« December 3, 2006 - December 9, 2006 | Main | December 17, 2006 - December 23, 2006 »
"Fixr offers you the unique opportunity to close the gaps in the digital record of your life. If you want to post those perfect shots you couldn't take, here's the solution: just submit a detailled description of the moment you missed to us and we'll do our very best to provide you with an image to fit your needs."Originally from tecznotes links by reBlogged on Dec 16, 2006, 8:16PM
Who Knew 04. A student project out of design department at Art Center looks at social issues including the water shortage, e-waste, social design, and other dirty secrets.Originally from Social Design Notes reBlogged on Dec 16, 2006, 11:56AM
If you want to play your own movies on your Nintendo Wii, here are some settings that seem to work. Jack writes -"As it turns out, the Wii can play home movies as well as show pictures from your digital camera. The only trick is to get the movie in the right format, which is not as easy as it may see. Even though the manual says that the Wii supports Quicktime, it only actually supports a particular type of codec.
Here are the Quicktime Pro settings that I have found work"
Thanks Brian - Link.Related:
[Read this article] [Comment on this article]
- Wii hardware/software hacks & projects @ MAKE - Link.
Originally from MAKE: Blog by
reBlogged by Matthew Haughey on Dec 15, 2006, 5:07PMOriginally from mathowie reBlog feed by reBlogged on Dec 15, 2006, 8:13PM
Well, it's tomorrow and Leslie's still gone. I was hoping that yesterday was a bad dream, but it wasn't and never is. Other friends and acquaintances of hers have accurately captured what a robust person Leslie was and I'll point you to those eulogies in a sec, but like most people who knew her, she did me a favor I didn't know I needed precisely when I needed it. Hell, I didn't even really know her at the time, but when I made a remark in a virtual forum we both frequented about not feeling completely comfortable being there, Leslie, as much as a person can do via email, shook me by the collar and told me, "you belong here". A small gesture and perfectly Leslie, but it helped me (eventually) find who I was. I'm glad I got the chance to thank her for that in person.
Kevin Fanning is collecting online rememberences of Leslie on del.icio.us. Some of my favorites are by Lance Arthur, Merlin Mann, Mike Monteiro, Mike Essl, Josh Allen, Danny O'Brien, and Kevin Fanning.
Originally from kottke.org reBlogged on Dec 13, 2006, 10:30AM
The other day we wrote that one of the fundamental principles of the project was that after the three days all of the work would be destroyed rather than sold. There's a couple of things that we should clarify and add...
First, in regards to the art being "destroyed", the word "destroyed" is perhaps not telling the whole story. What's actually going to happen is much more interesting then that. As many of you know, there's a tradition in construction to leave a newspaper in a wall during the construction process to create a sort of time capsule. Most people who have renovated a home or building have great stories about finding things from decades, or even centuries before, in the walls of their buildings.
So after the Wooster on Spring exhibition, all of the interior walls of 11 Spring will be covered during the construction process. 11 Spring will become one of the most fascinating art time capsules in history. We love the fact that two hundred years from now, a brick might fall out to reveal an original piece creared by Lady Pink, Shepard, Swoon and 35 other incredible artists.
Second, to put your mind at ease, all of the artwork will (and has been) meticulously documented. Over the last seven weeks we invited lots of photographers and videographers to film the artists creating the work and after the show is over all of the work will be photographed and archived.
Originally from Wooster Collective reBlogged on Dec 13, 2006, 8:55AM
As we head into the final days before this weekend's three day exhibition at 11 Spring, we wanted to give you a bit of the background on the project and to tell you how it all came together:
It was about seven weeks ago that Sara and I received an email from Caroline Cummings. Caroline is a partner in Elias Cummings, the development group that recently purchased 11 Spring Street in Soho. After exchanging some emails with Caroline, we called her and was surprised to hear that the reason she was contacting us was that one of the things that intrigued her and her partners about the building that they had just purchased, was the fact that each and every day they came back to the building they noticed that the artwork outside was changing and evolving.
Unlike most developers who would have power washed the artwork off the building and put up scaffolding as fast as they could, Caroline and Bill Elias have a rich appreciation for the arts and instinctively knew that there was more to the building than met the eye and that they couldn't just obliterate decades of history without doing something to recognize it. Caroline told us...
"Part of what initially drew Bill and I to 11 Spring Street was its rich and constantly evolving visual presence. Upon first glance, we knew that we were about to experience something unique and artistically complex."
So one of the first things they did was to research the history of the building on the web. And that's how they had found us. Many of the artists, and the building itself, had been featured on the Wooster site for many years so when they researched 11 Spring, a lot of trails came back to this site.
So a few days after getting the email, we met with Caroline and Malcolm Stevenson, the building's project manager, for a glass of wine at out flat.
Caroline told us...
"After purchasing the building, Bill and I, along with our investors and Malcolm began to brainstorm various ways that we could celebrate the art that has become such a critical part of the building’s and neighborhood’s history. Considering the ephemeral nature of street art, it became clear that “preserving†or ushering future artists to sectioned off areas was antithetical and counter to the whole street art process. So we reached out to the Wooster Collective to see what we could do"
Sara and I immediately liked Caroline and Malcolm when they came over. Both of them have an incredible sense of history and truly appreciate the arts. We felt that we could trust them, and I'm assuming that they felt that they could trust us as well.
So one of the ideas we can up with together that night was to do an exhibition inside the building that would celebrate the end of an era in the neighborhood and at the same time, showcase the work of a group of amazing creative artists who who's work we all have been inspired by for many years. But there wouldn't be a lot of time to put it together as the renovation process was set to begin in the coming weeks.
So what was most important to Sara and I was that we all agreed on the following set of principles:
1. That the project would not be financed by having to take money from brands for sponsorship.
2. That the project would not be commercialized and that no profit would be made from the event. No silly press releases. No selling of t-shirts. No flyers. Nothing that would take away from the art and the creativity of the artists.
3. That the walls of the building itself would become the canvas. We didn't want to put up boards and have artists paint on plywood that could then be removed and sold. We all agreed that the history of the building would become part of what we were all celebrating and that all of the work would be done directly onto the surface of the walls.
4. That the project would not become a "Fame Game" where only the established well known artists would be included. While we wanted our friends like Shepard, WK, Swoon and others involved, we also wanted to make sure that young and up-and-coming artists were not only included but given the same kind of space and attention. So along with the "names" in the scene, there are also some incredible discoveries who's work in the exhibition will blow you away.
5. That graffiti artists would be working alongside street artists. There's often a lot of friction between the two communities and we wanted to make a point that the street artists need to honor those who came before them. Along the same lines, we wanted to make sure that we honored the past as well as the future. So it was important to us to include such legends as Lady Pink, John Fekner, Cycle, and others.
6. That the art would not be used for commercial purposes and if there was an idea that came up that would use the art after the show was over, that it would have the consent of the artists.
7. That we would attempt to bring to New York as many artists as we could afford who's work has been known in Europe and Asia, but rarely seen in America. Elias Cummings put up money to pay for the flights of such artists as Blek Le Rat, Bo and Microbo, Jace, and D*Face so that they could be here.
So after agreeing on the fundamentals we put a list of artists together that evening, and the next morning we made some calls to our friends to see if they were able to come to New York to be a part of it. Many of the artists put aside prior commitments and hopped on planes a few days after we called them. Everything associated with this project has come together in only seven weeks time.
After meeting that night for a glass of wine seven weeks ago, Malcolm and Caroline opened the building to us the next morning and we began work.
Like any project, you wish you could include more artists. But even with 30,000 square feet of wall space in the building, we quickly ran out of space.
So again, here are the times for the exhibition. It will only be open for three days....
Friday, December 15th: From 11am to 5pm
Saturday, December 16th: From 11am to 5pm
Sunday, December 17th: From 11am to 5pmOn Sunday, December 17th at 3pm there will be a panel discussion with many of the artists attending.
Originally from Wooster Collective reBlogged on Dec 13, 2006, 7:12AM
There are some fun new features over at the Cover Browser (previously), under the moniker of Cover Browser Labs. Shown here is an example of a pattern-matching algorithm that finds comic book covers based on how close they match a given pattern of shapes and colours.
More fun, however, is the Cover Tagger Game that harnesses the communal tagging power of users to build a database of descriptive tags for each cover in the collection, but presents the whole ordeal as a guessing game.
Originally from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog by reBlogged on Dec 13, 2006, 3:01AM
Last night Rachel and I went to a panel here in Manhattan with Stephen Colbert (or, as he was billed, "Dr. Stephen Colbert, DFA"), his senior producers and writers Richard Dahm, Allison Silverman, and Jeff Cooperman, and writer Eric Drysdale (who often appears on the show as a target of abuse). There's almost no trace of the event online yet, but they're planning to put up a webcast in a week or so at emmys.tv - will add a link here if we see it.
The panel was a treat for any number of reasons -- hearing how they think about and put together the show each day, watching Colbert play off the moderator, Stone Phillips (his original on-air delivery inspiration, and first guest on the show), and most of all seeing genuine nice guy Stephen Colbert out of character -- but it was especially interesting to hear Colbert and the writers refer consistently to the Colbert we see on the show as "The Character," and how much that well-developed character and point of view informs their writing of the show each day.
For a while now, I've also been holding up The Colbert Report as one of the few shows on television that's really involving itself in a regular conversation with its viewers and challenging them to get involved -- the way that some of the best online shows, like Ze Frank's, do. This was a centerpiece of the evening's conversation, which they kicked off by playing a compilation reel of the Green Screen Challenge that turned out so brilliantly. As it turned out, the whole interaction evolved fairly naturally: they had shot the green screen segment as a joke when they were profiling a congressperson from Marin County, where Lucasfilm is located. The day after it aired, one of their writers suggested in the morning meeting that they actually post the greenscreen segment online to see if Lucasfilm might do something with it, and another writer casually checked out YouTube to see if any of their viewers had. When they saw that two viewers had already posted mashups of the segment with CGI graphics, they decided to roll with it, and before long, things were pretty out of control.
Interestingly, Dr. Stephen mentioned that at this point, the audience has become another character on the show -- the Colbert Nation -- with a voice that they write for as well. That's a pretty stunning concept when you think about it (not unlike The League of Awesomeness), and as the writers were discussing it up on stage, it was clear they had no idea where things were going. Drysdale, who worked previously with Colbert and Silverman for Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, said that Stewart always says that the Colbert Report is in "open field running" right now, and he's encouraging them daily to take it as far as they can possibly go.
You can argue that this sort of thing is nothing new -- talk shows in particular on the radio and daytime and late night TV have been bringing the audience into the show since the beginning of broadcasting -- but the internet, and the ability for the audience to more easily create and send in artwork, video, and music, is causing an acceleration that's pretty incredible. Right now, it's most often a gimmick, but the networks are learning. The Late Show recently launched the absurd HornyManatee.com, which according to Conan on last night's show received over three million hits last week, and he's now regularly featuring fan art that people are posting to the site in the show. For all that Conan's pushed the envelope playing against the late night format, his first steps at playing with the audience online look a bit simplistic compared to the mastery Colbert's starting to develop, but you have to imagine that in a pretty short time, it's going to all be very weird, and very fun. Today also marked the launch of Amanda Congdon's new show on ABC, and for anyone hoping she'd push the envelope more, I'd just say be patient. In just one episode, she's already dissed her own employer's Javascript-based video player and closed with the bizarro video stylings of William Hung Cooking Show (whom she also featured on Amanda Across America and Rocketboom). She's asked the audience straight out to send in videos and hometown pics, and assuming she integrates them next week, this will be a first for any show featuring a shiny abcnews logo. Out of the Rocketboom playbook? Sure, but Amanda co-wrote that playbook, and thanks to them, Ze, and more and more good shows, that playbook's all of ours now, too.
update: The New York Times devotes over 800 words to the Horny Manatee story (continuing to further the tradition and legacy of journalism).
