Squeak of the Week

Apparently Shaq was spurred into tweeting by an imposter posing as him, "Somebody out there was trying to use my language and trying to speak for me," O'Neal, sounding more amused than offended, said Wednesday night in a telephone interview. "Rather than have that happen, I thought I'd do it myself." O'Neal added: "It's a fun thing. It's a way for fans to connect."

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Processing is a programming language, development environment, and online community that since 2001 has promoted software literacy within the visual arts. Initially created to serve as a software sketchbook and to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context, Processing quickly developed into a tool for creating finished professional work as well.
Processing is a free, open source alternative to proprietary software tools with expensive licenses, making it accessible to schools and individual students. Its open source status encourages the community participation and collaboration that is vital to Processing’s growth.

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A tool that shows you how popular a Google search query is in each U.S. state, giving it a ranking which it then compares with other ways of ranking states, like average income or population density. Ohio ranks 3rd in searches for "ice cream", but number 1 for searches of "chili."

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In an unusual commission, the Glenfiddich distillery in Scotland approached design studio johnson banks to create a series of artworks illustrating the length of time it takes for their single malt whiskies to mature in the barrel. Following on from a similar initiative last year (where five different designers were each given a barrel to work with), johnson banks looked to the function of each part of the barrel to make a series of sculptures based on the five differently aged Glenfiddich whiskies. The results are on show this week in Glasgow.

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It’s rare to hear about genetics and advertising platforms in the same sentence, but new startup SnapAds has put together an impressive ad service that effectively combines the theory of natural selection with banner ads - with very impressive results. The startup, which shares a number of founders with Weebly (though the two companies are unrelated), has created a system that dynamically adjusts the appearance of banner ads over time to maximize engagement. And it seems to work - a three day trial campaign for a recent film saw an increased clickthrough rate of 1922% over three days (not a typo).

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