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April 8, 2006

Alan N. Shapiro on Seven of Nine

After the addition of the former Borg drone Seven of Nine to the starship's crew at the start of the fifth Star Trek series' fourth season, Voyager's weekly viewer ratings soared by more than 60%... [T]he character was an instant success, and "saved the show" from disorientation and even oblivion. The Emergency Medical Hologram's dermoplastic grafting procedures and follicle stimulation therapies produced a highly sexualized feminine bodily appearance that appealed especially to adolescent and young males, a major portion of Star Trek's viewership. Seven's arrival on the scene was accompanied by a massive publicity campaign in TV magazines and newspaper supplements. Played by a former Miss America pageant finalist Jeri Ryan, outfitted in a skintight, lustrous catsuit and high heels that accentuate her breasts and buttocks, Seven of Nine radiates "available feminine sexuality," yet is paradoxically unaware of her "epidermal" exposure and blatant desirability. Her erect phallic posture, techno-scientific competence, stringently business-like speaking style, and indifference towards male erotic overtures make her an ambivalent boundary crosser with both masculine and feminine semiotic and manneristic attributes.
--from Star Trek: Technologies of Disappearance, by Alan N. Shapiro (the Bible)

Special Dates

Every date is a special date when I'm with you. -- GK

Game of Shadows

I’ve been reading (like everyone else) “Game of Shadows,” the book about Barry Bonds and steroids and the BALCO scandal. It’s quite a remarkable feat of reporting. What striking about it is something that you might not notice unless you’ve journalist—which is the absence of obvious lawyering. If you ever write something even remotely critical of someone, the lawyers invariably go through it, and before you know it your prose is strewn with “apparently” and “allegedly,” and “according to” and so-so “denies. . .” There’s almost none of that in “Game of Shadows,” which is amazing considering the book accuses, in devastating detail, several of the biggest names in sports—Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones, among others—of being serious steroid users. The two writers—Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams—must have had really impeccable sourcing. When the book first came out, and several baseball writers predicted that Bonds’ reputation was destroyed and his chances are getting in the Hall of Fame seriously damaged, I thought they were overstating things. Now I’m not so sure. “Game of Shadows” is a death sentence for Bonds. More to the point, it’s impossible to read the book and accept that Bonds has a right either to the single season home-run record or, assuming he keeps playing, the career home run mark.

So what should we do? I think we need to set the bar a little higher for record-setters. Justin Wolfers, an economist at Penn, just did a study analyzing college basketball scores, concluding that there is ample statistical evidence for point-shaving in about five percent of college games. Steven Levitt (I know, I know. I’m obsessed with him) has done the same kind of work on student test scores. Forensic economics look at large data sets and draw surprisingly sophisticated inferences about behavior and intention. I think we should loose the forensic economists on all record-setters, and require that athletes pass a statistical plausibility in the wake of their achievements.   

Obvious example:

Florence Griffiths Joyner, in 1988. Before that year, her best times in the hundred meters and the two hundred meters were, respectively, 10.96 and 21.96. In 1988, at the advanced (for a sprinter) age of 28, a suddenly huskier FloJo ran 10.49 and 21.34, times that no runner since has even come close to equaling. At the time, people in the track world just rolled their eyes. But since FloJo never failed a drug test, there was nothing they could do. Well, there is something we can do. We can bring in the forensic economists—and any statistical analysis of the career marks of world class sprinters would have told us that marginally world-class 28 year old do not, in the absence of some kind of help, suddenly turn into the greatest runners the world has ever seen.

Bonds falls into the same category. From the moment he started his late career surge, everyone who knew anything about baseball suspected mischief. “Game of Shadows” points out that Bonds had the second, ninth and tenth greatest offensive season in baseball history at the ages of 36, 37, and 39 respectively—and the average age of everyone else on that list (Gehrig, Foxx, Ruth and Hornsby) is 27. No one—no one—turns himself into one of the greatest hitters of all time in his late 30’s. His home run record should have been denied as statistically implausible.

Will raising the bar this way mean we occasionally deny a genuine record? It’s certainly possible. Bob Beamon jumped 29 ft, 2.5 inches at the Mexico City Olympics, and had never jumped more than 27 ft, 3 inches before that, and never again jumped more than 27 feet. No one has ever doubted that Beamon was clean. But it’s a totally weird performance. On the other hand, it was at altitude. Because of the difficulty in hitting the board, long jump performances are highly variable. And the effect of drug enhancement is sufficiently long-lived, that a single anomalous performance in an otherwise quiet career is more statistically plausible than a string of closely-linked anomalous performances in an otherwise quiet career. FloJo had a fantastic year in 1988, which is why she raised so many eyebrows. She wasn’t Beamon. She was Bonds. I think if we’re smart about it, we can learn to distinguish the fluke performances from the phony performances.

One obvious objection to this idea is that we have a tradition of presuming people innocent until proven guilty, and prima facia statistical tests violate that. But the presumption of innocence is a legal principle. We’re dealing with sports records here, and it seems reasonable, particularly in this day and age of advanced athletic chemistry, to ask a bit more of record holders.

Transmeta extends Sony development contract.

InfoWorld: Transmeta extends Sony development contract. About power management, not code morphing as some have speculated.

April 7, 2006

Special Dates

Every date is a special date when I'm with you. -- GK

Battlefield 2 Stunt Videos

While most machinima tries to avoid the limitations of a game's engine to tell a story -- with cuts and odd angles and cut aways before lips stop matching words -- stunt videos (video) exploit the oddities of a world's physics to do things the designers never imagined. -- GK

Battle at the 38th Parallel

Can't we all just get along? (Video.) If we were all Korean b-boys, the answer, apparently, is yes. -- GK

Fractals

Tons and tons and tons of fractals -- the best look almost Lovecraftian. None so disturbing as this, though. -- GK

Seth does X-Men?

Okay, well not quite. The organizers of the Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning are auctioning a one-of-a-kind piece of original art by Seth to help raise funds for the 2006 Awards. The 16″ x 22″ illustration features the original 1960s X-Men attending a comic con. The auction goes live April 17th on ebay.

NewsGator REST API

Greg Reinacker: “We now have both SOAP and REST versions of the NewsGator Online API available. The SOAP version has been around for a while, and is used by our own products. The REST version is brand new, is documented here, and enters a public beta today.”

NetNewsWire uses the NewsGator Online API (of course)—it uses some SOAP calls and some REST calls. (I’d convert entirely to using the REST version, stop using SOAP entirely, were it not for the fact that you don’t fix what ain’t broke.)

GARLIC PRESS

Forbes tax basics

T minus 10 days till your income tax return is due. If you'll be in tax hell this weekend, check out some basic tax tips from Forbes.

Mark Twain once quipped, "Never put off until tomorrow what you do the day after tomorrow." Sound advice, if you think you can avoid last-minute mistakes on your tax return.

And remember, if you plan on doing your taxes online (and almost a third of you are), don't wait till the last minute when the servers might be slowed to a crawl. Have you started in on your taxes yet? How's it going? Let us know in the comments or at tips at lifehacker.com.

 
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Battle at the 38th Parallel

Can't we all just get along? (Video.) -- GK

Devil's Dictionary X

In an age when it seems impossible to be too cynical, the Devil's Dictionary X updates a classic to help you towards the "power of accurate observation." -- GK

L.A. Hot Dogs

How to Kill Yourself Deliciously, Part III: Hot Dogs in L.A. -- GK

Apple's DS iBook

Dslite

Lighter, smaller, thinner, brighter screen. Good iteration for Nintendo, and it looks like it will ship all-white, the superior color combination. Via Wonderland.

Nookbay

Need that final Ship's Helm to finish your Pirate themed house? Or how about a royal Throne? Bid on it and other Animal Crossing Wild World items at Nookbay. The only currency accepted is Bells.

Family Guy: Family Guy Mario Kart DS Challenge!!!!!!

It's the Family Guy Mario Kart DS Challenge!!!!!! Clearly we should all friend Greg Colton so we can beat his ass.

Devil's Dictionary X

In an age when it seems impossible to be too cynical, the Devil's Dictionary X updates a classic to help you towards the "power of accurate observation."

L.A. Hot Dogs

How to Kill Yourself Deliciously, Part III: Hot Dogs in L.A.

Cabspotting

Cabspotting is a real time visualization of taxi traffic in San Francisco. -dj

cabspotting

Finally got the dots moving in almost-real-time, and made the site live:

Gorilla Book Cover Gallery

Gorilla Book Cover Gallery: "Welcome to the ultimate in gorilla cover obsession!" (via snarkout) -dj

How to Write a Thank-You Note

How to Write a Thank-You Note: "The thank-you is exclusively about thanking somebody for their kindness. While you may want more than anything to show them once and for all you amounted to something, this is not the forum." (via) -dj

Café Culture

It's easy to add a touch of café class to your your home. Here are a few projects and ideas to get you started.

Engadget has a great tutorial for making a popcorn popper coffee roaster. The Internet is also a great source for coffee recipes. Try sites such as Robinsfyi and Cyber Coffee for brewing techniques and cocktail recipes. Alternatively, you could cook up some deliciously café style treats such as biscotti or cappuccino cupcakes.

Take the coffee out of the kitchen and make some jewelry made of coffee beans, or jazz up your coffee table with the superman coffee table, mosaic side table or the curio coffee table projects on Craftster.

