sword-billed hummingbird » Consumer Society

Ways of consuming music

Ben — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 01:22:01 +0000

Of course you know that artists don’t get money when you find their music through less-than-aboveboard avenues; but do you know the difference between buying in-store and, say, through iTunes? Or what the cut is when you stream something over Rhapsody, or download from cdBaby? Dig into this delicious infographic and find out (and read through the comments to stumble through some of the conceptual differences that are harder to portray graphically). (via Information Is Beautiful)

The narratives of refrigerator innards

Ben — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:11:25 +0000

This falls into the category of things that are uninteresting in real life, but which become interesting through the act of photography. Or something. (It may simply be that the photographs aren’t accompanied by the rank refrigerator smell that’s always lurking, waiting for the right moment to assault your nostrils.)

The photos are accompanied by brief descriptions of the households they represent.

(in GOOD Magazine, via The Morning News)

Once you start using it, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it

Ben — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:18:30 +0000

The Pomegranate. (No, not the fruit.)

It’s kind of amazing how much effort actually went into this.

“A fresh cup of coffee from your smart phone. Yes, it’s finally possible.

(via MeFi)

Useful, in a fake 3-d sort of way

Ben — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:39:22 +0000

If you’re the sort to buy something online, and buy it before you’ve seen it in person.

A useful tool for comparing relative sizes of objects.

(via gHacks)

Once again, “If you give a moose a muffin” comes to the rescue

Ben — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:07:24 +0000

Filed under Things I Am Bad At: Judge a book by its cover. The goal of this (simple, difficult) game is to guess the average number of stars under the book’s listing on Amazon. You get a running tally of how many you guessed correctly.

Ahead of its time?

Ben — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:24:52 +0000

A sort of Netflix for magazines, Maghound has recently launched — and looks like an intriguing concept. You pay a set monthly fee, and can easily change which magazines you get from month to month (getting the same # each month, relative to your subscription level). Also, they have a great logo:

Unfortunately, the selection of magazines still seems a little limited. Hopefully they’ll be adding more magazines, and we’ll see less of the unhappy Maghound.

And then there’s the unlucky 10%

Ben — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:20:55 +0000

“Consumer Reports Survey: More Than 90 Percent of Hagglers Scored Better Prices on Furniture, Electronics and Appliances, Medical Bills, and More.”

(via Consumerist)

Whatbooks?

Ben — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:59:11 +0000

You can always build forts.

(via Bookslut)

Will Skystream 3.7 work for me?

Ben — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 02:02:11 +0000

Too bad about the “your property is greater than .5 acre and is unobstructed” requirement. Because otherwise I would totally buy a windmill.

Numbers in Pictures

Ben — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 01:35:15 +0000

It doesn’t look like much, but what you’re looking at is the number of cell phones “retired” in the U.S. every day — 426,000. View a close up, and other similar photo montages of consumption at Chris Jordan’s Running the Numbers.

(via GOOD Magazine)