Jory Raphael, in January:

I love designing icons. So I’m going to design one (at least) new icon every day in 2013. Each new icon will be available to download as a free png. I’m excited to see how this project progresses. I already have a few ideas for making it fun, including the occasional process video and perhaps some fun ways to choose what icons I make next.

Ultimately the icons will be added to the sets on Symbolicons.com, but I’ll be posting the new ones right here on sensibleworld.com. I can’t promise that posts will be at a consistent time, so follow me on twitter to be notified when they’re up.

I’ve never attempted such a regimented (daily) challenge. I’m equal parts excited and nervous. Wish me luck!

173 icons later, he’s followed through with his goal. So far, they have been awesome. I can’t wait to see what’s coming the rest of the year.

Jory is a designer and illustrator based in Vermont, where he runs his design shop - Sensible World. His awesome work includes all of the show art for the 5by5 podcast network, the amazing vector icon set called Symbolicons (I use these in my web designs and iOS apps), and Notabli, a new social network startup for parents.

If you would like a cool set of free icons, just follow him on Twitter for each day’s release.

Why did I wait this long to tell you about Jory’s Year of Icons? Well, a whiskey glass seemed like a good place to start. Another great starting point is his superhero icon series.

Maria Konnikova, The New Yorker:

Science is only beginning to unravel the full complexity behind different forms of creative accomplishment; creativity is notoriously difficult to study in a laboratory setting, and the choice of one approach over another limits the way that creativity can be measured. Still, we do know that much of what we associate with creativity—whether writing a sonnet or a mathematical proof—has to do with the ability to link ideas, entities, and concepts in novel ways. This ability depends in part on the very thing that caffeine seeks to prevent: a wandering, unfocussed mind.

My name is Jeremy and I am a caffeine fiend. I recently gave up sodas, only to replace them with coffee and tea. It has reached a point that I need caffeine. Need. And I fulfill that need in gross excess.

I’m not very happy with the state of my addiction. So as an experiment, I am giving up caffeine starting July 1st.¹ I’ll let you know how it goes.

David Remnick, writing for The New Yorker, recalls an encounter with James Gandolfini during filming of The Sopranos:

Gandolfini was filming a scene in the office of his psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi, played by Lorraine Bracco. He was in a foul mood, and, to make matters worse, Bracco was determined to use every means, including a whoopee cushion, to crack him up and destroy the scenes. As he blew take after take, Gandolfini seemed about to launch into a Soprano-level fit. But he kept at it, screaming at himself between takes to bear down, to concentrate. A rare moment on a set when the actor performs not only the role but what is required for it.

Be sure to check out the videos at the end of the article - great stuff.

As I said on Twitter last night, it’s time to re-watch The Sopranos from the start.

Emily Nussbaum, writing for The New Yorker:

There was a time, just a few years ago, when a movie actor could not take a TV job without it seeming like an admission of failure. Doing so was embarrassing, a sign of desperation—not merely because TV fame was chintzier, and the Hollywood status lower, but also because no one thought that TV acting itself could be much good. There were beloved TV stars, of course, but they were performers, not actors, lacking gravitas. It was a littler screen and a littler art.

James Gandolfini changed all that.

The Sopranos is one of my favorite shows of all-time. James Gandolfini is the reason why.

Samir Mezrahi, BuzzFeed:

Jake Freivald’s lawyer apparently sent this reply to the Township of West Orange, NJ after Freivald received a cease and desist order over a domain he owned that had “West Orange” in the name.

Not that we didn’t get the joke … but since Mr. Freivald had not previously encountered a humorous lawyer, he actually thought your letter may have been a serious effort by the Township to protect its legitimate interests. Rest assured, I’ve at least convinced him that it was certainly not some impulsive, ham-fisted attempt to bully a local resident solely because of his well-known political views. After all, as lawyers you and I both know that would be flagrantly unconstitutional and would also, in the words of my 4-year old, make you a big meanie.