How to Write a Thank-you Note

Leslie Harpold: How to Write a Thank-you Note. Read it, learn it, live it. (via rc3oi)

most things look better when you put them in a circle

Banksy: "most things look better when you put them in a circle. " Also tramp, films and press clippings. -dj

Seanbaby's River City Ransom Page

the best NES game in the world

The Definitive Guide to River City Ransom!

Zen.

Yesterday, a 20-something woman I was interviewing for a position with our firm kept calling me, "Sir" like I was the Ancient Mariner. As soon as we were through, I went to the men's room and this young guy who almost hit me as he opened the door on his way out said, and I quote, "Excuse me, Dude."

Do you see it? Sir - Dude. Balance. All around us. If you see the balance, you will find great joy.

On a related note, the next person who calls me sir, man or woman, is getting dragged down the hall for a full-immersion swirlie. You have been warned, people.

AeroPress

aeropress2.jpg


This thing makes a really good cup of coffee fast. It's well made, compact, and clean up is easy.

The AeroPress is 2.5 inch diameter syringe with a paper micro filter mounted across the bottom. It sits on top of a common coffee mug for brewing. You put in fine ground coffee measured with the included scoop. The scoop is about 1.5 times bigger than the ones you might get with regular a drip coffee maker. You put in hot water at the recommended 175 degrees which is cooler than other methods. You stir for 10 seconds and push the plunger in. Compressed air pushes the coffee out in 10 - 20 seconds. What you have in the cup is concentrated coffee. If you dilute it about 50/50 with hot water you get the strength of a regular cup of good coffee. It tastes great!

I have a French press, a vacuum brewer, various kinds of drip brewers, a good espresso machine, and I roast my own coffee. Since I got my AeroPress two months ago I favor it for all my coffee except espresso. It's not fair to call the AeroPress concentrate espresso as the manufacture does but that's a minor point.

-- Frank Cox

Aeropress
$28
Available from Sweet Maria's

Manufactured by Aerobie

TechWeb | News | MIT Preps Wireless Network For Cambridge [del.icio.us]

MIT project for free wireless network throughout Cambridge, MA.

April 6, 2006

Decided or Not, Giuliani Charts a Path to 2008

The former New York City mayor is building G.O.P. alliances, especially with conservative leaders.

MapQuest's Mobile Strategy

You'll recall that it was previously reported that MapQuest was responding to the challenge posed by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! by moving in an altogether different direction: instead of a hackable API, satellite imagery and web interface innovations (although an...

Cheney's Aide Says President Approved Leak

I. Lewis Libby Jr.'s testimony indicates that President Bush may have played a direct role in the disclosure of intelligence on Iraq.

When You're Late for the Overture

How performance halls and house managers around New York deal with the tardy.

Multi-lingual S3 action

"So far, I've had fun playing with Amazon S3 in three programming environments: JavaScript in a web browser, PHP on a web server, and UserTalk in the OPML Editor."

The False Binary of New York vs. South

I'm reprinting here my two cents in the discussion at Different Kitchen: Well yes, we totally disagree. Mainly in that I don't separate the music in this either/or binary.. I think music can embody both east coast/NY traditions and southern sensibilities simultaneously, and the clipse is probably a good example of that. So labels like "east coast oriented" don't even...

Download of the Day: View Rendered Source Chart

view-rendered-source-chart.png

Firefox extension View Rendered Source Chart lets you view the source of any web page in a chart that lets you easily visualize the nesting going on in the page.

If you're a web publisher who's spent much time tweaking your layout and css, you know it can be easy at times to get lost in the maze of div's, span's and so on. View Rendered Source Chart lets you look at your source code the same way that a Right-Click -> View Source does, but it adds a really cool colored chart that shows you the nesting of elements inside your web page. This is an awesome tool for any web publisher, from the seasoned developer to the just-getting-my-feet-wet blogger.

 
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Reversible Destiny Lofts

The Reversible Destiny Lofts in Japan are built to keep you on your toes. "People, particularly old people, shouldn't relax and sit back to help them decline," architect Arakawa insists. "They should be in an environment that stimulates their senses and invigorates their lives... [The apartment] makes you alert and awakens instincts, so you'll live better, longer and even forever." Visitors often fall, but so far nobody has sued. jwz comments "See? Being perpetually irritated will make you ... immortal. " -dj

Upcoming Food and Wine Events in NYC

Gothamist has compiled a list of upcoming food and wine Events in the city. I'm sad I'll have to miss the Broadway Panhandler's knife sharpening benefit on April 8. -dj

Milk Bath

Milk Bath is an impossibly cute photoset of a cat getting a Milk Bath. (via) -dj

John McCain on the Daily Show

John McCain on the Daily Show. Jon Stewart: "I hope you're not going into crazy base world. Are you going into crazy base world?" McCain: "I'm afraid so." -dj

More on "Clutch" Performance

Tom Benjamin has written about clutch performance on his NHL Weblog. "Calling someone a clutch player is really damning him with faint praise. If he can elevate his game at critical moments, why doesn't he keep it elevated all the time? Isn't every save in some sense a key one? Is goofing up when the game is not on the line really any better than blowing it when the chips are down?" (thanks, succa) -dj

Reversible Destiny Lofts

The Reversible Destiny Lofts in Japan are built to keep you on your toes. "People, particularly old people, shouldn't relax and sit back to help them decline," Arakawa insists. "They should be in an environment that stimulates their senses and invigorates their lives... [The apartment] makes you alert and awakens instincts, so you'll live better, longer and even forever." Visitors often fall, but so far nobody has sued. jwz comments "See? Being perpetually irritated will make you ... immortal. " -dj

Everyware Bibliography

Adam Greenfield has posted a partial bibliography for his book, Everyware -dj.

More on "Clutch" Performance

Tom Benjamin has written about clutch performance on his NHL Weblog. "Calling someone a clutch player is really damning him with faint praise. If he can elevate his game at critical moments, why doesn't he keep it elevated all the time? Isn't every save in some sense a key one? Is goofing up when the game is not on the line really any better than blowing it when the chips are down?" (thanks, succa) -dj

John McCain on the Daily Show

John McCain on the Daily Show. Jon Stewart "I hope you're not going into crazy base world. Are you going into crazy base world?" McCain: "I'm afraid so." -dj

Interview with Rebecca Blood

B-SCAN interview with Rebecca Blood. "Humans are hardwired to share information, for storytelling. This is how we survived on the savannah. This is how we still survive in our communities, at work -- and on the highway: by identifying patterns. By sharing information. First we did it around the night fire, then at the market, and then around the water cooler at work. Now we can do it online." (via) -dj

Burning Spear has a Blog

Big Up! Burning Spear has a blog. -dj

Superpatron

Superpatron is a blog for library lovers. (via) -dj

Wireless Bid in California

SAN FRANCISCO April 5 (Bloomberg) — Google and EarthLink won a bid on Wednesday to provide free wireless Internet access in San Francisco.

Guerrilla Wayfinding

"In midtown they have do little kiosks at street level with maps to nearby landmarks. But this seems like overkill for mostly mixed and residential neighborhoods. So how hard would it be for the MTA to paint a little direction indicator on the pavement near each subway exit? Hell, how hard would it be to take matters into our own hands? To start a guerilla wayfinding campaign?"

endo

Introducing a new application.

James Beard Award 2006 Nominees

Oh dear. The 2006 James Beard Awards Nominees have been announced. I'm committed to acquiring only 1 new cookbook a year — it takes about a year of consistent effort to put a well-made cookbook through its paces. I think it's going to come down to a choice between Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen and Washoku: Recipes From The Japanese Home Kitchen. (I've wanted to learn Japanese cooking since I visited there last year.) Thankfully, the third book I really want isn't really a cookbook at all: Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, the new project from the folks who put together the wonderful Material World: A Global Family Portrait.

Superpatron: Library patron blog

As you know, thanks to the library bookmarklet, I've fallen in love with libraries in the last year (and saved a ton of money on books!). So I was interested to find Superpatron, which calls itself "a weblog for library patrons who love their libraries, who take advantage of everything they have to offer, and are always on the lookout for great ideas from libraries around the world. It's like Friends of the Library for the net."

~C4Chaos Interviews me

In a turn of the table, ~C4Chaos has just published an email interview with me. We talk about everything from how I got into blogging, the many ways blogging has affected me, and my philosophy of life. It's part of his very interesting B-SCAN series, "a series of interviews with bloggers... are 'consciously' aware of the impact of blogging on self, culture, and nature, "integrally informed" or otherwise."

More Bone colouring

Steve Hamaker has posted a follow-up, with a little more insight, to his step-by-step guide to colouring Bone. (Previous post)

Thanks, Kazu!

YouTube - Sen. McCain on TDS w/ Jon Stewart 4/4/2006

A funny but relatively no-bs exchange between Stewart and McCain on the senator's decision to speak at Falwell's university. Imagine if the *real* news were this sincere.

