Campion during the 1880s. The early robot traveled to Antarctica, fought in World War I, chased Pancho Villa around Mexico and was in China during the Boxer Rebellion. Well, ok, maybe not.
By GMH, Archived in Robots, Thanks to Joel



I love you. How much? This much.
By GMH, Archived in Humor, Via BB


Apparently I'm one of the three people in the entire country who calls a "garage sale" a "tag sale."
Take the survey and find out how you talk funny.
By GMH, Archived in Culture



I swear I mentioned this very idea to someone just last week. Those VCs are quick I tell you. Like a fox quick.
Oh, and it's quite like my SuctionBabies idea sans the creepy miniature robots.
I'm ahead of my time I tell you.
By GMH, Archived in Innovation



Vampires are scary. Very scary.
By GMH, Archived in Humor



Good Design + Crazy Drawings + Pretty Colors = Good Shit
By GMH, Archived in Design



Stick your hands deep in those pockets and pull out a few pennies for a truly worthy cause.
By GMH, Archived in Culture, Via Be



I was thinking of rebranding Itchy Robot as Iritent™, but then again maybe not.
By GMH, Archived in Culture



Orange Italic has finally released its long awaited Luxury Collection of typefaces. They're asking a mere $1500 per license.
By GMH, Archived in Typography



I got myself a Danger hiptop/T-Mobile Sidekick last week. The flip out screen works quite nicely and the wireless web / SMS / email / instant messaging / cell phone makes me feel like a true connected geek.
dangerwillrobinson
By GMH, Archived in Innovation



You know you can't think for your self anyway, so why not help the hive-mind create an alphabet?
By GMH, Archived in Typography



Playing ring the cat. Not suitable for all cats
By GMH, Archived in Innovation



Pave France Now... because Europe needs parking.
By GMH, Archived in Humor, Via MeFi



Whoo hoo, free pot at city hall. Thank you Mayor McSpliff!
I don't know, sounds like a trick to me.
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous



Your SUV causes terrorism.
By GMH, Archived in Culture, Via The Morning News



All new Mister Pants! Now with 20% more Lincoln!
By GMH, Archived in The Web



Fucked Company gets fucked by Ford.
By GMH, Archived in The Web



Kindercore band I Am The World Trade Center have changed their name back (after shortening it last year to "I Am The…" for obvious reasons). Apparently their website was the top Google result for "world trade center" last September 11, which let to seven million hits in one day, and a lot of hate mail.
By GMH, Archived in Music, Via Lightning Field



Did they really think that Windows would be any more reliable than punch cards?
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous, Via Slashdot



Radioactive Waste-Land™
It's Rems of Fun for the whole family!™
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous


Fantaastic, then. So, as some may have noticed, there have been a couple of changes in the past hours. First of all, I've added two new contributors, Misters Bagby and Eubanks. We expect great things from these young up-and-comers.
Second, I've finally put up exhibits.itchyrobot.com which is basically just a way for me to show off the old books that I pay way too much money for. Anyway, whenever I'm interested in a book I wish I could see a little more than a thumbnail of the cover, so I thought that this might help other people. Plus, I'm a dork.
By GMH, Archived in Itchy Robot



Is Apple working on a cell phone?
Maybe.
By GMH, Archived in Technology, NYT registration required
Via Mefi



Check it out, my Letraset-on-Map "nameplate" is now one of the rotating images on Typographica (it's France if you were wondering). I've also submitted a few t-shirt designs to the Typophile Tee Contest. And no, this one is not mine, but yes, I'm a dork.
By GMH, Archived in Typography



Robot Tai Chi
By GMH, Archived in Robots, Once again, via BoingBoing



So very many happy bouncing pixels
By GMH, Archived in Music, Via BoingBoing



Chrysler has recalled 464,000 PT Cruisers. Maybe while they're in the shop getting a patch on the fuel line, they can fix the ass-ugly design too.
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous



Yesterday Danger announced that it's hiptop device will be sold through T-Mobile (a rebranded VoiceStream). The device itself will be rebranded as the SideKick. Unfortunately they also announced that it won't be released until the fall.
I actually decided last week that this is what I want to get to both replace my Handspring and be my first cell phone even though HMK called me a "spaz" because of it.
By GMH, Archived in Technology



This is pretty creepy, but kind of elegant too, in a way.
By GMH, Archived in The Web



On October 22 Matador will finally be releasing Pavement's ever postponed DVD, Slow Century. It's been something like five years in the making, so it's gotta be good, right? The same day they're also rereleasing Slanted and Enchanted with a bunch of bonus tracks.
By GMH, Archived in Music


Andy Crewdson (creator of Lines&Splines) has a new typography site called New Series that looks like it'll be pretty good.
By GMH, Archived in Typography, Via Typographica