Originally from shey.net reblog reBlogged on Dec 13, 2006, 9:56PM
Wow, this is turning into Wii T-Shirt central. Anyway a T-Shirt company called MrCloud has now created a way to print your custom Wii character, called a Mii on a T-Shirt. It costs
$19.99Oops, they mean 19.99 quid, or 30+ dollars… and takes a few days but what an amazing idea.
This is so awesome and makes me want a Wii so frikin badly, damn nintendo.
You can send us your Mii in one of the following ways:
1): Email us your Wii friend code, we will send you ours and you can then Wii-mail your Mii to us.
2): Take a digital photograph of your Mii on your TV and email the picture to us.As these shirts are personalised you should expect a short delay before we can send them out.
Also Mr Cloud has some other really cool shirts, including a blast from the past Hong Kong Phooey
Hat Tip To The Pixelantes Anonymous via Kotaku
clothing, fashion, gaming, geek, mii, nerd, nintendo, tshirt, wii
Originally from Tcritic - The Daily T-Shirt Blog by
reBlogged by Matthew Haughey on Dec 15, 2006, 8:14PMOriginally from mathowie reBlog feed by reBlogged on Dec 15, 2006, 7:21PM
As the sun began to rise this morning, Cycle looked over to me and said -
"Damn, it's like a temporary MOMA in here. It's what MOMA should be, but unfortunately never will be. One of these days guys like Doze Green and others in this room will be in places like the MOMA. But until then, they're in here. I've never seen, or experienced, anything like this in my life "
Later Doze Green added...
"Nothing like this has happened in New York since PS1 opened back in the day. The energy of Haring and Basquait, you can feel it in these walls. This is truly something special that probably won't happen again in a long, long time."
Over the next couple of days we hope to tell the stories behind most of the pieces done inside 11 Spring. But until then, here's some of the first images just to tide you over for a few hours....
A Collaboration By Judith Supine (New York( and Rekal (venice, Italy)
Bo and Microbo (Milan)
Left: WK (New York/Paris) and Shepard Fairey (Los Angeles)
Left: Skewville (New York) Right: Elboe-Toe (Brooklyn)Originally from Wooster Collective reBlogged on Dec 15, 2006, 5:35AM
I had to move fast to catch the splash screen before it went away. Of course, you can get the same screen with the Photoshop > About Photoshop menu. But, in any case, here it is:
So, my reaction after a few minutes: It's speedy to launch and OMG did the bottom of my laptop just get hot as hell. Time to fire up the fans using smcFanControl.
Originally from James Duncan Davidson by reBlogged on Dec 15, 2006, 2:22AM
This old (new to me) video is out of control: Bike Messenger Race, New York City
What the hell is going on there? Seven minutes of P.O.V. stoplight-running and squeeezing between cabs and busses in the busy streets of Manhattan, that's what. Although I lack the cojones to do something like this myself (and suspect that the excitement is being pumped up a bit with a fisheye lens anyway), what a pleasure to watch. It's like the Star Wars trench run but more visceral, because you feel like one of these riders is going to eat it or get doored I.R.L. at any moment. They weave between pedestrians, shimmy out of the way of cross-traffic, and hold on to vehicles for an extra power-up.
The traffic moves are clearly deadly, but having just visited New York I can say that they're better drivers over there for being as aggressive as they are. Here in San Francisco, I get pissed off at drivers or pedestrians for being wishy-washy: go, no-go, hold on, on the phone, on the pot, etc. In New York everyone just goes, so you pretty much always know what to expect and how to behave. Then again, with asshole bikers like the guys in this video, you end up with something approaching this classic video of traffic in India.
Of course this is all academic for me at the moment, because I have a raging pinched nerve in my leg and it's making me an utter basket case. Can hardly sit or walk, and especially can't ride my bike.
Originally from tecznotes reBlogged
Originally from Abstract Dynamics by reBlogged on Dec 15, 2006, 11:25AM
Quick Post
On Monday they'll announce a new line of hard-to-find DVDs that lack all the supplemental material a Criterion disc contains. The DVDs will retail for around $15 and their first series will be early Ingmar Bergman films.
http://www.criterionco.com/blog/2006_12_01_archive.html#116614051941207207
Originally from Capn Design reBlogged on Dec 15, 2006, 10:37AM
Consider this post fueled by whatever you will - I find it very important and worthwhile. I'm going to set aside all of the technical problems everyone has already mentioned with the video distribution and the ABC platform - the fact that there are no RSS feeds, the video scrolls have been turned off, one is forced to view long, irrelevant pre-roll ads that outlast many people's curiosity and especially the closed platform with no mobile or local potential.
In other-words, the only difference between this video platform and one from say, 1997, is that for this one, the video does play.
I'm going to suggest that the greatest problem with this project however has to do with the severely expensive resources that are being used for a product that can be much more valuable for a mere fraction of the effort and costs.
My question is, how much money did it take to do this?
Also, if all of the effort only goes into a once-a-week show, how effective and interested are the people behind the show to take so much time and money to do so little?
For instance, we know they are probably paying Amanda Congdon a professional salary. They are also paying two senior level producers for this. Then there is at least one editor, a camera person (unless one of the producers is a camera person), lighting tech, audio guy, all with premium 'ABC' salaries. I am just speculating, perhaps I have missed some.
In addition to that, the entity ABC needs to make revenue (beside the people), yet they also have at least one rep that works with Congdon besides the producers and other production staff. Surely they have someone who works on the website if not a section of a team. Amanda's agent needs a professional share. Amanda's manager needs some. They obviously have a very aggressive PR team too (which they will definitely need to drive people to the show). Lets not forget the advertisers! They are the ones supporting this and because so many people need to get paid such high salaries, the advertisers need to get paid most of the real-estate of the website. In turn, ABC must pay to advertise to drive people to these advertisements. In many ways, this scenario is typical of one where the advertisers are way more important than the show itself. The show is just a tool for ad sales, after all.
The point I want to make is this: There are probably WAY too many people needed to pull off this one 5 minute production exclusively for a small low-bitrate flash file on one website.
This kind of spending can have it's place. A company like ABC could perhaps use their expensive resources to produce content that needs expensive resources. Was there special access gained? Was there need for expensive equipment? Travel expenses? 3 producers?
No, there was no sign of any need for any of the above that I could see.
While people often assume I am anti-established media, I have always believed and said the best way to get through these times is to work together closely and thats what I have always done.
Meeting Joanne and bringing her experienced talents and resources into Rocketboom has been the best thing that ever happened to Rocketboom since it began.
In ABC's case though, they are not working with any new conventions or gaining any "new media property" or collaboration and simultaneously, they are putting themselves at odds with everyone participating (see first paragraph above) especially by spending even more money on leeching:
This could also warrant more spending via a legal buffer in the budget due to the false advertising claims about the show being "daily" <-I tease of course. . . but paying to intercept people searching for Rocketboom?. . . perhaps the greatest expense of all could be the loss of brand value and respect from playing the fake taxi driver who preys on visitors that don't speak the language.I'm feeling a bit disillusioned.
Originally from Dembot by reBlogged on Dec 15, 2006, 10:32AM
Recent map- and GPS-related questions on Ask MetaFilter (they even come with answers): Why haven't GPS prices dropped as much as other electronics? The consensus seems to be that the GPS electronics cost next to nothing; the price point is...Originally from The Map Room by reBlogged on Dec 15, 2006, 8:18AM
News of 11 Spring St. art bonaza has been hitting the mainstream press this week, but for friends of the [Wooster Collective] this is news in the making for many months. Today, the hard work of Sara and Marc Schiller, Bill Elias, Caroline Cummings and some 45 plus artists will come to fruition and artlovers in New York and beyond will get an early Christmas present.
For over 100 years, 11 Spring Street (known to many as the “Candle Building†in Soho) has been an enigmatic and captivating presence in Lower Manhattan. Â
Since the early 80’s when Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat were painting on the streets of New York, 11 Spring Street has been an iconic outdoor gallery for work done on the streets illegally by a group of the most legendary graffiti and street artists from all over the world.The building is soon to be renovated and turned into condos, but its new owner, Miss Cummings, wanted to pay tribute to the rich history of the building and literally opened the building up as a blank canvas to the global art community.
Curated by the Wooster Collective, the Candle Building will showcase large scale work created specifically for this three-day landmark event by artists as Shepard Fairey, The Barnstormers, WK, Jace, Swoon, David Ellis, FAILE, Cycle, Lady Pink, London Police, Prune, JR, Speto, D*Face, Blek Le Rat, John Fekner, Bo and Microbo, Above, BAST, Momo, Howard Goldkrand, Borf, Gaetane Michaux, Skewville, Michael DeFeo, Will Barras, Kelly Burns, Abe Lincoln, Jr, Thundercut, Judith Supine, Rekal, Maya Hayuk, Anthony Lister, Stikman, You Are Beautiful, Gore-B, Elboe-Toe, MCA, Jasmine Zimmerman, Plasma Slugs, Diego, REPO, The Graffiti Research Lab, Txtual Healing, Mark Jenkins, Dan Witz, Iminendisaster, Rene Gagnon, and many other surprise guests.Having been lucky enough to have been in the building a number of times over the last few months, the words "must-see" spring to mind. Forget the Christmas shopping. Forget the festive preparations. If you live in New York, there is nowhere else you'll want to be this weekend than 11 Spring St. (11am-5pm).
Respect to each and every individual that gave of their time, talent and spirit to give back to the community.
Originally from l-e-mental by reBlogged
beats the crap out of the official patent search [via]Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Dec 13, 2006, 9:24PM
As someone who loves the NBA, I hate that Bennett Salvatore played such a prominent role game five pictured above. I can't shake the feeling that it hurt the league's credibility just a little--not to mention outraging plenty of people (who would, it appears, be wise to appoint Avery Johnson as their avenger-in-chief).This Ronald Martinez photo, one of my favorites of last season, is part of Getty Images Year in Focus, and is reprinted with permission.
Originally from True Hoop by reBlogged on Dec 13, 2006, 11:03AM
Can an upstart fry pan that costs a quarter of the price of All-Clad come from the kitchen-supply shop and reach the top? Over at Serious Eats, I pit two frying pans against each other to determine whether expensive pans are necessarily better. I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments, so please feel free to share at the end of my article.
Originally from Megnut by reBlogged on Dec 15, 2006, 10:51AM
The chef and staff of Montreal's Au Pied de Cochon wrote their new cookbook over two years on Mondays, when the restaurant is closed. "That is also the day when they do their pickling and preserving, so they held editorial meetings while making enough cornichons and corn relish to last through the winter." They self-published and sold out their first press run of 6,000 copies in three weeks. It sounds like a crazy, entertaining cookbook. I'd really like to eat there on my next trip to Montreal, whenever that is.