Red Sweater Links

Daniel Jalkut's Red Sweater Links is a worthy addition to your reading cycle. I noticed the same thing about Boot Camp that he did: "... it makes it easy to repartition your hard drive with files in place." The user friendly partition manager has been a holy grail open source project for quite some time, and it looks like Apple licked it. Is there an Ubuntu distribution for Intel Macs yet? -dj

April 5, 2006

There's No Clutch Hitting in Baseball

ESPN and Baseball Prospectus redefine clutch hitting (again). "Baseball is a game that is won by exploiting small advantages over the long haul. Certainly clutch hitting may exist in the classic sense of the term, but a lot of what we think of as clutch hitting may really be situational hitting. In some sense, the answer to the question of who the best clutch hitters are is that they're usually just the best hitters, period." -dj

Awesome Pop-Up Hot Dog Toaster

This Pop-Up Hot Dog Toaster looks Awesome! (via) -dj

All mixed up

NYC You may have heard of Chinese-Indian (or Indo-Chinese if you prefer) cuisine thanks to Chinese Mirch, and the recent change of ownership at Cardamomm that has resulted in a new Chinese-Indian menu. But you might not have heard of...

User-Generated Content

"User-generated content" has been reduced from a cultural choice a site can make to a Web 2.0 business-plan bullet point. Derek's too dismissive of other sources of media -- the implication that it's inauthentic is too strong -- but Lord, deliver us from the monetization of our own goddamned words. -- GK (Copyright © 2006 Kottke Web Enterprises, Inc. Reproduction is prohibited by law.)

Hacking Mass

Hacking Mass is a a fantasy baseball game where the goal is to assemble the worst team of players possible. Playing time counts, so you can't just pick benchwarmers. -dj

The Strawberry Hill Chair

Made in 1755.

The Grass Armchair

SchoolPic.jpg (JPEG Image, 1464x1893 pixels) - Scaled (27%)

this guy writes soem serious NET AIM code. RESPECT.

Museum of the Moving Image

Hacking Mass

Hacking Mass is a a fantasy baseball game where the goal is to assemble the worst team of regulars possible. -dj

Starbucks Buzzing for Akeelah and the Bee

Starbucks is "co-presenting" the new movie Akeelah and the Bee, and will share in its profits. Starbucks shoppers will be offered free vocabulary and spelling lessons, Baristas were invited to advanced screenings and are encouraged to offer their own opinion about the movie, Akeelah branded Scrabble sets will be sold in-store, users of Starbucks' hotspot network will get access to clips from the film, and Starbucks wll also be selling the DVD when it becomes available. (via) -dj

This Grass Armchair Grows In and Around a Cardboard Frame

This grass armchair gets its shape from a cardboard frame. "It's a flatpack do it yourself kit consisting of a 14 piece corrugated cardboard frame and a package of grass seeds. It starts to grow after just 10 days." ... "First find the right spot, because once the armchair has grown you won't be able to move it!!" (via treehugger) -dj

Red Sweater Links

Daniel Jalkut's Red Sweater Links is a worthy addition to your reading cycle. I noticed the same thing about Boot Camp that he did: "... it makes it easy to repartition your hard drive with files in place." The user friendly partition manager has been a holy grail open source project for quite some time, and it looks like Apple licked it. Is their Ubuntu for Intel Macs yet? -dj

April is


April is
Originally uploaded by Lady Macabea.

Delivering Content with RSS for Web Developers on Mac OS X

Apple Developer Connection: “RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is revolutionizing the delivery of web content. RSS is an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) format for coordinating the delivery of time-based content streams, or ‘feeds.’ This means that RSS can be used to deliver content that changes over time. RSS provides for the inclusion of additional data, similar to email attachments, using the <enclosure> tag.”

Espresso Portafilter

There are a multitude of variables to the art and science of an espresso shot. The bean, the roast, the freshness, the packing of the grinds, the temperature, the length of pull... The difference between a good and a great shot is potentially infinite, and perhaps meaningful only to those willing to create the meaning themselves. The difference between a good shot and a bad shot on the other hand can often be reduced to one, and only one factor, how clean what is apparently called the portafilter is.

The portafilter is that handle thing with a metal cup on the end where the espresso is packed in. As the name implies its where the espresso is filtered, and its also often where it goes wrong. Next time you order your favorite espresso drink watch how the baristas make it. In New York at least odds are they'll follow a pattern, pull, knock knock the grinds out over some metal bar on top a trash receptacle, pack in the grinds and start again. Knock knock, brew, repeat. Each time this is done a layer of residue from the previous round is left in the portafilter. Grinds from which the cream of the bean has been extracted. Grinds from which something will be extracted into your drink. Something bitter.

Maybe it sounds petty, but the fact is you can clearly taste the difference, a clean portafilter pretty much ensures a decent pour. There is all sorts of variation, space for the pour to approach perfection in the hands of a master, but none of these variables have anything near the effect of the difference between a clean a dirty portafilter. Watch the barista, if they clean the portafilter with hot water, or wipe it out thoroughly with a rag, you'll get a decent espresso shot, if they knock knock and reload you'll be be drinking a bitter brew. So yeah, that makes this a plea, to all the coffee shop owners and baristas out there, please, please clean the damn portafilter!

The Lifeline

The LA Times has an extraordinary series of articles (Parts 1, 2 and 3) on how the wounded are treated in Iraq. -- GK

Forward an Entire Thread in Gmail

Aaron Boodman just posted a Greasemonkey script that forwards an entire thread in gmail, something I've wanted forever. Aaron writes: "One thing that is interesting about this implementation is that you'll note it does not use the gmail content script at all. It dances on the DOM only." Aren't we all just dancing on the DOM at this point? -dj

Straight Talk on New Orleans

Another must-read from Minneapolis' finest, Peter Scholtes, who used to reside in N.O.: Juvenile's New Orleans, the ghost town America made ...This is what Barney Frank has called "a policy of ethnic cleansing by inaction," and the response from many liberals has been self-fulfilling pessimism—Tim Harford in Slate takes the failed tourist economy for granted, while Elizabeth Kolbert in the...

Analysis of U.S. Troop Deaths in Iraq

"September 11 is an uncontested and quantifiable tragedy. Iraq is approaching similar dimensions." How long before U.S. troop deaths in Iraq pass September 11 deaths? A little less than a year. -- GK

City Mayors: Mayors running the world's cities

curious

Today it is easy

I highly doubt that if you've been reading this site for its food news, you somehow haven't been reading Frank Bruni's blog. But if that's the case, then today it ends! New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni's Diner's Journal is a great addition to the New York culinary landscape, and it's only getting better. If you're not reading it, you should. That is all for today.

Waiting until death to escape our containers

David Maisel: The Library of Dust


"What happens to our bodies when we die? Inside a dusty room in a decaying outbuilding on the grounds of a state-run psychiatric hospital are simple pine shelves lined three-deep with thousands of copper canisters. The canisters hold the cremated remains of mental patients who died at the hospital from 1883 (the year the hospital was opened, when it was known as the Oregon State Insane Asylum) to the 1970’s, and whose bodies remained unclaimed by their families. The copper canisters have a handmade quality; they are at turns burnished or dull; corrosion blooms wildly from the seams of many of the cans...The intensely hued colors of the blooming minerals, the etching of the surface of the copper, the denting of the metal, and in some cases, the vestiges of paper labels with the names of the dead, all combine to individuate the canisters, and to imbue each with a remarkable singularity..."

And don't miss Geoff's excellent interview with the artist about this and other projects.

See also: David Maisel's Unraveling Smithson: Some Thoughts and Considerations Regarding Robert Smithson’s Art and Writings and Their Effect and Influence on My Own Art Practice (pdf)

Test out color schemes with AJAX-style

Color Tool 2.0.1 Alpha lets you try out color designs on a web page with a very cool, dynamic drag-and-drop interface.

The site makes use of the very cool script.aculo.us javascript library for very cool effects. Looks like another interesting way to try out new design and color schemes.

 
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Going wireless with Linux

The Linux wireless LAN support site offers a searchable directory of wireless devices with information regarding their level of support in Linux.

Since I'm a big proponent of repurposing old laptops the Linux way, this is a really handy resource, especially since wireless support in Linux can be a tricky thing. You can save a lot of time going into a Linux install if you already know whether or not your wireless device is supported and how to get it up and running.

 
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Google Real Estate

Google Real Estate is the first good use of Google Base that I've seen. They could do a littler better on my search for an affordable two bedroom on the west side, but then again that apartment may simply not exist. (via) -dj

Citysnake

Citysnake is a city-sized version of the Commodore-64/Nokia classic game. The playing area is the city grid, and inviduals take ownership of blocks or city streets. Citysnake was one of Rhizome's 2005 commissions. (via) -dj

Thirty Second Teaser for the Simpsons Movie

Thirty Second teaser for the Simpsons movie. -dj

Map of the Cherry Blossoms in Brooklyn Botanical Garden

The Cherry Trees were blooming in Brooklyn Botanical Garden this week. I hope they're OK after today's snow. -dj

Love City

Love City takes the computer game "out of the bedroom and into urban spaces." Players get points for forming a "menage a-trois" by being in the same place relative to game pieces in three different cities: Nottingham, Leicester and Derby. (via) -dj

Simpsons Movie Trailer

Locative Menage a trois

Nottingham-based technology artists, Active Ingredient (authors of 'Ere Be Dragons), are to launch an interactive game that will link the people of Leicester, Nottingham and Derby. Love City will allow people to text each other in a game that awards...