Kieran Healy:

London, 1772.

I have been asked by my superiors to give a brief demonstration of the surprising effectiveness of even the simplest techniques of the new-fangled Social Networke Analysis in the pursuit of those who would seek to undermine the liberty enjoyed by His Majesty’s subjects. This is in connection with the discussion of the role of “metadata” in certain recent events and the assurances of various respectable parties that the government was merely “sifting through this so-called metadata” and that the “information acquired does not include the content of any communications”. I will show how we can use this “metadata” to find key persons involved in terrorist groups operating within the Colonies at the present time. I shall also endeavour to show how these methods work in what might be called a relational manner.

Healy uses Revolution-era social data published by David Hackett Fischer to show how a government’s person of interest can be found with only metadata - in this case, Paul Revere.

David Barrett, reporting for The Telegraph:

The company disclosed to The Telegraph that its engineers are working on new technology which will, for the first time, allow internet search engines and other web firms to swap information about images of children being raped and abused.

The new database, which is expected to be operational within a year, will allow child porn images which have already been “flagged” by child protection organisations such as the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to be wiped from the web in one fell swoop.

This is Google being awesome. Hopefully their efforts pay off.

Moxie Marlinspike, writing for Wired, on recent government surveillance efforts and why having the attitude of “I have nothing to hide” is misplaced:

Suddenly, it feels like 2000 again. Back then, surveillance programs like Carnivore, Echelon, and Total Information Awareness helped spark a surge in electronic privacy awareness. Now a decade later, the recent discovery of programs like PRISM, Boundless Informant, and FISA orders are catalyzing renewed concern.

The programs of the past can be characterized as “proximate surveillance,” in which the government attempted to use technology to directly monitor communication themselves. The programs of this decade mark the transition to “oblique surveillance,” in which the government more often just goes to the places where information has been accumulating on its own, such as email providers, search engines, social networks, and telecoms.

Apologists will always frame our use of information-gathering services like a mobile phone plan or Gmail as a choice.

Marlinspike’s points, while painted in a worst-case scenario, are something to consider.

Allison Robicelli with a humorous tale about her foray into running and the problems that ensued:

I’ve decided, at the age of thirty-two, to start running. Not as a result of a desire to be healthier or out of a competitive spirit; not even because it is a very grown-up thing to do and you will be assimilated into the cult of running if you wish to be taken seriously as a professional adult. I’m doing this purely out of spite.

I despise everything about running. I hate the New York City Marathon, which bisects my neighborhood every year, making my commute to work or any theoretical trips to the emergency room completely impossible. I hate people who are constantly posting about running over on Facebook, casually humblebragging about how they fit in a “quickie 5K” between picking up the dry cleaning and the children. I hate 5Ks, even though, where I live, they usually conclude with free beer and six-foot-long heroes (Bay Ridge, Brooklyn: Turning Everything into an Excuse for Day-Drinking Since 1853). I hate “fun runs” because, seriously, fuck you.

Be sure to read on for her discovery of The Gingerbread Man phenomena.

Julia White, writing on Microsoft’s Office News blog:

Today, we’re releasing Office Mobile for iPhone available at no extra charge from the Apple App Store for Office 365 Home Premium and Office 365 ProPlus subscribers. Similar to our free Office Mobile for Windows Phone that ships with every handset, the iPhone app enables great Office content viewing and on-the-go content editing capabilities.

This is a huge miss by Microsoft. They have given iPhone users six years to learn how to manage mobile documents without Office. Today’s announcement didn’t make a very compelling case for why these users should bother starting now.

First, the app is native only to the iPhone. With the iPad growing at an unbelievable rate, why limit consumers to a small-screen device? Second, the app is free but requires a $99 yearly subscription to Office 365. For a one-time price of $60, I purchased the entire iWork suite for iOS - apps that can edit Office documents and run natively on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

In an increasingly touch-based digital world, Office just feels old and irrelevant. File this under “Too little, too late.”