randomwalks/dj

Amy Sedaris fans will delight!

P.S. There is never a good excuse for wearing fur.

P.P.S. Amy Sedaris and Bjork are two of the most inspring women to me.

P.P.P.S. I will give my everlasting gratitude to the reader who get their paws on this poster and then gives it to me - I can't seem to find it anywhere:

Originally posted by Andrea from Andrea Harner, on February 10, 2006 1:04 PM

There are more photos of the unit at Nintendo\'s official web site.

Originally posted by funkaoshi from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 10, 2006 1:04 PM

In his review of Syriana, Ebert calls it a "hyperlink movie" [warning, some spoilers]:

A recent blog item coined a term like "hyperlink movie" to describe plots like this. (I would quote the exact term, but irony of ironies, I've lost the link.) The term describes movies in which the characters inhabit separate stories, but we gradually discover how those in one story are connected to those in another. "Syriana" was written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, who won an Oscar for best screenplay adaptation for "Traffic," another hyperlink movie. A lot of Altman films like "Nashville" and "Short Cuts" use the technique. Also, recently, "Crash" and "Nine Lives."

In a hyperlink movie the motives of one character may have to be reinterpreted after we meet another one. Consider the Matt Damon character. His family is invited to a party at the luxurious Spanish villa of the Gulf oil sheik whose sons are Nasir and Meshal. At the party, Damon's son dies by accident. The sheik awards Damon's firm a $100 million contract. "How much for my other son?" he asks. This is a brutal line of dialogue and creates a moment trembling with tension. Later, Damon's wife (Amanda Peet) accuses him of trading on the life of his son. Well, he did take the deal. Should he have turned it down because his son died in an accident? What are Damon's real motives, anyway?

The blog item Ebert is referring to could be Mark Bernstein's post about Adaptation from January 2003:

Adaptation is strange, curious, improbable little film. It belongs in the all-time hypertext film festival. Interesting double-feature with Wonder Boys. Fascinating double-feature with Mullholland Drive. Ebert, like everyone else, loved it.

Mark also discusses the hypertext film festival in a post about Perfect Blue, which More Like This picks up on. As you can guess, I love hypertext films.

Update: In a review of Cape of Good Hope published subsequent to that of Syriana, Ebert reveals the source of the "hyperlink movie":

The movie belongs to a genre that has been named "hyperlink cinema" by the critic Alissa Quart, in Film Comment. She suggests the structure was invented by Robert Altman, and Altman certainly brought it into modern times and made it particularly useful for showing interlocking stories in a world where lives seem to crash into each other heedlessly. "Crash," indeed, is an example of the genre, as are Altman's "The Player" and "Short Cuts," and such films as "Traffic," "Syriana," "City of God," "Amores Perros" and "Nine Lives."

Quart's article isn't online, but here's a bit of it:

In fact, Happy Endings could serve as proof for the currently fashionable theory that we shouldn't worry that our web-based, video-game-loving culture is dumbing us down. Watching Happy Endings, you too can conclude, as some of our brightest young pundits have, that multi-task entertainment actually makes us sharper. If this is true, the new genre Happy Endings belongs to--hyperlink cinema--could be the most IQ-enhancing of all. Happy Endings, which Roos also scripted, joins his The Opposite of Sex (98) in the hyperlink canon, alongside the likes of Magnolia, Time Code, and, most recently, Crash (with a special mention for TV's 24). Of them all, Happy Endings is best in show...The best thing about Happy Endings is that, like hyperlinking itself, it's irremediably relativist. Information, character and action co-exist without hierarchy. And we are always one click away from a new life, a new story, and new meaning, all equally captivating but no better or worse than what we have just left behind.

Thanks for sending this along, Peter. Also, it occurs to me that Steven Johnson may have written about this at some point, perhaps in Everything Bad is Good for You.

(Rating: 4.5/5 stars)

Originally from kottke.org, on February 10, 2006 1:04 PM

Originally from l-e-mental, on February 10, 2006 1:03 PM

First of all, very special thanks to everyone who posted comments on Zoe's last show. All you Boing Boing and WSJ readers and beyond...much appreciated. Everyone seems to want a track listing. We'll try to find time to do that for this show and the last show soon. But the artists featured are listen in order in each of the posts, so you can follow along and probably figure out which song is which. Also, if you have Yahoo! Music Engine you can see Zoe's playlist from this week here.

Zoe's two favorite bands, Built to Spill and Pretty Girls Make Graves, both have new albums coming out, and both get previewed on today's show!

This week's show is doubly long (nearly two hours) and features the likes of The Actual Tigers, Alison Krause, The Arctic Monkeys, Babyshambles, The Brakes, The Books, Built to Spill, Broken Social Scene, The Constantines, The Dandy Warhols, The Dresden Dolls, The Hold Steady, Joni Mitchell, The Joggers, Jens Lekman, Kelly Clarkson, Rogue Wave, The Like, Pretty Girls Make Graves, The New Pornographers, Okkervil River, and Sly and The Family Stone.

Download this week's show here.

Stream this week's show on Webjay.

Podcast Zoe Radio at Yahoo! Podcasts.

Enjoy!

ian, aka papa

Originally from Zoe's Radio Show, on February 10, 2006 1:02 PM

So the bidding is over at the eBay auction for five days of ads on the Rocketboom video blog....and the final bid is $40,000.

The winning bid is from TRM, an ATM and photocopy services company. Andrew Baron, the co-founder of Rocketboom says they aren't saying more about the ads right now, but are "scrambling around to try and work another couple of deals from some of the other bidders."

He says he's amazed by how many major US brands stepped forward. But they couldn't get everything lined up in the short time Rocketboom wanted to do the ads (early next month) "So maybe today we will land another contract and maybe next week a couple."

Originally from BusinessWeek Online - Blogspotting, on February 10, 2006 1:01 PM

Originally from Modern Art Notes, on February 10, 2006 1:00 PM

I. Lewis Libby Jr. told a grand jury that he was authorized by his "superiors" to disclose classified information in June and July 2003.

Originally from NYT > Home Page, on February 10, 2006 1:00 PM

Did I (kinda already yes) mention how Ray Fenwick has become my new academic hero? I'm still laughing.

The Unique Gifts of Genius
Physical Gifts of Genius
Mental Gifts of Genius
Reborn! Genius!

Unexpected Exam
Exam Results

Cancelled III

Metaphor
topicnamewithheld

Originally posted by Anne from Purse Lip Square Jaw, on February 10, 2006 1:00 PM

Today's Link:

Catch the Sperm: Soccer Edition

Since 1987, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health and the Swiss Aids Association have been using the STOP AIDS campaign to provide regular information to everyone living in Switzerland about HIV/Aids and ways of protecting against it. The "Catch the Sperm" series of games designed to promote safe sex.

Originally from Sex & Games, on February 10, 2006 1:00 PM

Regina Lynn has a new review up of a sex game for couples called Bliss - Play Together, Stay Together.

A previous Link of the Day here, Bliss bills itself as "the Game for Lovers" and can do "what no other romantic board game or computer game can do. It uses advanced computer technology to adapt itself to your personal romantic preferences."

Originally from Sex & Games, on February 10, 2006 1:00 PM

Originally posted by Janusville from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 10, 2006 1:00 PM

I love this, that's all.

Originally posted by axt from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 10, 2006 1:00 PM

• Joel on Software reviews the latest Ajax calendars
  They suck.
  (tags: web20 calendars)
• Runner's World Interview: Haruki Murakami
  (tags: murakami running)
• Yahoo! News Photo
  Asian babies!
  (tags: asian babies)

Originally posted by Alaina from alaina browne lives here, on February 10, 2006 12:59 PM

Here is the Mercury News story today (free registration) about MySpace, the hot social-networking Web site that is causing so much concern among Silicon Valley parents and schools that they are organizing to shut access to it entirely in some cases. At San Jose's Presentation High School, administrators banned MySpace after discovering some students were logging on from school -- and that some had posted photos of themselves scantily clad and partying. School officials told......

Originally posted by Matt Marshall from SiliconBeat, on February 10, 2006 12:58 PM

Pissed Brooklynites:

I pass by this building on the Q train everyday and I've gotten quite used to seeing this stark facade that is owned by Jehovah's Witnesses. But reports from CURB say that it is being turned into 450 luxury condos. But the developer is being sued for building residences on a building that sits on public park land. Hmm I suspect that city politics will allow the developer to win by rezoning the land.

"developer Robert Levine's plans for the 12-story Brooklyn waterfront building he
purchased from the Jehovah's Witnesses for $200 million. The 450 luxury condos at One Brooklyn Bridge Park (now with basic web presence !) will enjoy refrigerated storage for grocery delivery, a meditation room, an indoor driving range, private riverfront cabanas and one big fat lawsuit . The Daily News reports that opponents are going to file suit in an effort to block the private residences, which will sit on public park land once that whole thing gets built."

Condos a go? Foes say no [NYDN]
The Watchtower: Brooklyn Heights Real Estate Magnates [Curbed]
Brooklyn Bridge Park Gets Its Walking-Around Money [Curbed]
[360 Furman St. building photo from Brooklyn Papers ]

Originally from Hi Tricia!, on February 10, 2006 9:00 AM

NASA's Spirit Mars rover has arrived at a site dubbed "Home Plate" within Gusev crater. But what the robot found has left scientists puzzled.

Originally from SPACE.com, on February 10, 2006 8:19 AM

Originally posted by inkdroid from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 10, 2006 12:45 AM

Originally posted by alainabrowne from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 10, 2006 12:44 AM

Originally from Perl.com, on February 10, 2006 12:44 AM

Warning: Rambling about work ahead.

I went off on MovableType’s atrocious performance while posting to Lifehacker awhile back. Turns out that one of MT’s biggest performance pain points is the huge number of possible post categories the Gawker sites (including Lifehacker) use - a number that goes well into the thousands. (Why, you ask? Well, narrow topic silos and focused category pages make for good sponsorship opportunities and highly-targeted text ads and great Google-fu, and we’re an advertising-supported business.)

Anyway, we use a plugin for MT that turns categories into “tags,” allowing you to enter categories in a del.icio.us style input box versus the clumsy category dropdown. “Go nuts with tags!” was the editorial edict. So we did, adding categories at a clip. Sadly, we were shooting ourselves in the foot. Rendering the interface with a list of hundreds of tags slowed things considerably, specifically, the “suggest a tag” Javascript on the New and Edit Entry pages. Apparently MT’s not built to handle more than 250 2500 categories per site, and we’re the first to push this limit. (Buh? 2500 is a lot more reasonable than 250. Tx Anil.) Also, apparently MT’s database interface makes what only needs to be one query for one recordset one query PER CATEGORY - thus, hundreds of queries per page request, hence the slowdown. (As a developer, can I just say - WTF, 6A? Anyway.)

Gawker’s solution was to remove the helper Javascript from the MT interface and have us enter tags cold; for me and my co-editors this was unacceptable, given how prone we are to typos and crazy variations of the same tag (”Mac,” “OS X,” “Mac OS X”, “Stuff we like,” “Things we like,” “Books”, “book,” etc.)

Fortunately for Gawker, I don’t have any access to the MT installation or template editing/creation for Lifehacker, so I was a bit handcuffed, not able to do much except complain loudly. Finally, to stop the tag mess from getting worse editorially, I wrote a Greasemonkey script which includes the static category list Javascript from afar on those pages, which is super damn fast AND gives us back the past tag helper. I’d publish that script but it’s got a little too much information about our server setup and is specific to the tags plugin, so I won’t. But you get the idea.

If we can get a category template of that Javascript include publishing every few hours and including newly-created tags (the existing one doesn’t update with new tags, boooo), life will be good.

Now back to our regularly-scheduled programming. (Ha!)

Originally posted by Gina Trapani from Spun, on February 10, 2006 12:44 AM

more cliff notes

Originally posted by cory_arcangel from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 10, 2006 12:43 AM

An easy way to turn already-online audio files into a podcast feed. Great for creating a "personal podcast queue" for sending files to your iPod.

Via del.icio.us/tag/unmediated

Originally from unmediated, on February 10, 2006 12:42 AM

No matter that the TV sets themselves are outdated, pre-revolution relics imported from America or sets from Russia over fifteen years old; green-hued beasts jimmy-rigged with ancient computer parts and fantastically adorned like religious altars.

Originally from unmediated, on February 10, 2006 12:42 AM

Maggie Hennefeld and Thessaly La Force filmed a short documentary at last month's NYC Free Culture Summit. The short, available for download from the Internet Archive under a CC Attribution 2.5 License, features among others "retired activist and full time novelist" Cory Doctorow, CC staffers Francesca Rodriquez and Eric Steuer, and former CC intern Fred Benenson letting people on the street know about free culture.

The Free Culture NYU blog has more.

Originally posted by Mike Linksvayer from Creative Commons Blog, on February 10, 2006 12:42 AM

Originally posted by cory_arcangel from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 10, 2006 12:40 AM

Asian babies!

Originally posted by alainabrowne from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 10, 2006 12:40 AM

a very interesting chat interface which uses the 'mouse as a baton' for conducting a conversation. instead of simply pressing 'enter' to send a message, the interface allows the user to control the flow of text & the size of circles used to visualise their messages, much like gesturing in real life. [mit.edu & mit.edu]

Originally posted by fofoda from information aesthetics, on February 10, 2006 12:40 AM

Originally from l-e-mental, on February 10, 2006 12:40 AM

Internet cafes and companies that install wireless networks and satellite dishes are thriving in Baghdad.