It looks like the networks have already figured a way to get around the "TiVo Problem." Small ads pop up on the bottom of the screen during the program. There's no way to skip it without missing part of the program. I thought that we would just see a huge rise in the number of product placements, but I guess this works.
By GMH, Archived in Television, Via Plastic



How Google really works.
By GMH, Archived in Humor, The Web


Wow, is Ford actually coming to their senses? They're talking to Toyota about hybrids and dropping the Excurstion, their gas guzzing behemoth of an SUV.
By GMH, Archived in Technology



Good morning. It's time for some robots. First, a guy who built a 1/3rd scale MechWarrior for his kids to play in. And if that's not enough robot for your kids, why not get them their own Sonar Equipt, Infared, Direction Following, Alarm Sounding, Beer Delivering R2D2 from WalMart? We are truly living in the future.
By GMH, Archived in Robots, Thanks to Cormac and The Morning News



Wow, there's a 1929 RCA Theremin for sale on eBay. It's one of probably about 250 left in the world.
By GMH, Archived in Music



Behind the Typeface: Cooper Black.
You just can't beat typeface humor.
By GMH, Archived in Humor, Typography, Via Typographica


Am I Game or Lame is another one of those rating sites (ala amihotornot) but this one pits videogames agains each other to find the one, ultimate videogame. Currently the winner is Legend of Zelda, although I much prefer Basic Math or a personal favorite, Little Computer People.
By GMH, Archived in The Web, Thanks Cormac


Anti-social sex-starved CMU students create a female, social robot since they can't get any on their own.

In related news, Itchy Robot is now listed in Boston.com's Netwatch weblogs. Hoo Ha, we're famous.
By GMH, Archived in Carnegie Mellon, Robots



Super Mario Comrades?
By GMH, Archived in Culture, Thanks Cormac


Googazon.com?
By GMH, Archived in The Web



hi hi hi HI-HO!
By GMH, Archived in The Web



An appraiser from Antiques Roadshow has been sentenced to a year in prison, along with an $830,000 fine, for defrauding antique owners on the show. He would appraise items for lower than market value, offer to purchase them, and then sell them on the open market for the full price.
This is the same guy who pulled the whole watermelon sword scam.
Those appraisers are a shifty bunch, I tell you.
By GMH, Archived in Television, Via The Morning News



A Mac will make you smarter and will help you make more money. Or is it just that people with more money can actually afford Macs and people with more education see the Mac as a status symbol. hmm.
By GMH, Archived in Technology



My name is Bill Gates, and I own a software company.
By GMH, Archived in Technology


Paul Giambarba was the man repsonbsible for Polaroid's identity and packaging back in the sixties and seventies. Brilliant, I say, brilliant!
Just compare his work to today's crap. No wonder Polaroid has gone to pot.
By GMH, Archived in Design


Bill Watterson's Hell. An amazingly complete collection of those stickers of Calvin pissing on stuff.
Also, there have been rumors of a Calvin and Hobbes movie.
By GMH, Archived in Humor



Why does "creative punishment" always have to include something being thrown at someone?
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous, Reminded by Besigner



The IDSA/Business Week IDEA Awards have been released. One project I worked on won a bronze, and my company won a total of fourteen.
The IDSA awards are always a little weird though. They gave an award to something as ugly as the Adidas KOBE Two shoes but then also gave one the awesome Furrilla dog toy.
By GMH, Archived in Design



CMU professors Craigy V. and Jonny C. have an interview in the latest Fast Company, which is kind of ironic since they are neither fast, nor do they work for a company.
It include the ubiquitous rant over how perfect OXO Good Grips and Black and Decker's Snakelight are. And of course they have a little two axis matrix that seems to make sense, but really reveals nothing new. Silly professors.
By GMH, Archived in Carnegie Mellon



Yay!, New money's a'comin!
Unfortunately, with the aesthetic sensibilites of the government, it will most likely be even uglier than the current design.
By GMH, Archived in Culture, Via MeFi



Ftrain has an excellent review of Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

A short excerpt:

"…The other half are real toe-tappers, songs like your best friends are coming over to make puppets with you, and you're going to do a puppet show for orphans sometime next month, a good cheer, let's 'put on a show to cheer up those orphans' spectacle…"

By GMH, Archived in Music



Salon's interview with Richard Florida (author of The Rise of the Creative Class and Carnegie Mellon professor) is pretty interesting. It basically states that cities like Pittsburgh and Detroit that ignore creative and youthful culture will ultimitely be replaced by cites like Austin, Boston and San Francisco that actively try to bring in creative workers (by working on arts and nightlife instead of stadiums and stripmalls).
What Florida seems to ignore, though, is that cities that focus too much on the creative class will eventually have the same fate as those that focused to much on the working class. It's a city's lack of ability to change that will eventually make it unatractive.
There's a related article by Florida here (this one also has a quick demonstration of how creepy Trilogy's recruiting methods are/were). And yes, that does not only sound like Jon Kolko that he is describing, that is Kolko.
I guess I'll actually have to go read the book now.
By GMH, Archived in Books, Carnegie Mellon, Culture