Originally from Megnut by reBlogged on Dec 15, 2006, 8:15AM
david posted a photo:
Don't know how I feel about this one...
Originally from david's Photos by reBlogged
"The New York-based former FT journalist has made millions from launching and selling websites. He tells James Silver about readers' insatiable need for gossip and how George Clooney did his advertising for him "Originally from unmediated by reBlogged on Dec 12, 2006, 1:20PM
Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is all about making the web a better place by making it easier to create web apps like Gmail or Google Maps. So today, we're excited to tell you that we're releasing all the source code for GWT under an open source license. We've been working hard to build great tools for AJAX development, and now we're happy to begin working with the open source community towards the same goal. The folks who are passionate about AJAX can contribute to the project and make this toolkit even better.
If you're curious about how to add some AJAX goodness to your site, see if the Google Web Toolkit is right for you.Originally from Official Google Blog by reBlogged on Dec 12, 2006, 11:36AM
Friend of Hello, Nintendo Jason Kottke is having a Celebrity Mii contest. If you have a great mii, head on over to his site and enter!
Originally from hello, nintendo by reBlogged on Dec 7, 2006, 3:27PM
The latest Mac ad tells you to Buy a PC instead. (alternate link: YouTube)
Originally from shey.net reblog reBlogged on Dec 7, 2006, 8:05AM
Move over Ze Frank, legendary experimental filmmaker Jonas Mekas is gearing up to start an ambitious video podcast project in 2007. Mekas plans to make a 3-7 minute video each day of year that will be available as a free podcast download. The content will most likely be in the personal diary style the artist has developed over his long career. -- A style which often includes hand-held cameras, voice overs, and music; is often set in New York City; and is always brilliantly edited and ineffably poetic. As with his previous work, which is smattered with guest appearances by the artists' famous friends (John Lennon, Allen Ginsberg) the new podcast is rumored to have guest spots by the likes of Martin Scorsese and Jim Jarmusch! Follow the link below to get a glimpse of Mekas' past films and subscribe to his newsletter for announcements on the upcoming podcast. - Rick Silva
Originally from Rhizome News reBlogged on Dec 8, 2006, 3:00AM
When you are at the coffee shop, or at a conference, and you are not sure that you want to send all your data over the wi-fi network in plaintext, you want a secure tunnel to browse. This happened to me recently and I stumbled across a neat feature of openssh (the ssh client on everyone’s computer). The wonders of ssh never cease to amaze me!
You can use the “-D” flag of openssh to create a SOCKS proxy.
The command first:
$ssh -D 9999 username@ip-address-of-ssh-serverThis of course connects you to the server specified by “ip-address-of-ssh-server”. Needless to say, you (username) must have an ssh account on the server. In addition, this will create a SOCKS proxy on port “9999″ of your computer. This is a tunnel to the server. Now all you have to do is set the preference in Firefox to use a SOCKS proxy. The proxy is, of course, “localhost”, with the port 9999.
Now when you browse, all the connections you make to websites will seem to originate from the server to which you SSH-ed. In addition, all outgoing and incoming data for the browsing session will be encrypted since it passes through the SSH connection.
Other applications (like email clients) may also support SOCKS proxies. If any of them, you can look into using proxychains(there’s an Ubuntu package).
You can misuse this technology to circumvent paranoid browsing firewalls, even to pretend you are wherever your ssh server is located - so you can work around country-based blocks etc. I use it for the very unromantic reason that I don’t want some aspiring cracker to sneak up on me when I am in public.
Updates:
- Kees Cook tells us how to tunnel DNS lookups, so snoopy folks can’t even figure out what your are browsing, and the evil ones can’t DNS-phish you
- Don McArthur points out his excellent article that addresses the same issue
- verevi says the FoxyProxy extension will make things easier for you on the Firefox side of things
Thanks a lot for the tips and pointers, folks.
Originally from Ubuntu Blog by reBlogged on Dec 7, 2006, 11:59PM
The Coup and Mr. Lif's tour was suddenly ended last Saturday morning when their tour bus plunged 30 feet over a cliff and exploded.
They lost everything in the crash and some sustained serious injuries.
If you were planning to see them on the road or if the artists have ever given you enjoyment, please consider making a Paypal donation to support the hospital costs and recovery of the band members. A Paypal button is here, below "About The Coup".
Here is Boots' own account of what happened:The Crash
So, we got on the bus after doing a show at The House of Blues San Diego as part of The Coup/Mr. Lif tour. As the bus took off, I thought that I would go lay in my bunk, listen to my Ipod, and write. But then Zhara, Mr. Lif's friend and the tour's merchandise seller, announced that she had "Anchorman" on DVD. Oh Shit. Will Ferrell or writing? Hot 16s would have to wait tonight...Good Night San Diego! So I stayed up in the front lounge of the bus and, even though I've seen this movie twice, commenced to laugh my ass off. Almost literally, because of what happened next.
Shortly after the acapella singing of "Afternoon Delight" by Ferrell et al., a big bump, then another, then plummeting down as we tipped over to the left. I was sitting in the diner-like booth that many of these buses have in the front. I held on to the table with one hand and tried to guard my head with the other, all the while thinking that I was probably about to die. I don't remember seeing everyone flying and flipping around me as it was happening, but Carter's (the road manager) and Wiz's face were covered in blood, and everybody seemed to be laying around hurt. The bus was on it's side, with the entrance door up.
I called for people to say there names so we could get a head count of who was conscious or not. Silk E, Q (drums), Riccol (bass), and Metro (Lif's hype man) were trapped in the back lounge because the doors connecting the front and back lounges to the bunks were electrically powered and didn't move with no power on. They ended up ripping and squeezing their way out of a tiny little window and jumped down off the bus as the rest of us got out the front. I was the third person to jump off the front of the bus, as I hung down to make the jump shorter, I saw that the front of the bus was on fire.
I yelled to everyone, saying to get off the bus immediately because the bus was on fire and it could blow up. We all did. No one was killed. The bus was totally engulfed in flames. For a while no one stopped to help, supposedly because they thought we were "illegal aliens" crossing the border. Eventually some great folks stopped and helped.
Silk E has two broken ribs and a punctured lung. Wiz has a broken nose, two deep lacerations to the head, and a shattered knee. Zhara has injuries to her hand and had to undergo surgery. Carter had to get stitches to his head and lip. The driver, Glenn, has a broken jaw. All the first three will be in need of follow-up treatments. We all have aching backs, legs, heads etc. Many of us are on pain killers.
We lost everything in that crash and fire.
We were packed to live and do shows on that bus for a month. Most of us had every stitch of clothing we owned on there. We lost clothes, computers, recording equipment, cameras, IDs, phones, keys to cars and homes. We lost cash.We lost all our damn instruments and equipment to perform with. We were and are happy to walk away with our lives. But now we're home.
Most of the band touring with The Coup has kids, rent that won't quit, bills, and holiday expenses coming. We need money, because like I said the band doesn't have the tools that they make a living with. Not only did we lose cash and material things on the bus, but we also were depending on this tour for money to make it through. It may take a year for us to see any money from the insurance company.
I have set up a Paypal account so people can make donations for The Coup. The money will be split between Me (Boots Riley), Silk E, Q, Steve Wyreman (guitar), and Riccol. Mr. Lif is setting one up on his site and when I have that info, we'll let you know.
There should be a button right below this that allows you to donate even without a paypal account.
If you have an account, ours is thecoupbuscrash@gmail.com.
Thank you in advance to anyone who does this, this is a really crazy situation. I never thought I would would be doing something like this. I also never thought that we would almost die like like that.
We're grateful for anything you can do.
Thank you,
Boots Riley
P.S. Thank you for the messages of love and warmth we've been receiving. It makes a difference.
There's a Pay Pal button to make a donation at The Coup's MySpace page (under: 'About The Coup'). Every cent will go towards the recovery of the band.Originally from zentronix: dubwise & hiphopcentric by reBlogged on Dec 9, 2006, 8:36AM
Nintendo's new gaming system has thrilled many players with its motion-sensing capabilities, some to the point of harm. A memo received by ERIC FEEZELL explains how not to injure your family.
Recently, we at Nintendo have become aware of several issues stemming from misuse of the Wii’s remote control, or “Wiimote.” Despite already having posted safety information on our website, and having included a warning screen upon game upload, problems persist. We at Nintendo would like to address these issues, and again remind Wii users of the device’s proper functionality. What separates the Wiimote, technology-wise, from other gaming controllers is that it functions according to sensing capabilities. In order to maximize functionality of the Wiimote, Nintendo recommends that users maintain a distance of no more than 15 feet from the Wii sensor bar. Though the device will work as far as 30 feet away, it is not intended for use outside the home, or in public places. For instance, using the Wiimote to control your character while playing Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam in the home is acceptable. Using the Wiimote to... Click here to continue reading this article.
Visit The Morning News.Originally from The Morning News reBlogged on Dec 12, 2006, 9:24AM
I met Leslie Harpold six years ago when a large cardboard box showed up unexpectedly at my door. Inside was a large 32 gallon stainless steel trash can that I'd added to my Amazon wish list a few weeks before on a whim.
The gift note inside said (...and I'm paraphrasing) "I wanted to meet the sort of freak who'd put a 32 gallon stainless steel trash can on his wish list. —Leslie Harpold"
Today I got a phone call that Leslie had passed away.
In between those two events we spent a couple of great Thanksgivings together; we got to live in the same city for a few years; we got angry at each other a couple of times, as friends are prone to do; we gave each other design advice, and life advice; drank and ate together; went whale watching together; mourned the passing of Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash together; and she was a great friend to my son Henry.
Her annual Advent Calendar, the last one which she leaves unfinished, was a testament to her optimism for a better world, and a reminder that such a world was and IS within our reach.
As a designer I admired and respected her; as a friend I loved her and as a force of nature I feared her.
During her short amount of time with us she touched an incredible amount of lives and inspired others to live their lives as honestly and decently as she did. We're all better for having know her, and I'd like to thank her family for having shared her with us.
Originally from Mule Design : Off the Hoof by reBlogged on Dec 12, 2006, 2:11AM
If you were interested in How Matt Haughey beat Google with Ask MetaFilter, you might enjoy some more information about the site.
- The Chicago Tribune's Steve Johnson offered an astute look at Google Answers, as well as a nice plug for Ask MetaFilter, last week. The site requires an exasperating login, but the good news is you can also find the piece without a registration Hypertext blog. (Yay, it's a TypePad blog!)
A more enticing Ask is Ask MetaFilter (ask.metafilter.com), which also poses questions to a user community. The longstanding site is highly entertaining reading because it gets metaphysical, although the drawback is that it'll cost you $5 to join the MetaFilter community.
While Yahoo Answers is more about facts, Ask MetaFilter, in its best moments, is about feelings, opinions, theories of life. A recent, not atypical question: "Did you marry someone despite misgivings and have it actually work?"
- One trope that's rapidly gaining currency among
lazyresourceful young professional bloggers is to collect Ask MetaFilter answers about a topic of interest. MediaBistro collects writing advice; LifeHacker collects, well, life hacks.
- Last week, NPR's Five for Friday gave some love to the site, too.