Starbucks Buzzing for Akeelah and the Bee

Starbucks is "co-presenting" the new movie Akeelah and the Bee, and will share in it's profits. Starbucks shoppers will be offered free vocabulary and spelling lessons, Baristas were invited to advanced screenings and are encouraged to offer their own opinion about the movie, Akeelah branded Scrabble sets will be sold in-store, users of Starbucks' hotspot network will get access to clips from the film, and Starbucks wll also be selling the DVD when it becomes available. (via) -dj

Citysnake

Citysnake is a city-sized version of the Commodore-64/Nokia classic game. The playing area is the city grid, and inviduals take ownership of blocks or city streets. City snake was one of Rhizome's 2005 commissions. (via) -dj

Everyware Bibliography

Adam Greenfield's has posted a partial bibliography for his book, Everyware -dj.

New trailer for Art School Confidential

There's a New trailer for Art School Confidential, directed by Terry Zwigoff and starring Sophia Myles and John Malkovich. I wonder when Bloggers will replace Art Students as the iconic losers of cinema. -dj

New trailer for Art School Confidential

There's a New trailer for Art School Confidential , directed by Terry Zwigoff and starring Sophia Myles and John Malkovich. I wonder when Bloggers will replace Art Students as the iconic losers of cinema. -dj

Apple's Boot Camp lets you run Windows XP on your Intel Mac

Apple's Boot Camp lets you run Windows XP on your Intel Mac. 7 out of 11 words in that sentence were trademarks. -dj

Caterina: "Poetry reviews, if awesome, make you want to read more poetry"

Poetry reviews, if awesome, make you want to read more poetry. Poetry has always seemed less accessible to me than fiction, because I've have less "formal" training in it. For some reason people post more fiction reviews than poetry reviews, but I'd welcome more poetry in my life. -dj

Only 11 percent of NYC subway stations are wheelchair accessible

Only 53 of the city's 468 subway stations are wheelchair accessible. The MTA is spending $192,000,000 to make 15 more stations wheelchair accessible over the next 3 years. At that rate, the whole system could be modernized by 2090 at the bargain basement cost of $5,120,000,000. (via) -dj

01:02:03 4-5-6

This message should be posted soon after 01:02:03 4-5-6, a date we won't see for another thousand years. -dj

Mars Rover 2.0

"Phoenix", the first in a new generation of "Scout" landers, will be going to Mars fall 2007. -dj

"i don't think he was eating totally raw."

Yesterday's moment of zen, from Andrew

That subway flasher raw food guy should hang out with the American Apparel owner. They sound like they would get along well.

Caterina: "Poetry reviews, if awesome, make you want to read more poetry"

Caterina saysPoetry reviews, if awesome, make you want to read more poetry. Poetry has always seemed less accessible to me than fiction, because I've have less "formal" training in it. For some reason people post more fiction reviews than poetry reviews, but I'd welcome more poetry in my life. -dj

01:02:03 4-5-6

This message should be posted soon after 01:02:03 4-5-6, a date we won't see for another thousand years.

April 4, 2006

San Francisco is Sliding into the Pacific Ocean

"Devil's Slide," a section of Route 1 in California, is splitting in half. As the rainiest spring ever continues, there's a growing fear that the entire cliff may disappear into the ocean. -dj

showtime: cory arcangel

blame it on the gum

Milli Vanilli for Carefree Gum. "There are two ways to recover from a major gossip scandal; pretend it never happened or make fun of yourself." And yes, they do that stupid side to side dance you love so much in the commercial.

Poetry reviews, if awesome, make you want to read more poetry

Joyelle McSweeney reviews Drew Gardner's Petroleum Hat on Constant Critic:

In a poetry-sphere flooded with wishy-washy antiquated responses to the political moment, Gardner's "Chicks Dig War" should be notorious. I am willing to look like a moron and place this poem up there with "Howl" for the capacity it gives to the dismay of the Abu Ghraib generation. The lunacy of this poem derives from the obsessiveness of its motif and the variety of ways it is reiterated, so that we can't hoist ourselves out of the critique by something as consistent as tone. Fear of feminism, female strength and male weakness are conflated with each other and with the antithetical heterosexism of militaristic propaganda to create frightening, porny ideations: "God Made Girls Who Like War." Other stanzas seem tapped from the fetid ditch that is the brain of Karl Rove:

The pacifist wanders through life in a state
of psychic castration,
his heart scarred by the talons of female avarice
and flawed psychology. He is a poor fool who has
listened too literally
to the women who lie and say that what they want
from men is adoration and understanding.
What they want is war.

As the poem trammels on through the chatrooms of existence, it is the pseudo-rational tone of its concluding lines that is most disturbing:

women are an anti-civilizing force,
actively creating more male aggressiveness.
It would seem that a wise society would have an
interest in creating a counter-force to oppose this.

And: Rad!

Zine Community

The zine community is one of the great pervasiveness communities in Portland. A freely expressive subset of indy journalists and pre-Live Journal teens.

The Zine symposium is next week and the organizers (TRUE facilitators) are taking a leaderless community and providing a forum for people to find places to stay, a forum for discuss and most interestingly providing an experience completely unique to their own community. They realize that when you encourage people to finally speak out freely on their beliefs and opinions, there may be conflict. They are addressing it head on with peace keepers and volunteers from all groups to help resolve conflict. They want everyone to feel safe and secure in their free expression and are finding new ways to allow that to happen. They are also calling for discussion, debate and learning in a blatant and important way. Viva La Zine Symposium!

Storefronts for the Super-Small Business

Perhaps taking a cue from cooperative antique stores in which dealers can rent tables to sell their wares, malls around the world are beginning to cater to the very small entrepreneur. One store in Singapore, inQbox, offers "boxes," a few square feet in size for as little as $50 USD per month. All the businessperson has to do is stock their box; inQbox handles the sales transactions.

InQbox describes its services as fostering "creativity and entrepreneurship by providing individuals with a low cost and low risk platform to develop and incubate their talents further than just a hobby, home business or side interest. This allows you to continue with your busy life, be it taking care of your children, traveling or working in a corporate firm."

Source: Springwise

dj30

If a tuff gang of pandas came down from Queens to sing 'Happy Birthday to you' for dj at the Punk Rock karaoke in Arlene's Grocery ...



Oh, if only they would. Happy birthday!

Only 11 percent of NYC subway stations are wheelchair accessible

Only 11 percent of NYC subway stations are wheelchair accessible. That’s 53 of 468 stations. The MTA’s $192 million earmarked for wheelchair accessibility through 2009 will make 15 more stations accessible.

Spitzer Sues Software Company Over Spyware

New York's attorney general says that Direct Revenue installed software on computers without permission.

A Geotagging/Geocoding Roundup

[The Map Room: A Weblog About Maps] But to tag your photos with lat/long coordinates, you have to know them — so you have to find them in a mapping service and plunk them in manually.

This Grass Armchair Grows In and Around a Cardboard Frame

This grass armchair gets it's shape from a cardboard frame. "It's a flatpack do it yourself kit consisting of a 14 piece corrugated cardboard frame and a package of grass seeds. It starts to grow after just 10 days." ... "First find the right spot, because once the armchair has grown you won't be able to move it!!" (via treehugger) -dj

One Laptop Per Child Project Abandons Hand Crank

One Laptop Per Child project abandons hand crank in favor of a foot pedal attached to the AC adaptor. Negroponte also says Linux is too "fat" for the 500 MHz AMD processors they plan to use. -dj

L.A. is the World's Burger Capital

Screw the Shake Shack, if you want burgers, you come to L.A. -- GK

no man, screw you. -dj

The Ser-Venn-Ity Diagram

The Ser-Venn-Ity Prayer.

Mr. Sun's Spring Cleaning Tips.

It's time to get busy with a thorough spring cleaning. This year, don't just do it -- do it right with Mr. Sun's spring cleaning tips:

  1. "Brokeback Mountain" jokes have almost run their course, so get in a few more while you still can by saying things like "Flannel shirt two sizes too small -- I just can't quit ya!"
  2. For all items in dresser drawers, use S-S-R: Smell. Sort. Repeat.
  3. Face reality and formally move up a few notches from "Relaxed Fit" to "Ass The Size of Jupiter Fit" jeans -- toss accordingly.
  4. Open your refrigerator door and ask once nicely for all living things to vacate the premises immediately. The next day, start tossing.
  5. Check inside the oven. If it needs cleaning, stop using the oven.
  6. Identify areas needing deep cleaning and place a "Pardon Our Mess While We Work To Better Serve You" sign over them. This should buy you another year.
  7. Get out the silver polish. Call that guy you knew in college and see if you can catch a buzz from that stuff.
  8. Inspect shelves and fixtures for dust. Hey, I bet there's some good "french maid dusting the top shelf" porn on the Internets. Go check it out.
  9. When done with #8 above, wipe computer keyboard and screen down.
  10. Clear away any dead foliage and/or shot-in-the-face hunting partners (Dick Cheney only) lying in the underbrush.
  11. Wipe off blades of ceiling fans, hey I wonder if this thing could support me enough to twirl around like some kind of crazy-ass carnival ride?
  12. Sweep up broken fan blade pieces.
  13. Carefully clean fireplace without singing or humming "Chim Chiminy, Chim Chiminy, Chim Chim Cheroo" from Mary Poppins at any time.
  14. Use a spot cleaner to remove all stains throughout your home. Use the occasion to ask yourself whether it isn't time to stop doing that all over the place.
  15. Gather all your old clothes for Goodwill in a Hefty (tm) trash bag and put it in the back of the garage with the other ones from the last ten years that you haven't gotten around to driving two blocks to the dropoff spot.

