onfocus

Cumputing Division, Computing Section. Wonderful/awful vintage photograph.

[via kottke]

Texas highway department: "roads simply don't pay for themselves." [via migurski]

Fantastic post about subterranean tunnels and the Federal Writers' Project that exposes some darker parts of the American West psyche.

looks like a good way to jump start a CF facebook app.

"...this moving skyscape features Jupiter above the southeastern horizon and the marbled streets of the ancient port city of Ephesus, located in modern day Turkey."

This animated gif shows the change from the Greek alphabet to the Latin alphabet over time.

Nice sampling of the illustrator's work. Wikipedia: Edward Bawden.

Fantastic, fantastic story about the life of field recorder Tony Schwartz. Listen to this right now!

Neighborhood data for geo-aware applications under a CC license. [via joshua]

"A blogger named Violet Blue noticed that we unpublished some posts related to her." BoingBoing comments on posts missing from their archive. Glad they explained, but unpublished has an unfortunate Orwellian ring to it.

Examples of pictures from dozens of vintage cameras. [via A Photo Editor]

Make any photo look like it was taken during Japan's Edo period. [via MeFi] Here's what one of my photos looks like after being sent back in time:

"Figure out how much each Netflix rental is costing you." I don't want to know.

Nice photo of rain in Pittsburgh.

Short-wave radio is still around and growing. Funny that China still expends effort blocking short-wave signals.

The soviet photos and false intro are heavy handed, but archive integrity is an important subject. They quote Rebecca Blood's Weblog Ethics:

History can be rewritten, but it cannot be undone. Changing or deleting words is possible on the Web, but possibility does not always make good policy. Think before you publish and stand behind what you write. If you later decide you were wrong about something, make a note of it and move on.

[via Fimoculous]

A collection of tips for preserving your digital materials by The Library of Congress. [via Long Views]

"[McCain] is not only 'breaking his word' he's breaking the law."

"The campaign...includes television and online ads and 'phone and in-person conversations with influential mommy bloggers.'" Beware mommy bloggers praising corn syrup.

Derek on the often brutal world of startups, even for founders. JPG Magazine is/was great, this sucks.

Great tips about running a successful online community.

the history of the "amen break", its impact on culture, and some thoughts about copyright in the sampling age.