Happy Friday

June 11th, 2010 by Julie Hill

Happy Friday!

Here at HQ HQ we have a very likable fellow typically manning the building’s front desk in the mornings named Zack, and every Friday he greets every person with a sunny “Happy Friday!”

I like to think this is why he’s so cheerful.

Happy Friday!

Posted in Uncategorized | 187 Comments »

Is MIT Messing With Me?

January 20th, 2010 by Julie Hill

mit_wtf

“The Center for Advanced Visual Studies is a community for contemporary art in the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”

OK, so it’s not a web or graphic design school, but still…WHAT. This website…it periodically reloads itself. The layout appears to be random. There are animated gifs. THIS IS A REAL PAGE. I’m baffled and sort of enthralled all at once.

Maybe that’s the point, aha! The website itself is meant as a “contemporary art piece,” (right?) a commentary on Internet and Art and Grid Systems and Whathaveyou. Whoa. It really kind of IS making me think. This reminds me of a recent episode of NBC’s Parks and Recreation, where Tom (who proudly declares, “I have no interest in art”) commissions an abstract expressionist painting, and finds as he really looks at it, that his opinion changes from derisive to admiring. “A piece of art caused me to have an emotional reaction. Is that normal?”

Related: a friend just reported that, while viewing the MIT site, his cat leapt from his shoulder to attack the computer screen.

Posted in Design, Thinking | 183 Comments »

Feed Your Cats, Nerds.

December 1st, 2009 by Julie Hill

Why open a bag of cat food with your human hands when you can just have the internets do it for you? Read all about it here on Engadget, or just watch the movie:

Is this the future? One commenter provides a word of caution:
JS Posted: “No way in hell am I gonna have electronics easily accessible to my cat. He’ll hax0r it and the next thing I know he’s built himself a megajoule laser.”

Posted in Technology | 16 Comments »