The contrast is clear – the front page from 1941 is extremely text heavy, with only a single graphic and no photographs. The newspaper from 2001 is dominated by dramatic full color photographs, and text occupies less than 50% of the page. The photographs draw the reader in and convey much more emotion than the text alone. An interesting contrast, and a testament to both improved printing technology and our increasingly visual nature.

But the trend doesn’t stop with newspapers. I’m writing this post in the midst of “iPad mania” – Apple’s much anticipated tablet computer will be released in just 48 hours. I think that much of the hype around the iPad is due to the fact that so much of the experience Apple has designed is centered around consuming rich media – movies, comics, photos, and video. Even the vanilla e-book as been re-imagined – one of the launch titles is an illustrated guide to the periodic table, aptly titled The Elements. Instead of simply text and pictures, The Elements contains three dimensional samples and photos of each element: a nugget of gold (Au), an ingot of coal (C), a manganese crystal (Mn). You can touch and rotate them with your fingers. Tap to stream related videos from the internet or pull up the current market price of silver. What was once words on a page is now alive with information and rich media.

This kind of rich, visual media is definitely going to revolutionize not only textbooks, but literature of all types. Imagine a medical journal with anatomy models that rotate and zoom, or engineering manuals with diagrams that explode to show each and every part inside a car engine. As we discover ways to communicate more and more information visually instead of simply through text, I think the future is going to be a very exciting place to be.

I borrowed my brother’s acoustic, a long forgotten Christmas present stored away in the attic and sat down in front of the computer. I hadn’t the first idea how to start. Serendipitously, that moment, my RSS reader led me to this post on TechCrunch, profiling a new website called iVideoSongs. The site offers a high definition videos from world-class instructors teaching you how to play acoustic or electric guitar. There are 25 free guitar basics tutorials, and currently 50 video tutorials for specific songs (with plans to expand to over 1000). I’ve downloaded all the tutorials, as well as purchased one of the song tutorials ($5 or $10, depending on the song). The quality of videos and instruction is excellent – I feel like I’ve made real progress in only an hour.

I’m normally extremely cheap when it comes to spending money on digital files, but when you compare with the cost of guitar lessons ($40/hour), iVideoSongs looks pretty good. It’s also really handy to be able to stop and rewind the videos – something you can’t do with in person lessons.

I’m also currently looking for a few good tablature websites, as well as a guitar basics DVD. Any recommendations?

If there was no such thing today as the public library and someone like Bill Gates proposed to establish them in cities and towns across the U.S. (much like Andrew Carnegie once did), what would happen?

I am guessing there would be a huge pushback from book publishers. Given the current state of debate about intellectual property, can you imagine modern publishers being willing to sell one copy of a book and then have the owner let an unlimited number of strangers borrow it?

I don’t think so. Perhaps they’d come up with a licensing agreement: the book costs $20 to own, with an additional $2 per year for every year beyond Year 1 it’s in circulation. I’m sure there would be a lot of other potential arrangements. And I am just as sure that, like a lot of systems that evolve over time, the library system is one that, if it were being built from scratch today, would have a very different set of dynamics and economics.

In addition, they’re not constrained to only logos from the major leagues (NFL, MLB, etc), they have logos from smaller and more obscure leagues like Roller Hockey International. They also have a full catalog of logos from defunct leagues like the XFL.

The catalog isn’t constrained to pro leagues either. College sports are well represented by past and present NCAA teams, in all divisions and conferences, in lots of sports.

And as if that still weren’t enough, they also have a chronological history of all the logos every team in their massive database has EVER used throughout their history.

The archive also contains logos for sports related events or groups that aren’t teams per say, for example every games’ Summer Olympics logo or the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

All in all, it’s a fun browse if you’re a sports fan, or even a designer looking for artwork (remember copyright laws if you use them for commercial purposes).

Just got back from seeing Casino Royale a second time, and it’s by far the best Bond movie in recent memory (currently at 95% on RottenTomatoes), much better than all of Brosnan’s movies (and I like Brosnan’s portrayal of Bond). The story isn’t outlandish like the lasers-from-space-apocalypse in Die Another Day. The writing is excellent, developing the Bond character from an ordinary Mi6 agent to the Bond we all know and love. He transitions from blunt instrument to “half monk, half hitman”. Throughout the course of the movie, Bond discovers his favorite car (Aston Martin), favorite drink (“Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel.”), and we are shown exactly why he will never trust anyone again. Bond bleeds in this movie – a lot. It gives him a deeper, more human feel, he’s not simply a tuxedo.

Which leads to the statement that will probably raise the hackles of Bond fans everywhere: Daniel Craig will be the best Bond ever. Better than Brosnan. Yes, even better than Connery. Craig portrays Bond with grittiness and authenticity that is lacking in previous portrayals. Craig’s Bond succeeds because of his rough edges, not his skill in delivering a sexual double entendre. I believe that over the next few films, Craig’s Bond will become more polished and suave, as the character develops further. Which is why I qualified my statement with “will be”. One film does not a legend make. However, if Daniel Craig turns in two or three more performances of this caliber, he will go down in history as the definitive James Bond, 007.

PS – I really enjoy the Chris Cornell song played during the intro, “You Know My Name”. You can hear it online at his MySpace page (I can’t believe I just linked to MySpace).