infovore.org is (ideally) set in Gill Sans, Hoefler Text, and Verdana, and it was constructed in Arachnophilia 4.0 and BBEdit. Content management provided by the mighty Movable Type, hosting by the delightful 34sp. Many thanks to Dan Hon and Tom Coates for their help and inspiration. Content and layout (c) T. Armitage 2003,2004.
About text
03 May 2004
infovore.org is the personal site of Tom Armitage, a twenty-something compulsive consumer of words in rows. That’s me on the left.
Having graduated from a degree in English, I now live in London, working in New Media. When I’m not doing that, I tend to consume things; music, writing, art, film; food. Film especially.
On the off-chance I’m not devouring information of some form, I’m probably creating something. There are various fictive projects in the background (including the novel), there’s a relaunch of Omnivore to be dealt with, there’s a lot of music I’m working on, and then odds and ends of web software and design. And a ton of photography. All for fun, honestly. I like making things.
In particular, I really like making things for the web. I think I’ve finally found my canvas of choice. I’m not as good at it as I’d like, but I think that’s probably because I set my standards rather high. Once I realise I’m not going to become Zeldman, Kottke, Bowman or Meyer any time soon (and that it took them a fair few years to get there), I’ll probably be a lot more content with my lot. Until then, I’m doing my best to improve. This site is one of my better attempts at design for the web.
I started my first weblog, entitled tajmahal, in late Februrary 2001. Powered by Blogger, it was a mixture of links, commentary, and personal journal. It ceased in July 2003, when I finished my degree. It’s not online at the moment, but I’m planning to republish it to this site at some point.
Infovore as a site consists of a longer weblog on the left, with commentary, tales far- and not-so-far-fetched, anecdotes, and general whinging. Common subjects featured here (aside from whinging about how little I’ve done) include web design, software and technology, art and culture, and food – along with the odd personal note. To its right is a briefer linklog of interesting or amusing bookmarks – some are just that, bookmarks to myself; others are intended for wider consumption; all are probably of interest to someone out there. If you find them all interesting, you’re probably my ideal reader.
Emergency exits can be found to your rear, or in the links section, where other sites I regularly enjoy are now yours for the taking. Finally, if you want the content of the site in the RSS reader of your choice, an RSS feed is available.
Breeder
28 April 2004
Wot larx I’m having, now that I’m hatched into the world of Breedster. Cutting to the chase of foaf-social-networking-doodads with its basic fornicate/ingest/excrete framework is a stroke of genius; you occasionally bump into people on the grid, but it’s not like you interact properly or anything. You just eat the other person’s dung. Partly satirical of the Friendster craze, it also in many ways suceeds in replicating real-world social dynamics far better than many of its equivalents: you want to hang out with the people you’ll breed best with. Or who shit the kind of things you like to eat. For your information, I eat blue, I poo red – so I’m not part of the dreaded Green conspiracy
I tell you, this is better than Orkut anyday.
glassplate
26 April 2004
The Glass Plate Game. A game of collaborative thinking. Looks very, very interesting.
Ticket Machine UI
22 April 2004
This week I had to take a trip to Ikea Croydon (like Croydon, only Swedish)to buy a sofa. Pretty mundane, really. But on the way I got to use the Tramlink service, that runs from Wimbledon to Croydon, and stumbled across a rather interesting piece of UI design.
Ticket machines in London are funny beasts; the simplest (Tube quick ticket machines/bus ticket machines) require a single button press to choose a ticket. There used to be those huge matrix-of-buttons Tube ones, but they’ve now been replaced with touch screens. Touch screens are all over the place on the railways. And the railway quick ticket machines require far too many different coloured buttons to qualify as “entirely easy to use” (at first glance, anyhow).
Tramlink ticket machines are great. They’re quite chunky, and need to be weatherproof. The screen is encased in metal, and initially I thought it was a touchpad. Oh no. Really, it’s a giant, weatherproof, iPod.
Bottom left of screen is a metallic cancel button. Bottom right is a large (2.5″ diameter) rubber wheel, with a metal button in the middle of it. You turn the wheel to select things on screen, hit the center button to select. It’s weatherproof, it’s durable, it’s easy to maintain, and doesn’t lead to the whole “hitting the wrong thing” problem that touchscreens have. Sure, it’s entirely cobbled from an iPod, but it’s interesting to see that piece of consumer design reinterpreted on a more industrial level.
That’s the wheel in the bottom right.
hipsters
19 April 2004
Hey there hipsters! Unemployed? Not sure where to put that messy hairdo and scrawny frame? Go get thee a job at the Regent Street Apple Store, so you can fix my PB when it breaks. And maybe give me a free iPod.
webbwho
13 April 2004
danny said i look like the should-be next doctor who. Matt Webb’s friend Danny is right. (Matt is on a roll at the moment; his stuff on dogs is fascinating, but I’m not sure I’m fully there with the Dictionary, Intertextual, yet.
Yet Another Service Announcement
11 April 2004
Things might be even quieter than usual around here for a while. Moving. Will let you know how it goes.