The best answers on Metafilter are those that provide an Aha! moment -- like the obscure book you remember from childhood, only you can't recall the title. Someone will know. And when you want to find the best (used book store/pancake joint/park) anywhere in the world, chances are that one of Metafilter's thousands of members will tell you exactly where to go. So if "Five for Friday" didn’t give you the right mix of ideas for weekend fun, go ahead, ask Metafilter. We won’t be insulted. And we may even give you the answer.
- If you want to see what other prominent Q&A sites look like, look no further than Amazon's Askville (Yay, another TypePad blog!) and Yahoo! Answers. There are some great things about both sites, but neither really holds my attention, at least so far.
- And then the absolutely funniest Ask MetaFilter-related link: MetaFilter spinoff site MetaChat's hysterical conversation about the worst, most blatantly trolling Ask MeFi questions possible. They're offensive, insulting, intellectually dishonest, and wonderful. Even better, after being discussed on MetaFilter, an enterprising site member actually submitted some of the ridiculous questions to Yahoo Answers. Hilarity ensues!
How long can a normal, healthy 8 week old kitten survive inside an adult python? URGENT?
I am fairly certain that the python did not chew much. I also do not want to damage the python much.... what is the best strategy for rescuing the kitten?
The answers are a lot better than the questions.
Originally from Anil Dash by reBlogged
After an initial attempt to carve a carpentar's pencil, Seattle artists Diem Chau abandoned lead and found her calling in Craolua crayons! Using a Japanese woodblock knife, she sculpts the tiny wax cylinders into colorful totems. Her figures - which take about four hours to craft - are exquisitely detailed, with playful elements such as minuscule collars, satchels, and barrettes. Says Chau, "I love the idea that is this is what I have, so this is what I'll make. It's art and craft meets survivalist."
Never will a crayon be a mere crayon any longer.
Originally from l-e-mental by reBlogged
Jason's holding a celebrity Mii contest! Deadline is Monday, December 11. Let's get celebritied up!
Originally from game girl advance by reBlogged on Dec 8, 2006, 2:14PM
a set of data visualizations that represent the "network-analytical quality" of a soccer game, by illustrating the path of the ball between positions on the field. one network diagrams compares the pass-intensive first 25 minutes of England-Portugal versus the slow, central-based rest of the match.[link: fas.at|via tecfa.unige.ch]
Originally from information aesthetics reBlogged on Dec 6, 2006, 6:56PM
The latest and greatest article in the Apple Leopard Developer Overview series is up. This time, it's about some of the Application Technologies in Leopard, including Time Machine, iChat Theater integration, and Core Animation. Apparently, after reading this article earlier...Originally from James Duncan Davidson by reBlogged on Dec 8, 2006, 3:15AM
I'm a fan of David Lynch movies. So when his new one comes out, and it's three hours long and was shot on DV and allegedly looks like crap, and he paid to distribute it himself because no one else would touch it, well, I'm pretty much going to go see it anyway.
Inland Empire may not be the greatest thing he's ever done (I'm aware that not everyone feels this way, but I adored Mulholland Drive) but like all good Lynch movies, it stands up proud, creepy, confusing, violent, frightening, and perverse. It also has what might be my favorite quality of David Lynch movies--they feel deeply personal (all those repetitive hang-ups seem like they reflect Lynch's own personal obsessions and weird fetishy neuroses) and coldly detached at the same time. And like Mulholland Drive, it demonstrates the psychological disintegration of a character by their moving from spacious, tasteful homes to seedy dumps.
Not light stuff, to be sure. But let me tell you: there is really a lot of hilarious freakiness in this movie, and the audience laughed a lot, when they weren't squirming. I don't want to give too much away about the characters or plot, such as it is, but the movie focuses on moviemaking and actors, and the bad things that can happen to them. Just like Mulholland Drive examined what can happen to young women that seek their Hollywood dreams (i.e. rise to fame, glamour and notoriety, then the slide into obscurity, betrayal, despair, and having to live in a tackily decorated bungalow), so Inland Empire looks at what can befall a movie star: fame and admiration, but also ill-advised affairs with slimeball co-stars, being perceived by the world as a cheap tramp, confusing your own identity with your character's, appearing in wretched sitcoms, being threatened by creepy men who seem to be everywhere, and totally self-destructing. Or acting as some kind of redemptive figure to lonely Polish girls. Look, I don't know, you'll have to go see it for yourself.
Anyway, there is a lot of fascinating stuff in here. It's weird and dark and impressionistic. The movie looks grainy and there are whole recurring subplots that I don't understand at all. Laura Dern is fantastic though, and gets to do way more interesting stuff than she did in either Blue Velvet or Wild at Heart, or any more normal movie she's ever been in. Lynch also breaks his usual all-white casting protocol (is Richard Pryor in Lost Highway the only real exception to this?) and gives a speech that I think appears in the dictionary under the entry for "Lynchian" to a young homeless Asian woman, who speaks in English, with subtitles, also in English.
But one of the coolest parts of the opening night screening was that Justin Theroux, one of the movie's stars, came out for a little talk after the show! Has has some great things to say about working with David Lynch, and I also personally think that Mr. Theroux is a smoking hot knockout, so it was extra exciting for me. Some interesting things that Justin Theroux had to say:
- David Lynch really liked the process of having to sort of make up new stuff for Mulholland Drive that he didn't have any idea about when he started making it (it was originally going to be a TV series,) so he decided to make all of Inland Empire that way--he wrote a scene, gave it to the actors, then they shot it with no knowledge of what was going to come right before or after it in the final movie. Theroux thought this was fun and kept everybody "in the moment."
- David Lynch is the most "unplugged" person in Hollywood that Justin Theroux has ever seen--like, he has no idea who Jim Carrey or Lindsay Lohan are.
- Harry Dean Stanton was in WWII, got "blown off a battleship", and drinks two pint cartons of milk at lunch every day.
- Justin Theroux didn't like making Miami Vice.
Also, the music in the movie is fantastic. Mostly classical stuff and scary strings performed by the Polish Symphony Orchestra, and also a rousing lip-synching of the wonderful "Sinnerman" by Nina Simone at the end. Which is an amazing song, but I'm not sure what it has to do with this movie. The last five minutes is like a meta David Lynch theme party, though, so I'm happy to just let him do whatever inexplicable thing he wants to do.
Inland Empire is only playing at the IFC Center in New York for now. It opens in other places next week. Manohla Dargis' review in the Times is really great.
written by Amy
Originally from Amy's Robot reBlogged on Dec 6, 2006, 10:59PM
RFPs recently have been a hot topic on our internal mailing list. These conversations were sparked by discussions around the web as well as an influx of opinions about our sales process from newly hired designers and our new manager of client relations. A few key points have emerged from this dialog that are telling in terms of what it’s like to hire and work with Adaptive Path. So I thought I’d jump into the conversation with a post about how we at AP approach RFPs and the sales (if you can call it that) process. Specifically, this post is about how most companies RFP’s processes just don’t work for us and why.
The traditional, one-way RFP process simply doesn’t communicate enough about the project and the company. There needs to be an actual conversation between the client and the potential consultant. I understand why clients think the fair and equal approach is to send out a RFP and insist that all questions are sent via email and responded to en masse. But the truth is clients put themselves at a disadvantage when they do this. A sales process is an opportunity to engage in meaningful and often difficult discussions. We face linguistic, philosophical and tactical hurdles (simply trying to understand what “user experience” means to each company can take a full hour of conversation). But learning about how an organization communicates is an essential aspect of the process, one that should not be given short shift.
Although our sales process doesn’t feel as lightweight as it should be, we rely on it to not only provide information about ourselves but obtain important information about the client as well. Clients need to be prepared for us to ask as many questions about them as they are asking us. Even though we seem to be having an informal conversation, the truth is we’re interviewing and we expect to be interviewed. You have to get at both the tangibles (money, time and process) and intangibles (philosophy, personalities and motivations) to get all the information we both need to make a decision to move forward together. In some ways we’re *selling* our services, but we’re also trying to make sure we’re a good fit.
To gain an understanding of our client’s processes and goals, we try to talk to as many of the key players as possible. (The people who are actually going to do the work and who understand the impact that the work will have on the business.) Sometimes that knowledge resides with one or two top individuals within the company, but often the CEO stresses different goals then, say, a business unit manager and part of our job is piecing all of that together. We balance and weigh each player’s motivations before we can determine how best to succeed within the organization. So when we ask — “Why are you choosing to do this project now? Who else cares about it and what aspect do they care about? If we move forward together, what challenges do you see us facing? How important is it to the organization to solve this problem? And is this actually the problem that needs solving?” — it’s with this goal in mind.
I tell clients working in companies with strict procurement processes: “Don’t let procurement run the show.” We all know there are guidelines that need to be followed, but the relationship between our joint team is going to last the entire length of the project (and hopefully, beyond)– not just the procurement phase. So clients: Take the time to talk to your potential consultants, use the conversation to explore their problem-solving methods, be upfront about any difficulties your own team has communicating internally and openly discuss difficulties or successes you’ve had with past engagements. And tell us how things *really* get done in your organization.
Frankly, at the end of the day, we don’t care what’s in or out of a RFP document. As long as a company is willing to engage in an open conversation with us about their project, company and expectations, a RFP can be three sentences: “We’re doing cool stuff. We need help. Call us.”
Originally from Adaptive Path by reBlogged on Dec 8, 2006, 1:38PM
When the NBA introduced a new synthetic ball from Spalding for the 2006 season, it would appear it failed to ask one very important question: did any of the league’s players actually like it?
Two months into the season, the NY Times reports that complaints and injuries relating to the ball have reached a tipping point. Spalding and the NBA’s failure to do any upfront testing of the product design has left commissioner David Stern with some egg on his face, and the Players’ Union still isn’t backing down from their grievance with the new ball. Apparently, the new synthetic surface, designed to increase players’ grip and control, has a tendency to lacerate fingers and handle inconsistently.
One N.B.A. assistant coach, who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to comment, tore a ligament in a finger when, in retrieving a ball that had bounced onto the sideline, his finger stuck at an odd angle on the surface of the ball.
The real shame? All of this could have been sorted out before the season; Spalding admits that the only current players who actually used the ball prior to its introduction were last year’s All-Stars. With the ball being sent back to Spalding for further analysis, and the return of the original leather ball being considered, all of this looks like a costly and embarrassing episode for both the NBA and Spalding. Other companies seeking to introduce new products should look at their design process and ask if they’re doing enough to avoid an unforced error like this.
Talking to actual users of a product isn’t a luxury, it’s a business necessity. Jerry Stackhouse noted that changes to the game are inevitable and players will adapt as necessary, but “when it comes to the actual game itself and when it comes to in between the lines, we should definitely have some input.†That’s it precisely. Designing for use requires you to talk to users - the design of the product can only benefit.
Originally from Adaptive Path by reBlogged on Dec 6, 2006, 5:12PM
I picked up The Beatles Love over the weekend, and on each listen it literally surprises me. Leaving aside for a moment whether this is a "good" or "bad" thing, the record is an object lesson in Jeff Hawkins' memory-prediction framework as outlined in On Intelligence. Your brain, wired for years to expect one thing, gets something else entirely, triggering the "whoa" response.
It's impossible to listen to the record as "background music" while trying to perform other tasks, because your brain keeps interrupting you with "you need to pay attention to this thing over here." While remixes aren't anything new, the deep grooves the original tracks have worn inside any Beatles fan's head makes listening to Love a very different experience.
