Jeff Milner

Kuro5shin writes about some software he came up with that exploits Google’s book browsing service.

Many people are curious about the inner workings of Google, but they are mostly interested in keeping it a secret. So, any information we can glean comes from “black box” analysis. Recently, I wrote a short article that explains how I wrote some simple code that can instantly create PDFs of entire books from Google Print.

Read Hacking Google Print.

I found a new blog about drawing, illustration, and art called Drawn! that looks pretty sweet. It’s still new, but so far the posts include (among others) links to Vintage magazine art, a collection of Batman logos from the past, and even some 3D animation from Blur. I love it; I’m adding the link to my sidebar.

Drawn! is a collaborative weblog for illustrators, artists, cartoonists, and anyone who likes to draw. Visit us daily for a dose of links and creative inspiration.

Claim: Iraqi militant web site displays image of action figure toy identified as a captured American soldier.

Snopes reports that the status of this claim is True.

From All Your Base to Zombo.com, the Wikipedia has a pretty good collection of Internet Memes.

The Thought Project is a collection of headshots taken of random people in Copenhagen, Denmark and New York City. Beside each image is the thought(s) they were thinking just as they were approached for a picture.

Over a period of 3 months I stopped 150 strangers on the street and asked them what they where thinking about the second before I stopped them. Using a mic and a dictaphone I recorded what they told me, then took a picture of them. 55 of the 150 thoughts are presented on this website as quotes. All quotes state exactly what was said during the interviews. The interviews took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, and New York City.

Amazing story about a man’s promise to his grandfather.

When I was 9, I caught my grandfather shaving in the bathroom and that is when I saw it: His Camp Number – 58877241.

Not knowing any better, I asked him why he got such a “stupid tattoo”. He told me that he really didn’t want to get it and quickly tried to cover it with a towel. I followed him asking him, “Why don’t you get it removed then?” He stop dead in the hallway and without turning around said “So I don’t forget.” We never discussed it again.

When he died last summer, I told myself that he was finally at peace. As I stood over his coffin with my wife, I reached down and took his arm in mine. I unbuttoned his sleeve and rolled it up. I looked at the number again – 58877241. My wife looked at me and asked “Why are you doing that?” All I could say was “So I don’t forget.” Right then I made my promise to him – Never again.

What is particularly fascinating about this story is the response he got from one woman about her own grandfather and his experience in the war:

They hauled him in front of a firing squad. The Captain of the Guard again demanded that the Jews among them be identified. Then one of the soldiers came forward and identified himself as a Jew. The Captain grabbed him and hauled him away and stopped the execution. The troops never saw the soldier again.

The soldier that volunteered the information that he was Jewish was named Roman Edemskoi (58877241) – the same man.

(Via MeFi)

I got a parking ticket today; how irritating. I discovered it when leaving from the figure drawing studio.

Anyway, here are my figure drawings. Please leave a comment if you like them.