The new issue of So-Cal based Happy Magazine features ten pages of artwork by Spear Collective member and our favorite rock star Ryder Robison. If you don’t have a paper copy easily accessible, you can see the issue online; click the “Peep This Issue” link on the website, and it will be on the upper-right side of the page. Ryder has also been doing a lot of updating on his PantherAttack portfolio lately, and I urge you to take a look at the additions he’s made to his photography, illustration, and painting sections. He recently dug some great photos out of his archives– there’s a little bit of everything in there: urban, rural, rustic, cultural, Rock n’ Roll, and straight up eclectic. You’ll just have to see for yourself.

Uber-famous entrepreneur and venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki recently launched a new project, Truemors.com. His latest venture aims to open access to information and capitalize on user-generated content – namely rumors, news, and other tidbits. Anything seems to be fair game, aside from what Kawasaki & Co. deem to be “crap”. Wary of hypocrisy, Kawasaki closely monitors new submissions and deletes many yet retains quite a few questionable posts as well. (After all, self-promotion and grassroots buzz-building are part of what make ventures like Truemors work.) Few obstacles discourage potential submitters (the site does not require registration or email validation) and options for slinging dirt (via phone, text, email, or online) abound. Once posted, users can score posts in a Digg-like fashion. To date, the reception from the media and in the blogosphere has been decidedly mixed. Some point to the site’s clunky performance (load times can be slow and automatic page refreshes can get irritating) and uninspiring design and cry “dud” while others seem enamored by Kawasaki’s boldness and willingness to take a risk. Yet, as he himself frequently mentions in defense of Truemors, the site took only $12,000 to build — not much of a financial risk nor should any would-be entrepreneurs be surprised at how little it takes to launch a site in today’s market. I doubt he’s risking much personal capital either — at this point, most people inclined to have an opinion either consider him a genius or a lucky self-promoter. The site’s success or failure doesn’t seem likely to significantly change his image. From my perspective, Truemors is more interesting as a Web 2.0 exercise than in reality. If anything, its potential success may tell us something about ourselves – if we decide we really need another source for trifles like the details of Julie Bowen’s labor and childbirth (#9 on the “Greatest” list at the moment), Truemors will make sure we have it.

Yesterday, PC World released their rankings of 2007’s best sites, PCs, HDTVs, services and components. Aside from the fact that I’m only familiar with about a handful of the list’s mentions (yeah, as it turns out, Canonical Ubuntu 7.04 is a Linux update, not an anthropological excavation site), I can still say from my admittedly naive perspective that the list does a killer job cluing in readers as to what they might want to pay attention to in regards to the future of technology. Not surprisingly, Google Apps Premier Edition grabbed the number one spot, followed closely by the Intel Core 2 Duo, the Blackberry 8800, and ninety-seven other techy wonders, including Meebo, Guitar Hero 2 (rock out!) and of course, the MacBook Pro, which I can personally vouch for as a ray of sunshine in a dark-with-PCs planet. Long story shortest, if you’re in the market for a nicely packaged course in current technology, this list will get you updated faster than SightSpeed 6. I don’t really know what that is- but, uh, it sounds fast– so go read, readers.

Now that I’m finally settling into my digs here in Sao Paulo, I’ve been looking around for pieces to spruce up my place and unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), there’s no IKEA here to help. But this past weekend while attending ResFest I discovered ALGO and already am making plans on where in my apartment I can put their gorgeous decorative pillows. Members the ALGO collective (who count fashion, photography and animation among their interests) silk-screen leftover fabric with quirky graphics such as lobsters over unique abstract patterns. The result is an irreverent, colorful take on home decor as well as great conversation pieces for a housewarming party — and they probably look great when used as weapons in a pillow fight, too!

The throw pillows come in four sizes, from a round tube ($25) to square at 20 x 20 inches ($50). Since the project is so new, the pillows are only available by e-mailing them or in person at bazaars held at ALGO member Michael Arms. ALGO will soon be expanding their line to include sleeping masks and pillow cases.

If there’s anything that I learned during the two days I spent at ICFF, it’s that I’m a little too obsessed with lighting. Sure, lighting is one of the most important, yet often one of the most overlooked elements in design, but my excitement over pendant lamps measuring almost five feet in diameter is beyond ridiculous. Luckily for you, though, that just means lots of pictures that will hopefully inspire you to get rid of that $10 piece of junk from IKEA. And don’t tell me you don’t have one, because I know you do. My favorites from the show are after the jump, and when I wade through the mounds of press kits I lugged home, I’m sure there’ll be even more.
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While checking out the recently prettified blog of our Portland-based friends at db clay (we’re super excited about their forthcoming series of environmentally-friendly wallets), I fell hard for a new and glorious form of media player. SplashCast, a new start-up also based in Portland, enables users to create streaming media “channels” that mix together music, video, text, photos, narration, and RSS Feeds, as well as PowerPoint presentations and PDFs. SplashCast is a “skinless” media player, which means that it is wonderfully adaptable to individual sites’ branding and design- in other words, the player will blend seamlessly into whatever you’ve got going for you, without any rubbish YouTube borders, etc. SplashCast also makes it easier to track views, something that can help you figure out whether to keep up your daily posts or call it quits (just kidding; you write because you love it, right?). Because SplashCast is free — and from what I can tell, easy to use — you have little reason not to try it out. Download this little gem here, then let us know what you think.