Reilly Brennan

Charles Bergquist’s work in super duper slow motion feels...

Mon, 07 May 2012 22:58:00 -0400

Charles Bergquist’s work in super duper slow motion feels good. Video courtesy of Will.

A visual view of crowdsourcing / human computation models

Thu, 03 May 2012 21:42:00 -0400

A few months back I did some research on crowdsourcing and how organizations are using different models to achieve their goals. I tried to look at it from a visual perspective, using a pretty simple three-axis view.

In the end I found two patterns emerging. For singular big data problems (like ReCaptcha or the Steve Fossett search), success has been found with:

Closed taxonomy (users can’t add more pages or topics)
Novice contributors allowed
Curated view for users

For diverse content platforms (like Wikipedia), success has been found with:

Open taxonomies are most common
Multiple contributor models OK
Curated view for users

It’s embedded here:

A Visual View of Human Computation Models / Crowdsourcing

Aaron Draplin is compelling because...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:20:23 -0400

Aaron Draplin is compelling because he’s simultaneously over the moon and angry about the things he cares about. You get the sense that if he didn’t take the time to collect, think about and assimilate all these parts and pieces of forgotten design detritus, he would just go mad. I love that.

A clear horizon.

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:02:32 -0400

A clear horizon.

On Opening Day 2012, Enjoy Pre-Photographic Vintage Baseball Card Wrappers

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 07:38:51 -0400

In honor of opening day tomorrow (tonight is the evening opener), I don my Old English D, call my Dad for his picks and think about my years of focused baseball card collecting from ages 6 through 12. I prefer the traditional wax wrappers with pre-photographic illustrations as opposed to the foil and plastic sealed jobs and action photography. The hand-set type and flat, comic-inspired imagery was much brighter and more interesting than a photo of a guy on first. Below I present — without comment or interruption — a compedium of some of my favorites. Open ‘em up! (Above: 1978 O-Pee-Chee)

1955 Bowman:

1958 Topps:

1969 Ted Williams / Fleer:

1965 Topps:

1968 Fleer:

1968 Topps, variations:

1969 Topps:

1970 Topps:

1971 Topps variations:

1971 Topps Tattoos:

1973 O-Pee-Chee:

1984 Topps:

1986 Topps Tattoos:

1987 Donruss:

1989 Fleer:

1990 Topps:

1991 Donruss:

“Big E.” Ten years ago next week, I was lucky enough...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 23:30:00 -0400

“Big E.”

Ten years ago next week, I was lucky enough to spend a week inside Dale Earnhardt, Inc., about a year after Dale Sr. died. Everyone called him Big E., but not in a way that sounds like Biggie. It was a distinct “Big. E.” with a little pause in between. Big E.’s office was still as he had left it in February of 2001 and a lot of the decisions he had made about where to place little mundane things within the office, like a soda machine or a sign, were pointed out to me (“Big E. said put it there because the way the light hits it, so we did.”) throughout the entire, massive complex. I got the sense that Big E. had, in fact, designed the entire experience in mind because he did, down to the typefaces and numbers on the cars (“We were looking at the numbers on the cars and Big E. came in and said ‘Now which way should that number be slanting? Toward the front of the car as if it’s trying to get over the finish line.’”). Most of the aphorisms were really simple and direct, like Big E. himself.

When people talk about Steve Jobs and the complete control he had over his experiences and culture, I often think of Big E. He had his hand on the tiller in much the same way as Jobs, just in a completely different universe. Plus, just like Jobs, he had ‘that stare.’

An intimate 15-minute documentary about an American advertising...

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:32:00 -0400

An intimate 15-minute documentary about an American advertising producer in Shanghai trying to sell fast food to the Chinese.

“I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing...

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 01:32:00 -0400

“I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination.”

