I've been privy to a lot of nifty photographic projects recently. And a few of them are local. A friend is running around the city taking pictures of tattooed people, and all manner of macro lens frivolity is the result. So stumbling across something fun like this site just adds to the visual merriment. It's a brilliant collection of faces carved from the humble cardboard toilet roll tube. You'd be surprised by how many different faces are unrolled by this master of the scalpel.
I have to wonder about classifying something as rare. By the very act of supplying it in electronic form, aren't you removing the scarcity? The author of this historical gem is making available images from medical and natural history texts from a collection at the Clendening History of Medicine Library. It spans the late 14th century to the 19th century. While only a historical sliver, it's a fine peek on the quaint woodcut world of the day before yesterday.
Here's an afternoon's reading on browser security, what cookies really mean to you, how pirating software means you'll pay more in the long run, and how to take steps to ensure your cable modem-connected computer doesn't open you up to crackers. It's probably a good read for intermediate level computer types. But if you're just starting out, arm yourself with the second link above and you can probably make sense of the bulk of it.
It would be more than enough if these gifted graphic artisans made their work available for your viewing pleasure for no charge. But the real kicker is that you can download the source files. If you dabble in creating Flash for the Web, you should be stunned at this sweeping act of generosity. Be sure to credit the artist who created these, of course, as people of leisurely moral growth often confuse stealing with giving (thanks to Larry Wall for that quote). And if you don't give a hoot about source code, click and enjoy the eye candy.
My newest favorite piece of software is Notebook, a Mac OS X must-have from Circus Ponies. It's a great place to stick software licenses, important e-mail, clip art, meeting notes and anything else that needs to be bossed around and generally put in order. While you're dragging and dropping, Notebook is busy in the background building an index of your content. It's like a breath of fresh air for the terminally messy. Suddenly you can put your hands on things again. The only 1.0 annoyance I could find is the page flipping animation. When you move from one page to another, it's a bit slow. Other than that it's probably the best $50 you'll ever spend on software. It's free to try and pay only if you keep it.