Originally from NYT > Home Page, on February 10, 2006 12:39 AM

---

Missed the Rhizome Net Aesthetics 2.0 panel in Chelsea a couple of nights ago because I had to w*rk. Too bad--really wanted to go. MTAA has a report. The distinction between the early vernacular web and the current more "regulated" web laid out in in Olia Lialina's article here serves as a good background for understanding the shift from net art 1.0 to version 2.0. Essentially it's the world of home pages, links, and artist-scientists vs the world of blogs, Google, and fast delivery of every imaginable kind of content (except the gallerygoing kind), with artists, scientists, and artist-scientists struggling to make sense of it. I have also pontificated on it, though not in product release terms. Another distinction I would make is between the anecdotal ('70s conceptualism in web form--what Sally McKay has called "long-loading, find-the-place-to-click-me narratives packed with theoretically correct reference to the body or lack thereof") and the purely experiential (entertainingly transgressive images, music, and video produced in a collaboration-friendly, peer to peer, non-Industry environment; deliberate confusion between professional and amateur [the vernacular thankfully hasn't gone away]; better sound and pictures generally) that broadband and googling makes possible.

Update: Sal Randolph has a report on the panel at Rhizome.org.

Originally posted by tom moody from Tom Moody, on February 10, 2006 12:39 AM

The Bush administration was alerted to broken levees and flooding in New Orleans hours after their collapse, documents show.

Originally from NYT > Home Page, on February 10, 2006 12:38 AM

Originally from serenalarogers, on February 10, 2006 12:38 AM

Originally posted by sudama from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 10, 2006 12:38 AM

The Clarabellas want to make one thing clear. They are not an artists collective nor an agency; they are a family than spans the globe. The super-styled owl here is by family member Kat Leuzinger, and the group also features the previously-blogged Pietari Posti.

Originally posted by Johnny from Drawn! The Illustration Blog, on February 9, 2006 7:29 PM

Duke University's Adrian Bejan, along with colleagues from the University of Evora in Portugal, has discovered something potentially quite important: a recently-developed theory of optimizing flow configurations over time called Constructal theory can be used to model key parts of the global climate, and do so using only a small number of well-known inputs. Moreover, this theory could be used to build models of changes to weather patterns resulting from greenhouse gas accumulation. What makes this notable -- and possibly worldchanging -- is that Constructal theory is shaping up to be a universal physics principle applicable to everything from traffic flows to the evolution of the circulatory system. This is kind of abstract, but bear with me -- this could be a major discovery.

Click through to World Changing for much more! --dj

Originally posted by Jamais Cascio from WorldChanging: Another World Is Here, on February 9, 2006 7:28 PM

A few Ajax links I’ve been hoarding:

• Ajax Tutorial: Ajax What Is It Good For?
• 24 ways: Edit-in-Place with Ajax
• Mastering Ajax, Part 1: Introduction to Ajax
• Mastering Ajax, Part 2: Make asynchronous requests with JavaScript and Ajax
• Mastering Ajax, Part 3: Advanced requests and responses in Ajax

Updated with one more link.

Originally posted by Gina Trapani from Spun, on February 9, 2006 7:26 PM

A friend of mine disables image hotlinking from her site using mod_rewrite, but she also syndicates her weblog to LiveJournal, so she allowed livejournal.com to hotlink with her .htaccess file, like this:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https?://(www\.)?livejournal.com.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule \.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ images/stealingbandwidth.gif [L]

But recently LJ changed their URL scheme to subdomains, so all her friends were seeing her “You’re stealing bandwidth!” image when they read her journal from username.livejournal.com.

So, we modified her .htacess mod_rewrite rule to:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https?://([a-zA-Z0-9_]+\.)?livejournal.com.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule \.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ images/stealingbandwidth.gif [L]

And in the process I was once again reminded how the simplest of regex’s can still completely kick my ass.

Originally posted by Gina Trapani from Spun, on February 9, 2006 7:26 PM

IMG_7518, originally uploaded by JulianBleeckr.

I wish I’d made it to Geneva in time for the ‘objects that blog’ workshop - this looks to be some of the output: Blog-e-mon.

This sort of kiddie-crack spimeplay-fun will be coming sooner rather than later I imagine…

Originally posted by Matt from Blackbeltjones/Work, on February 9, 2006 7:26 PM

Songbird plays the Web. Play any MP3 on the Web without leaving the page. Songbird can view Web pages as dynamic playlists that it can play, save, or automatically download every day.

Songbird plays your music too. Songbird has all the features you expect in a desktop media player. And Songbird constantly improves. Like Firefox, Songbird's features may be improved with user installed and contributed cross-platform extensions.

Soon, Web page authors will be able to publish playlists and transfer MP3s into Songbird to build digital music stores like eMusic, music subscription services like Yahoo! Music Unlimited, virtual jamming services like Ninjam, playlist sharing services like WebJay and more. (SONGBIRDNEST.COM)

Originally from Agenda Inc. Live Feed, on February 9, 2006 4:05 PM

Joel Spolsky has probably saved a lot of people a lot of time by looking at some of the new online Web 2.0 calendar applications -- including 30 Boxes -- and finding that none of them meets his needs. He...

Originally from Guardian Unlimited: Technology blog, on February 9, 2006 4:04 PM

Yahoo has rev'd MyWeb 2.0. I think the idea is right on, but does anyone else sense that 360 and MyWeb are, well, a bit ahead of Yahoo's own audience curve?

Originally from John Battelle's Searchblog, on February 9, 2006 4:04 PM

The portent of doom implied by my hard drive failure scare from several weeks ago turned into an ugly reality this past Saturday morning: I woke up to a locked-up operating system. When I tried to reboot, the resulting sound coming from beneath the laptop’s keyboard was loud, whirring and not very confidence-inducing. By then I had more or less made peace with the fact that the hard drive was dead, and another long walk to Tekserve confirmed it.

The PowerBook is still under AppleCare extended warranty protection, and it will be back within the week (I hope). I feel very fortunate, though; immediately after the first signs of trouble, I quit my procrastination and scheduled full backups of the hard drive on alternating nights to two different external FireWire drives — aided in no small part by the sheer awesomeness of Shirt Pocket Software’s invaluable SuperDuper! product. As a result, I lost less than a day’s worth of work; not perfect, but it could have been loads worse.

SuperDuper! made it exceedingly easy for me to create a complete, bootable mirror of my hard drive, which actually allows me to continue to use the same system — with all of my files, preferences and software tweaks intact — with another Macintosh. I pulled my old Aluminum 15-inch PowerBook G4 out of retirement and booted it from one of the backup FireWire drives. This allows me to continue to be productive — in theory. It’s a trooper, but this old PowerBook is painfully slow, and the whole setup is just a shade too far to the dangerous side of fragility for me to be willing to do much work on it. All of which is to say that, until my PowerBook returns from Tekserve, I’m doing only a minimal amount of extracurricular computing, surfing, blogging, etc. I hope to be back on my feet again next week.

Originally from Subtraction, on February 9, 2006 4:04 PM

Sorry to disappoint you in terms of humor, artwork or riot-worthiness, but here are the cartoons that have been implicated in the deaths of eleven people so far:

 

And here are three other images that were added to the original twelve cartoons by a group of clerics who travelled to the Middle East in January to publicize the original publication, including the center image, which is a contestant in an annual French pig-squealing contest. The image below on the right shows a dog humping someone bowing in prayer.

Originally from WFMU's Beware of the Blog, on February 9, 2006 4:04 PM

Damn, the DS is on fire.

Originally posted by funkaoshi from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 9, 2006 4:03 PM

"Why aren't you paying attention to attention? ... If you can capture your own "attention data", then two important things follow. First, you could use your time and attention better. Second, you could trade your data with companies for other benefits."

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on February 9, 2006 4:02 PM

Hello, Typepad! is going to be in beta for a few hours. Pardon our dust.

Update: Things are a little more settled now. "Best viewed in Firefox" until I get a few more spare hours (har, har).

Originally from hello, typepad, on February 9, 2006 2:32 PM

"I'm not doing it for pay, I'm doing it for pagerank."

Name redacted to protect the guilty.

Originally from hello, typepad, on February 9, 2006 2:32 PM

Originally uploaded by merlinmann.

Flow, from 43 folders. I've been thinking about "flow" the last few days. Does good flow create a good mood, or vice versa? Is there a way to incrementally improve your "flow" without falling into anxiety.

This is the same graph (which I can't find right now) that video game directors use when they try and make games "playable." To make the game harder, you grow the line faster along the y-axis, but you risk alienating casual gamers. Robin Hunicke maintains an entire category on this topic.

See also Mindjack interview with Stewart Butterfield, Feeling' it and the occasional use of the phrase "Still digging!"

Originally from hello, typepad, on February 9, 2006 2:32 PM

"Apple's upcoming midtown Manhattan retail store will mark a first for the company as sources report the location will be open 24 hours a day." I'll stop by the iPod Bar after picking up my repairs at Tekserve.

Originally posted by yatta from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 9, 2006 1:43 PM

they're surprisingly playable  

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on February 9, 2006 1:42 PM

Launched just in time for Valentine's Day, -- Mob Crush is a simple way to send a picture message to your crush's phone or email. You can remain anonymous, leave a clue, or reveal yourself. Mob crush keeps no record whatsoever of the information and will not share it with anyone.

Originally posted by emily from textually.org, on February 9, 2006 12:56 PM

Finally, the Grammys have realized they are not like the Academy Awards. What matters most is not the celebrities, or even who gets the awards, but the music.

Originally from NYT > Arts, on February 9, 2006 12:56 PM

The passing of Tom Roberts, a guitar virtuoso and cult hero who was revered by some of the biggest bands of the 1990's, marks an important loss for American punk rock.

Originally from NYT > Arts, on February 9, 2006 12:56 PM

The award winning, QUALITY OF LIFE, has just confirmed its New York release date. New York follows an incredible run that the film had in San Francisco.

Quality of Life will play a very limited NYC engagement starting April 6 at the Pioneer Theater in the East Village. You can purchase your tickets in advance now by clicking here.

Quality of Life tells the story of two SF graff writers struggling to maintain their lifelong friendship after they get busted for painting. Click HERE to see the trailer.

Since the filmmakers are distributing the film themselves, and do not have the backing of any major film distributor, QoL is only scheduled for one screening a day for a single week. They are considering allowing the film to stay longer and possibly add more screenings each day – on one condition:

They will only do this if we can sell a large number of advance tix.

So if you expect to see the film in NYC, please buy your tix now.

The filmmakers are also looking for people to join their NYC street team to get the word out about the film coming to NYC. Email andy [at] qualityoflife-themovie.com if interested.

Originally from Wooster Collective, on February 9, 2006 12:55 PM

The Washington Post writes about how modern digital technology -- especially cell phones and Internet blogs -- helped turn an incident in tiny Denmark into a uniting cause for protesters around the world in days or even hours.

"From London to Kabul, Afghanistan, to Jakarta, Indonesia, the digital revolution has given unprecedented access to information -- accurate or not -- to anyone with enough money to buy a secondhand cell phone.

xt messages have been used to press a boycott of Danish goods in Arab countries and a "Buy Danish" campaign in the United States. Text messages were used to organize anti-Danish protests in Brussels, while Canada's largest Muslim umbrella group sent e-mails to 300,000 members urging them to avoid such demonstrations. Text messages and blogs were also used to organize protests during violent unrest in Paris last fall.

... These messages are now part of the conflict," said Manu Sareen, a member of the Copenhagen City Council. "The problem is that you can't always rely on them. Nobody burned the Koran, but it doesn't matter because the rumor was out there." Some messages were computer-generated so that thousands of phones could be reached nearly instantly." ... Contd.

Originally posted by Emily from Smart Mobs, on February 9, 2006 12:55 PM

If you had any doubt that Google plans to be a major force in the market that Microsoft dominates, this should erase them. Why do I say this? Well, because Google's new version of its Desktop software includes Tic Tac Toe, of course. And everyone know that clever operation system companies *always* include a game in their offerings...

Meanwhile, TechCrunch gets into the privacy and other implications.

Originally from John Battelle's Searchblog, on February 9, 2006 12:55 PM

The Expanding Domain of Internet Art

"Concurrent with a wave of technological optimism and new capabilities during the mid-’90s was the steady rise of “net.art.” Artists who used the internet to make and distribute work could easily subvert institutional and market-based constricts, had no historical shadow to answer to, could “show” their work 24/7, and—crucially—work without spending a fortune on materials. The star of internet art may have faded slightly since (mirroring the decline of utopian rhetoric about the internet’s ability to provide a new level playing field), but it certainly hasn’t disappeared, as exhibitions like The New Museum’s Rhizome ArtBase 101 and recent solo shows by artists like Cory Arcangel and Jacob Ciocci have shown. Internet art may actually be more “present” than ever—just not exclusively in virtual space." From On & Off: the Expanding Domain of Internet Art by Caitlin Jones, NYFA Current.

Originally posted by jo from networked_performance, on February 9, 2006 12:55 PM

This article on how Google and eBay are poorly designed seems really wrongheaded to me, although it may just be that essays that use the word "suckass" and mistake style for design will fail to convince me of anything.