1Up: Sex Sells in Second Life

1Up has a story on escort services and more: Sex Sells in Second Life.

Just because these escort girls are e-only doesn't make them any less real. One girl, Taboo Heart, injects some serious reality into her performances in Second Life's red light district: "I recorded myself masturbating and cropped that into bits I could bring into Second Life.

You Don't Really Know Rasheed Wallace

Until you've seen this from the Detroit Bad Boys.

The picture of young Sheed and Wilt Chamberlain is the cherry on top. But keep reading until you get to freshman Wallace running laps to finish out a college practice, as punishment for dunking over, and then shoving, disrespectful older teammates and screaming "you better recognize.. Motherf***er! Your job is mine!"

Also note a story of him dancing with his pants half way to the floor, and a nice use of the word "bugaboo."

It's the cream of the crop from the classic "Elevator Man" site.

Prince's new Lolita

~You try to write checks your body can't cash~

*Thanks to Anil!

The Final Four

Did Teens Create Prehistoric Cave Art?

From Liz comes the following story nicked from Discovery Channel News that suggests that teens created most of the prehistoric cave art.

caveartteen.jpg

Cave Art: Prehistoric Teen Graffiti?
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

March 31, 2006— Testosterone-fueled boys created most prehistoric cave art, according to a recently published book by one of the world's leading authorities on cave art.

The theory contradicts the idea that adult, tribal shaman spiritual leaders and healers produced virtually all cave art.

It also explains why many of the images drawn in caves during the Pleistocene, between 10,000 and 35,000 years ago, somewhat mirror today's artwork and graffiti that are produced by adolescent males.

"Today, boys draw the testosterone subjects of a hot automobile, fighter jet, Jedi armor, sports, direct missile hit, etc.— all of the things they associate with the Adrenalin of success," said R. Dale Guthrie, author of "The Nature of Paleolithic Art."

Guthrie, who is a professor emeritus in the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, added, "I think the full larder (of) success of the excitement and danger of killing a giant bison or auroch in the Pleistocene was the equivalent of the testosterone art today."

He explained to Discovery News that many of the cave art images of animals are rather graphic, showing, for example, speared animals with blood pouring out of their mouths and noses.

Hunting and animals were not the only things on the cave artists' minds. Guthrie has also noticed that males were drawn sort of like a Ken Barbie doll, with no defined sexual parts save for a simple line designating the penis. Few men were even represented, but the images of women in caves tell a different story.

"Female images dominate and are nude, almost every one full-figured above and below," said Guthrie. "Unlike the other animals, the sculpted, engraved and painted human females and female parts are sometimes done schematically, distilling and inflating the primary and secondary sex characters."

Guthrie also determined that several cave art images are incomplete, overlapping, brief and rudimentary, as though people who were still learning how to draw created them.

This type of sketching dominates cave walls, which also display a handful of works that appear to have been drawn by well-practiced artists, who probably were adults.

Perhaps the most convincing piece of evidence for the new theory consists of 200 handprints that were left in the caves next to the art. These prints were produced by individuals who chewed ochre, held up a hand, and then spit the colorful orange-yellow spew all over the hand, leaving a wall imprint.

Guthrie analyzed the handprints and then compared the results with earlier research on male and female hands. The hand lengths, palm widths and the finger widths and lengths mostly match hands that would have belonged to boys aged nine to 17.

Some teen female handprints were identified in the caves, but young male prints were found more often.

Other handprints resulting unintentionally from people leaning against muddy cave walls, as well as footprints, also suggest that young boys were creating the cave art, according to Guthrie.

Paul Martin, professor of quaternary biogeography at the University of Arizona, told Discovery News that he is inclined to agree with the new theory and findings.

"(Guthrie) has an extraordinary knowledge of wild animal ecology globally, and especially in the Northern Hemisphere," Martin said. "In addition, he brings detailed knowledge of late Pleistocene fossils to his study of cave art. Finally, like many zoologists, especially those with children of their own, he is an astute observer of human behavior."

Martin added, "If he finds that much cave art reflects teenage or preteen preoccupations, I am prepared to believe him."

Nintendo DS - Wireless Multiboot

Nintendo DS - Wireless Multiboot

Burn All GIFs

anti gif website dealing with software patents

Mets Beat Nationals, 3-2, in Season Opener

David Wright's sixth-inning home run provided the margin of victory as the Mets defeated the Washington Nationals.

Design is: Seeing

In the early pages of The Redheaded League Holmes and Watson receive a very distressed man at Baker Street. As a greeting, Holmes, with characteristic bravado, rattles off a list of intimate details describing the stranger. Both the man, and Watson are shocked that he could have known so much, but Holmes announces out that it was "Quite elementary, my dear Watson", and proceeds to explain the intricacies of his deduction, and later chides Watson good naturedly on his lack of vision -- "You look, but you do not see". As designers, the skill that sets us apart from other builders, sculptors, businesspeople, and engineers, is that we see the connections that make magical deductions like Holmes's possible. Cultivating this skill of looking for real understanding should be at the top of your list.
121405_sherlock ...

in beacon, we die by the sword

excerpt, letter to the editor, april "beacon dispatch"

"Much to my surprise on a recent Sunday morning, on my birthday, I decided to have an early lunch at one of my favorite eateries in Beacon... the Subway Restaurant on Main Street.

However, when I entered Subway to order my usual sandwich loaded with vegetables, I could not help but notice that the manager/owner (not sure what the blonde haired guy's title is) wearing a small GUN on his waistline. It immediately frightened me and I almost could not believe what I was seeing with my eyes.

I questioned him as to why he was wearing the same and he practically whinced [sic] and whispered, sort of as if he did not want to tell me, but managed to say it is because of the 'element' in Beacon.

...I am reminded of the old adage, 'You live by the sword... you die by the sword.'

...There are more affluent places in Beacon that stay open just as late and I do not see the owners/managers of that establishing [sic] wearing a gun on their waistline.


Needless to say, I don't think I will be eating there anytime soon...

I.B.
Beacon."

--on dude's BIRTHday.

meanwhile in my kitchen, fantastic things happen, despite cruel abandonment.

Nenad Krstic over Dwyane Wade

Doesn't mean a thing to me, but I know there is a thing in the NBA where a lot of black guys hate to be dunked on by white guys.  (If you don't believe me, read Shaquille O'Neal's book.)

You just don't see it happen very often, and when it does happen, people talk about it.

So for Dwyane Wade, the tomahawk straight in the grill from Nenad Krstic will be something he is probably getting ribbed about right now. Nobody will care that Wade was the only guy back on D, was outnumbered, and is way smaller than Krstic, who had a head of steam and all kinds of room to operate.

That won't matter a bit.

Best Global Warming NGOs?

Ally Caterina Fake wrote this weekend with a good question. "So, I am really worried about global warming," she said, "and I want to know which non-profit would be best for me to contribute funds to address the issue (and I figured you'd know)."

My answer was that in North America, it seems to be the local and regional groups which are both doing the most inspiring work and most need the funds. For instance, the Northwest's leading climate NGO, Climate Solutions, is doing great work not only on educating the public but on getting nuts-and-bolts reforms to favor wind farms, biofuels and smart grids. Also, it looks like these local/regional groups are increasingly cohering into a networked movement to create national change in the U.S. and Canada.

But I certainly don't know every group out there, much less who's doing particularly great work. What groups do you guys think are worth kudos (and cash)?

(Posted by Alex Steffen in QuickChanges at 03:24 PM)

PictoChat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How to pour ketchup

Ketchup can be regarded as a highly viscous liquid, or a thixotropic (flows under pressure) solid. Neither term is exactly correct, but the problem is not what to call it. The problem is how to get the ketchup out of...

High on Painkillers

david posted a photo:

High on Painkillers

Taken by Kathryn.

Nerdzone Version 1 @ The Migros Museum - April 05


This is a show I have at the Migros Museum in Zurich . Includes lotsa stuff like, Mario Clouds, I shot Andy Warhol, Space Invader, Data Diaries, Dooogle, 414-3-RAVe-95, etc, etc.......plus a cool new "landscape installation!"

April 3, 2006

Mapping as an Infill Tool

map.jpg We need a bright green future, but the future we are actually building sometimes looks more dark gray. Particularly in North America, we still employ a whole suite of outmoded designs and technologies which we know are destabilizing the climate, undermining living systems and exacerbating social inequalities. It's hard to pick a favorite in this category, really -- coal-fired power plants? SUVs? manicured lawns? -- but in terms of its long-term impacts, it may be hard to beat suburban sprawl. Among its many other contributions to unsustainability (longer driving distances, social stratification, wasted government subsidies) sprawl is one of North America's leading destroyers of healthy farmland and natural areas.

If we're going to build truly sustainable cities, we need to start turning urban growth inward -- using the demand for more housing to rebuild and restore urban places. Such "infill" housing is almost inherently bright green, promoting as it does density, which is one of the best energy efficiency strategies we have and preserving rural lands.

There's one big catch -- infill housing is harder to develop profitably. One of the hang-ups is that finding land suitable for infilling can be a really burdensome process, involving a lot of leg work and records-checking.