- David Ogilvy

12 Hours of Sebring Couch Kit

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:25:00 -0400

For 12 hours on Saturday I’ll be glued to my screens, watching the American Le Mans Series kickoff at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Admittedly, Sebring isn’t beautiful, but it is legendary. Traditionally known as the kickoff event for the ALMS teams, there’s more focus on the race in 2012 because it is also the first event in the ACO’s newly formed “World Endurance Championship,” meaning it has a bit of a double billing. The new WEC championship is the first true ‘world championship’ for sports cars in some 20 years, with events in North America, Europe and Asia. So, if a team wins the race on Saturday, they’d be collecting points for both the ALMS championship and the WEC championship (although running in both championships would be difficult given the scheduling conflicts, in September especially).

Sadly, the race isn’t on television (an abbreviated version of the race will be shown one day after the event, on ABC, which does me as much good as reading about it in the newspaper), but there will be enough in the way of streams to watch it live on Saturday.

Start time: Saturday, March 17, 10:15AM Eastern time

TV coverage explained: (US market) No live terrestial TV coverage; ESPN3 will provide a live stream, while ABC will show a shortened highlight of the race on Sunday. (Outside of US) live streaming coverage on FIAWEC.

Live Streams

ESPN3.com (US market)
FIAWEC.com (Non-US)
French Motorsport feed (Worldwide, seems to have some downtime issues today)
Motors TV
HDRacing feed
Radio feed: Radio Le Mans

Timing / Scoring

ALMS live timing & scoring

Other useful stuff

Entry list (PDF — and a little hard to read, since it is broken out into two different areas for ALMS and WEC, but, hey, at least they tell us about the tire manufacturers)
Visual spotter’s guide (PDF) (Thank you Andy Blackmore!)
Twitter searches: #Sebring, #ALMS, #WEC, Sebring drivers list, Metacool racers list, @almsnotes
Michael Fuller’s notes from Sebring on the always incredible Mulsanne’s Corner

2011 info, just to keep in mind

P1 average speed: 102.299 mph
Winner’s total laps: 332
Winners: Lapierre, Duval, Panis (Peugeot 908 HDI)

Below, a great interview with Audi factory driver Alan McNish about Sebring, his car, life and all sorts of good stuff. It was produced by Drive, a new YouTube-only series of shows that is starting to become one of my favorites. The part at 24:20 is my favorite, where McNish actually gives us a real-time indication of where his eyes and brain are trained while behind the wheel; wicked stuff.

(Photo by Audi Sport Press)

Director Jacob Sutton, snowboarder William Hughes, suit designer...

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:19:00 -0500

Director Jacob Sutton, snowboarder William Hughes, suit designer John Spatcher, composer Shervin Shaeri and Jacob’s father Jake Sutton create a work of beauty in the French Alps. I like that they chose snowboarding for their work because it is inherently an equilibrium chase, like moving from dark to light and somewhere in between.

The archives of legendary photographer Dave Friedman are now in...

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 01:32:24 -0500

The archives of legendary photographer Dave Friedman are now in the safe hands of The Henry Ford’s Benson Ford Research Center. They’ve recently posted thousands of them to their Flickr account in an attempt to gather some more metadata about them. Personally, I’ve never been one to gravitate toward midget racers or sprint cars, but these photos from 1962-63 really tugged at me. 10 of my favorites are above.

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:57:34 -0500

"Growing up, one of my favorite books was Automobiles of the Future by Irwin Stambler. Written in the..."

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:55:00 -0500

“Growing up, one of my favorite books was Automobiles of the Future by Irwin Stambler. Written in the 60s, it imagined the automobile in the 80s, 90s, and even the new millenium. The book was a window to a strange parallel dimension, where everything inside was a streamlined, pastel version of reality. Its pages held promise, for the future of automobiles was about more than spark plugs and oil filters, it was the story of man’s struggle to better himself. At the same time, it was very naive and simplified the world of tomorrow to a utopia that answered all of the problems facing their society. It never considered the possibility that the future would have its own set of obstacles to overcome. But that was its biggest appeal to me, to see the ways our society had advanced so far from their wildest dreams, yet fallen short on its fundamental ideals.”