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on February 9, 2006 12:54 PM

Philippe Charest shares his home-brewed bash script to get information from Wikipedia on the command line using lynx.

You may have to install lynx first using:
$sudo apt-get install lynx

Phillippe says:

Nice blog by the way, I just wanted to share a new quick “hack” to obtain information from wikipedia on the command line.

Here is a dirty script that fetches information from wikipedia using lynx:

Into your favorite editor:

#!/bin/bash
lynx -dump "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/$1" | less

Then just make the file executable ($sudo chmod +x) and in your path (or in /usr/bin)

Exemple (I named my script wikid)

$wikid "George Bush"

returns:

…
George Bush

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Jump to: [6]navigation, [7]search

George Bush can refer to:

People:
* [8]George W. Bush, George Walker Bush, the 43rd and current
[9]President of the United States of America ([10]2001-present)
* [11]George H. W. Bush, George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st President
of the United States ([12]1989-[13]1993), and father of George W.
Bush

…

Originally from Ubuntu Blog, on February 9, 2006 12:53 PM

Just.. wow. These two were created using a whole bunch of mods (including an EYEBROW MOD. I kid you not). I haven't seen the movie yet, but woo. Going to now!

Brilliant. And while we're talking of mods (and player generated content), someone make a traditional British Royal Mail postbox. This struck me as particularly arcane, and really rather sweet.

Love modders.

(via Kotaku)

Originally posted by Alice from Wonderland, on February 9, 2006 12:53 PM

From -> Lauren Cornell
Please submit, and help us spread the word! Information on how to submit can be found at the following link: http://rhizome.org/commissions/ Thanks and best, Lauren ... [more]

Originally posted by Lauren Cornell from Rhizome.org Rare, on February 9, 2006 9:04 AM

"Today we're very pleased to announce the launch of Google Desktop 3 Beta. The new version comes loaded with features that make finding and sharing information even easier and more fun than before," says the official Inside Google Desktop blog....

Originally from Guardian Unlimited: Technology blog, on February 9, 2006 9:04 AM

Korea Plans to Build 'Mobile Paradise'

"South Korea plans to construct a 'mobile paradise,' a special district next year, where people will be able to enjoy a seamless service from the world's latest wireless technologies. The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) Wednesday revealed the grandiose scheme, dubbed the M1 (Mobile No. 1) project, as part of its annual business plan.

'All existing and burgeoning mobile technologies in this planet will be used in the special district, which will be designated later,' MIC assistant minister Suk Ho-ick said. 'The special district is kind of a free technology zone that will create a new mobile environment. It will play the role of test-bed for up-and-coming wireless platforms,' Suk added.

Under the bold scheme, the ministry aims at achieving 100-percent mobile literacy here as well as substantially expanding the country's presence in the global market. 'We are seeking to supply roughly 30 percent of the global market for mobile terminals and approximately half of the components market by 2010,' he noted."

And as Alex points out, check out that accompanying graphic!

Originally posted by Anne from Space and Culture, on February 9, 2006 9:03 AM

Originally from the real janelle, on February 9, 2006 4:54 AM

Mick Jagger bonejacks Emilio Estevez to 18 years-older Sector Seven. You probably knew it as Park Slope.

Originally posted by yatta from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 9, 2006 4:54 AM

A fresh update to Reblog 2.0 has been released. Be first on your block to install it from http://reblog.org/#download.

This release includes a raft of enhancements, including better documentation for plug-in developers, slightly modified tag behavior that makes it easier to navigate your extensive feed collection, experimental plug-ins for automatically publishing entries to WordPress, TypePad, Blogger and Del.icio.us accounts, and minor usability improvements too numerous to mention.

This BETA version has been extensively tested, and is recommended for most users.

Originally from tecznotes , on February 9, 2006 4:53 AM

I.B.M. is betting on videogame technology to bring supercomputer-caliber visualization tools to its mainstream corporate market.

Originally from NYT > Technology, on February 9, 2006 4:53 AM

Delivery truck today in NYC on 5th ave and 19th street.

Originally from Social Design Notes, on February 9, 2006 4:53 AM

Reporters Without Borders is claiming that Yahoo aided in the jailing of a Chinese dissident in 2003, the second such accusation for Yahoo (more on the first - a journalist - here). The organization is requesting that Yahoo disclose its dealings with the Chinese government. From the report:

Reporters Without Borders called on Yahoo to supply a list of all cyberdissidents it has provided data on, beginning with 81 people in China whose release the worldwide press freedom organization is currently campaigning for.

it had discovered that Yahoo customer and cyberdissident Li Zhi had been given his eight-year prison sentence in December 2003 based on electronic records provided by Yahoo. “How many more cases are we going to find ?” it asked.

“We were sure the case of Shi Tao, who was jailed for 10 years last April on the basis of Yahoo-supplied data, was not the only one. Now we know Yahoo works regularly and efficiently with the Chinese police.

“The firm says it simply responds to requests from the authorities for data without ever knowing what it will be used for. But this argument no longer holds water. Yahoo certainly knew it was helping to arrest political dissidents and journalists, not just ordinary criminals. The company must answer for what it is doing at the US congressional hearing set for February 15.”

BB coverage here.

Originally from John Battelle's Searchblog, on February 9, 2006 4:52 AM

a real-time visualisation & sonification that runs during an on-stage musical performance using data from the Internet about the emotions of the world. the size of the text reflects the emotion's presence on the web, while layers build up, making the display more detailed & complex. a 'meridian line' scans the visualisation, creating the rhythm of the music being played. [benayoun.com]

Originally posted by fofoda from information aesthetics, on February 9, 2006 4:50 AM

No, not that one. This Monster Mash is a battle of monsters created by 32 U.K. artists/designers. Each week battles take place at the Here gallery in Brighton.

It's down to the final four monsters, and you can vote for your favorite here. The finals will take place at London's Playlounge.

You can see all of the monsters and vote for the "people's choice" here. You can also buy a commemorate monster deck.

The Mash was created by the U.K.-based illustrators at Peskimo.

Originally from Cool Hunting, on February 9, 2006 4:50 AM

• 30 daytags
• 30 boxes
• 37 signals
• 43 folders
• 43 things
• 83 degrees

What did I miss?

• 23 hq (thanks Andrew)

Originally from tecznotes , on February 9, 2006 4:50 AM

this rules

Originally posted by mathowie from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 9, 2006 4:49 AM

It's touch and go. Uh oh oh.


OK. I know it's not nice to kick something when it's down. But show me somebody who likes the SF Bay Guardian's redesign and I'll show you an employee contract. This week's cover looks especially nostalgic, with the cliched Pop Art and the new wave typeface. All future cover subjects may be required to wear pink-and-black-checkers with a white skinny tie.

Look, there wasn't an alt-weekly in the country more in need of a makeover. Yes, compared to the website, it's a step forward. In fact, now that you have competing aesthetics--the 1967 Haight-Ashbury-for-kids-from-Concord/Gay-Pride-at-half-mast-color-bar-overkill lingers like a wine-cooler-induced hangover--the online thing is a complete mess.

But even though The Cars first album is one of my favorite covers (and favorite albums) of all time, what looked good in 1978...

Ah well, you get what you pay for.

Sigh.

Originally from zentronix: dubwise & hiphopcentric, on February 9, 2006 4:49 AM

Amazing panoramic photograph.

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on February 9, 2006 4:49 AM

Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick considered themselves guardians of a small-town way of life in black Louisiana that was fading even before Katrina destroyed so much so quickly.

Originally from NYT > Arts, on February 9, 2006 4:49 AM

looks uncannily similar to Dan Cederholm's Chameleon; is it plagiarism? [via] 

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on February 9, 2006 4:49 AM

I'm trying to spiff up my profile page, and generally organize my blogging more. As part of that I'm working on moving my quick links over to del.icio.us and syndicating them here with a synchronized Movable Type blog.

As part of that, I needed some extra control over what happens when I post an Atom entry. Specifically I want to be able to safely synchronize without duplicates, the main bugaboo of that profile page project so far. Of course, Atom has a perfectly good solution to that: unique ids. I just needed to make MT do that.

Of course it's a real pain to hack in a change, as I have to keep track of it, and apply it to changes, and I can't just unarchive MT 3.2 over the site again, etc. Hence a plugin to add some callbacks to MT::AtomServer. I think it's pretty neat, and it does what I need.

I hesitate to preannounce anything, but the next planned part of the project will be a plugin that tracks links in posts as separate objects, so I can stop putting the links from my synchronized TypePad blogs in the summary/excerpt field.

Originally from markpasc.org weblog, on February 9, 2006 4:48 AM

Yahoo has already come under a lot of well-deserved flak following the imprisonment of Chinese dissident Shi Tao. Now it turns out there's more.

Originally from Guardian Unlimited: Technology blog, on February 9, 2006 4:47 AM

Michel Gondry directs the story of an epic party [via] 

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on February 9, 2006 4:46 AM

• Upcomingscrobbler
  "Last.fm can tell you what music you like. Upcoming.org can tell you where bands are playing live in your local area. Upcomingscrobbler brings the two together, to tell you where you can see your favourite bands."
  (tags: upcoming upcoming.org last.fm audioscrobbler livemusic)
• Boudist : Tips for live music / concert photography
  Great tips from Daniel Boud.
  (tags: music photography livemusic shows)
• Why Settle for Gold in Turin? The Real Prize Is a Darker Delight
  On bicerin: "This cold-weather cocktail of espresso and melted chocolate, sipped through a cool blanket of cream, is hard to find anywhere else."
  (tags: chocolate espresso coffee drinks beverages italy)
• Valentine's Day Poetry - Love isn't always pretty. By Robert Pinsky
  "One of the oldest traditions in love poetry is an impatience with love and love poetry--a note of exasperation that seeps into the declaration of passion. Honoring that tradition, this year's anthology ardently avoids the mushy."
  (tags: slate poetry valentine'sday)
• Donewaiting.com SXSW Music Festival Blog: Misra Records Showcase Info and MP3 Links
  Excellent!
  (tags: austin music sxsw sxswmusic sxsw2006 misrarecords shearwater centro-matic greatlakeswimmers theevangelicals phosphorescent themendozaline lauraveirs)

Originally from kathryn yu dot com, on February 9, 2006 4:45 AM

Originally from kathryn yu dot com, on February 9, 2006 4:45 AM

Originally posted by miyagawa from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 8, 2006 6:00 PM

Grandma Evelyn’s Old Fashioned Pudding Treats Wrestling Theatre is just about the best name for anything. It’s an online comic jam open to anyone who wants to participate. Each contributor adds one tier to the ongoing story. Want to add to the story? Go right ahead!

Originally posted by Johnny from Drawn! The Illustration Blog, on February 8, 2006 5:59 PM

(Thanks, Mike!)

Very cool video of some touch-screen applications that Apple has patented.

Originally posted by Howard from Smart Mobs, on February 8, 2006 5:59 PM

funny that this first appears on Flickr  

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on February 8, 2006 5:59 PM

Missed the Rhizome Net Aesthetics 2.0 panel in Chelsea a couple of nights ago because I had to w*rk. Too bad--really wanted to go. MTAA has a report. The distinction between the early vernacular web and the current more "regulated" web laid out in in Olia Lialina's article here serves as a good background for understanding the shift from net art 1.0 to version 2.0. Essentially it's the world of home pages, links, and artist-scientists vs the world of blogs, Google, and fast delivery of every imaginable kind of content (except the gallerygoing kind), with artists, scientists, and artist-scientists struggling to make sense of it. I have also pontificated on it, though not in product release terms. Another distinction I would make is between the anecdotal ('70s conceptualism in web form--what Sally McKay has called "long-loading, find-the-place-to-click-me narratives packed with theoretically correct reference to the body or lack thereof") and the purely experiential (entertainingly transgressive images, music, and video produced in a collaboration-friendly, peer to peer, non-Industry environment; deliberate confusion between professional and amateur [the vernacular thankfully hasn't gone away]; better sound and pictures generally) that broadband and googling makes possible.

Originally posted by tom moody from Tom Moody, on February 8, 2006 4:54 PM

Originally from Tuberaider Video, on February 8, 2006 4:54 PM

The real story behind this Bill Simmons anecdote is that it's time to learn the name Quentin Ross.

Two weeks ago, I attended a Clips-Nets game two days after Vince Carter tweaked his back in Utah. Knowing Vince would play, knowing the Clips would stick Quentin Ross (aka, "Bruce Bowen 2.0") on him, knowing that Vince would probably struggle, I almost felt like starting a "When will Vince pull and Exit Stage Right during the game?" pool in my section. He came out firing (the back looked fine, by the way) before realizing that Ross would be hounding him all game. Eventually, he stopped going within 20 feet of the basket.

ere waiting for him to start stretching, wincing and doing all the other stuff that Vince does when he wants the crowd to know that he's thinking about packing it in for the night. At the end of the first half, he had one point. Midway through the third, he had 3 points and the Nets were down by 20. Then there was a 2-on-1 with Kidd when Vince stepped on someone's foot, landed a little awkwardly, waved to his bench as the whistle was blown, then kept right on jogging ... right into the runway and into the locker room. We never saw him again. Even better, we knew right away that he wasn't coming back. I just hope I get a chance to tell this story on "SportsCentury And Beyond: Vince Carter" some day.

