« 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