Originally from this is sippey.typepad.com by reBlogged
Hey, check out Anil Dash’s cool tabular calendar, summarizing the history of his blog. I liked it so much that I made one, too. Hmm, I can think of lots of different ways to organize it, will have to try some alternatives. Thanks, Anil!
Originally from ongoing reBlogged
After sleeping a few minutes shy of 20 hours to recover from Harry Knowles 24 hour long film festival, (yes, I sat through all 24 hours of it, with the aid of some energy drink that tasted like lighter fluid and regurgitated red-hots) I am shakily trying to parse my memories and record some impressions. It would be unfair to really review many of the movies here since they were given only one viewing in an altered state, and a couple of the films were actually unfinished, but I'll take a small jab at my favorites and least favorites. It was a strange assemblage of movies, most new, a couple old-
- Black Snake Moan
Samuel L Jackson tries to rehabilitate a half naked Christina Ricci from her nymphomania by chaining her to his radiator and playing the blues. Some interesting moments, but I found it to be weaker and sillier than the directors first film, Hustle and Flow.- Dreamgirls
Musical story of a Surpremes-style band's rise to fame in an alternate 70's. I couldn't get into it but I'm sure it will have a huge audience in middle-aged black women and drag queens. I wish they had pushed it even further into camp- "Trapped in a Closet" style.- Once upon a girl
Unwatchably shitty pornographic cartoon from the 70's made by Hanna Barbera animators who were slumming for coke money or something. Lots of bizarre infantileism and fantasy breast-feeding rendered all the more disturbing by the sweat-shop animation. Think Wacky Races if they just looped the same footage of the characters getting hard-ons through their pants. In my fascist dictatorship everyone involved in making this film would be up against the wall blindfolded waiting for bullets in the name of cultural purification.- Inherit the Wind
Flm adaptation of the play, starring Spencer Tracy and Gene Kelley. Plenty has been written already about this film over the years, and I didn't gain any new readings of it in the context of this festival, but I did enjoy seeing it on the screen. 46 years later we're still on the edge of devolving into a horde of pitchforked villagers worshipping Santa Claus and the sound of their own voices, so this movie is just as relevant now as ever.- Rocky Balboa
Inoffensive as velveeta singles slices. The film was much more competently made than I ever would have imagined, but Rocky movies just aren't my thing. The audience loved it.- Knocked up
Nicely penned and acted Judd Apatow comedy about an unplanned pregnancy.- Black Book (Zwartboek)
Probably my favorite of the new films in the festival. Black Book is the story of a Netherlands resistance agent who seduces a Gestapo officer but winds up falling in love with him herself.
Lars Nilsen, Curator of the Alamo Drafthouse's Weird Wednesday Midnight movies summed the film up better than I could in my current groggy state:Next up was Paul Verhoeven's new film THE BLACK BOOK. I kind of thought Verhoeven was a little washed up. Wrong. Holy shit, this is an intense movie. Though at this point in the night everyone was weary and less receptive than maybe they should have been. And I had to strain to pay attention myself but when I woke up this afternoon this was the movie I was still thinking about. The other movies were pretty much digested in the theater but this one was still haunting me. Verhoeven is one of the all-time masters and he's at peak form here. It's a story of a young Jewish cabaret singer (Carice Van Houten) who flees the Nazis during the last few months of WW2 and ends up in a Dutch resistance cell. She goes undercover among the SS and her cover is always in danger of being blown amid a shifting pattern of double-crosses and betrayals. The theme of the movie is "everyone who survives a war is guilty in some way". When Verhoeven goes to work on an audience in the action and suspense scenes it's like being punched in the face and feeling the adrenaline well up inside. I felt alternating respect (a whole lot of it), and pity for Carice Van Houten, who is in practically every scene. She gives the best performance I've seen in a long time, and it's a ridiculously demanding part that calls for her to do everything from singing a naughty German dancehall song with the SS Monster who slaughtered her entire family to dying her pubic hair blonde for the resistance to being covered in buckets of shit by the liberated Dutch who believe she is a collaborator. It's a performance of heroic depth and breadth. And in addition to being a brilliant actress she's a gorgeous, luminous, magical Star. So yes I was impressed. If she doesn't win every award out there I demand a recount.
(Link: Weird Wednesday's Lars on BNUT 8)- The Informer
John Ford's story of an IRA member who judases his friend for the reward money went over like a lead balloon with the audience, but I enjoyed my first viewing of a classic flick.- Raw Force
I already saw this one at Terror Thursday, but I was happy to see it again. Schlocky and hilarious 70's American kung fu movie about a cruise ship that happens to be carrying the Burbank Karate club sinking off the coast of an island full of zombie black-belt magazine readers.. I mean 'ancient warriors'... and some cannibal monks. If you've seen the trailer you've seen all the good parts, but it's still funny. I would have rather watched last Thursday's jaw droppingly bizarre Devil Fetus again rather than this one though.- Smokin' Aces
This was another crowd favorite that I totally detested and therefore will refrain from writing about here. Guy Ritchie style hyperkinetic action movie that was about a millimeter deep. My neighbor leaned over to me at one point and asked, "does this game have multiplayer mode?"- 300
This adaptation of Frank Miller's historically dubious, nationalistic, bloodbath-comic consists of pretty much one big slow motion battle scene. I think the title is the number of slowed-down spear impalings in the movie. You may not have known this, but the Persian king Xerxes I was evidently an 8 foot tall effeminate bald man of indeterminate, dusky ethnicity who was really into facial piercings. Also, the Persian army filled its ranks with giant troll-monsters and partied with anthropomorphic goats. To be fair, the director (who was on hand for an early morning Q&A) explained the deviation from historical fact by saying the film was like a 'Spartan fever dream'- that it was a mythologized version of the battle that might be retold to children to rouse them to fight themselves, and in fact the movie closes with the narration wrapping up as the end of a pre-battle speech. But this is really side stepping the truth, that the story is really Frank Miller's fever dream. One that exalts a completely militarized culture that practices eugenics, condescends neighboring Athenians as 'philosophers and boy lovers' and demonizes an enemy so alien and 'other' that some of them seem to actually be devolving into half-human half-animal bogeymen (and ninjas!). While I thought Gerard Butler has a very screen worthy presence in the film, no one is given much to say other than he-man posturing and cliche platitudes. The Spartan queen actually challenges us with the line "Freedom isn't Free" at one point, and you would have to be pretty dim not to see what Miller is getting at, especially with Persians as the enemy. I'll be interested to see how much director Snyder has internalized the politics of this movie when he starts filming Watchmen, the landmark Alan Moore comic from the 80's that couldn't be more polar opposite in either its politics or in the sublety of its execution. It's hard to predict, because what I remember of the comic version of 300 didn't go so far as to present the Persians as actual monsters, but I may have to re-read it.
The audience whooped and cried for joy at this movie. Maybe it will convince them to join the army. The only thing I liked about the film was its color palette. Oh, and the fact that the Toxic Avenger has a role as the genetically inferior Spartan who escaped from being thrown off a cliff at birth to betray the king. They should have given him his mop though, instead of a spear.
(Link: Wikipedia, Battle of Thermopylae)
Interspersed between the films were a curation of amazing vintage movie trailers that were actually the real highlight for me. I hope that someone at the Alamo gets hold of Cursed for Terror Thursday. The trailer looks amazing.
Originally from News of the dead by reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 10:42AM
Lovely hand-drawn sushi instructions from Flickr user MontanaRaven.Originally from Megnut by reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 1:51PM
Yikes, I'm late on today's holiday gift recommendation! But this Bamboo Cutting Board is an easy, inexpensive present for your favorite cook or entertainer. It's great as a cutting board but stylish enough to put out as a cheese tray or dessert platter. I own two different sized boards, and I love the clean lines and interesting pattern of the bamboo. It's the hippest $15 present you'll find. $14.99 at Bed Bath & Beyond.
Originally from Megnut by reBlogged on Dec 8, 2006, 4:04PM
Summary: In 2002, Google launched one of their few pay services, Google Answers. The service attracted only 800 responders in the past 4 years, and was shut down a few weeks ago. Three years ago, Matt Haughey created Ask MetaFilter, pays no money to those who answer questions, and has turned the site into a successful part of his business using, in part, Google AdSense to support the site.
Why was Matt successful where Google was not? Let's take a look.
A Motivated Community
First, to define "success" for a questions-and-answers site, we have to identify a few metrics. There's success as an owner, in terms of driving traffic (and, presumably, ad dollars) to the site. There's success for askers, in quickly getting high-quality responses. And then there's success for answerers, who get rewarded for their work or knowledge with acclaim, recognition, or simple self-satisfaction.
What's missing from that list? Money. Money isn't a great reward for great answers -- the answers to Google Answers questions are, at best, inconsistent. On Google Answers, you had the kind of replies that five dollars (or, rarely, twenty dollars) will get you. Either the answerer really needed the five dollars, which usually meant they were too busy with the rest of life to do a lot of research, or (much more common) they were the kind of person who was mostly doing it for self-satisfaction and the money was irrelevant or even insulting.
That being said, the five dollar barrier for membership on all the MetaFilter sites acts as a just-high-enough barrier that it keeps random people on the web from asking drive-by questions that don't add value to the site. Five bucks out of your PayPal account is enough to really think if your question is worth asking.
MetaFilter has a long history of being influential online and in the media world at large. Members think highly of themselves and of their peers on the site, often with good reason. Being respected by that group is something to be desired, even if one of the few consistent traits the community has displayed is that it always tends to lament the "good old days" before the newest members arrived.
There's also an existing community of tens of thousands of MetaFilter members which seeded the Ask MetaFilter site -- a strong and active base of early adopters. This is in contrast to a point Matt himself made while talking about the site:
Google Answers is gone because Google isn't in the people business, they're in the computer programming business.
With the exception of Orkut and YouTube, Google doesn't really do community websites. That's not a criticism -- they get a lot of leverage out of having a smart python script do the work of hundreds of humans. But even Google Groups, which is a home for so many communities on the web, really has no sense of place, and certainly no presence by Google itself in its various social groups.
In short, Google doesn't have a community to leverage.
Just Enough Rules
In the tradition of "good fences make good neighbors", I'd submit that smart cops make for smart communities. The moderation and adjudication of the inevitable debates or arguments that arise on the site are handled ably by Matt, with a lot of assistance from Jessamyn West. As Jessamyn herself described the site in Library Journal:
The other thing that keeps the site vital is a certain amount of moderation, which is where I come in. I am one of two moderators; Matt Haughey, the creator of the web site, is the other. To provide an atmosphere where people can feel comfortable asking questions, we have a short set of guidelines for commenting on a question. After several years of questions and answers, most people know the drill and don't break the code of conduct. If they do, however, we step in and remove off-topic comments and settle disputes.
Just as importantly, Jessamyn is a librarian. I can't overstate how much a site that's about providing information benefits from the presence of a librarian, someome who's an expert at retrieving and disseminating information.
Why It Works
A few days ago, I talked to Jesse James Garrett about why Ask MetaFilter works. Though he's today best known for his work at Adaptive Path and his coining of the term Ajax, Jesse's Elements of User Experience is one of the most compact distillations I've ever seen of why sites succeed.