But, as we discuss frequently here, mapping tools and other geospatial technologies are changing the game quickly. Case in point? The California Infill Parcel Locator, a pilot program of Berkeley's Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IURD). The parcel locator is pretty simple: it measures the ratio between the assessed value of a plot of land and the assessed value of the structures and improvements on that land, and then overlays the results onto a street map.

A ton of caveats apply, of course: not every parcel identified should be redeveloped, zoning codes may vary or changes, etc. But what's exciting about this is that it is a relative simple tool which facilitates a key step in the redevelopment process, and illustrates how much better we can do at making available data about the cities in which we live useful for those actually doing the hard work of rebuilding them.

(Thanks, Rob!)

(Posted by Alex Steffen in The Tech Bloom – Collaborative and Emergent Technologies at 11:38 AM)

Google Updated their Map API Today

Google Updated their Map API Today. Leaner javascript downloads, no page view limits, and a 90 days heads-up on the presence of advertising on the map. -dj

Eagle Cam

A great way to waste time online: the Bald Eagle Cam. Update: They moved the EagleCam. Here is the new URL.

Best of Skymall

Caterina's Products of the First World is a wonderful collection of the best of Skymall's products. I like Gaston the Gothic Climber. If Skymall had the CNN graphic artists illustrate their catalog, the world would be a better place. -dj

V&A's collection search

The Victoria & Albert Museums's collection search is a fun way to waste an afternoon. Try searching for hinges, chairs or India. -dj

One Laptop Per Child project and Red Hat release Software Developer Kit

One Laptop Per Child project and Red Hat release their Software Developer Kit. Includes a laptop simulator (since the hardware doesn't exist yet ), and a rich set of compatibility tools. -dj

"The Art of Whistling" by DJ Papa

"The Art of Whistling" by DJ Papa. -dj

Google Updates their Map API

Google Updates their Map API. Leaner javascript downloads, no page view limits, and a 90 days heads-up on the presence of advertising on the map. -dj

One of Spirit's Wheels is Broken Beyond Repair

One of Spirit's Wheels is Broken Beyond Repair, so NASA will have to guide the Rover away from terrain with loose soil. -dj

How to make a mobile wifi hotspot using your Bluetooth-enabled Sprint PCS phone and your Mac

Let's say Sprint happened to to send you a free phone with a free service plan as part of their Ambassador program. Wouldn't you want to share the benefit of that service with as many people as possible? Especially if the plan included free data service? After all, Mr. Ambassador, you certainly want everyone to enjoy Sprint's quality service as much as you do, right?

Or let's say you're so rich you can afford to pay Sprint's (probably high) fees for unlimited data service. Since there's no additional cost to you, shouldn't you share some of that bandwidth with some of us poor saps who can't afford such luxuries?

This post describes how to use your Bluetooth- and Airport-enabled Mac with your Bluetooth-enabled Sprint PCS phone to set up a mobile wifi access point. Meaning, you can put your iBook in your car or backpack, put your phone in your pocket, and give free wifi internet access to anyone who happens to be in the area. (Of course, you will also be able to access the internet yourself all the while.)

These instructions assume you are using Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), and a Samsung A920, the official phone of Sprint Ambassadors everywhere. But they should apply to any Sprint phone with Bluetooth that is capable of being a data modem and/or using their Power Vision service. Non-ambassadors will have to navigate the labyrinth of Sprint customer service and get "phone-as-modem" service added to their plan. Once you've gotten that taken care of, please continue...

Summary for experienced people

Details are below, but if you know what you're doing and just want to do it quickly:

  1. Turn on Bluetooth on your phone.
  2. Pair your phone with your Mac.
  3. In the PPP configuration for Bluetooth in Network preferences, leave the username and password blank and use this phone number: #777
  4. In Sharing preferences, go to the Internet pane and turn on Internet Connection Sharing for Bluetooth, allowing AirPort devices to connect.
  5. Back in PPP, click "Dial Now...". You should be all set. By default, your SSID will be your computer's name.
  6. If you need a detailed step-by-step, continue reading...

First, set up the phone

  1. Press "Menu/OK".
  2. Select "Settings".
  3. Scroll down and select "Bluetooth" and press OK.
  4. If Bluetooth is disabled, click OK on to enable it.
  5. Set "Visibility" to "Always visible". (This is optional and not very secure, but it might make things easier later.)
  6. Select "Device Name" and enter a nice name for your phone. This is the name other Bluetooth devices (like your Mac) will display when connecting to your phone. (I have found in other contexts that choosing a one-word name can reduce errors.)

Connect your Mac to your phone via Bluetooth

  1. Open System Preferences.
  2. In the Hardware section, click Bluetooth.
  3. In the Settings pane, make sure it says Bluetooth is on. Other than that, it doesn't matter much what is selected. [screenshot]
  4. In the Devices pane [screenshot], click "Setup New Device".
  5. The Bluetooth Setup Assistant wizard will start. Click "Continue" and select "Mobile phone" from the list of device types.
  6. The wizard will scan the airwaves looking for Bluetooth devices. When you see the name of your phone, select it and click "Continue".
  7. After a few seconds of "gathering information," the wizard will prompt you to click "Continue" to continue. Do so.
  8. Your computer will display a "passkey", a number you have to type into your phone to "pair" the phone with your Mac. [screenshot]
  9. Your phone will prompt you to accept the pair. Press "Accept".
  10. Enter the passkey into your phone and press OK. If you wait too long, the connection will time out, and you'll probably have to go back in the wizard and get a new passkey.
  11. Once the pairing has taken place, click "Continue" to continue.
  12. Make sure "Access the internet with your phone's data connection" is checked.
  13. Click "Continue".
  14. Here's the important part: You will be prompted to enter connection settings. Leave "Username" and "Password" blank. In "Phone Number", enter #777. For "Modem Script", select "Sprint PCS Vision". [screenshot]
  15. Optionally, select the checkboxes to show Bluetooth and Modem status in the menu bar.
  16. Click "Continue".
  17. Click "Quit".

Connect to the Internet

At this point, you might want to turn off Airport and/or unplug your network cable, so that when you connect to the internet via the phone, you'll be sure you are connected via the phone. (After it's all set up, you can turn Airport back on.) In the meantime, here's how to get connected:

  1. Open System Preferences. (Or click "Show All" if your Bluetooth panel is still active.)
  2. In the Network & Internet section, choose "Network".
  3. In the dropdown labeled "Show", select "Bluetooth".
  4. In the "PPP" pane, make sure "Account Name" and "Password" are blank, and that "Telephone Number" is #777.
  5. In the "Bluetooth Modem" pane, make sure the Modem dropdown says "Sprint PCS Vision", and (optioinally) check all checkboxes. Now you're ready to connect to the internet.
  6. Go back to the "PPP" pane, and click "Dial Now..." An "Internet Connect" dialog box will appear. Make sure the Bluetooth pane is showing. [screenshot]
  7. Click "Connect". The modem status in the menu bar will read "Connecting..." and your phone will say "Connected as data modem to [your computer name]". You are connected! A timer on the phone will show the duration of your connection.
  8. Open a web browser on your computer to confirm that you are connected.

Share your internet connection via AirPort

Now you are ready to share your connection to the internet with other users. To do so:

  1. Turn AirPort back on if you turned it off earlier.
  2. Return to System Preferences. (Click "Show All" if you are still on your Network settings.)
  3. In "Internet & Network", click "Sharing".
  4. Go to "Internet" pane. [screenshot]
  5. In the dropdown labeled "Share your connection from", select "Bluetooth".
  6. In the "To computers using" area, select "AirPort".
  7. Click "AirPort options" to make sure encryption is not turned on and/or to change the name of the access point (SSID) that your Mac will broadcast .
  8. Click "Start" to start sharing your internet connection via wifi.
  9. You may get a message saying this conflicts with your firewall setting, as Personal Web Sharing must be turned on (for some reason) to share your internet connection. If there's a dialog, click "Show Services" or directly open the "Services" pane in Sharing (which partially controls your firewall), and activate "Personal Web Sharing" service. Note that this will make the "Sites" folder in your home directory available via your network connection. (If someone can explain to me why Personal Web Sharing has to be turned on in order to share your internet connection, I'd love to hear it. If it's just to open the port, couldn't they do that without firing up your web server?)
  10. That's it! You're connected and you're sharing your connection. You might want to test it with another wifi device to make sure it can connect. (By default, your Mac will broadcast its name as the the name of the access point (SSID)).

Potentially sad note: Some devices may not be able to obtain an IP address from your Mac, in which case they won't be able to use your connection to the internet. However, if you can talk to whoever is attempting to share your connection (e.g., you're over at your friends' house and want to get them online), you can configure their network connection manually. To do so, follow these instructions. I'd recommend keeping the IP addresses of some public DNS servers handy, so you can just type those in instead of trying to determine them from the dig utility or similar. I really don't know anything about Internet Connection Sharing on the Mac, so I have no idea which devices can automatically obtain an IP from it and which can't.

Added bonus: Note that if you look at the Personal Web Sharing preferences, you'll see your external IP has been resolved to an actual domain name like http://h460c83c6.area2.spcsdns.net. Anyone accessing that address in their browser will see whatever website your Mac is serving from its web server folders.