The music industry is becoming just like the book industry. Which is good news, except that the [used] book industry is turning into the mafia.
By GMH, Archived in Books, Music


The next big thing may be realism.
Shit, I hope not. I mean, Postmodernism needs a kick in the ass, but obsessive compulsives with nothing to say ain't that much fun either.
By GMH, Archived in Art, Via the Morning News



Eclipse shadows are the best shadows
eclipseshadows.jpg
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous


Apple goes on the offensive with a new ad campaign that tries to convince people to switch to Macintosh.
The commercials are interviews of people who switched to Macs with silly music in the background. They were directed by the amazing documentary filmmaker Errol Morris (director of The Thin Blue Line , Fast, Cheap & Out of Control).
One of the better ones is of BoingBoing's Mark Frauenfelder.
By GMH, Archived in Advertising



Proof that the era of stupid company names is not over: PricewaterhouseCoopers' consulting arm has renamed itself "Monday."
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous, Via The Morning News



He is hotdogboy.
He likes to make movies.

to be continued…
By GMH, Archived in Film



Lego Bible! Lego Bible!
This is the best part.
By GMH, Archived in Books, Via Newthings



Japanese children like to make shiny balls of mud
By GMH, Archived in Culture, Via BB


Finally, a sequel for a movie that actually should have one: "Tron Killer App." (that's kind of a lame name though)
By GMH, Archived in Film, Via MeFi



Despite my distaste for Textism I have to whole-heartedly recommend Manual. It is a collection of stories by "writers with web sites" (but these are good writers, which include the authors of The Morning News, Ftrain, and Fireland, among others) all based around the theme of "How-To."
Anyway, download it, print it, and read it.
By GMH, Archived in The Web



"As your child approaches a costumed Disney character, she squeals in delight (or runs away) as the character greets her by name. The person inside the costume was tipped off to your family's identity by chips embedded in your souvenir autograph book."
Why is Disney always so creepy?
By GMH, Archived in Culture


Oh fuck, not again.
I thought that this was all supposed to go away with the collapse of Enron.
By GMH, Archived in Places



TiVo forces customers to watch bad British comedy.
By GMH, Archived in Television, Via BoingBoing



TheSuperUltraÜbercutePinkHelloKitty Laptop
By GMH, Archived in Culture, via MemePool



"Shy and hesitant—he is always looking for something new to put on his head. He's willing to try all sort of things, but standard saucepans are his cap-of-choice."
Sounds like me … if I was a hamster.
By GMH, Archived in Television


Crazy 3-Dimensional flashlight graffiti.
By GMH, Archived in Art, Via Anarchitect


How very post-post-ironic.
By GMH, Archived in Art, Via K10k



Two men have recently confessed to a restaurant killing spree commited in 1993. Why admit to it now? One man's DNA was found in saliva left on a half eaten piece of chicken that was left at the scene of the crime (frozen in 1993, thawed in 2002).
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous



I've added a Found Typography page for all of the images that are pushed off the front page. It has a large image that scrolls with the frame (this will be more useful once there are a few more images in there) and specific images can be bookmarked with just a few keystrokes. I've also added a few bonus images for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy.
By GMH, Archived in Itchy Robot



Captain Mike will teach you how to sail. In a house-boat. On The Boathouse Show.
You should listen to the themesong.
By GMH, Archived in Television



In Type News:
Andy Crewdson reviews the design of The New York Sun at The Morning News and OrangeItalic are interviewed in the first issue of online type magazine Règles:Zéro.
By GMH, Archived in Typography



Orange Italic has realeased (or maybe not, but there's a page for it) the Luxury Collection. Not only do the font's themselves exude luxury, but so does their cost, $1500 for a 5-user license.
By GMH, Archived in Typography, Via Typographica



You've gotta admit, she's got a nice rack.
By GMH, Archived in Technology



holy shit. I just lived through my first real San Francisco earthquake
By GMH, Archived in Places


A real Aibo too expensive for you?
Then why not roll your own?
By GMH, Archived in Robots, Thanks Vocabularistic Giant



Lines & Splines is no more.
It is a sad day. A moment of silence please.
By GMH, Archived in The Web



Penguin Patrol: "…and don't give me any of your wisecracks!"
Oyster: "Aww, shucks."

