Scott Andrew

The Manchester Review collects 21 African science and speculative fiction stories, including everything from cyberpunk to apocalypse to interstellar travel.

Posted November 9, 2017

Jason Bieler, formerly of the band Saigon Kick, regales us with stories of his waxing and waning fortunes in the 90s music industry. So great.

wrap up the clearly stellar presentation and Andy says a few very kind things about the music and the ideas and then finishes with…this is awesome and we would love to have you on board, unfortunately WEA just shut down new label acquisitions for remainder of the year and we have no clear indication when we will be able to do this, or if we will at all in the future.

What…who…I don’t…spinning, vomit rising…do not pass out. I think I muttered a few things like a guy who was punched so hard his brain had not yet told him he had been knocked the fuck out…so he stumbles around for a few secs before he hits the floor. Great, thanks, brilliant no no this is perfect thanks again, I shake a few hands and leave.

I remember pulling on the handles of the large glass exit door the wrong way and it making a cacophonous horrible sound that alerted everyone in the office DEAD MAN WALKING.

Posted November 8, 2017

A short, amusing history behind the cover art of one of the most successful rock albums ever.

That album cover went on to influence future techies and software for decades. Lots of 3-D color blends and stylistic elements in design came from that album cover. As Paula Scher mentioned in her book Make it Bigger “I’ve often thought that the entire point of computer programs like (Adobe) Illustrator and Photoshop, based on the way they are advertised, is to enable anyone to create their own Boston cover.”

Posted November 7, 2017

Marvel legends Stan Lee and John Buscema show you how it's done.

Posted November 5, 2017

Cool motion comic with 3D animations and parallax effects that react to your device. (Looks kinda violent, probably not for kiddos.)

Posted November 3, 2017

Clever use CSS transitions and the :target pseudo-class selector results in a zero-JavaScript gallery widget.

Posted November 2, 2017

Paleoartists attempt to interpret what modern animals would look like based only on their skeletons, thus illustrating how wrong our guesses as to what dinosaurs looked like could be. I will say that the elephant illustration looks like a particularly badass critter.

Also: enjoy the mental image of dinos with soft, kissable lips:

One of [Kosemen's] main points of contention is the way that we consider dinosaur heads. “The reference has always been crocodiles,” says Kosemen. “The biggest thing is teeth and facial fat. Readers have to be aware that all dinosaurs they see in all media, and especially in popular culture, seem to have their heads flensed. They’ve always got these weird grins with only the teeth visible.” As he points out, most animals have lips and gums and lumps of facial fat that change the profile of the head, and cover the teeth. But in many predatory dinosaur illustrations, these are usually missing, making them look fierce, if improbable.

Posted September 26, 2017

Shariff is an open source code library that allow you to add social media sharing buttons without all the privacy-invading tracking code. I'm adding this to Neat Hobby! soon. Also available as a Wordpress plugin.

Posted August 14, 2017

Brandon Smith dissects the CSS bug the famous displayed on every web developer's favorite coffee mug.

Posted July 27, 2017

A fictional tour of Google as a dystopian circus of technological horrors. I read this article a few years ago and cursed myself for not bookmarking it. After an almost impossible Google search, I finally found it at Clickhole!

On the front lawn outside the enormous office complex there is a 50-foot marble statue of Steve Jobs losing a fight against a man-sized scorpion. The base of the statue is engraved with the words “Steve Jobs: Google User.”

The front doors of the complex open, and a man in a white jumpsuit walks out of the building and embraces me.

“Welcome to Google. It’s amazing to be with you,” he says. “My name is Upright Mammal. I am a human being who stands on two legs, which is good. I will be your tour guide through the incredible technology prison of Google. If you will follow me, there are limitless wonders to see and limited time in which to see them.”

I follow Upright Mammal toward the entryway of the colossal edifice. Immediately, I can tell I’m about to enter a place more beautiful than any of my children.

Posted July 26, 2017