Keep in mind:

  • Sprint PCS may or may not like the idea of you sharing your bandwidth. (Especially if you're not an Ambassador and don't have diplomatic immunity.)
  • If you are at work or school, your network administrator may or may not like (1) your computer's new-found role as a DHCP server, and (2) your computer giving indirect access to his/her LAN.

Even so, at least you can go to bed knowing you are the Robin Hood of wireless bandwidth!

To what Google Base uses may we return, Horatio!

In which I contribute to Business 2.0.

semapedia physical wiki entries

semapedia.jpgthe process of physically 'tagging' real-world objects with semacodes, so that users with mobile phone cameras can automatically retrieve relevant wikipedia articles on their device. see also qr code & grafedia.
[semapedia.org]

the voice keyword visualization

thevoice.jpga visualization that compares the words the users of the The Swedish National Public Art Council website are searching for on the site & in search engines in order to find the site, & the words used at this office itself (for example words written in emails & read by the office staff on web pages).
the visualization consists of the last 2000 words searched for, displayed in different font sizes/colors, with different border sizes/colors, reflecting how many times it has been searched for, when it was searched for, how much it has been mentioned in the internal communication & how much it is used on the Internet in general. each word links to the pages on the server that contains the search-word, the visualization thus functions as an alternate interface to the Art Council website. the visualization is updated daily & each new "image" is saved in an archive accessible by the user.
see also power of words & parsing the state of the union.
[jevbratt.com]

Video: Steve Jobs demos NeXTSTEP Release 3 in 1992

keep in mind, Windows 3.1 was released the same year  

Shigureden: the Nintendo-powered Museum

Shigureden is a newly-opened museum in Arashiyama, Kyoto, which showcases the game and the estetics of Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (Ogura Anthology of 100 Poems by 100 Poets - wikipedia). This museum is heavily influenced by Nintendo, in terms of funding, technology and ideas. Nintendo's advisor Hiroshi Yamauchi personally funded the construction of the museum, visotors use Nintendo DS-based location aware devices (called ShigureNavi), and the museum's interactive digital installations are supervised by Shigeru Miyamoto, who is also known as "the father of Mario Bros."

shigureden3.jpg

ShigureNavi is a kind of Nintendo DS without buttons - you can only change the sound volume. Instead, it is equipped with two sensor devices that receive signals from ceiling-mounted transmitters, thereby delivering location-relevant contents to visitors. The device can also be used to control objects shown in a huge high-res screen: an array of seventy 45-inch LCD monitors embedded in the museum floor. The monitor array shows an animated areal photo of Kyoto, giving visitors a feeling of "walking in the sky" - then the ShigureNavi device can be used as a sky-walk navigation system. For example, if you specify Nintendo headquarter using the ShigureNavi device, a big bird appears under your feet and guides your sky walk there. Visitors can also play sporty card games using the device and the floor-embedded monitor array.

shigureden4.jpg

There's also an installation that looks like an enlarged human-size Nintendo DS, which allows visitors to play card games with ancient historical characters (from perhaps the 13th century). In front of you are a horizontal touch-screen display for your interactive control and a vertical screen showing your opponent. Based on what I read and saw on MyCom PC Web, the museum seems very nicely designed and is attracting many elderly people as well.

via MyCom PC Web

New York Times redesign

The New York Times site has had a bit of a redesign, and as Anil Dash points out: "There's a few lessons for bloggers to learn from the redesign, as well as some evidence that the Times itself has been...

The Economist on Makers/Tinkerers

A very relevant article in The Economist about the DIY/hack trend of the amateur revolution: “Technological tinkering, or hacking, is not limited to computers. Cars, cameras and vacuum-cleaners can be hacked too“. Some excerpts I found interesting:

Today’s technological tinkerers, however, have a far wider range of household gizmos to play with and modify, from cars to cameras. Getting them to do new things, and not merely what the manufacturer had in mind, is an increasingly popular pastime.
(…)
But in some cases, such hacks can undermine the manufacturer’s business model. Consider games consoles, for example, which operate on a “razor and blades” principle. Consoles are often sold at a loss, but console-makers receive a licence fee of a few dollars for each game sold—so provided each customer buys enough games, the console-maker eventually makes money. When Microsoft launched its Xbox console in 2001, hackers raced to install Linux on it, which transformed it into a low-cost, high performance media-playback system. While this was a minority sport, anyone who did this without buying any games was, in effect, receiving a subsidy from Microsoft. Little wonder, then, that the new Xbox 360 console features significantly beefed-up security measures.

example is the low-cost “disposable” digital cameras sold by CVS, an American pharmacy chain. These cameras are designed to be used once and then returned to the shop, where, for a processing fee, the stored pictures or movies are returned to you on CD or DVD. The cameras are then reset and resold. Inevitably, however, hackers have figured out how to access and reuse the cameras themselves. (One even ended up being installed in the nose of a small rocket.) If enough people do this, the business model breaks down. Clever hacking by a few, in other words, could lead to higher prices for the many.

But some companies, at least, have chosen to embrace hackers. iRobot, the company behind the Roomba robot vacuum-cleaner, includes an external data connector in the device and has even documented how to use it. While most customers appreciate their Roombas for their autonomous cleaning skills, there is also a small minority of users who want to reprogram them. iRobot is one of the few firms to acknowledge and appreciate customers who like to tinker. After all, there are few manifestations of feedback as heartfelt as someone who is willing to spend their own time and effort to improve a product.

Why do I blog this? working on a short client project about the effects of dematerialization, this DIY/amateur trend is a very important change pattern lately. Some companies are not well-aware that it might modify their business model.

First Day Back At School

Well, after a three month break, tomorrow I go back to work. It is kind of hard to believe. People keep asking me if I am excited to go back. Kind of. They ask me what I have learned and I am not 100% sure. For the past few days, I have been in kind of a funk not because I am sad to go back to work. It is more that I am afraid that all of the things I have learned, the peace I have gained, feels like it is slipping away. I wish I could be more articulate about it. I feel like I have a kind of clarity about my life now and I am now in the position where I need to take action. Taking action is the hardest part.

(A funny Freudian slip: When looking over this little post, I realized that I typed: "I am not in the position where I need to take action" instead of "I am now in the position where I need to take action" My shrink is going to have a field day with that one!)

Mario Question Blocks freak out small town in Ohio

Mario Question Blocks at UC Berkeley "Five teenage girls from Portage County face potential criminal charges after attempting to play a real-life version of Super Mario Bros. The Portage County Hazardous Materials Unit and Bomb Detection Unit were called...

New Google Maps Terms

As part of the new version of their maps API released today, Google is making the following updates to their terms:

  • No page view limits.      Your site can get as many page views as you can muster. If, however, your      site gets more than 500,000 page views per day, we ask that you talk to us before      you launch so that we can prepare in advance to handle your traffic.
  • 90-day notice before any      advertising-related change. The Maps API does not include advertising.      If we ever decide to change this policy, we will give all developers at      least 90 days' notice via this blog.

This is good news. The old 50K page view limit wasn’t a major constraint, but it’s helpful for that to be clear. The 90-day notice is also a nice gesture. Seems they’re aware of concerns like Adrian's.

Right now the Google Maps API seems to be used mostly for widget-of-the-month-type projects. It’s been hard to develop robust applications with opaque, restrictive terms. I think Google will be much better off when it provides the clarity and flexibility that businesses need to develop on their platform. Hopefully these changes mean they agree.

Mars rover's broken wheel is beyond repair

Spirit will simply have to drag the wheel as it maps out a route to a safe winter haven, and the glitch means it must avoid terrain with loose soil

The Art of Whistling - DJ Papa



DJ Papa is an artist and DJ from Germany. He has been throwing parties in Duesseldorf over the last decade and most recently at Elektra in Cologne. His unmistakable style and adherence to a given theme makes his mix so
outstanding. Whistle....

Listen

Mobile phone use linked to anxiety

Australians are increasingly becoming so addicted to mobile phones they are suffering anxiety and self-esteem problems akin to substance abuse, writes The Sydney Morning Herald. Excessive mobile users experience personal problems ranging from agitation if forced to turn them off,...

AndreaHarner.com Makeover Accomplished!

Guys, notice anything different? If you don't, you have some serious problems.

AndreaHarner.com finally feels comfortably clothed and she has Cat Savard, a talented and cool designer in Australia to thank!

If your site is screaming for a makeover, don't hesitate to contact Cat! And don't worry about her being far away because obviously greatness can be achieved transpacifically.

Please leave comments if stuff isn't working right. Thanks, team.

DC vs. Marvel

Like any good father, I'm trying to pass my values along to my children -- simple moral truths like: DC is better than Marvel. It turns out, that battle has already been fought. Spoiler results. It's a sick, sad world we live in. -- GK

State of the Arcade Industry 2004

I stumbled into an arcade this weekend for the first time in years, and it wasn't pretty: Lots of untranslated Japanese games, lots of Street Fighter clones (and lots of overlap between the two), only one game with a copyright date later than 2002, most much older than that. Might as well stay home.

State of the Arcade Industry 2004

I stumbled into an arcade this weekend for the first time in years, and it wasn't pretty: Lots of untranslated Japanese games, lots of Street Fighter clones (and lots of overlap between the two), only one game with a copyright date later than 2002, most much older than that. Might as well stay home.