Oswald is awesome. It's obviously a show made for two year olds, but it's still really funny, and very calming (no battling robots or WWF characters). Oswald is a big octopus (voice by Fred Savage) who has an uptight friend penguin and a hot-dog for a pet. Anyway, it's an excellent way to start a Saturday morning.
By GMH, Archived in Television



While Andy Walker took an impressive one Polaroid self-portrait per day for an entire year, but this guy has taken over 1100 daily self portraits (not all consecutive, but hey) and is still going.
By GMH, Archived in Art



What?! They mixed up the podiums?!
We should have laws to prevent this kind of thing.
It a kind of national tragedy really, this podium imbroglio.
By GMH, Archived in Humor



MaxMenus is a pretty nifty piece of OS X software. It basically lets you put customized menus that are activated by clicking in the corners of the screen.
It's the first application that I've seen that actually uses the corners (which are, besides the pixel directly below the cursor, the easiest places to move the cursor to).
I only installed it last night, so we'll see how well it works. Hopefully the "buy me" messages aren't going to be too annoying since it does cost $30 to make them go away.
By GMH, Archived in Design


The Segway has claimed it's first victim. Or at least it's first skinned knee.
By GMH, Archived in Innovation, Via BoingBoing



Donald Norman has had a revelation apparently. "I'm starting a new career phase: Ugly is out, beauty is in" he says.
This from the man who suggested that lightswitches be mounted on little platforms that protrude from the wall.
Looks like someone is going to give him a beating for saying such blasphemous words.
By GMH, Archived in Design, Via PeterMe


Today Steve Jobs began a developers confrence by opening a coffin that contained a MacOS 9 box and then delivering a eulogy to the recently obsolete operating system. That's just weird.
By GMH, Archived in Technology


wa hoo! look at 'em go!
By GMH, Archived in Miscellaneous



Sara Lee has introducted crustless bread. The extra 75¢ basically gets a machine in Texas to cut the crust off for you. Ah, these postmodern days.
By GMH, Archived in Innovation, Via BoingBoing



yeah. I just got me some new spectacles.
By GMH, Archived in Itchy Robot


At this weekend's Pontiac Excitement 300 all Dale Earnhardt, Inc. cars will have a black stripe under the left headlight, and all pit crew members will wear a black stripe under their left eyes in memory of TLC's Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes.
By GMH, Archived in Culture



tired of just seeing people's virtual desktops? well then, why not have a look at their real desktops?
Submissions up to now include the real desktops of Joshua Allen and Toke Nygaard.
Oh, and moi.
By
GMH, Archived in People



Steve Ballmer sure is funny looking, but at least he's got some rhythm.
By GMH, Archived in Humor


Whoo hoo, IDEO has an all new website! I personally had nothing to do with actually designing it, but you can see the back of my head in the "Palo Alto" section. And I worked on this, this, and this.
By GMH, Archived in The Web



"Can you hear Mr. Winkle?".
Oh yes. Loud and clear.
You must to watch the movie.
By GMH, Archived in Humor


Zirkeltraining is an "etude in design." Among other things, they take old, well designed stereo equipment and modify it to work with current digital formats, e.g. a 1962 Dieter Rams designed radio turned into an mp3 player or a 1980 Technics turntable made into an mp3 player that works by dropping tagged chips onto the bowl-shaped slipmat (and of course it still lets you scratch). There's a pdf with a better description.
By GMH, Archived in Innovation, Via Form Magazine



Apple has realeased a new CRT all-in-one iMac aimed at the education market called eMac. It's another nice minimal design, but I have to ask, where's the handle? And if those speakers are the same as the one on the G4 tower, I don't expect them to last very long in a classroom full of rambunctious kids that like to poke shiny things with pencils.
By GMH, Archived in Design, Technology



Drawings of Scientists
By GMH, Archived in Art



C'mon, Do It! Poke the Bunny!
By GMH, Archived in Humor



The Prime Number Pooping Bear
By GMH, Archived in Humor


Advertising legend Jay Chiat (of TBWA\Chiat\Day) has died at 70.
By GMH, Archived in Advertising, Via Headline News



I don't know if I should be proud or not. Itchy Robot is the top result for the Google search "itchy urine."
um, yeah!
By GMH, Archived in Itches



Christian and Matt have a pretty nice article in the latest Emigre Magazine describing the process of creating Los Feliz.
This is my favorite part of the article:
Matt: I'm not a very good type designer, but I think Christian Schwartz is, so I took some pictures of LOS FELIZ AUTO PARTS & SERVICE and sent them to him in Boston. "

Christian: I live in Boston…
Now, really guys.
By GMH, Archived in Carnegie Mellon, Typography



Looks like we're not the only über-delayed redesign in town. There's a new, supercomplicated K10k.
By GMH, Archived in The Web


Beep. Scratch. Welcome to the new Itchy Robot. If you've got any comments use that snazzy little form on the left, or send a message to feedbackloop@itchyrobot.com
By GMH, Archived in Itchy Robot