In Jesse's opinion, there are two significant innovations in Ask MetaFilter:
- There are rules.
- You're trying to benefit other people on the site, not just the asker.
The rules are important because they're simple and consistent. Asking questions that have already been answered is discouraged, and asking simple opinion questions that can't possibly have a "right" answer is usually forbidden. In fact, the rules are simple enough that they can be stated right on the page where you ask a question.
Note: AskMe questions should have a purpose, goal, or problem to be solved. Open-ended chatty questions that don't offer a problem to be solved are detrimental to the long term usefulness of the site. Also, please try to keep the questions from being too specific or too stupid. Don't be an ass, and ask your question if you feel it is important. If in doubt, check the guidelines.
"Don't be an ass" as policy! I love it.
And as Jesse notes, though the site has a "best answer" option for askers to flag the responses that are most valuable (more on that later), there's a dynamic to the community which leaves answerers trying to impress their peers just as much as the person who asked the original question. Some members have specific areas of focus, and respond only to questions where they're subject matter experts -- a perfect behavior to encourage.
The Best Answers
I'd add one final unique trait about the site: I love answering questions. I'm proud of my "best answers" on Ask MetaFilter, because they feel as if they were earned.
I've written before about having provided best answers, and even reveled in them when they've happened. It's a few lines of text on a single website, but clearly the reward is more meaningful to me than five bucks could ever be.
Some Answers
So what can we learn? It's possible to launch a site after Google enters a category, develop the technological underpinnings yourself in your free time, provide fewer features than Google does, make use of Google's own advertising system, and provide contributors with fewer financial rewards than Google does and still make your site a success.
How do you do it? By honoring your community, making reasonable and transparent rules, getting experts to help you, and encouraging positive, thoughtful behavior from your site's members. Kudos to Google for recognizing where they are and aren't succeeding by their own standards. And congratulations to Matt Haughey for making one of the best sites on the web.
Update: If you're interested in some further reading, I've collected some related links about Ask MetaFilter that might be of interest.
Originally from Anil Dash by reBlogged
David Lynch, in an effort last month to promote Laura Dern's performance in his film, Inland Empire, for consideration by the Academy, set up shop on Hollywood Blvd. with a huge sign and a cow.Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 1:21PM
worth it just for the Charlie Brown Christmas alternate endingOriginally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 2:14PM
my favs: work rumors are usually true, social-cue reader, ambient walkman, fighting homophily, and publishing negative resultsOriginally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 12:51PM
Creative Commons Taiwan created a cool license compatibility wizard in traditional Chinese and English based on the CC FAQ entry for I used part of a Creative Commons-licensed work, which Creative Commons license can I relicense my work under?
Originally from Creative Commons by reBlogged on Dec 8, 2006, 11:17PM
Impressive beetle artwork in downtown Rio. *you know how beetles can't get up once upside-down..
(Want more? See NOTCOT.org and NOTCOT.com)Originally from NOTCOT.ORG by
reBlogged by Matthew HaugheyOriginally from mathowie reBlog feed by reBlogged on Dec 9, 2006, 12:36PM
I'm a big fan of the script.aculo.us javascript library. I have been using some of the effects on a dashboard console for one of my clients, it has been quite nice to work with, and has really helped improve the user experience.
I also used script.aculo.us on cssdocs.org for the dynamic css property suggestions (script.aculo.us calls this autocomplete).
So let's get started
Step 1: Include javascript libraries
First you need to include
prototype.js(which you can find in thelibfolder of your scriptaculous download. I recommend creating a folder for your javascript files calledjs. Next you need to includescriptaculous.js- this file will include some of the other scripts included such ascontrols.js<script src="js/prototype.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script src="js/scriptaculous.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Step 2: Create Your Form
Next we need to create a form, we are also going to add a div after our text box this is where the suggestions will show up.
<form action="search.cfm"> <input type="text" name="email" id="email" /> <div id="suggestionBox"></div> </form>Step 3: Call Ajax.Autocompleter
Now we need to use the
Ajax.Autocompleterjavascript class in script.aculo.us<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript"> var myAutoCompleter = new Ajax.Autocompleter('email', 'suggestionBox', 'suggest.cfm', {}); </script>Step 4: Create Server Side Element: suggest.cfm
In this example I'm using ColdFusion (CFML), but you could just as easily replace this part with suggest.php, suggest.jsp, or whatever.
<cfparam name="form.email" default="" type="string"> <cfquery datasource="dsn" name="suggestions"> SELECT email FROM contacts WHERE email LIKE</cfquery> <ol> <cfoutput query="suggestions"> <li>#suggestions.email#</li> </cfoutput> </ol> The
Ajax.Autocompleterwill by default pass what the user is typing in as POST form variable with the same name as the input element. We can then use aLIKEcommand in SQL to find matches, which should be outputted as aULlist.Step 5: Add some CSS
Finally you need to add some CSS to make things look nice. The selected suggestion will have the CSS class
selectedso we will want to set abackground-coloron that..selected { background-color: #f1f1f1; } #suggestionBox { display:none; border: 1px solid silver; }And that's it, you can check out a live example at: cssdocs.org
Originally from Pete Freitag's Homepage
reBlogged by Matthew Haughey on Dec 6, 2006, 1:53PMOriginally from mathowie reBlog feed reBlogged on Dec 6, 2006, 8:49PM
Cooking for a huge crowd this holiday season? The prolific do-it-yourselfers at Instructables have put together an Excel spreadsheet complete with Gantt charts to help you "optimize your time and resources" when preparing dinner for a large holiday audience.
Similar to the previously-mentioned Thanksgiving shopping calculator, this spreadsheet lets you program your entire cooking and prep schedule to a T by assigning tasks to people by day and time. This might be overkill for a small holiday dinner with your immediate family, but if you're taking on the extended family this year, this handy spreadsheet should help you get your act together.
Originally from Lifehacker
reBlogged by Matthew Haughey on Dec 6, 2006, 8:00PMOriginally from mathowie reBlog feed reBlogged on Dec 6, 2006, 6:14PM
One of my vacation mantras is, “Work less and Bicycle More,” and in Maui next week, it’ll be all eat, sleep, ride. Like most of us, I work way too much, and just found the Work Less Party from a comment Jean left on my Well-Traveled Cyclist post from earlier in the year.
That’s my new year’s wish for a da ugga readers (including Snow), work less and bicycle more. On that topic, what do you do to ride more?
Originally from Bike Hugger by reBlogged on Dec 9, 2006, 10:37AM
The information and some reasonable perspective on the 700 Level.
UPDATE: I have been out all afternoon. As you may know, these rumors are reaching a serious point. The Associated Press reports that Iverson released a statement through his agent, Leon Rose:
"As hard as it is to admit, a change may be the best thing for everyone," he said. "I hate admitting that because I love the guys on the team and the city of Philadelphia. I truly wanted to retire a 76er."He's not playing tonight or tomorrow. It was the team's decision, but the public reason is a comedy of bad PR. The team says it has do with the fact that he can't practice. There is talk of back spasms. Maurice Cheeks says it was his decision. Iverson, in the article linked above, says he was told not to practice and is ready to play.
For what it's worth, the event I was at today, a sports symposium at Princeton University, (I'll blog more about it later) included Celtic owner Wyc Grousbeck. He looked calm, rested, and not distracted. He wasn't rushing to his cell phone every few minutes. Which tells you either nothing at all (most likely) or any potential Iverson deal doesn't involve Boston, or any potential Iverson deal that might involve Boston was not finalized this afternoon. So, all in all it's really just a chance for me to brag that I was at some event with Wyc Grousbeck.
Originally from True Hoop by reBlogged on Dec 8, 2006, 12:03PM
Like most authors tasked with promoting their new book, checking Lifehacker the book’s Amazon sales rank has become part of my daily routine. But your book’s sales rank is one of those things - if you obsess about it too much, you’ll lose your mind. “It’s total B.S.,” a writer friend told me. “My agent told me it’s a miniscule representation of your book’s sales overall.” That’s probably less true for tech books than fiction, but either way, I wanted a way to capture my sales rank over time without constantly checking myself like an anxious freak. A number alone after awhile is pretty meaningless, and it literally changes by the hour.
So, inspired by PB’s graphing post and a curiosity about Amazon’s API, I set out to write a little something that would help me visualize what’s happening with the book’s sales over time. I didn’t get into the hardcore tools Paul did - just the names RRDTool or SNMP scare me - so I instead opted for the very no-frills, Flash-based PHP/SWF graphs. After registering for a free key, I was delighted to find that the Amazon API is dead simple. In less than 30 minutes of a little PHP/MySQL hacking, I had a sales rank capture-and-graph set of PHP scripts. It’s turned out to be a really nice way to keep an eye out without reloading the book’s Amazon page 4 times a day like a total egotistical loser.
Here’s the finished Lifehacker book Amazon sales rank charter. Screengrab below:
Originally from Spun by reBlogged on Dec 2, 2006, 10:00PM
Andrea Borruso writes to tell us about his blog about cartography, GIS and other subjects; since it's in Italian, I can't say much about it, but I can at the very least point it out to you....Originally from The Map Room by reBlogged on Dec 9, 2006, 4:20PM
I have recently completed a new composition titled The Bruce Springsteen "Born to Run" Glockenspiel Addendum. For those not in the know, Bruce's Born to Run record is littered with glockenspiel. For example, the famous melody from the song Born to Run is actually a guitar DOUBLED by a glockenspiel. Yes, I know what you are thinking,...awesome, awesome, & awesome. The Born to Run record itself contains 3 songs that feature the glockenspiel, ... For this project, I decided to create an addendum to the original and compose, play, and record glockenspiel parts for the songs on Born to Run that do not already feature the instrument (Tenth Avenue Freeze Out, Backstreets, She's the One, Meeting Across the River and Jungleland). I have made a 12inch vinyl record (signed, edition of 300, hand silk screened covers by kayrock, etc, etc, etc) which is available through my online store, and also mp3's which are available below. Basically you can play the vinyl or mp3's at the same time as the original recording, and you got your self a seemless mix with even more glockenspiel then originally provided by Bruce and the band. If you listen to my 12inch or mp3's alone, you just got glockenspiel and alot of silence (yes, it IS susposed to be silent most of the time,... I had to do it in Bruce's style, and this meant very sparse arrangements...)
Here is a small example of the concept:
Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (original)
Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (glockenspiel addendum) *
Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (both original and glockenspiel addendum mixed)
Ok, here goes nothing, ... without further delay, I present the The Bruce Springsteen "Born to Run" Glockenspiel Addendum:
Thunder Road (silence)
Tenth Avenue Freeze Out
Night (silence)
Backstreets
Born to Run (silence)
She's the One
Meeting Across the River
Jungleland
* - this interesting decending line, I actually found on rare live footage of the E Street band who used to play this song sometimes with a Glockenspiel.....
UPDATE: Kevin over at todomundo has a pretty funny 2 turntable mix session with the addendum and the Born to Run original,...sounds more like a drunk glockenspiel player cause of the wavering tempos, but its almost there......Originally from Cory's Web LOG reBlogged
From the New York Times story about Stallone's new Rocky Balboa, Peter Sealey, who is a former film exec-turned-marketing prof a UC Berkeley, offers:
It’s a high-technology, Google-blogging, iMac-type of premise going on there mixed with the classic underdog versus the establishment.