DC vs. Marvel

Like any good father, I'm trying to pass my values along to my children -- simple moral truths like: DC is better than Marvel. It turns out, that battle has already been fought. Spoiler results. It's a sick, sad world we live in.

April 2, 2006

Daylight Saving Time

It's Daylight Saving Time time and early Sunday morning clocks should be moved forward, from 01:59:59 to 03:00:00. But what happens to all the television shows that start at 2:00? Or to computer tasks scheduled during the missing hour? Tomorrow: The Kottke Investigative Journalism Team reports. Blogs: Asking the questions those cowardly tratiors of the MSM consider far too stupid bother with. -- GK

Talking about microformats

Adactio: Jeremy Keithhttp://adactio.com [Adactio: Jeremy Keith] After attending Tantek’s birthday celebrations at La Sol Y La Luna restaurant, which is not located downtown, a bunch of us stood on the street and began hailing taxis to get back into the town centre. In an attempt to ascertain exactly where we needed to tell the cab driver to take us in order to reach the next party, I whipped out my iBook, hoping for a net connection.

The Grammar of Ornament

The Grammar of Ornament - detail 1 & detail 2 Eric Gjerde has uploaded scans of a set of pages from the exquisite ‘The Grammar of Ornament’ by Owen Jones which was originally published in 1853. There’s a great range of designs here featuring decorative motifs from the Byzantine, Chinese, Indian, Persian and Moorish cultures among [...]

Real Estate Bubble Reaches $1m Crackhouse Phase


2006_3_crackhousesale1.jpg


It's stories like these that give you a glimpse into brooklyn real estate. The crackhouse that used be down the street from me has been repainted - and I predict will be sold once they get rid of liquor store on the corner.


Real Estate Bubble Reaches $1m Crackhouse Phase:A couple of years from now, after the American real estate market has utterly collapsed, we may well look back at this day as a kind of high-water mark, the spot where the insanity peaked and then rolled back. Curbed broke the story yesterday-- a crackhouse in South Williamsburg that has been flipped twice in the last six months, and is now being sold for about a million dollars. First, read the description from the broker's site:


This Williamsburg fixer-upper, built in 1910, is the perfect opportunity to tailor-design your own home; it&rsquo;s also ideal for an investor (can covert into condominiums or rentals). It&rsquo;s located on a great tree-lined street, one-block to the East River Waterfront in the fashionable Southside. Great shopping, bars, dining, and nightlife are within steps.


Then read the description of an in-person visit by blogger Red Sauce:


Speaking of real estate, I gathered Judy and made her go look at this building in Williamsburg. It was described as a "shell of a building" by what turned out to be a tall Big Gulp type woman who may have been a member of the Swedish Volleyball team. She slithered out of a red Volvo and grinned as she should. We shook her hand as we should.

We proceeded past the bacon on the stairs and checked out the place that was going for nearly $900,000. It was filled with dead pigeon parts and was covered about two feet high with rotting mattresses, broken pieces of wood and parts of the roof were strewn about.


Then read the Daily News' investigation into the recent flips:


Falling debris, broken windows and graffiti have all left a mark, said one neighbor who charged that concrete from a sidewall crumbled onto her driveway as recently as three years ago.

"To me, I think they should knock it down and build it back up again," said the woman, whose home abuts the building.

In October, a developer bought the property for $235,000 from Alizabeth Arroyo, a Connecticut woman, records show.

Four months later, the developer resold the property - with no apparent major repairs - for a cool $680,000, according to property records.


Now, does anyone else think is just redonkulously insane? How can anyone look at evidence like this and NOT conclude that a full fledged real estate mania is currently in swing and approaching its peak? How can anyone expect to buy this place, put in $1m worth of renovation, and make a profit? How can someone sell this building at this price with anything approaching a straight face? GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!


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My Dog is Better Than Your Dog


C Train, Clinton Wash stop

I have a doggy named Sharita. I know that I am the envy of every 7 yr old child-that's when you know you're doing somwthing right.

-photo taken by Emilia before our sunday date to doughnut plant.

My Dog is Better Than Your Dog

Originally uploaded by triciawang 王 圣 㨗 .

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Build Your Own Web 2.0 Application

Jason Gried's Build Your Own Web 2.0 Application Using Fluff and Hot Air is a good candidate for post of the day. It's all about Getting Rich. (Jason Gried is President of the successful Chicago-based web abbreviations company 37singles.) Getting...

Simon Willison: Yahoo!'s new twist on mapping APIs [del.icio.us]

Simon does a rundown of mapping APIs. The geocoding API is awesome (so useful)

worst street name

what's a worse street name than "all angels hill road" ??

"old all angels hill road."

but if you crank "burning witch," preferably the album "crippled lucifer (seven psalms for our lord of light)," preferably the song, "sea hag," whilst driving downward it... you can still see six teenagers, thin, up-dos, tuxedo-clad... bottles of wild turkey, everclear... driving towardsward you... then they open their mouths... to SCREAM...

Sample Code: QTCarbonCoreImage101

Demonstrates how to render QuickTime Movies using Core Image filters and the new video pipeline.

Graham Patrick Summers

Graham Patrick Summers
Born: April 2, 2006 in McHenry, IL at 11:51 AM
Weight: 8lb 8oz
Length: 22 inches
Mother and Baby Healthy and Happy :-)

Details to follow!

mizzy.org - Plagger と YouTube

Music Personality Score

Since talking with Gabriel at MusicStrands the other day, I've been thinking more about how we share our musical tastes with others. I was making the point to him that there should be a way to quickly relate the type of music you're interested in without forcing people to wade through months of listening data like the current social music services require. For example, you can see that my top two artists at Last.fm are Bob Marley and Mozart based on frequency of plays, but that doesn't mean that my top two genres are Reggae and Classical. (I wouldn't place those as my top two if someone asked me.) You have to wade through the entire list to see that I also like classic rock, indie rock, electronic music, and lots of other genres.

What I was trying to say to Gabriel, but couldn't quite articulate, is that there should be a Myers-Briggs style scoring system for musical taste. When I see that someone is an ENFP, I have one instant measure of their personality. If you could do the same for music, you'd have a way to instantly relate your musical interests. I'm not sure what the criteria would be—maybe I'm an ISAE (indie structured ambient electronic), or MECR (mainstream eclectic classic rock). And this would go hand in hand with a service like MusicStrands because they can analyze the last 1,000 songs I actually listened to. With the score in hand, I could paste it into the dozen or so social network sites I belong to, giving people a more nuanced look at my preferences than my top 5 bands or something.

The iTunes Signature Maker is one stab at this concept. This application wades through your iTunes collection and creates a short audio signature based on the music it finds. When listening to others' signatures I guess you could listen for electronica vs. distorted guitars, but it doesn't really give you a sense of music preference. This is more of a fun hack than a useful way to share your musical identity. It'd be much more accurate to analyze what you're actually listening to, and then do a bit of categorization based on meta info about those tracks.

The Nation: Immigrants and the Economics of Hard Work

Does the United States need a constant flow of immigrants to perform jobs Americans will not stoop to do?

Pragmatic Studio: Rails Deployment

It's time to take the covers off of a little something something that Mike and I have been working on together: A hands-on, non-nonsense interactive workshop diving deep into the depths of deploying Rails applications. As I've said many times, deploying rails applications is hard. It's a complicated space with many answers. While there is no single answer that will work for everyone, Mike and I are going to bring a lot of light to this issue. We're going to put this workshop on later this Summer at a location to be determined. If you're interested, get your name on the list now! [link]

on not working in a library

One of the best thigns about not having a job in any particular library is the fact that when I see job ads like this one that Michael McGrorty writes about, I can sit back and daydream about being that sort of librarian. Reminds me of one of my favorite Hal Hartley quotations about trouble and desire.

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Daylight Saved Time

As part of kottke.org's efforts towards the multi-David utopia of Way New Journalism (Note: ghost site), we proudly bring you the kind of original reporting that could only come from the blogosphere: We didn't find out what happened to TV shows that air at 2:00am during the time change because we fell asleep. Windows (XP Home) Task scheduler skips tasks set for 2:30, though, while Linux's (Fedora Core 3) default cron executes them immediately after the adjustment, at the new 3:00. Take that, MSM! -- GK

Daylight Saving Time

It's Daylight Saving Time time and early Sunday morning clocks should be moved forward, from 01:59:59 to 03:00:00. But what happens to all the television shows that start at 2:00? Or to computer tasks scheduled during the missing hour? Tomorrow: The Kottke Investigative Journalism Team reports. Blogs: Asking the questions the MSM considers far too stupid bother with. -- GK

Daylight Saving Time

It's Daylight Saving Time-time and early Sunday morning clocks should be moved forward, from 01:59:59 to 03:00:00. But what happens to all the television shows that start at 2:00? Or to computer tasks scheduled during the missing hour? Tomorrow: The Kottke Investigative Journalism Team reports. Blogs: Asking the questions the MSM considers far too stupid bother with.

Daylight Saving Time

It's Daylight Saving Time-time and early Sunday morning clocks should be moved forward, from 01:59:59 to 03:00:00. But what happens to all the television shows that start at 2:00? Or to computer tasks scheduled during the missing hour? Tomorrow: The Kottke Investigative Journalism Team reports. Blogs: Asking the questions the MSM considers far too stupid bother with. -- GK

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