Originally from True Hoop, on February 8, 2006 4:54 PM

Andrew Baron, co-founder of the Rocketboom video blog, is the guest on this week's BW's Cutting Edge podcast. He talks about Rocketboom's decision to sell advertising on eBay and its deal with TiVo.

Originally from BusinessWeek Online - Blogspotting, on February 8, 2006 4:04 PM

Originally posted by djacobs from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 8, 2006 4:04 PM

Living Portrait

GFPixel is a "painting" made of genetically transformed bacteria. The organisms are cultivated in about 4000 Petri-dishes that are arranged as a portrait. Like on digital screens part of the bacteria produce the green light – the Green Fluorescent Protein-gene is switched ON and in the other part the GFP-gene is switched OFF.

The works plays with the border between living world and the digital world, the portrait seems to be digital but it lives and dies during the exhibition. A work by Austrian media artist Gerfried Stocker and molecular biologist Reinhard Nestelbacher. More images (click "Gallerie und Details").

GPF Pixel can be seen at Medialab Madrid until April 2, as part of an exhibition of the most outstanding projects of digital culture which have won prizes in recent years at Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria. [blogged by Regine on we-make-money-not-art]

Originally posted by jo from networked_performance, on February 8, 2006 4:04 PM

Sort of. I mean, that's a bit of an overstatement. But read this. More on this later, I'm sure.

Incidentally, Stern and others were asked if they read Deadspin, and none said they did. I have heard anecdotes in the last couple of weeks of one All-Star, one executive, and one team owner reading TrueHoop. I hope someone asks Commissioner Stern if he reads TrueHoop.

Originally from True Hoop, on February 8, 2006 4:03 PM

A fresh update to Reblog 2.0 has been released. Be first on your block to install it from http://reblog.org/#download.

This release includes a raft of enhancements, including better documentation for plug-in developers, slightly modified tag behavior that makes it easier to navigate your extensiv feed collection, experimental plug-ins for automatically publishing entries to WordPress, TypePad, Blogger and Del.icio.us accounts, and minor usability improvements too numerous to mention.

This BETA version has been extensively tested, and is recommended for most users. (1 comments)

Originally from SourceForge.net: SF.net Project News: reblog (including full news text), on February 8, 2006 4:03 PM

incidentally, these YouTube clones are popping up like weeds  

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on February 8, 2006 4:02 PM

I need

Originally posted by stamen from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 8, 2006 4:02 PM

Michael Arrington pointed out last night that Songbird, the new Web browser and media player, was about to launch. So we went and looked, downloaded it, and sure enough, it works really well. First we scanned our desktop for files, and Songbird listed them all nicely. Then we played some. This has the look of something pretty cool. Some are calling it the "Firefox for Music." It is open source, and built on......

Originally posted by Matt Marshall from SiliconBeat, on February 8, 2006 4:02 PM

From -> Marjan van Mourik
Lovebytes 2006. Environments International Festival of Digital Art and Media 20 - 25 March Sheffield UK The 10th Lovebytes Festival explores the relationship between physical and digital environments. Featuring live music and multi- media performances, film screenings, workshops and exhibitions of new media work from around the world. Main events 23 ... [more]

Originally posted by Marjan van Mourik from Rhizome.org Rare, on February 8, 2006 4:01 PM

Via the fanatic dedicated Howard Stern fan site:

MarksFriggin.com 

mp3 

Howard Stern is always full of surprises while at the same time is always predictable:

Howard Reviews Brokeback Mountain. 02/07/06. 6:50am

Originally from post.thing.net - A lean, mean, media machine., on February 8, 2006 4:01 PM

Originally posted by inkdroid from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 8, 2006 4:01 PM

Originally posted by miyagawa from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 8, 2006 4:01 PM

A primitive crested dinosaur that lived 160 million years ago in China appears to be the granddaddy of all tyrannosaurs.

Originally from NYT > Home Page, on February 8, 2006 4:00 PM

Joel Spolsky disses AJAX calendar hype: "I've talked about this before -- it's the Marimba phenomenon -- when you get premature publicity, lots of people check out your thing, and it's not done yet, so now most of the people that tried your thing think it's lame, and now you have two problems: your thing is lame and everybody knows it."

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on February 8, 2006 4:00 PM

I hope you have hear of the latest rumours regarding a Goobuntu OS supposedly being developed by google based off of Ubuntu. Well, if you haven’t, you haven’t missed much. Today (or yesterday) wasn’t the first I heard of Goobuntu.

Let me hazard a guess at how this rumour spread. A WEEK ago, I read this profile of Ubuntu/Mark Shuttleworth on the pages of an Africa-based website. That includes the following paragraph:

A key stage in Ubuntu’s growth will be persuading personal computer makers to sell machines with Ubuntu already installed. Google has developed its own version of Ubuntu, called Goobuntu. Shuttleworth says he is in talks with the city of Munich about creating an edition for them.

After reading thisI searched on Google (where else?) and found nothing (excpet a page in Japanese that I could not read) to report and so kept shut. However, I am guessing that an overactive imagination at Register must have made invisible connections between the rumoured google desktop OS and the mention of goobuntu in the article (which must have propagated through the feed-waves), to write this embarassment of an article. Among other things it has this to say:

Google has confirmed it is working on a desktop linux project called Goobuntu, but declined to supply further details, including what the project is for.

Again, we run into “undisclosed sources” and a lack of “further details”.

I used to read the Register once in a while, and had stopped a few months ago - apparently such sensationalist and questionable reporting is what they celebrate the most.

We had to wait a day to hear a google technology spokesperson say that these rumours were not true:

Despite today being earnings release day, presumably a very busy time at the Google press relations office, technology spokeswoman Sonya Borälv responded very quickly to my query on the topic. She said that “[w]e use Ubuntu internally but have no plans to distribute it outside of the company.”

However, the best part of the fiasco was this screenshot!! Folks have a hyper-active imagination, I tell you!

The good that hopefully came out of all this is that a few geeks (like us) who can’t be seperated from their feedreaders and forums would probably now be stoked by the question, “so what is this ‘Ubuntu’ all about then?”. I hope a few of them come to stay. That google uses Ubuntu internally is a great thing - a seemingly valid endorsement of how Ubuntu’s development has progressed so far, towards a simpler, stabler desktop linux.

Originally from Ubuntu Blog, on February 8, 2006 4:00 PM

I'm voting for a Dukes of Hazzard sweep  

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on February 8, 2006 4:00 PM

the open-source iTunes clone launched today, though the site is totally crushed  

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on February 8, 2006 3:59 PM

German Director Werner Herzog encountered the random violence of nature he speaks of so often as he was shot by a crazed fan during a BBC interview. In classic Herzog fashion, the 63 year old director stated "Someone is shooting at us. We must go." The interview continued, however, as Herzog's pants became stained with blood. Herzog commented, "It was not a significant bullet. I am not afraid." Thanks Fabio! Link to Yahoo story.

UPDATE: Two days before being shot, a Jesus-like Herzog pulled Joaquin Phoenix out of a car wreck.

UPDATE 2: Listener Evan has found a link to the video of the shooting: start streaming video.

Originally from WFMU's Beware of the Blog, on February 8, 2006 3:59 PM

Google is trying to do with brains what the Hunt brothers attempted with silver a few decades back: to corner the market. Of course, the very idea is preposterous, but they are running an unsettling surplus of gray matter. Rob Hof has a good analysis of Google's latest catch, this time the head of Amazon's A9 search operation, Udi Manber. Clearly, the bumps in Google's stock didn't spook him.

I'm thinking we should keep our eyes open for defections from Google, perhaps a leading indicator of its decline from dominance. (Or would it be a lagging indicator?) In any case, at some point, if it's not happening already, all these brilliant stars corraled in the same company are going to start stepping on each other's toes and getting antsy. Larry and Sergey have probably been too busy to notice, but they would do well to study the recent history of the star-studded and star-crossed New York Yankees.

Originally from BusinessWeek Online - Blogspotting, on February 8, 2006 10:36 AM

Posted by JimH on #mobitopia (irc.freenode.net)

Originally posted by mobibot from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 8, 2006 10:35 AM

Sprint and The History Makers, a national non-profit organization dedicated to preserving African-American history through first-person stories, have announced the launch of "Moments in Black History," a series of daily "textoids" delivered via text message during the month of February.

Originally posted by emily from textually.org, on February 8, 2006 10:35 AM

Charity Navigator evaluates and rates charities so you can see how well your donation will be used. There's room for improvement, but it's a good idea.

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on February 8, 2006 10:35 AM

Is it okay to remove sites from search results in response to lawsuits? Check out this search and make sure you read the disclaimer at the bottom. Then read about Google agreeing to censor their results in China, begging the question “Are censored results better than none at all?” Gmail and Blogger will also not be available to Chinese users of Google. As a quickie example, you can see the results for Tiananmen Square searches: US Google, Chinese Google, Chinese Google search using Chinese characters. The Chinese searches have the disclaimer “据当地法律法规和政策，部分搜索结果未予显示” or “In accordance with local laws, regulations and policies, part of these search results are not displayed.” This is all in addition to other blocking strategies, commonly referred to as The Great Firewall of China. However in this case Google.cn doesn’t just block searches for keywords, it blocks selectively sometimes without saying that it’s doing so. Slightly more explanation and intrigue over at Search Engine Watch, Google Blogoscoped and Google’s own official blog.

Why does this matter to librarians? Well, it’s obvious how it matters to librarians in China. It also calls into question the very idea of objectivity in search engines everywhere. As Google spends more time and effort currying favor with librarians trying to show how sympatico they are, this move is a departure from expanding access. People who search Google.cn for topics like Tibet or Falun Gong (or possible even other less innocuous topics) won’t just find an absence of results, they’ll find results that are skewed towards the Chinese government’s policies about those topics. That’s wrong. Pundits argue that this is a sensible move for Google from a business perspective, and I won’t debate that, but it does serve to starkly highlight the differences in saying “free acces to information” if you’re a for-profit shareholder-owned company. Any librarian who has had to grapple with a filter with an unknown blacklist will be familiar with the struggles that people on the non-filtered side of Google are going through trying to figure out just what is happening. [metafilter]

Originally from librarian.net, on February 8, 2006 10:34 AM

Originally posted by blackbeltjones from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 8, 2006 10:33 AM

Michael Szpakowski, one of the core producers behind DVblog, has recently created 'Scenes of Provincial Life,' a new video blog of his own provocative shorts. The series started as a kind of 'moving image dream diary,' a few years ago, and already features a dozen movies. Each plays with simple juxtapositions of mostly appropriated material, and Szpakowski is slowly uploading his archive, intermixed with new work, at a rate of one file per day. The tones of the videos range from Kentridge-like sorrowful beauty to quirky and experimental fluxus framing. Szpakowski's mastery of remixing pop and historical imagery feels cautiously poetic--an inviting and watchful celebration of the ignored beauty to be found in everyday things. - Nathaniel Stern

http://www.somedancersandmusicians.com/vlog/ScenesOfProvincialLife.cgi

Originally from Rhizome.org Net Art News, on February 8, 2006 8:11 AM

Originally from Tuberaider Video, on February 8, 2006 8:10 AM

Originally posted by miyagawa from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 8, 2006 8:10 AM

Originally posted by finn from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 7, 2006 11:47 PM

Originally from Tuberaider Video, on February 7, 2006 11:20 PM

an initiative created to make the public more aware about the amount of money going into military & the Pentagon in the US. the campaign used highly simplified & large-format bar, column & pie graphs as well as physical representations like the inflatable structure in order to communicate a small but important amount of information on a very large scale. [quantumlight.com, sagmeister.com & sagmeister.com]

Originally posted by fofoda from information aesthetics, on February 7, 2006 11:19 PM

Mariah Carey's record producer, Jermaine Dupri, says he'll take hits over Grammys.

Originally from NYT > Arts, on February 7, 2006 11:18 PM

These are amazing -- rooms painted with designs that only resolve from one particular angle. The "target" one is very Indiana Jones. Anyone know the source? These are by Felice Varini, and there are some short animations of some of them on his site.

3D Painted Rooms:

Originally from jwz, on February 7, 2006 6:16 PM

According to MacNN, Adobe's first release of universal binaries could be up to 12-14 months away, probably with the next version upgrade.

I guess that could help stabilize Apple's non-Intel sales to creative professionals, but it seems like a misstep to not have ensured that Photoshop would run native on the new hardware before it was a year old.

It also leaves two unanswered questions:

1. Wither Fireworks (which I personally prefer to Photoshop for comping pages) and the other Macromedia apps?
2. Does this leave a gap for a compitetor to fill, or is Photoshop just so important and entrenched that it can't be toppled?

Originally from Off the Hoof, on February 7, 2006 6:15 PM

Originally posted by inkdroid from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 7, 2006 6:15 PM

Good news. Al's Comics, a staple in the SF Mission District for seventeen years, has found a new location. Al had run into a bit of financial trouble and was subsequently evicted from his store at 17th and Guerrero. In a fantastic moment of true community support Al's customers present and past came together to help out.

Al's is moving to a great new space at 1803 Market Street, right next to It's Tops. It's a much bigger space, and he is planning all sorts of stuff to give back to the community, such as comics workshops for kids. Grand opening on February 8th. Al is VERY happy.

Go buy comics!

Originally from Off the Hoof, on February 7, 2006 6:14 PM

Ha! Take a look at what's on the screen of the "super-secret agency's headquarters" and then have a laugh here. I know when I think of national security, the number of Mozilla patches is at the top of my list.

