onfocus

A bot buys stuff at random from Amazon using a random word from a dictionary for a product search and then JavaScript automation completes the transaction.

A game designer lays out his existential frustration. I really like the idea of stepping back and stripping away the 'best practices' around an activity to find its core function. And then asking if that core function is meaningful. Excellent food for thought. [via torrez]

Andy put together a handy list of geeky Portland spots. Wish I could be up there for ROFLcon tomorrow.

A great blog about futures past has moved to the Smithsonian Magazine. Seems like a good fit.

huh, Corvallis has the largest percentage of bicycle commuters in the country.

"There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody." It's nice to hear someone communicating traditional Democratic values so clearly.

"...today's writer resembles more a programmer than a tortured genius, brilliantly conceptualizing, constructing, executing, and maintaining a writing machine." Nice.

Swooping 50's architecture photographs.

Create stories using social media.

Insanely colorful sculptures and drawings.

Images that are liked on MLKSHK.

This was a fun surprise at the GEL conference this year.

A nice jQuery image cropping library.

How-To: Art.

Looking for "picture of the day" at wikipedia is a good way to find potential desktop background pictures.

Hooray, Alan Taylor's new photography / journalism weblog is live!

Nostalgia-drenched photorealist still life paintings.

Nice browser extension that embeds site previews on Twitter. (It works better than that sounds.)

"Are we are evolving our contract with society through our increasing interactions with digital platforms, and in particular, through what we've come to call the web?"

Fantastic engravings from an 18th century book on religious practice across the world.

Nice description of the terrifying uniform plague doctors wore in the Middle Ages.