This is why I, clearly, could never be a movie exec.
Originally from Anil Dash by reBlogged
British philosophy magazine Philosophy Now has a special edition on that most psychological of philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein, with several of the feature articles freely available online.
Wittgenstein is known as much for his character as his philosophy, and for those not familiar with his life Tim Madigan's short introduction is a good place to start.
If you want to get your teeth into some of the philosophical ideas, Mark Jago has written a remarkably clear guide to Wittgenstein's picture theory of language.
There's more articles available if you pick up a copy of the magazine or have online access.
If you get a chance to see the magazine itself (a bit difficult to get hold of as many shops don't carry it) you'll notice that Philosophy Now is exactly what you'd expect from a philosophy magazine: a bit chaotic, endearingly eccentric and wonderfully intellectual.
Otherwise, you could do much worse than listening to a fantastic edition of BBC Radio 4's In Our Time that tackled the life and philosophy of Wittgenstein, archived online.
Link to Philosophy Now.
Link to Wikipedia page on Wittgenstein.
Link to In Our Time on Wittgenstein (with realaudio link).
Originally from Mind Hacks by reBlogged on Dec 10, 2006, 6:56AM
I used to be all thumbs when it came to wrapping presents--I saw it as a chore instead of an opportunity to be creative. Now that I take my time and work through the process, wrapping presents can be kinda soothing.
Here are some resources to help you:
Originally from ReadyMade Blog by reBlogged on Dec 10, 2006, 3:15PM
Maps are taking a curious central position in the controversy over former U.S. president Jimmy Carter's new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. A former executive director of the Carter Center resigned over the book, charging that it contained inaccuracies and...Originally from The Map Room by reBlogged on Dec 10, 2006, 1:02PM
The Economist has published their list of the best books of 2006 in categories ranging from Politics to Science to Fiction. This one sounds particularly intriguing:A young woman weds the Prince of Wales and finds that there are three in the marriage. She seeks solace in the arms of a foreigner, attracts intense media attention, becomes the darling of the people, and after proceedings for divorce, dies suddenly. For sheer entertainment and political theatre, the story of Caroline of Brunswick far outstrips the tale of Diana, Princess of Wales.The Trial of Queen Caroline: The Scandalous Affair that Nearly Ended a Monarchy by Jane Robins.
Originally from Rebecca's Pocket reBlogged on Dec 10, 2006, 7:30AM
My 2005 research An Introduction to Activism on the Internet was featured in the November 27 “Recommended Reading” column of the Wall Street Journal. Katrin Verclas, executive director of the Nonprofit Technology Network, picked thirteen on- and offline resources for leveraging technology for social change. About my document, she says:
“John Emerson’s guide covers strategies and techniques of electronic advocacy using email, the Web and other new media to bring about social change. It provides a great overview and analysis of campaigning methods.”See for yourself at http://backspace.com/action. Thanks, Katrin!
Originally from Social Design Notes reBlogged on Dec 9, 2006, 10:54PM
You buy it shrink-wrapped in the supermarket, right? And it’s not bad; perhaps a slightly guilty pleasure and certainly best enjoyed in moderation. But you know, that’s not real bacon; somehow, despite having grown up partly on a farm, until a few weeks ago I’d never tasted the real thing. On Main Street in Vancouver (which is not and has never been the main street) at the corner of 20th Ave you’ll find Continental Sausage Co., which I guess supplies restaurants and has an unpretentious little deli that we’ve started patronizing. The meats are in the German style and the ambiance and pace are definitely of another era. Anyhow, on impulse one Friday I ordered six slices of bacon for Sunday breakfast, and she pulled out a big brown slab and sliced them on the spot. Oh my goodness gracious, it’s nothing at all like what the supermarket has. Now what I do remember from the farm is fresh eggs, laid in the last day or so. I wonder where I can find those in Vancouver?
Originally from ongoing reBlogged
For over seventy-five years, [domus] has been hailed as the world’s most influential architecture and design journal. Founded in 1928 by the great Milanese architect Gio Ponti, the magazine’s central agenda has always remained that of creating a privileged insight toward identifying the style of a particular age, from Art Deco, Modern Movement, Functionalism and Postwar to Pop, Post-Modernism and Late Modern. Beautifully designed and comprehensively documented, page after page domus presents some of the most exciting design and architecture projects from around the world.
TASCHEN’s twelve-volume reprint features selected highlights from the years 1928 to 1999. Reproducing the pages as they originally appeared, each volume is packed with articles that bring to light the incredible history of modern design and architecture. A truly comprehensive lexicon of styles and movements, the volumes are accompanied by specially commissioned introductory texts that not only outline the history of the magazine but also describe what was happening in design and architecture during each era covered.
If you have a few hundred dollars lying around (six to be precise) and know someone remotely interested in the world of modern design and architect (ehm, me), this is the perfect Christmas [gift]. Repeat: perfect.
Originally from l-e-mental by reBlogged
For those looking to install Ubuntu without a high speed internet connection, a set of DVDs with the entire contents of the repositories would be a great tool. The idea being that armed with the DVDs, you really don’t need a net connection for retrieving any packages, since between the DVDs you have every package that is present in the software repositories.
Though there is no “official” set of DVDs, one can find such DVD sets for sale at some shops online. The catch is, of course, that the DVD sets are expensive. Why pay for something that is free? Ubuntu is 100% free, and we like it that way.
I just ran across some detailed instructions to create a set of Ubuntu DVDs. In fact, it is one better than a set of detailed instructions - it is script that you can use to create such DVDs. A few months ago I had started on writing a bunch of commands in python that would do the job - but never got done. The “How-To Make Ubuntu DVDs Including Main, the Universe and Everything” article seems to use some Ruby scripts. I know little about Ruby, but as long as the task is completed, the programming language matters little.
The script promises to generate 4 DVD images (.iso files), and might require as much as 30 GB of hard disk space. I usually try out the tips I post here first - but this time, since I don’t have 30 GB of hard disk space to spare, I have not been able to try this technique. I have a tight budget - with a laptop, I really can’t have all the HDD space I want
So it would be great if some of you could try this one out, and let me know how it goes.
Originally from Ubuntu Blog by reBlogged on Dec 10, 2006, 11:49PM
I've got offers of donation of a G4 tower and an iSight camera, so the photo booth seems to be coming together rather painlessly. The one remaining question is whether to have it make prints in addition to posting them online. Prints would be cool, of course, but it's more stuff that will break, not to mention, ink isn't cheap.
So my questions for you, dear Lazyweb:
- What's a cheap, fast printer that I could use for this? Assume I want to print a strip of 4 small photos, say 2"×1.5", on either 2"×6" (preferable) or 4"x3" paper. Cost-per-print and printing speed are more important than quality.
- Assuming I can't keep the cost of the ink low enough for it to be practical to do this for free, I guess I could try to make a bill reader work... There seem to be a few USB bill readers out there. Do any of you have experience with them?
I wrote the software for it the other night; give it a try if you are so moved. (MacOS 10.4 or newer.) It shows a live video preview, and when you click the mouse, it takes four pictures, with a 3 second countdown before each; then it briefly shows all four pictures, and goes back to idle.
Though I'm not sure whether that's obvious enough behavior; it'll probably need signage or on-screen text.
Suggestions for a better countdown animation? I like the look of the classic "Universal Film Leader" countdown, but those never have a "1" (they only count down to "2", then go black).
Originally from jwz by reBlogged on Dec 10, 2006, 8:45PM
Originally from John Battelle's Searchblog reBlogged on Dec 10, 2006, 5:10PM
The recently passed ban on the use of trans fats in restaurant food in New York City may be precedent setting, as national restaurant chains comply by changing their recipes. Additionally, other US cities may follow New York City's lead in adopting such bans, as they did with bans on smoking in restaurants and other public places.
Under the ban, restaurants will need to eliminate trans fats in their foods by July 2007; bakeries will have until July 2008.
Trans fats increase the risk of heart attack and stroke by raising the level of "bad" cholesterol (LDL). Says New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden, "We know that trans fats increase the chance of heart attack, stroke and death, and they don't have to be there... People are no longer dying of typhoid fever. They are dying of heart disease."
The National Restaurant Association opposes the ban and is threatening to sue to block it. Meanwhile, fast-food chains Wendy's and McDonald's, as well as Dunkin Donuts, have pledged to voluntarily reduce the amounts of trans fats in their foods. With these industry pacesetters taking the lead, trans fat reduction may become a national trend, with or without legislation.
Source: tvnz.co.nzOriginally from FutureWire - futurism and emerging technology by reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 10:25AM
The term "molecular gastronomy" does not describe our cooking, or indeed any style of cooking. Ferran Adria, Heston Blumenthal, Thomas Keller and Harold McGee step up with an international agenda for great cooking. "Three basic principles guide our cooking: excellence, openness, and integrity." Great principles, they should be applied to a lot more than cooking.
Originally from Megnut by reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 10:19AM
Boing Boing likes Ubuntu Linux for Non-Geeks. So what’s in it for me, you ask?
Well, that book was the first book I ever technically reviewed :). I reviewed it over a period of a month or so, and it was a great job. Some of my comments got overlooked, but that is okay, I guess. Little things, like the non-uniformity of URLs (Some begin with “http://” some don’t; some have “www.” some don’t) irritate me a lot. But all in all, the book has come out to be well appreciated, and that is reassuring.
The book is written in a very simple, straightforward, non-geeky language and is best suited for folks who are not very computer savvy. When I first read it I honestly thought, “Wow! Will this book sell? Are there folks out there who need help with this kind of stuff too?” Then it dawned on me - for the average computer user, who does not (and has no desire to) spend the entire day in front of a computer, learning a new system can be quite the challenge. This book tells you how to do the very basic stuff, and holds your hand through the various motions of everyday computing using Ubuntu. I think it will come in handy for the niche market consisting of folks who want to give Ubuntu a shot, and yet are hesitant because “Linux is a geek thing”.
I don’t agree with the “You need to be a geek to use Linux” viewpoint, though I can see why there is such an opinion in the first place — the lack of a widespread user community does mean that you need to be resourceful in fixing problems and finding solution, and be self-sufficient at least with regards to researching and learning the various ways of doing things. Windows users can always take comfort in the guy/girl in the next cubicle, or that geeky cousin. Linux has yet some ground to cover before there is a Linux user in every office/family. Till we get there, “Ubuntu Linux for Non-Geeks” can act as the guide for freedom-lovers world over.
The only reason why I hadn’t written about the book for so long was because I thought it improper to “plug” a book when I was the technical reviewer. I still wanted to talk about — now seems an appropriate time, since it has been released for a while now, and going by the comments on Amazon, and elsewhere on blogs and websites, it seems to be a hit within its chosen demographic.
At times, I get this terrible itch to write a book myself (Ubuntu Hacks? - but there is a book with that title out there already). The good news is that I don’t have to wait - I have a huge dissertation waiting to be written
Originally from Ubuntu Blog by reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 9:52AM
Soon Amazon.com will fulfill Clip-n-Seal or our behalf. That means that our freshiness product is eligible for Free Super Saver Shipping, Amazon.com customer service, and returns. As soon as Clip-n-Seals hit Amazon.com’s warehouse, we’ll update our product pages to reflect the change. Bike Hugger shirts will also eventually ship directly from Amazon.com.