Originally from random($foo), on February 7, 2006 6:14 PM

I'm "it". Learn something new, about me: Four jobs I've had: • Catch-All, Tokion Magazine, Los Angeles, CA & New York, NY • Music Management, Slayer, Los Angeles, CA • Environmental Health & Safety Consultant, Arthur D. Little, Boston, MA...

Originally from hustler of culture, on February 7, 2006 2:36 PM

Cool trees Originally uploaded by tuckergurl. I have a lot of friends that live in New York City (and the outer boroughs). This IM chat happened with a Brooklyn-based friend last week: Friend: Nice trees. Me: That's landscape ARCHITECTURE....

Originally from hustler of culture, on February 7, 2006 2:36 PM

With all the cool feedback, links, and applications people are sending in about OGLE, I've decided we need to launch a lo-key blog for the site. This way its really easy to post things related to the project whenever they come rolling in. You may note that there are a number of posts from before this blog launched -- I went ahead and put in content dated for when it would have been posted had we already had the blog.

Originally from OGLE: OpenGLExtractor by Eyebeam R&D blogs, on February 7, 2006 2:34 PM

"(Dennis) Ritchie observes: 'What we wanted to preserve was not just a good environment in which to do programming, but a system around which a fellowship could form.'"

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on February 7, 2006 2:34 PM

On Chinatowns. "Like many crowded Asian cities, Chinatown has mastered the art of the vertical, inspired by languages that can be written up and down, not just side to side."

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on February 7, 2006 2:23 PM

When snap.com launched at Web 2.0 in 2004, Bill Gross was high on transparency. They were going to share their revenues openly and easily. There was a link on the home page straight to their numbers (they may have even shown their numbers on the home page). A visit to snap.com today shows no such transparency on the home page, no such link to revenue numbers. There’s not even a mention on their about page. If transparency was such a key component of snap.com, surely it would be part of what they’re about.

We’re seeing history repeat itself on Seth Godin’s Squidoo. When Squidoo launched just a few short months ago they had revenue numbers on their home page. And now it’s gone. I think it got up to about $2500 or so.

For the record, change is good. If something isn’t working for you you should change it. However, change regarding transparency is tough when you’ve made it a cornerstone of your business.

Bottom Line: Transparency is good marketing, but you’d better stick with it. Starting open and then trending towards closed is worse than starting closed and trending towards open. Think before you leap into transparency — it’s a lot harder than it looks.

Originally from Signal vs. Noise, on February 7, 2006 2:22 PM

Werner Herzog gets shot while being interviewed but continues regardless and goes on to save Joaquin Phoenix from a car crash. Which makes you question the wisdom of parodying his latest movie.

Posted to culture

Originally from Stunned, on February 7, 2006 2:22 PM

It's been awhile since we brought you a comprehensive roundup of the women who have taken their clothes off in public as a career-advancing strategy. So here's who is going to appear naked on the cover of the upcoming Hollywood...

Originally posted by Amy from Amy's Robot, on February 7, 2006 2:21 PM

txt mob. In the New Zealand Herald: “Syrian protesters who burned and looted the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus were encouraged to organise by the Syrian authorities, and received text messages from Islamic study centres urging them to gather. ‘The sheikhs told us to send five text messages to every true Muslim we knew urging them to participate,’ said a student from the Abu Nour Islamic Institute in Damascus.” And Radio Sweden: “The attack in Damascus followed SMS text messages which falsely claimed that people in the Danish capital Copenhagen planned to burn copies of the Moslem holy book the Koran.” (via)

Originally from Social Design Notes, on February 7, 2006 12:40 PM

PR Dei: When "The Da Vinci Code" became a publishing sensation, leaders of the Roman Catholic organization Opus Dei realized they had an image problem on their hands.
Link

Originally from monochrom, on February 7, 2006 12:40 PM

We Need Money Not Art

"...Chinese new media art afficionados ... are translating their favourite posts of we-make-money-not-art into Chinese on we-need-money-not-art. [wow! well done Regine!] [via Regine on we-make-money-not-art]

Originally posted by jo from networked_performance, on February 7, 2006 12:40 PM

Originally from Tuberaider Video, on February 7, 2006 12:39 PM

Originally from Tuberaider Video, on February 7, 2006 12:39 PM

NYC Dumpling Man now offers freshly frozen dumplings....

Originally from A Full Belly, on February 7, 2006 12:22 PM

For my vegan friends, another tasty vegan blog, Eat Air - A Vegan Food Log....

Originally from A Full Belly, on February 7, 2006 12:21 PM

directed by spike lee featuring a very young laurence fishburne, this is great! (thx lars)

Originally posted by kick_out_the_internet_jams from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 7, 2006 12:21 PM

Inbox/Outbox Call for Participation

Inbox/Outbox is an e-mail institution operating and establishing connections between virtual and real public spheres as a means to propelling public access. Characterized by its temporary function as an agent, I/O avoids institutional incorporation of its subjects, thus removing itself from the final context, as well as allowing internal institutions and contexts to occur. I/O is based on a division into two binary functions, Inbox and Outbox, Inbox being the receiver of virtual data, which in turn is processed by Outbox and "forwarded" to public spaces.

Inbox/Outbox is currently channelling its activities through Centrifug, an exhibition space within Konsthall C in Stockholm, Sweden. The selection of exhibitions at Centrifug is based on a public booking list, released once every year. The Inbox/Outbox exhibition period is February 22nd - March 5th. I/O is for this occasion calling for participation. Admission will not be limited in any way, neither by amount of data, number of participants nor by any other criteria for selection, given the condition that submitted content doesn't infringe upon laws or regulations.

Submitted data must be suited for printing onto plain (A4) paper or for writing to audio-CD. Deadline is set for February 20th. Submit your data to inbox[at]inboxoutbox.org

Originally posted by jo from networked_performance, on February 7, 2006 12:21 PM

From -> Plasma Studii
sorry if i wasn't clear. not what i meant by "just keep quiet". meant, "don't tell anybody, you are just doing it for no reason". glad people (and you) say stuff (even when i disagree). am mostly devils advocate who wants everybody to think hard about why they do what they do. so few admit the most trivial things to themselves. and it is cool posting ... [more]

Originally posted by Plasma Studii from Rhizome.org Rare, on February 7, 2006 12:21 PM

“(Dennis) Ritchie observes: ‘What we wanted to preserve was not just a good environment in which to do programming, but a system around which a fellowship could form.’”

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on February 7, 2006 12:20 PM

Apple has introduced a 1GB version of the iPod nano and cut prices on the iPod Shuffle.

Originally from Macworld, on February 7, 2006 11:00 AM

Working on the blogject workshop debriefing, I tried to gather some examples of ‘objects that blog’, or objects that upload their story up to web.

The simplest form Alex Pang from the IFTF suggested me are webcams but they are rather passive instruments, “reporting” whatever they see. Another simple example is a lamp which can show a history of persons who have entered a specific room (see this aula lamp on page 4).

Another suggestion (by fredhouse) was this project at EPFL that had a bunch of RSS feeds for sensor data from a mote-based sensor net. Using an embedded server component that publishes RSS data feeds and a datablogging platform could be a way to upload these information.
The point, as Gene described would be that every connected thing has syndication as a default capability, which is one of the thing we discussed in our workshop the other day.

Of course, there is the AIBO blog (see the aibo blog aggregator too) and the pigeon that blog thing I blogged about last week is very close to this: “Pigeons with GPS enabled electronic air pollution sensing devices, capable of sending location based air pollution data as well as images to an online Mapping/Blogging Environment in real time“.

Those things exist already, now there are some thoughts that begin to pop here and there:

Sascha think about something quite beyond that:

I spend some time thinking about object that would tap into the flow of money within Google AdSense, ultimately ending up with an artifact that could make (grow?) money for you. I believe that this would be especially interesting because you then could give people that have no access to these abstract means of generating value (e.g. having a website or blog) or are even illiterate the means to access it and even make a living using paradigms that are coming from a completely different background.
Imagine an artificial plant that would generate clicks (money) on it’s own AdSense-equipped website whenever its solar cells are being exposed to the sun, thus combining the most

Overall, I like the datablogging concept because it’s really close to the idea of various data aggregated with a potential goal, as in blogjects.

Well, we still have to write the workshop report

Technorati Tags: blogject, blogjects

Originally posted by Nicolas from pasta and vinegar, on February 7, 2006 11:00 AM

After much waiting, my new phone is finally here! (That’s a picture of a Nokia N90 below, in case you’re reading this in an aggregator that doesn’t pull in linked images.)

Alright, so I’m last on the block to get one, I know, but I’ve really wanted this phone for it’s camera and high resolution (352 x 416) screen. Even though it’s four or five months old (that’s ancient, right?), it still seems to be top dog in camera phones, which is what I wanted.

However, before I go much further in explaining my excitement, I suppose it’s only proper to mention the standard disclaimer that I’m a little partial to the brand and technology in this phone, given my place of employment (ie., the company that makes it.)

With that out of the way, let’s start with first impressions. The packaging was nice — standard Nokia cardboard, but it opens well, creating a nice presentation and feeling of excitement. It’s not quite the experience of opening an iPod box, but it’s an improvement over previous box designs.

Removing the N90 from it’s clear plastic pedestal, you immediately notice the metal trim on the sides, which is cool to the touch. The phone feels solid, and you notice it’s heft. I hear people complain about the size and weight of this phone, but it carries the bulk well — it’s similar to how a solid car door feels compared to a flimsy entry model. Opening the clamshell, the mechanics also feel more solid then on my 7610 (although it could be the 2 Euro face plates from a Beijing street dealer that I was using.) The 7610 is a great phone (I carried it for almost two years!), but the N90 is certainly a step up.

Unpacking the rest of the box, you get a power cord (with a new, smaller plug that renders my collection of Nokia charges mostly useless), a single power-cord adapter for older chargers, a USB cable, a 64 MB MMC, and a wired headset that seems more like a prank then a real consumer product (I’m glad I still have the one-ear unit from the 7610.)

With the phone charged, I fired it up to be greeted by a gorgeous screen and a LOUD startup sound. Before mucking around, priority number one was to transfer my contacts and pictures to the new phone. Fortunately, I know that the new devices ship with a Data Transfer application, so I gave my new toy a Bluetooth device name, popped a dummy-SIM into my 7610, and kicked off the process. The 64 MB card in my 7610 was maxed-out with pictures, videos, flash files, and Python scripts, so I expected this to take awhile. It did — about a half an hour, but it worked like a charm. Having this work was particularly important to me since the N90 isn’t supported by Apple’s iSync yet, and I don’t have the patience to use Nokia PC Suite.

Next up was installing crucial applications. This includes, Python for S60 (of course), Calcium, FExplorer, Google Local Mobile, and my various card and puzzle games. Everything installed and runs fine, but you certainly notice the free memory numbers when installing — there was something like 25 MG free on internal storage! That’s a nice change of pace.

Using the phone will take a little getting used to. The controls are spaced differently, so I find my thumb occasionally hitting “end call” instead of ‘c’ (the “delete” key.) The D-pad placement is also going to make gaming a little tricky. It’s recessed in such a manner that my thumb is telling me I’ve been playing on the phone too long. The 7610 was no Snake-champ either (the 6600 is probably my favorite for that, or perhaps the original N-Gage), but I suppose I’ll get used to it. It’s also a little disorienting at first when you have to switch to different soft-keys and a side-mounted D-pad when rotating the screen. It “feels” right when you’re holding it, but it’s still something different.

I made a few mistakes when trying to take my first photo (of one of my cats, in case you’re curious.) Just when I had the shot lined up I would depress the D-pad hoping it operated the shutter. It doesn’t. It’s the button above that. And then when I finally figured that out, the cat was in for a surprise when the flash went off :-)

I’ve got a lot of exploring left to do on this phone. There’s a ton of camera functionality that’s new, and I might even try to make a phone call!

Originally posted by erik from [eriksmartt.com/blog], on February 7, 2006 10:24 AM

It’s finally official — Python for S60 is now open source: “Nokia to Release Python for S60 Source Code to Open-Source Software Developer Community!”

Quite a bit of work has gone into the project since the 1.2 release; However, most of it has been in the due diligence needed to release the source code. Still, the version number has bumped to 1.3.1 and there’s a few new goodies worth upgrading for (like the ability to monitor incoming SMS!)

The code hasn’t been moved into the SourceForge CVS system yet, so check the project files page to find the SIS file installers and the ZIP packages with the source code.

So what’s next? First up, the plan is to move the previous bug and feature-request databases to SourceForge. Next, we’d like to open up the documentation a bit better, possibly moving things like the “Getting Started” guide into a wiki. (On a related note, I was bummed to learn that MoinMoin doesn’t play nice on SourceForge, and that a MySQL-backed wiki engine will be needed. If you have a suggestion let us know, otherwise we’ll likely end up on MediaWiki.) I also expect a post from Jukka at some point to discuss the things he’ll be working on in the coming months (most of which will be focused on porting to S60 3rd Edition.) No idea yet if he’ll be commenting on his blog, the boards, or the new project site… but the good news is that project will continue development. We still have more process details to work out, but we’re headed in the right direction and I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

The project site on opensource.nokia.com has also been updated to reflect the new release status, but the Forum Nokia discussion boards and #pys60 on freenode are still the best places for developer information right now.

