“Every week, the editors of New York magazine identify five upcoming ‘can’t miss’ activities in the magazine’s back-of-the-book listings section. And every week, New York’s design director, Luke Hayman, and art director, Chris Dixon, select a designer to create ‘High Priority,’ a typographic illustration using these five selections.”

“Early in my career, I was involved in a strange and completely unnecessary rivalry with one of my coworkers. She and I were like oil and water. After years of chilly interaction we actually managed to engage in something that had the semblance of a civil conversation. During this chat, she somewhat reluctantly noted that she held no drawing skills. To state it candidly, I was aghast. How could a professional not have a handle on what I perceived as the absolute basics? Even that early on, I knew that design was about more than getting funky glasses and flipping through type magazines — It had everything to do with the idea. How could you effectively explore or begin to develop an idea without first scratching down some thumbnails and messing about?”

“You’ve thought up a brilliant idea for a new Web 2.0, AJAX-enabled web app, or you’re about to release a thus-far-unnamed killer software app. Now you just need to find the perfect domain name for it to live at (and, in true new-economy fashion, you’ll base your corporate name upon whatever available domain name you find… PILLAGEANDPLUNDR Corporation). You pull up GoDaddy and start punching in clever names, along with their many variations, only to find that they’re all seemingly taken. ‘This can’t be!’ you cry. ‘Has every possibility already been registered?’”

“So what are the criteria for coming up with a godo company name? Well the list is short and sweet, but that doesn’t make the process any easier. So many names have been taken up that now you are either starting to see some recycled goodies or names that come from words that don’t even exist.”

“You probably own a digital camera and you’ve probably taken a bajillion photos with it. You may have printed a few. Well, it turns out there’s a whole world of things you can do with your photos and with your camera that nobody ever told you about. We find the most kick-ass photo tips, DIY projects, and gear and bring them to you. Turn a photo into a mural at home in 5 minutes, print your friends’ faces onto cupcakes, or get a bottlecap that turns any soda bottle into a tripod… subscribe and we’ll show you how.”

“Take your best shot–and send it to us. Your Shot features editors’ selections from the first 5,000 photographs submitted online each month. This month’s theme, for photos to be published both online and in the July 2006 print issue, is ‘My Family.’”

“How an A List Apart Illustration Comes Together: I’ve had a lot of inquiries about my process over the past couple of months. It’s always been rather difficult to answer these questions, because I approach each job with a different process, dependent on the needs of the resulting art. But lately, I have noticed a loose pattern all my jobs tend to follow — and while not every job can be shoe-horned into a rigid assembly line of tactics, they all seem to pass through the following phases.”

“Pigments are the basis of all paints, and have been used for millennia. They are ground colored material. Early pigments were simply as ground earth or clay, and were made into paint with spit or fat. Modern pigments are often sophisticated masterpieces of chemical engineering. This exhibit includes most important pigments used through the early 20th century.” (Thanks Coudal Partners!)

Wow, this is a blast from the past that I had forgotten about! Remember way back when, when xBlog was one of the 50 most popular/linked blogs in the world, ranked just ahead of Zeldman? Weird. In the last six years we have seen A LOT of good weblogs come and go, most of them passing us by as we sit here posting link after link. Well, here’s to another six years of linklog xBlog love. Have a great weekend, everyone. -bk

” Ever wanted to catch a snowflake and keep it forever? You can. This is a photograph of a snowflake that fell in January 1979, but it isn’t a 27-year-old photo. It is a recent shot of a snowflake that’s been sitting in chemist Tryggvi Emilsson’s desk for 27 years, locked in a drop of that miracle of modern chemistry we call superglue.” (Thanks Coudal Partners!)

“Journal Of A Photographer is a website dedicated to photojournalism and photography. A website about my long lasting passion. I want it to be a resource for photographers, for aspiring as well as professionals, for viewers as well as shooters. Journal Of A Photographer aims to bring you insight views into the lifes of professional photographers through a continued series of audio interviews. It contains photography book reviews as well as tutorials on my workflow, provides you with photojournalism news, events and competitons and offers an extensive links section with sites related to photography and journalism.”

“From dawn to dusk, humans rely on tools to get us through the day. And from the beginning of civilization, we’ve used them to build and shape our world. In order to celebrate these devices, and so we might reflect upon the ways that we are the tools we use, Forbes.com decided to compile a list of the 20 most important tools of all time. These are the tools that have most impacted human civilization and helped move the course of history.”

A web site dedicated to advertising, which includes sections like AdMirror (campaigns that look strangely similar), a fake ad gallery and a blog.

“You will notice that there are no micro coding tips & tricks below. No info on how to make a fast for loop or such. The tips I post is what I think you should do to learn how to learn those tricks for yourself. In all, this list is a little softer around the edges and goes mostly for the background things. Most noticeably you will see things that are totally opposite to what most recognized people say about how to code.”

“A year ago I have started to improve my web-development skills and share the knowledge I had with the visitors of my blog. Most projects and article I’ve created or written are still popular in the Net — The Web-Developer’s Handbook has become one of the most popular web-sites… The funny thing is that as I was just realizing my ideas in the Web, I didn’t think about getting the page popular, tweaking its position in search engines or finding potential clients on the Web. The basic idea was helping people. First of all, helping me, but also sharing my work with people who might need it…”