Holiday Shipping
We will ship from our warehouse up until the December 14th 2006. After the 14th, Amazon.com should fulfill and our offices will close for vacation (in Maui!) until December 26th 2006.
Originally from Bike Hugger by reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 9:24AM
Could a chef make dishes that are as good, or better, using only the trace amount of trans fats allowed under the city’s new rules? With the passage of the trans fat ban in New York City, chefs are reformulating recipes to be compliant with the new regulations. I wonder if we'll see the development of a black market for trans fat baked goods in the future?
Originally from Megnut by reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 9:08AM
As we head into the final week of preparations for this weekend's Wooster on Spring exhibition, here's a quick update...
1. The Wooster on Spring event on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will be "B.Y.O.B.B" -- Bring Your Own Boom Box. All of the sonic tags (live DJ's and music) during the three days is being curated and produced by Soundlab. Using a wireless transmitter, all of the audio will be transmitted such that anyone with a boom box will be able to receive it. We're counting on all of you to be our contantly evolving and roving speaker system as you attend the event. The event will start with no speakers and then build over the three days as more people come in. (More on this from Soundlab later in the week)
2. We've received a few emails asking us if we were planning on having a live webcam broadcasting the event live on the internet from 11 Spring so that people around the world can participate. We think that this is a terrific idea, but have no idea how to set this up by Friday. The building has a DSL line but no wireless access. If you live in New York, have access to the webcam and wireless modem, and want to install it in the space before Thursday night, let us know at woostercollective@gmail.com because we'd love to have it, we just don't know how to do it ourselves.
3. If you're a member of the press and are planning on covering the event and project, drop us a note at woostercollective@gmail.com so we can make any and all necessary arrangements. At this point we're not planning on putting out any type of formal press release or event flyer as things will be changing and added right up to the last minute.
4. We've received lots of emails from people who will be flying in from all over the world to check out the exhibition and meet the artists. If you're coming in from somewhere else, let us know as we may get people together for a beer or something who have flown in from far places.
5. There are a ton of amazing restaurants and shops in the neighborhood where 11 Spring is located in Soho. A few of places that have been especially gracious to us over the last few weeks, that we encourage you to check out while you are in the area, as the food is great are: Barmarche across the street from the building, Bread, a block or so away on Spring, and Cafe Gitane, around the corner on Mott. All are fantastic.
Again here are the days and times for the three day event on 11 Spring:
Friday, December 15th: From 11am to 5pm
Saturday, December 16th: From 11am to 5pm
Sunday, December 17th: From 11am to 5pmAfter these three days the building will be closed to the public.
And finally, some quick snaps from yesterday
The amazing Lady Pink.
A freehand piece by Elboe-Toe on the outside of the building
MUCK begins her wall
A group of geezersOriginally from Wooster Collective reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 7:10AM
It occurs to me that some of the commenters may have slightly missed the point of my previous post. The argument is not about the merits of Ian Ayres's study. I am perfectly willing to listen to those who quarrel with Aryes' (and my) conclusion that the different prices quoted to black and white men and women are evidence of racism. But to make his case Ayres put together a study involving 242 car dealerships and a carefully selected group of testers. He engaged, in other words, in social science. If you want to dispute his conclusions, it strikes me that it is incumbent on you to prove your case, and present evidence to the contrary. Sailer didn't do that. That's the problem. In response to social science, he simply asserted--without any corroborating evidence--that the whole business simply came down to the fact that black men liked to be seen overpaying for cars. That is not an argument. That is a smear.
Sailer, it turns out, has posted about my challenge on his blogs, urging his supporters
to vote on his behalf. Apparently--as is clear from the comments section--they have complied. So I thought to myself, I'll go to Sailer's blog and make this argument about the difference between matching science with science and simply pulling a racist stereotype out of your hat.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered that Steve Sailer doesn't allow readers to comment on his posts. Can you believe that? Here we have the aggrieved Steve Sailer, donning the cloak of victim as he decries my attempt at censorship. Here we have the allies of Steve Sailer, speaking out on behalf of the virutes of the free exchange of ideas, the importance of confronting one's critics,the necessity of fighting the good fight in arena of free speech. And all the while their leader is cowering behind the gates of a comment-free blog.
Oh my. Is it possible that in addition to everything else, Steve Sailer is also a chicken?
Here's the deal. Steve Sailer can post all he wants on my blog so long as he allows
readers to post on his blog. Sound fair?
Originally from gladwell.com by reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 1:46AM
"Sciatica is a pain in the leg caused by the irritation of the sciatic nerve. Generally, the pain travels from the back of the thigh to the back of the calf, and also may extend upwards, to the hip, and downwards to the foot. In addition to pain, there may be numbness and difficulty in moving or controlling the leg. Typically, the symptoms are only felt on one side of the body."Originally from tecznotes links by reBlogged on Dec 7, 2006, 1:27PM
Over on the Inside Aperture site, I've just posted some thoughts on using a RAW+JPG workflow. Bottom line: It works the way you'd expect it to....Originally from James Duncan Davidson by reBlogged on Dec 31, 1969, 6:59PM
Several blogs have noticed a large Firefox banner on Google's homepage, but it seems to be in limited production at the moment. This ad follows Google's previous promotion, but this one is bigger and at the top like a traditional banner.
Originally from John Battelle's Searchblog reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 11:46AM
93 kilobytes of RAM (ha ha).
Originally from Tom Moody by reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 1:36PM
Today only 13 slaughterhouses process the majority of the beef consumed by 300 million Americans. Eric Schlosser on the sorry state of our food supply safety efforts and the role politics has played in making it less safe. One chilling statistic: "Cutbacks in staff and budgets have reduced the number of food-safety inspections conducted by the F.D.A. to about 3,400 a year -- from 35,000 in the 1970s." With food distribution more centralized than ever, ensuring the safety of our food supply is critical.
Originally from Megnut by reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 12:48PM
AIGA New York has an excerpt of Jessica Helfand's
newclassic book, "Reinventing the Wheel:"The idea of deploying the circular form as a device capable of precise measurement, speedy calculation or accurate wayfinding introduces a surprisingly rich platform upon which to argue the merits of kinetic thinking. Wheels are, of course, implicitly dynamic. They represent precision on the one hand, yet suggest an infinite kind of permutation on the other. They embody at once a balanced symmetry yet simultaneously embrace endless possibilities for imbalance, irregularity, and a kind of irreverent compositional frenzy—what the writer Joseph Conrad once called “a mad art attempting the inconceivable.â€
Originally from hello, typepad by reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 11:58AM
a 3D RSS feed reader for the Windows Vista operating system, providing a "stunning way" of visualizing RSS feeds & their content. univeRSS consists of a full-screen 3D universe where galaxies represent the folders a RSS feed directory, & the stars are represented by the spinning cubes that hold the feed information. size & position of the feed cubes indicate how many unread items they contain.see also 3d topic wall & 3d space browser.
[link: microsoft.com]
Originally from information aesthetics reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 12:35AM
a chart of the IP address space "on a plane", using fractal mapping which preserves grouping (any string of IPs will translate to a single compact region on the map). each of the 256 numbered blocks represents one 8th subnet (containing all IPs that start with that number).see also internet mapping & internet backbone map.
not sure whether this is a "webcomic" or a real infographic?
[link: xkcd.com]
Originally from information aesthetics reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 12:20AM
Originally from hustler of culture by reBlogged
Sure, the beanbag chair was okay. In concept. You've got the huge pillow factor, which was great, and the ability to just sort of plop yourself on it and watch TV or eat brownies or just stare at the ceiling and listen to Led Zeppelin or whatever.
But, truthfully, they weren't that comfortable, were they? And if you wore shorts, the vinyl always sort of stuck to your legs when you got up and made that unpleasant fart sound. Plus, they weren't so attractive and the colors were a bit...hmm, psychedelic for my taste.
But the Fatboy! The Fatboy is the beanbag for the 21st Century! Sleek, soft, cozy, and attractive, it's big enough to sleep on, and squishy enough to manipulate into all different shapes. Gone are the unpleasant fart sounds, the unfortunate psychedelic colors, and the tacky vinyl! Plus, this fat boy exterior is made of coated nylon fabric that wipes clean with a damp cloth, and who doesn't get excited about that?
Originally from Awesome! by reBlogged
The best movie posters of 2006. (via lists 2006)Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 9:58AM
Muhammad Yunus, who came up with the idea of microcredit, received his Nobel Peace Prize yesterday. His Nobel lecture is available in text and video formats.Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 8:01AM
Just in case you were wondering...Originally from jill/txt by reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 4:41AM
Microsoft has added a beta version of Books to its Live Search search engine, says Micrcosoft's Live Search blog. This is, of course, Microsoft's alternative to Google Book Search, with a difference: Microsoft is only scanning books that are...Originally from Guardian Unlimited: Technology blog reBlogged on Dec 7, 2006, 9:44AM
winter coney. Photo by occipital lobe.
Enduro: Open. Almost. [Across the Park]
More Architectural Nonsense in Bed-Stuy [Brownstoner]
Forté Redux: You Want Coffee With That? [Curbed]
Another Snow Tease Ahead [Gothamist]
Sex-Crazing Drug Menace in Coney Island and Dumbo [Gowanus Lounge]
The DUMBO Light Capades at the Empire-Fulton Ferry Park [The L Magazine]Originally from Brooklyn Record by reBlogged on Dec 6, 2006, 4:09PM
The owners of Layla Jones, the new Court Street pizza joint that opened a few weeks ago, combined their daughter and son's first names to name the place (that seems like a winning strategy for Brooklyn pizzerias these days), and that mashup philosophy seems to carry through other aspects of the food. LJ serves up pies in two styles: "Brooklyn Classic" (eight slices of thin-crust goodness), and charcoal-grilled (a personal-size version). Early Chowhound reviews have been good, so we jumped at the chance to try the Plain Jane Classic today, when a thoughtful friend shared his leftovers with us.
We loved the crunchy airiness of the crust--which had more of a flatbread texture than your typical Brooklyn slice, without the sometimes-overwhelming char that brick and coal ovens can create. Big dabs of whole-milk mozzarella and thick, sweetly zingy sauce completed the package.
After the jump: Why this pizza isn't true Brooklyn pie.Originally from Brooklyn Record by reBlogged on Dec 11, 2006, 12:16PM
McCarren pool plays host to indie-rock crowds all summer long, but that may change. Photo by unklemunki via Flickr.At a public meeting in Williamsburg recently, residents debated Parks Department officials over the use of McCarren Pool for rock shows. Citing high decibel levels, some of the pool's neighbors demanded that events there be discontinued entirely, but it was to little avail: For now, the space will continue to host concerts in the summer.
Another complaint was that musical acts aren't diverse enough; the Parks Department manager who oversees the pool said he hoped to solve that problem by reaching out to promoters of Colombian pop and Polish music. He also described a long-term vision of restoring McCarren's historic role as a public swimming area and year-round recreation space, and said that activities like concerts and ice skating (which may be added in winters to come) are "interim uses."
What would you like to see happen with the pool? Are the shows really that loud and invasive to folks living nearby?
McCarren Better Barren? Nabes Want Shows Nixed [Brooklyn Downtown Star]
Originally from Brooklyn Record by reBlogged on Dec 8, 2006, 11:38AM