Congrats to the team and everyone who’s helped make this release possible! I look forward to hearing feedback and seeing what kind of up-take the project gets now that it’s released. We hope this release contributes to a solid foundation for mobile-python environments, not just on S60, but other mobile devices as well; And I hope that other developers porting Python to mobile devices will consider collaborating. (HINT: Everyone who’s emailed over the past year asking for a Series 80 port — now’s you’re chance to try compiling and submitting patches ;-)

Originally posted by erik from [eriksmartt.com/blog], on February 7, 2006 10:23 AM

Malcolm Gladwell on "power law problems" like homelessness, auto pollution, and bad cops. These problems have solutions which focus on the small number of hard-core cases, like the 5% of Denver vehicles that account for 55% of the city's automobile pollution.

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on February 7, 2006 9:42 AM

Democracy or Oligarchy

un_wiki, by Wayne Clements, gets quotes from Wikipedia the free encyclopediaÂ’s Deletion Log: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&type=delete. The Deletion Log is a list of all the pages that have abused Wiki's democratic remit; it is the last stop on the way to destruction. It has small amounts of the offending texts. Clements uses a Perl script to get them and throw away the rest.

un_wiki explores the antagonism between formal democracy (anyone may edit a page) and actual oligarchy (sysadmins may delete or revert a page). [via Loreto Martin]

Originally posted by jo from networked_performance, on February 7, 2006 9:41 AM

Kotaku is reporting that Lambda Legal has gotten involved in the World of Warcraft GLBT issue - WoW: Blizzard Gets Gay Rights Warning.

Kotaku also has the full text of the letter sent to Blizzard from the legal team.

Although Blizzard is well within its rights to insist that players avoid referring to other gamers in an “insulting manner,” Blizzard cannot issue a blanket ban on any mention of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Originally from Sex & Games, on February 7, 2006 9:41 AM

Worth1000 is hosting a photoshop contest Food for . In this contest, food is swappd for everyday items, used in ways that it would not ordinarily be used. File under fun.

Originally posted by emily from textually.org, on February 7, 2006 9:41 AM

".Mac emulation all the way from iCal publishing to tricking it into using the Backup program. Explict instructions on how to set this up."

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on February 7, 2006 8:22 AM

Eyebeam's Processing utility lets you scrub through before and after retouches [via] 

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on February 7, 2006 8:20 AM

In the spring of 1941 Alan [Turing] developed a new friendship. It was with Joan Clarke. . . . If he came...

Originally posted by ezra from Letters to an Unknown Audience, on February 7, 2006 8:18 AM

When "Curveball" just won't do.

Originally from Ftrain.com, on February 7, 2006 8:18 AM

Last week I had dinner with some remarkably brilliant people, and we were talking about the importance of stories, how the human mind tends towards narrative, how causation, fort-da, one thing follows another chronology is necessary -- otherwise everything would happen all at once, haha. But the mind can't help but construct narratives out of everything. I brought up the research by Peter Nisbett wherein he found that people make up stories for 'how they know something' (look up his other stuff too, he did studies of people explaining why they thought one pair of identical panty hose was better than another pair, stuff like that). Someone once told me we sleep because we need to have a beginning and an end. We argued whether or not mathematical equations are narrative, and concluded they are not.

Why Start a Company?. On the blog from Plum, a new startup that just came out of stealth, a story about why they started the company, based on a personal story by the founder. It's a great story. Similarly, when we were trying to explain Flickr, we'd tell a story of Stewart's grandmother's 80th birthday party, where the photo albums were spread out across the table from the 20s, 30s and 40s, and how everyone would say things like "That must be the house on St. Lawrence Street just before the War" and "That was Tom's girlfriend Katie from 1974..." -- and how the conversations around the images were the metadata, but after the party was over, and everyone went home, everything was lost; no one knew where the albums were anymore -- obviously they had to be online, where everyone could get to them, and shared...thus, Flickr. A pretty good story. But even better is when people start telling us the exact same story, unbeknownst to them: one of my friends tells me she put some old family photos online, and found a long lost relative in Brazil, who started annotating the photos with her.

Looking at the graphic in the previous post is a little depressing; it reminds me of a fluorescent lit grocery store with a hundred brightly colored packaged goods clamoring for your attention. I'm burnt out on hearing/reading about/keeping track of all the bright shiny objects that are all over the place. But Plum has gotten off on the right foot, with its moving and very personal story.

Originally from Caterina.net, on February 7, 2006 12:11 AM

We've heard a nasty rumor that Google has put out a bid out for Friendster -- and it comes from someone who previously worked at Friendster. We don't usually write about rumors, but we wanted to check with Google to see how they'd respond. "We cannot comment on rumor or speculation," said Eileen Rodriguez, a spokeswoman. We haven't done a definitive tally of how Google responds to these sorts of things, but note that this "no comment" is much more sparse than the outright denials Google has issued in the past when something isn't true, including its response to rumors last week about a possible acquisition of Napster. "We have no plans to acquire Napster, nor do we have plans to develop a music store at this time," Google spokeswoman Sonya Boralv said in a statement. We don't want to read too much into......

Originally posted by Matt Marshall from SiliconBeat, on February 7, 2006 12:11 AM

Remote-control. Katamari. Awesome.

(The name "Katamario Kart" was coined over at Ludology; also, there's a whole blog full of projects like this. Whee! Electronic bits 'n cute stuff!)

Originally posted by Jez from Wonderland, on February 7, 2006 12:10 AM

another New York art blog

Originally posted by kick_out_the_internet_jams from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 7, 2006 12:09 AM

Noted many places, Linux creator Linux Torvalds has written on using CC to marginalize DRM:

Creative Commons licenses already require that you can't use technological measures to restrict the rigts you give with the CC licenses. The "Share Alike" license in particular requires all work based on it to also be shared alike, ie it has the "GPL feel" to it.

If enough interesting content is licensed that way, DRM eventually becomes marginalized. Yes, it takes decades, but that's really no different at all from how the GPL works. The GPL has taken decades, and it hasn't "marginalized" commercial proprietary software yet, but it's gotten to the point where fewer people at least worry about it.

Emphasis added. This is embedded in a debate about a future version of the GPL, the dominant free software license. Regardless of how you feel about this debate (or know of its existence), your mission is clear: create and discover great CC-licensed content.

Originally posted by Mike Linksvayer from Creative Commons Blog, on February 7, 2006 12:09 AM

A colleague of mine works for one of the companies invited to go to Chicago to present their proposal to ALA for the content management system for new ALA website. Since travelling to Chicago on their own dime in June, they haven’t head a word from ALA. I’ve heard, informally, that the field has been narrowed to two, possibly one candidate. It’s too bad that formally the other candidates haven’t heard anything. Especially bad, since they have blogs and can express their displeasure online. From the school of “I don’t know what Library 2.0 is exactly, but I know it when I see it” this sort of quick widely-distributable feedback is part of it, and that’s the good news and the bad news for some libraries. Please read An Open Letter to ALA. update: apparently Openflows has now heard from ALA. This post had nothing to do with that.

Originally from librarian.net, on February 7, 2006 12:08 AM

I’m trying to find a way to seamlessly integrate longer thought out posts with fewer links in with the shorter quick-link type posts I usually write. There may be some experimentation here over the next few days. For now, please enjoy the brand new Prelinger Library Blog and if you are in the Bay Area in California, please stop by and visit the Prelinger Library in person.

Originally from librarian.net, on February 7, 2006 12:08 AM

In this day and age it feels like someone’s seen everything and been everywhere. That’s what makes stories of discovery of hundreds of new species in one expedition so wonderful.

An astonishing mist-shrouded “lost world” of previously unknown and rare animals and plants high in the mountain rainforests of New Guinea has been uncovered by an international team of scientists… The scientists are the first outsiders to see it. They could only reach the remote mountainous area by helicopter, which they described it as akin to finding a “Garden of Eden”… In a jungle camp site, surrounded by giant flowers and unknown plants, the researchers watched rare bowerbirds perform elaborate courtship rituals. The surrounding forest was full of strange mammals, such as tree kangaroos and spiny anteaters, which appeared totally unafraid, suggesting no previous contact with humans.

Fascinating. I hope we get to see the photos soon.

Originally from Signal vs. Noise, on February 7, 2006 12:08 AM

a physical & visual representation of the conversational dynamics between two people as they converse across a long table, embeded with light emitting diodes (LEDs). the LEDs are activated by two microphones which pick up the duration & volume of the conversation, triggering light animation from the end where one speaks toward the other. if both people speak simultaneously, the lights start animating from both ends. [mit.edu via we-make-money-not-art]

Originally posted by fofoda from information aesthetics, on February 7, 2006 12:08 AM

Opus Dei, a Roman Catholic organization with powerful members and a reputation for secrecy, is trying to change its public image.

Originally from NYT > Home Page, on February 7, 2006 12:07 AM

TidBITS: “Thanks to Path Finder 4, from Cocoatech, you can bypass the Finder in favor of a sensible, rational, gorgeously clean environment for working with files and folders. At every step, in every detail, Path Finder’s interface and behavior simply do the Right Thing.”

Originally from ranchero.com, on February 7, 2006 12:07 AM

After many months of evaluating feedback and deliberating, we've decided to institute a $10 fee for each listing posted to the broker apartment categories on the New York site. (Will fees clean up crap reposts? -kc.)

Originally posted by yatta from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 6, 2006 5:55 PM

Park Slope. How we roll.

Originally posted by yatta from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 6, 2006 4:19 PM

In an interview with Time Out London, director Werner Herzog explains that he'll be playing a part in [Harmony] Korine's next film, Mister Lonely, which possibly begins filming this month. His role, one has claimed, is as an Abraham Lincoln impersonator.

As if that wasn't significant enough:

Harmony Korine has directed the music video for 'Living Proof,' the first single from Cat Power's latest album 'The Greatest'. The video, which debuted on MTV2's Subterranean in London on the 22nd of January, was shot by Lee Daniel (Slacker, Dazed and Confused) and produced by Margaret Brown (director of Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt, also shot by Daniel).

Next time I see Lee Daniel I'm going to ask him nicely to introduce me to Harmony Korine.

Originally from News of the dead, on February 6, 2006 4:18 PM

Gorgeous CG fluid dynamics demo. As pretty and unreal as a carton of Vitasoy 40% into the video clip.

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on February 6, 2006 4:18 PM

SF Don't miss the Food Blogger Face-Off tonight, 6:00 p.m. at the Ferry Building!...

Originally from A Full Belly, on February 6, 2006 3:19 PM

TheCodingMonkeys State of the Union.

Martin Pittenauer goes into how sales of SubEthaEdit are doing. And just today they released SubEthaEdit 2.3, which is no longer free for non-comercial use. I hope those sales start spiking, because they want to transition into writing apps full time. So best of luck to them, I'm sure it'll work out just fine. And German engineering is always second to no one so we can expect more good things from them in the future.

Originally from [GusMueller blog], on February 6, 2006 3:19 PM

Pure Evil has just tipped us off about Graffiti TV, a new online project he's just launched. It's kinda lo-fi, but has some great quicktimes to watch.

Originally from Protein Feed, on February 6, 2006 2:01 PM

Originally from Cognections, on February 6, 2006 2:01 PM

Esther Dyson: Google is blind evolution, Yahoo is intelligent design. I'm not sure that's the right metaphor to use if you want to put Yahoo on the same level as Google.

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on February 6, 2006 2:01 PM

Vegan Lunch Box is the blog of a stay at home mom who makes her kid vegan laptop lunchesevery day filled with everything from stromboli to dim sum to sushi. Lunch should always be this much fun. [thanks for tip,...

Originally from A Full Belly, on February 6, 2006 2:00 PM

Google Food Photo Blog: Looks like some good eatin'. [thanks for the tip, David!]...

Originally from A Full Belly, on February 6, 2006 2:00 PM

Hooray Web 2.0


Originally uploaded by torrez.

Andre posted this Nascar-style assemblage of Web 2.0 company logos. Though there's a number of great apps/services in there for whom I have a lot of respect, I am pretty happy that Six Apart is not in there. I just can't help but feel a little discomfited by the preponderance of soundalike names. And how much revenue, exactly, have all these companies made? Combined?

I'm not saying it's all about or only about the money. But this stuff's too important for us to let it become another bubble with no editing and no filtering. Not to say that any of these companies should be filtered out, but we do need to look pretty carefully at what's coming up. Just discoving this many entrants and making all of these into viable entities is a lot for any one industry to absorb. As with everything else, aspiring for sustainability is a great goal.

Originally from Anil Dash, on February 6, 2006 1:59 PM

NYC Grassroots Media Conference. This Saturday, February 11. I’ll be there.

Originally from Social Design Notes, on February 6, 2006 1:59 PM

We’ve been experimenting with various ways to keep abusive comments in check. We’ve tried simply deleting those comments, banning those commenters from SvN, and even turning off comments all together for a limited time. We’ve learned a few things from each experiment.

Here’s another one we’re going to try: The Troll Cap.

We’ve all seen the dunce cap. Now it’s time for some people to put on the Troll cap. Comments posted on SvN that are off-topic, blatantly inflammatory, or otherwise inappropriate or vapid may either be removed or be slapped with the Troll cap.

This icon is free for anyone to use on their own blog. Spread it far and wide. Use the bigger one above, or the smaller one below:

Originally from Signal vs. Noise, on February 6, 2006 1:59 PM

Keeping up with the reBlogging has been tough as late - the amount I post is pretty proportional to how many feeds I read, as well as how much time I have, and when either drops off, so does shey.net.