- Jon Wong of ISO50, in a great piece about his creation of the Explorers of Tomorrow book. I’m consistently inspired and amazed by the quality of the stuff on ISO50. It is a marvel for the eyes, ears and brain. The Stambler book can be found on Amazon and eBay.

Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona Couch Kit

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:00:00 -0500

I love settling in for these long distance races with all manner of televisions and computer screens at my disposal, like some all-knowing war commander. In reality I am just watching like the wide-eyed fan I am while Andrea rolls her eyes.

Here’s how I’ll manage the 24 Hours of Daytona race this weekend. (BTW, if you’re unfamiliar with the race, read this piece by Sam Posey. This year marks the 50th running of the event.)

Start time: Saturday, January 28, 3:30PM Eastern standard time

TV coverage explained: Speed (TV): 3:30PM - 11PM, then SpeedTV.com until 9AM, then Speed (TV) until 3:30 checkered flag. All times Eastern.

Live streams:

SpeedTV web stream (11PM Sat - 9AM Sun), or this hijacked Speed television feed. MotorsTV (in French).
Radio feed: Radio Le Mans (with John Hindhaugh, my favorite) MRN (timing and scoring on top, radio feed with controls at bottom)
Team streams (mostly pit views, some cars): Turner motorsports, TRG, Magnus Racing
Track views: Tower view looking at T1

Timing and scoring:

Grand-Am live timing and scoring

Other useful stuff:

Entry list
Graphic spotter’s guide view of all the entries by Andy Blackmore
Twitter searches: #rolex24, #daytona24, Metacool racers list
New cars I’m eager to watch: Audi’s R8 making a semi-factory-backed debut (with two teams), the new “Corvette DP” prototypes (five cars, including the #90 seen above)

2011 info, just to keep in mind:

Winner’s average speed: 106.877 mph
Winner’s total laps: 721
Winner’s best lap: 1:40:936
Winners: Hand, Pruett, Rahal, Rojas (Ganassi BMW-powered Riley)

A prototype emerges from the lab: Carmagnum

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:41:06 -0500

Some people find time to stop and smell the roses, but I prefer the cars. With that, I am happy to announce we’re shipping the public beta version of Carmagnum. What is Carmagnum? See a car, take a photo. If you’ve ever taken a picture of a car on the street to share with a friend, you’ve already “used” Carmagnum. It’s as simple as that.

This bizarre pleasure used to be a solitary obsession of mine. Then came Facebook, where I started sharing photos of cars with my friends. But soon enough, Facebook wasn’t really comprised of my friends at all. One day my mom’s accountant friended me on Facebook and I realized it was all my fault. As Yogi Berra said, “Nobody goes there anymore…it’s too crowded.” Certainly for the automotive part of my life that became true. My ongoing obsession with second-generation Golfs and GTIs started to fade from Facebook.

Thus, Carmagnum. Right now our little project is web-based but you can upload your photos in a mobile way via email. We hope to have a full featured app for you to use down the road, when we can afford it. Until then I invite you to check it out. Carmagnum is the place to talk about the cars you see with people who actually care.

Carmagnum is a joint effort from Nate Luzod, Sean Lyons, Kevin English and yours truly. I hope you enjoy it. We built it in Michigan, California and Hawaii throughout 2011.

http://www.carmagnum.com/

(Below, some of my favorite shots I’ve seen on Carmagnum from some of our users:)

Lance Henderstein, Daihatsu Hijet in Japan

Alex Nunez, GMC truck in NYC

James Morse, Chevrolet Chevette in Northern Michigan

Colin O’Donnell, Datsun 1600 in Los Angeles

Adam Morath, DMC-12 in Ypsilanti:

Nate Luzod, Ferrari paranoia in Toronto:

Seyth Miersma, frankenstein Nissan Z in Portland:

My own, the bed of a Chevrolet El Camino in San Francisco:

Steve Ewing, Honda CRX Si in Michigan:

My old pal Nate Luzod moved to Hawaii a few months ago and all...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:56:24 -0500

My old pal Nate Luzod moved to Hawaii a few months ago and all he has to show for it is this incredibly infectious smile. Photo by his wife, the lovely thereafterish.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love..."

