randomwalks/dj

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 07:29 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 07:28 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 07:26 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 07:26 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 07:26 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 04:05 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 04:04 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 04:04 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 04:04 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 04:04 PM

Damn, the DS is on fire.

Originally posted by funkaoshi from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 9, 2006 04:03 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 04:02 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 02:32 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 02:32 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 02:32 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 01:43 PM

they're surprisingly playable  

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on February 9, 2006 01:42 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 09:04 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 09:04 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 09:03 AM

Originally from the real janelle, on February 9, 2006 04:54 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 04:54 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 04:53 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 04:53 AM

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

Originally from Social Design Notes, on February 9, 2006 04:53 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 04:52 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 04:50 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 04:50 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 04:50 AM

this rules

Originally posted by mathowie from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on February 9, 2006 04:49 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 04:49 AM

Amazing panoramic photograph.

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on February 9, 2006 04:49 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 04:49 AM

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

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on February 9, 2006 04:49 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 04:48 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 04:47 AM

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

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on February 9, 2006 04:46 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 04:45 AM

Originally from kathryn yu dot com, on February 9, 2006 04:45 AM