It doesn't help that I'm constantly on the road these days -- in this week alone, I'll be in DC twice, NYC twice, and LA somewhere in between.

That said, I'm going to make a last ditch effort to keep this page interesting. There's certainly plenty of interesting stuff going on -- what I'm doing these days includes a healthy mix of social networking, game design, broadband media, and mobile and handheld projects, and it's kept my head constantly spinning. So I may skew shey.net closer to my professional interests for a while and see how that works.

So, look out for posts. This one's to make sure I put some here soon.

Originally from shey.net reblog, on February 6, 2006 1:58 PM

GBuy Google chief executive Eric Schmidt says Google's pending online payments service GBuy won't compete directly with eBay's PayPal, but eBay doesn't believe him, according to this WSJ story. ...The Mountain View, Calif., Web-search giant, which has terrified Silicon Valley with its ability to quickly create new consumer products and services, is developing a rival service called GBuy. For the last nine months, Google has recruited online retailers to test GBuy, according to one person briefed on the service. GBuy will feature an icon posted alongside the paid-search ads of merchants, which Google hopes will tempt consumers to click on the ads, says this person. GBuy will also let consumers store their credit-card information on Google. (Hat-tip to Battelle)...

Originally posted by Matt Marshall from SiliconBeat, on February 6, 2006 1:58 PM

Some MP3s from Sophia Coppola movies to download including Kevin Shields, My Bloody Valentine, Air and The Jesus and Mary Chain.
via aquarium drunk

Posted to downloads

Originally from Stunned, on February 6, 2006 1:58 PM

Shocking, new evidence for global warming:

• ... "tens of thousands" of game players connecting at McDonalds restaurants. ... indicating that competition in the mobile platform space is heating up. ...
• "Competition in the online lending space is heating up, with a number of regional players working hard to make their web sites as good as the traditional ...
• ... companies vying to acquire the major players in the mobile games business. ... The mobile search investment space is heating up for sure: US publishing ...
• The mobile search investment space is heating up for sure: US publishing house ... Expect more such deals with other players to happen this year: Motorola ...
• As far as rumors go, the one about Google's move into the browser space is heating up. ... two key players in the development of the Firefox browser, ...
• I think it's great that the Internet consumer space is heating up again. ... Now we have talented, capable players on the margin who might as well be feral. ...
• ... to the medical device market with new players grabbing major market share, ... The remote monitoring space is heating up, what with companies like ADT, ...
• The behavioral targeting space is heating up, with competition between leading ... The players are jockeying for position in the still-nascent arena. ...
• Competition in the RNAi space is heating up as companies work toward developing ... Global Health Issues: New Money, New Players, New Opportunities ...
• The Web mail space is heating up and players such as Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google are trying to differentiate their respective services, an analyst says. ...
• Competition between vendors in the B2B space has been heating up, with SAP, Oracle and other ERP players taking on established exchange software and service ...
• In the second of a series of occasional interviews with key players in the entertainment industry, ... The darknet business space is heating up. ...
• The event space is heating up, with Upcoming.org and Whizspark with their ... On hiring and cycling: Looking to add new players to the team at all times. ...
• To say M&A activity in the storage space is heating up is a gross understatement, especially when the conversation involves EMC; ...
• It looks like the video space is heating up. Ars Techna noted a recent Variety ... to turn iPods into video players are now online at the above address. ...
• The Web mail space is heating up and players such as Microsoft, Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. are trying to differentiate their respective services, ...

Originally from tecznotes , on February 6, 2006 1:58 PM

Remember in 2004 when Maureen Dowd referenced a joke in an Ali G interview with James Baker about the similarity of the words "Iraq" and "Iran" and the potential for attacking the wrong country ("Bomb Ira-")? She pointed out...

Originally posted by Amy from Amy's Robot, on February 6, 2006 1:57 PM

In 1983, British television show The Tube asked John Peel to be a guest host. He agreed to do it for free- only if he could bring The Fall along for an appearance.

Here The Fall are at one of the many peaks of their career, lip-synching to their lurching ominous masterpiece "Smile" from the Perverted By Language LP. Note the hot-shit double drummer line-up of Karl Burns and Paul Hanley.

The Fall  Live on The Tube 1983 - Smile (20 meg AVI)

HERE are a couple new books by Mark E. Smith (thanks Fall Forum)

Originally from WFMU's Beware of the Blog, on February 6, 2006 1:57 PM

monochrom content update // Gastro-Art: In gastronomical enterprises the management frequently elects to present art as a form of extraordinary room decoration. Some time ago we at monochrom have decided to dedicate a page to the breathtaking world of 'gastro-art'. And there are some excellent new gastro-art picture submissions.



Link

Originally from monochrom, on February 6, 2006 10:16 AM

therapeutic board "games" in my office:

*"Breaking the Chains of Anger" -- "players learn important anger control skills as they have fun competing to give Alex the best advice on how to handle bullies, teasing, and frustrating situations."

*"FURIOUS FRED" -- "players have fun learning anger control and violence reduction skills as they give Furious Fred advice on how to handle teasing, bullying, and others."

*"My 2 Homes"

*Stop, Relax, and Think" -- "a game to help impulsive children think before they act." (art on packaging is a turtle, wearing sunglasses, sitting in a lawnchair.)

*"Life Stories" -- ("age 6 to 106"!) "a fun game of telling tales and sharing smiles with family and friends." (talkie balloon says: "our family is always a team -- even when we play tug-of-war at picnics!")

always a sign of fun when a game's description reminds you that the game is fun.

photograph, above: what i do for fun

Originally from serenalarogers, on February 6, 2006 10:16 AM

A new book, The World's Best Sex Writing 2005, has been recently reviewed by Cleansheets.com.

The non-fiction pieces in The World's Best Sex Writing (all previously published) are "best" in the sense of being arguably the most groundbreaking essays on sexual subjects that appeared between spring 2004 and spring 2005.

What if you took a game like, say, Facade, and used its mechanics to tell an erotic story instead? Or to make a character fall in love with you? What if the set were a bar instead of someone's apartment?

Originally from Sex & Games, on February 6, 2006 10:15 AM

Originally from TeacherTalk, on February 6, 2006 10:15 AM

Artist: LUNGology

Originally from Wooster Collective, on February 6, 2006 10:15 AM

1927 Oberlin Mathematics Club
Originally uploaded by david.

The Mathematics Club meets every two weeks throughout the school year. The first part of the meeting is always spent in a social half hour. Students and faculty here have the chance of personal acquaintance that they do not get in their class room.

After satisfying ourselves with tea and wafers, we proceed to satisfy our starving souls with mathematical pie. Nothing seems too large or too small for consideration. We pass from the orbital motion of the atom to the vastness of celestial measurements. Nothing is too practical to be void of theory, so we have applications in mechanics, architecture, engineering, and economic problems. But we do not get confused and think that we are discussing lumber problems when logs are mentioned. We know that "sign" and "sine" are not two ways of spelling the same word. And who besides a mathematician can ever be sure he doesn't mean eclips when he says ellipse? We discuss with ease not only the fourth dimension, but the fifth and sixth. Infinity and imaginaries are very real to us. Everything complex is made simple through short cuts and ingenious devices. We even have resort to the music of the spheres for we have harmonic properties always with us. And most interesting of all we learn of the little red bugs. Some have white arrows on their backs and others haven't.

The Math Club is a liberal education in itself, and sooner or later we all hope to arrive at a "modicum of mathematical maturity."

President HENRY F. ROOD

Page one hundred ninety-one

Bottom row - Wood, Brown, Holle, Roy, Kestler, Andrews, Vaughn
Second row - Williams, Eickelberger, Miss Sinclair, Spencer, Ebert
Third row - Schoeple, Christian, President King, Symons

Thanks, Sarah and David!

Originally from hello, typepad, on February 6, 2006 8:31 AM

If you recorded Saturday Night Live on your DVR last night (the only way to watch it anymore), but haven't taken a look, or did but skipped over the music, go back and watch it now. Prince performed "Fury" from his new album, 3121, and he was smoking.

In this age of sampling, it's nice to listen to a musician who still knows how to write original melodies. Or maybe I'm just old-fashioned.

Comments

Originally posted by Frank Boosman from pseudorandom, on February 6, 2006 8:16 AM

I’ve been doing a lot of grousing lately. And posting very short entries.

This post is an attempt to fix the damage.

I am the technical director at Stamen, which means that when I’m not crouched under the desks routing ethernet cables, I’m often goofing off online, looking for weird new technologies to play with and develop into experimental projects or client work. Over the past year, I’ve come across a range of new tools that really made my socks roll up and down, and I’d like to describe each one and why I think it’s so cool. Think of this short list as my own personal technical Oscars.

Five things that helped make my year:

1. Python

   It was necessary to overcome my strong aversion to syntactical whitespace, but Python turned out to be totally worthwhile. Mark Pilgrim’s book Dive Into Python was my entry point, and it explained the language in a way tuned for experienced programmers. List comprehensions are a dream. “Batteries Included” means I don’t have to look far for useful code. Python was my immediate replacement for Perl and command-line PHP, and I tend to use it wherever I need utility scripts or screen scrapers these days.

   I had this same reaction when I first started reading Paul Graham on Lisp, but that language turned out to be almost completely devoid of a useful community and software libraries. I remembered a lot of Scheme from 61A, but it was a dead-end.

   Python still has not replaced PHP for my web applications programming, but it’s replacing just about everything else. I’ve looked at a few of the currently-hot web frameworks such as Django and Turbogears, but each feels as helpful to me as Rails, which is to say: not very.

2. Blosxom (“The Zen of Blogging”)

   I moved my own site from NanoBlogger to Blosxom just about a year ago. Blosxom dispenses with an editing interface, a database of posts, and a lot of other features of more typical blogging software. Posts are edited with a plain text editor such as vim, and consist of text files batched together into a list of stories, with a head at the top and a foot at the bottom:

   (head) (story 1) (story 2) ... (story n) (foot)

   Configuration is minimal, and almost all fat has been trimmed. The script itself is short, yet affords flexible URL’s (e.g. all posts in July or all posts in directory /foo) and various output formats triggered by request file extension, called flavours. These are demonstrated in a neat hack by Don Marti called “Blog To Congress.”

   The joy of Blosxom comes in its sparseness: extra features such comments, calendars, or new input formats can be triggered by loading optional plug-ins, and there is a clean separation of core functionality and bonus functionality. Over time, I’ve added and removed a number of plug-ins, and I feel that I’m at an optimal balance of simplicity and power.

3. Atom

   Atom was looking to be an nerd’s over-engineered answer to RSS when I first heard about it. I resolved to ignore the whole thing until hit 1.0 or fell into the abyss. It didn’t go away, and I love the end result.

   I appreciate two things about this spec:

   1. Respects XML.
      SOAP is bloated, and XML-RPC seems determined to re-implement XML in XML. Who needs that? Atom defines a small vocabulary and sticks to it.

   2. Respects HTTP.
      Atom actually uses methods like PUT and DELETE, apparently in the way they were intended. It also requires that every entry has an associated URL, and uses this address when communicating changes.

   I’m aware of some disagreements, but to be honest I don’t understand them.

4. Drupal

   The appeal of Drupal for me is similar to that of Blosxom. This is a super light-weight content management system for PHP & MySQL that seems have been worn down to a perfectly-shaped nub through careful development & use.

   I was first turned on to Drupal through Mike Frumin’s choice to write a Reblog module that would let us outsource user account creation and management for a hosted, multi-user Reblog.

   It’s a tremendously flexible piece of software that can do a lot of work without sacrificing elegance. The core does one job well: content management by multiple users with overlapping responsibilities. It ships with a bunch of modules that implement useful add-ons like blogging, menus, URL aliases, file uploads, and so on. Writing new modules seems to be a piece of cake. If I were to switch to a more advanced piece of blogging software, this would be the one. In the meanime, I’m using it for sites that need blog-like features plus a little bit more than what Blosxom is made to do.

5. Twisted

   I was turned on to Twisted three weeks ago when Rael Dornfest (coincidentally also responsible for Blosxom) showed me a bit of Peerkat. It’s as cool as Max/MSP & Jitter were when I first fell into that world five years ago, for many of the same reasons. Twisted is glue software: it implements a simple event-based network programming infrastructure, and includes a gob of protocol implementations for HTTP, IRC, IMAP, and many others. I’m excited because it opens the door to a world of net-mashing possibilities, the same way that Max and Jitter put me in a position to manipulate live media.

   In my first week of messing with Twisted, I was able to put together a completely serviceable HTTP Attention Proxy. In my second week of messing with Twisted, I’m snarfing IRC data and emitting live visual interpretations (more on this later).

   Twisted is an enabler.

Honorable mentions: Debian, XMLHttpRequest, ****, JSON.

Originally from tecznotes , on February 6, 2006 8:15 AM

In the last issue of Metropolis Mag, there is an intriguing article entitled “Found in Translation: Laying the foundation for more sensitivity within a community’s public spaces”. It’s mostly about how urban designer can articulate residents’ design priorities.

