links for 2008-12-21

"Helvetica is the official typeface of the MTA today, but it was not the typeface specified by Unimark International when it created a new signage system at the end of the 1960s."

"Today, Helvetica — a 1950s-era typeface that has gained fame and popularity because of its versatility — is the official standard in the New York City transit system. But that has been true for only 20 years or so."

"ONE day not long ago, in a sunlit apartment on the Upper West Side, John Tauranac could be found examining a large, taped-together draft of a subway map."

After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy.

The cell-phone novel, or keitai shosetsu, is the first literary genre to emerge from the cellular age.