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:27:24 -0500

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

- MLK

Stu Thomsen, Redline rider, going enormous over three 930s in...

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:43:00 -0500

Stu Thomsen, Redline rider, going enormous over three 930s in 1983.

The Porsche were owned by Oakley founder Jim Janard (red), Redline founder Linn Kastan (white), and Wizard Productions (BMX Action, Freestylin magazines) founder Bob Osbourne (black). Kastan explains the fortunate position of his car on Redline’s site:

“If you look at the ‘high tech’ ramp, you’ll understand why my car was in the middle! Besides, I was the only ‘car owner’ present, so I got to ‘direct!’”

Ronnie Peterson in his 1974 Lotus 76, with the bizarre but...

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:42:00 -0500

Ronnie Peterson in his 1974 Lotus 76, with the bizarre but interesting (and, sadly, ineffective) biplane rear wing. Peterson was in the odd position of racing with the #1 on his car despite not being the champion (Lotus had won the constructor’s championship in ‘73, but his teammate Emerson Fittipaldi left at the end of that season for MacLaren). In keeping with the F1 numbering system, Lotus had #1 and #2 for their drivers in 1974, giving the remaining Peterson the numero uno.

Although this photo isn’t labeled as such, I believe it was taken at Jarama for the Spanish Grand Prix.

A Brief History of Kongs

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 10:15:00 -0500

The enormous, frighteningly friendly King Kong balloons on the roofs of your louder car dealerships and apartment complexes are in trouble. They’re already banned in many cities in Texas as well as St. Louis, after city councils deemed them an eyesore and a distraction to drivers. When Houston finally banned them, the city’s mayor said: “We want to try to improve the physical appearance of the city.”

Nobody associates the 40-foot high inflatables as anything but garish sales props, but in reality they have an interesting historical connection. And perhaps one of the strangest accidental discoveries in automotive retail.

Of course, all inflatable primates reference Cooper and Schoedsack’s iconic King Kong from 1933, but car dealers didn’t start using them in earnest until the late 1970s, when three important things happened.

In 1972 the city of Birmingham, England commissioned pop artist Nicholas Munro to construct a sculpture for Manzoni Gardens in their commercial center. Munro took on the challenge and delivered a towering fiberglass King Kong, with outstretched arms and menacing red eyes. It stood at 23 feet tall.

Munro’s King Kong in Birmingham, 1972

But, some six months after its unveiling, Birmingham gave up on it. The city refused to pay for its upkeep and wouldn’t keep it as a permanent fixture. So Munro’s sculpture went up for sale and a businessman named Mike Shanley appeared with the necessary 3000 pounds sterling. Shanley figured the enormity of the thing would be a good roadside draw to his business, a car dealership. It did just that, and he rebranded as King Kong Motors. It became a fixture of Camp Hill.

While Shanley’s oversized bet paid off, that alone didn’t bring the Kong craze to American car dealers. But a 1976 remake of King Kong (starring Jeff Bridges, Jessica Lange and Charles Grodin) proved to be a success and drove all manner of nostalgia for the oversized primate. Then technology stepped in: laminated vinyl grew up — and could be produced in larger and larger forms and more complex shapes. The time was right. Munro’s idea for King Kong quite literally blew up — it would now become a staple of automotive retailing.

Now thousands of Kongs brighten (besiege?) the American landscape. They cost anywhere from $5000-$10,000 and weigh about 800 pounds all in. They’re usually 40-feet tall in largest form, with grommets on the chest to display banners and signs.

Munro’s original, by the way, lives on. Shanley sold King Kong to a Scottish market owner in the late 1970s where it stood atop his store. It has since moved to Penrith (Scotland) where it could use a bath and a return to glory atop a building. Or perhaps a car dealership.

Below, a collection of Kongs in various colors and dispositions.