What is interesting, is this project they mention: “Hester Sign Collaborative“:
Those students, interns with a nonprofit design outfit called Hester Street Collaborative, are investigating how Chinatown’s jumble of signs, icons, and sidewalk food vendors can reflect a look that residents actually want. With the supervision of Anne Frederick and Alex Gilliam, Hester Street’s full-time staff, students create “nonverbal tools” for residents who don’t speak English (or design jargon). Last year, intern William Chung designed a board game, Bad Design Darts, to serve as a community survey. Hester Street would post a neighborhood map at a town hall meeting and the block that residents hit most frequently with darts would receive a cleanup or gardening campaign initiated by civic groups.

in, another of the collaborative’s interns, developed Step On Your Neighborhood, in which the collaborative lends residents a small handheld paver. People would take the pavers around the their streets and stamp impressions of found objects in concrete. “Here’s this way of making things that could be beautiful and are entirely specific to that neighborhood,” says Gilliam of Chin’s innovation, “This is something many ages can do.”
(…)
The collaborative will soon install a ribbon of symbols to inject more immigrant histories into the flow.

Why do I blog this? I find relevant to study how people think in terms of urban planning/design ideas, especially in diverse neighborhoods. This idea of ‘non-verbal tool’ is simple and appealing. Besides, I really like this: “the Hester Street intern demonstrates how making casts of found objects can feed a useful English-free design lexicon“:

(Photos courtesy Hester Street Collaborative)

Originally posted by Nicolas from pasta and vinegar, on February 6, 2006 8:15 AM

There are a handful of digital art and culture journals currently accessible online. A few of them occasionally pair critical texts with thematic volumes of interactive projects. Since its launch in the Winter of 2005, the web-based academic journal Vectors has explored the possibilities of combining audio-visual interactivity and analytical writings. The publication's USC-based editorial/creative team, consisting of new media theorists and practitioners Tara McPherson, Steve Anderson, Raegan Kelly, Eric Loyer, and Craig Dietrich, have recently released their second issue, titled 'Mobility.' The journal provides a multifaceted look at this concept, from David Lloyd's projection of 19th Century Irish migrant workers, in 'Mobile Figures,' to Todd Presner's 'Hypermedia Berlin,' a layered mapping of the city through historical and subjective filters. Other contributions, such as Lisa Lynch and Elena Razlogova's 'The Guantanomobile Project' and Julian Bleeker's 'WiFi.Bedouin,' tackle mobility within the politicized contexts of global information access. But unlike many of its academic journal relatives, Vectors turns new media in on itself, where the critical potential of the form isn't left to mere descriptions. - Ryan Griffis

http://www.vectorsjournal.org/index.php?page=6&issueCurrent=2

Originally from Rhizome.org Net Art News, on February 6, 2006 8:15 AM

Cut&Paint is a zine of stencil templates, ready to cut, ready to paint.

Volume two is in the works with a deadline for submissions on February 20, 2006. In addition to stencils, the issue will include a how-to section, photos of stencils on site, and articles on stenciling, public space, and politics. Check the submission criteria.

The first issue is nearly sold out of its run of 400 copies, so I helped the team post the stencils from issue one online. It’s a quick and basic site for now, but will evolve as we add more images. The first 41 stencils are up and ready for download at http://cutandpaint.org.

Originally from Social Design Notes, on February 6, 2006 8:15 AM

Tech Digest spotted something very wonderful at London Toy Fair 2006, a Crazy Frog karaoke mic from Nikko Toys, so "youngsters learn and perform a number of the Crazy Frog’s ‘hits’". That made my day. [via Tech Digest]

Originally posted by emily from ringtonia.com, on February 6, 2006 8:14 AM

Originally posted by gaebie from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 6, 2006 12:20 AM

Two sources have confirmed that Lycos has laid off its search team, keeping just a skeleton crew to run the service. More as/if I know more....

Originally from John Battelle's Searchblog, on February 6, 2006 12:20 AM

Merci and I built a web site for a USC Professor of writing and Gender Studies; she's a livewire with fantastic stories to tell, and strong opinions. Should make for good web reading: www.dianablaine.com.

Originally from just in teractive, on February 6, 2006 12:20 AM

If you recorded Saturday Night Live on your DVR (the only way to watch it anymore), but haven't taken a look, or did but skipped over the music, go back and watch it now. Prince performed "Fury" from his new album, 3121, and he was smoking.

In this age of sampling, it's nice to listen to a musician who still knows how to write original melodies. Or maybe I'm just old-fashioned.

Comments

Originally posted by Frank Boosman from pseudorandom, on February 6, 2006 12:20 AM

The LA Times ran a great editorial last week in response to Bush’s State of the Union address. It chided him for hyping research, spending, and technology over policy and implementation.

“By and large, it isn’t a lack of technology that keeps the nation so dependent on oil. It’s the lack of will to use it.

Engineers have produced a basket of new technologies for making cars burn less gasoline, yet fuel standards for passenger cars in this country haven’t changed in more than two decades, and fuel economy has barely budged. Brazil has shown the way to energy independence by powering cars with ethanol made from sugar. This country, meanwhile, continues to pour billions of dollars in subsidies into producing ethanol less efficiently from corn. Advances in solar energy have made it less expensive and more reliable, yet only California is making a significant bid to exploit the power of the sun....

Technologies that could make the U.S. more energy independent sit on the shelf while the automotive industry dithers about raising the price of a car by a couple of thousand dollars (money that could largely be recouped in savings on gasoline) to raise gas mileage by about 20 miles per gallon. Bush also talked about investing in zero-emissions coal plants. Yet, after a former EPA administrator said the technology existed to reduce mercury pollution at coal-fired plants by 90% within a few years, the Bush administration issued far weaker regulations.

The energy legislation passed last year provides individual homeowners with tax incentives to install solar energy units, but it does nothing to lure builders into solar, which would have a far greater effect.

How about importing ethanol from Brazil to put more fuel-efficient cars on the road now? That would mean dropping tariffs and ending protectionism for U.S. corn growers.”

I tried to make a similar point here a few months ago, though was not as eloquent.

(via Planetizen)

Originally from Social Design Notes, on February 5, 2006 11:06 PM

Busta Rhymes was shooting a video at a studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn when a group of young men started getting rowdy, When asked to leave, one of the men drew a weapon, said to be an AK-47, and a gunfight ensued. When it was all over, one of Busta's bodyguards lay dying from his injuries, and his killer was on the loose. A handgun was also recovered near the scene.

Several other well-known hip-hop figures were on the scene, including Missy Elliot, Lloyd Banks (of G-Unit) and Swizz Beatz. 50 Cent and Mary J. Blige were expected at the shoot, but there are conflicting reports as to whether they were present at the time.

Sources:
NYT (best coverage)
Newsday
Billboard
CBS

Originally from ScaryNY, on February 5, 2006 10:22 PM

a group of computers that listen & talk to each other by repeating audio signals recorded by their microphones. the screens visualise the nature of the communication taking place (eg: volume).
[udk-berlin.de & udk-berlin.de via we-make-money-not-art.com]

Originally posted by fofoda from information aesthetics, on February 5, 2006 10:21 PM

Zacarias Moussaoui's trial is the only trial in the United States of a person charged with direct involvement in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Originally from NYT > Home Page, on February 5, 2006 7:33 PM

Originally posted by starnix17 from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 5, 2006 7:04 PM

Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together. Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface.

Originally posted by inkdroid from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 5, 2006 7:03 PM

Making its US debut, a massive Pillow Fight is being planned for 6pm on Valentine's Day (February 14th) at San Francisco's Justin Herman Plaza (at Market and Embarcadero).

It's not a flash mob, it's a PILLOW FIGHT!!!

Rules:

1) Tell everyone you know about PILLOW FIGHT!!!
2) Wait for the Ferry Building clock to strike 6:00pm
3) Don't hit anyone with out a pillow (unless they want it)
4) Don't hit anyone with a camera
5) HAVE FUN!!!

(Rain plan: put your pillow in a plastic bag, see Rules 1 - 5)

Pics from Madrid
Pics from London

Originally from Caterina.net, on February 5, 2006 7:02 PM

I made this video popup maker thingie a while back.
It was going to be part of the Vlogging Hacks book that Jay, Ryanne, Michael, and I were writing for O'Reilly. Sadly, the book got cancelled and I pushed the project to the back burner. I never wrote about it here on this blog, but I did write about it on Unmediated. The reasons for using this approach are very practical. It preserves the direct link in the blog entry for services like FeedBurner, while also providing an embedded video experience that works in any browser.... including Internet Explorer.

I find myself writing a ton of similar emails to the Videoblogging List about this... whenever some issue comes up about embedded Quicktime, or Quicktime not working in IE (don't believe the rumors), I fire off a similar email that has now been enshrined by Pete on a newly christened domain, EmbedTheVideo.com. (Note to self: maybe I should actually keep a draft and copy-paste the text each time).

Some people have asked for the PHP code used in the popup window. Here it is:
Download popup.txt (rename it from .txt to .php)

You can simply copy and edit the page for the popup code generator since its all javascript/html. Simply "View Source" and copy the code to a new document:
http://joshkinberg.com/popupmaker

It should work for any Quicktime or Windows Media videos... I never got around to adding support for Flash SWF, FLV, or RealPlayer, but it should be really easy to do. I just never took the time to do it. Ah, the lonely back burner.

Enjoy!

Originally from unmediated, on February 5, 2006 4:04 PM

Matt Webb and Ben Cerveny's Etech session sounds so intriguing that it hurts  

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on February 5, 2006 4:04 PM

---

Ad from the Moonie paper, the Washington Times (online edition). They had to hire this T-shirt model because the Cheeto-eating guy with the laptop sitting in his underpants in his Mom's basement wasn't quite "there" in terms of selling the product.

Originally posted by tom moody from Tom Moody, on February 5, 2006 4:03 PM

Try It, uploaded by _william

Take a moment to watch this very brief animated poem, a gif file which reads “towards a new poeTry - Try It”… the full version is available on _william’s Flickr account.

What genre are linear animated digital text sequences? Are they essentially analogous to film? The text and layer effects in this gif are not produced procedurally or computationally while it is being displayed - rather, the jogged placement, changing colors, shifting abstract backgrounds are all burned into the data, and we are seeing a sequence of raw images - the afterimages of procedural transformations that occurred during editing. Only the pixelated-font appearance of the individual characters reminds that they were probably first typed and then cut-pasted into in image editor, rather than simply hand-drawn.

So this digital text is raw pixel data rather than stored as a machine-readable encoded text layer - so what? This would only seem to have a consequence if we wanted to edit the image (say, quickly changing the entire sequence to read “PoeTry Me!”) or to search it, or to index it, or to procedurally represent it through alternate displays or in alternate devices / file-formats using CSS, etc…. While these abilities sound good in the abstract, is the text is perfectly readable now - is the fact that it is not a machine-readable artifact really a problem for anyone but an archivist?

I’d start by saying that the quality of digital text (being stored as symbols or as image data is) isn’t good or bad - but it is something that we can describe as an impression in the mind of the viewer, even one who isn’t a a digital art archivist. Text which we perceive (rightly or wrongly) to be stored symbolically conveys a quality of presumed procedurality - and hence, interactivity.

Computer users constantly and instinctively differentiate between two kinds of text - that which can be highlighted / coped to the clipboard / edit / etc., and that which cannot. In the world of interface-users this is a primary ontological distinction, as important as the distinction between what-I-can-touch (apples, doors) and what-I-can-only-see (distant things, mirror images) - some of which are cannot-be-touched (lens flares, heat waves). Even with text we cannot ‘touch’ ourselves, we become experientially aware of a deep distinction between some text which the computer itself can highlight / copy etc., and other text which the computer cannot.

We are reminded of this distinction in PoeTry It in the moment that the word ‘new’ swirls slightly before vanishing. This is distinct from flash compositions such as Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, or Nick Montforts’ Progress (2006), in which the text remains procedural through the instance and enactment of the art.

If you cannot interact with the text in either case, does it matter that the encoded characters of Dakota are secure in source code and loaded in RAM, while the letters of “Try It” are raw pixels? In some digital text art, we read what the machine wrote - in others, we read what the machine cannot.

Originally posted by Jeremy Douglass from WRT: Writer Response Theory, on February 5, 2006 3:53 PM

Deyan Sudjic and Charles Jencks; Norman Foster's "gherkin" in London, Frank Gehry's Bilbao Guggenheim - is this the age of the iconic building? Or are they just expressions of political and architectural vanity? Two leading critics debate. Issue 111 / June 2005 Prospect Magazine | related...

Originally from Archinect.com Feed, on February 5, 2006 3:53 PM

I fully expect a headline tomorrow to read "Director Werner Herzog travels back in time to best Napoleon Bonaparte in an arm-wrestling match." You just can't help but love him. I wish he was my uncle.

"Herzog, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, said, 'Oh, someone is shooting at us. We must go.'
"He had a bruise the size of a snooker ball, with a hole in. He just carried on with the interview while bleeding quietly in his boxer shorts."
An unrepentant Herzog insisted, "It was not a significant bullet. I am not afraid."

Werner Herzog Shot During Interview :: Hollywood.com

Originally from News of the dead, on February 5, 2006 3:52 PM

I am up in Whistler this week with my family. Unfortunately the weather is not all that great. It has been raining all week and the mountains snow base has dropped several inches since we got here on Monday.

Above are some cool photos I took of the whistler christmas lights.
(click to download desktop sized copies.)

Originally from The Mike Matas Blog, on February 5, 2006 3:51 PM