Deb Roy: The birth of a word. Eric Sanderson pictures New York -- before the City. Michael Pawlyn: Using nature's genius in architecture. New York City Subway System Comes Alive in HTML5 & Javascript. If you live in New York City, you most likely have a love/hate relationship with the subway (one that tends to wander toward "hate" more often than not). Well, Brooklynite, musician and Google Creative Labs employee Alexander Chen has created a little HTML5/Javascript art project that is sure to put a smile on your face next time you're crammed into a crazy person's armpit whilst enjoying the eclectic symphony of children crying on your morning commute.
Conductor, Chen's recently released project, is an interactive subway map that pulls data from the MTA’s public API to illustrate the motions of the New York City transit system. Colored lines representing each train move across the screen in accordance with the real cars, and every time they intersect, they produce a "twang! " — like a stringed instrument. "Once I had that code down, my wife and I were talking about what other things could work, and a subway map came to mind. You mean like the G? Johnny Lee demos Wii Remote hacks.