WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg just ponied up a whopping $1.5 million to cover the remaining budget shortfall for the $8 million Bay Lights installation. Mullenweg had already donated $100,000 to artist Leo Villareal's project, and this last donation means that the Bay Light should stay twinkling for the full, planned two years. Or maybe longer?

Also, you'll recall that there was that problem that's come to everyone's attention in which hundreds of the LED nodes were stuck in either the on or off position, either because of environmental factors (wind, elements, salty air), or something else. Well, there's some good news there today too: The manufacturer of the nodes, Philips Color Kinetics, guaranteed them, and so has agreed to replace them at their own cost. So that's nice. It turned out that some moisture had gotten into some of them, and Philips has already set about replacing some of them. We just wonder how many more are going to break before this is all said and done.

Also, Villareal rejiggered the algorithm controlling the light display to work around the broken strands in the meantime.

Let's just take a moment to revisit this awesome aerial video again, shall we? It was shot just after the lights were turned on, and the night-time part starts about halfway in.

[Chron]
[BCN/Appeal]