Inspiring Links for October

Pretty – Stuff to look at

61 cool book covers
Though it's only October, we're around that time when the Christmas gift monster comes around looking for your money. Amongst other places, it takes you to bookstores, where you'll see the new releases of the season, most of which look rubbish, or boring if they're lucky. These 61 cover designs definitely aren't.

Grainedit.com
Excellent weblog covering design from the 50s up through the 70s, and contemporary design inspired by said period.

Retro poster knock-off's
A collection of a variety of cool retro posters (similar in style with the historic propaganda posters we've presented here earlier), one recruiting viper mechanics (Battlestar Galactica), another advertising ski trips to Pluto. Also has a load of links to other sites with even more in the same style. 

Sega cover designs
Paulo at Abuzeedo.com compiled this glorious list of old cover designs for Sega Mega Drive games.

Supernice.co.uk – Big fancy stickers for your walls
Webshop selling smashing, big wall stickers.

Adgoodness blog
A nice blog about advertising and related stuff. Lot's of images, not a lot of text. I particularly liked the IKEA-style Israel Gay Youth Organization ad from a few weeks back.

Designyoutrust.com
Hyperactive blog-collective about anything design with loads of new postings every day, showing off a wide range of design and styles, both digital and analogue.

Innovative

The Horizontal Way
Good looking website promoting horizontal scrolling in websites as opposed to the common vertical orientation. I hadn't actually thought of this as a possible alternative before, but now that I've seen it, I see the obvious benefits of such a layout, and sincerely hope more websites pop up with horizontal layouts.

Armsflow.org
A great example of how dry statistics can be turned into something eye-catching (and troubling). Still needs a bit of bug-fixing/optimization, but I'm looking forward to seeing it finished!

Useful (or not)

25 useful WYSIWYG editors reviewed
If Notepad is too low-tech for you, Smashing Magazine has put together this very handy review of 25 different WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) website editors to help you choose one. Personally, I needed an easy-to-use, free-of-charge editor that would cover my modest requirements, so I went with the latest edition of KompoZer.

A List Apart 2007 web professional survey
In 2007, A List Apart surveyed roughly 33 000 web professionals on everything from job titles (25% listed "Developer") and salary to whether they blog or not. The end result was an 82 page report with heaps of info. It was re-done this summer, and the results can be expected sometimes later this fall. In the meanwhile, check out the 2007 report for loads of interesting stats.

50+ Excellent Body Enhancement Photoshop Tutorials
A useful roundup of face and body Photoshop enhancement tutorials. Includes tips and trics covering everything from adding 'sparkle' to models' eyes and removing unwanted skin blemishes and tattoos, to more extreme makeovers. Just remember that poor retouching is usually much worse than no retouching – a couple of the examples also go to show just what a fine balance there is between people looking 'perfect' and looking like they are from a different planet altogether...

Pathfinder – An eco-friendly amphibian veichle
I have a hard time imagining myself crossing the Atlantic in this anytime soon, but I love the idea. For modern day pirates and sea dogs, this may be the best thing to happen since the discovery of the Americas, imagine the piracy opportunities mass usage of such a vehicle would create!

Off topic (fragments of everything else)

Binaureal soundbytes
Some examples of a sound recording and playback technique called binaureal recording. Plug your headset (doesn't work on regular speakers) into your computer and turn on one of these to check it out. A friend described this stuff as "creepy", I prefer "amazing".

UC Berkeley Podcast Archive
Many of you are probably aware that a lot of universities are publishing podcasts of their lectures online. Not only is UC Berkeley one of the world's best universities, it's also one of the best sources of lecture podcasts. Almost all lectures are available as mp3 files for download, many are also available as streaming video (though unfortunately only in Real Media format). The link leads to the listing for the fall semester of 2007, offering courses in such varied topics as American cyber-culture, human nutrition and quantum mechanics. Use the drop-down menu in the top right corner of the page to check out the offerings from other semesters, where heaps of other courses are offered. Alternately, use their iTunes listing.

Roberto Baggio freekick game
A small and simple football (soccer) freekick game I remember wasting time on years ago, which I recently rediscovered. Becomes ridiculously addictive once you've scored your first goal. I think it used to be dedicated to legendary Italian forward Roberto Baggio, which is why his highly pixelated face pops up whenever you miss.