Monday, November 24, 2003
'Subversive' cross stitch
I've got to post some of these, they're great! I don't know about 'subversive' though.
artistic savants
Savants are interesting cos they seem to indicate some of the properties of the brain. Like artistic and computational stuff compensating for damage to the part of the brain that does socialising and emotional things. It's strange how a lot of artists and computer programmers seem kind of autistic socially. What does it all mean?
This also reminds me of the kind of stuff Rocco does at his work. Have you heard of this kid?
This also reminds me of the kind of stuff Rocco does at his work. Have you heard of this kid?
Matt Savage launched his jazz career by attempting to improve a Schubert sonata. His piano teacher told him that the G-sharp he just played was supposed to be a G-natural. "It sounds better my way," he protested. She replied that only when he wrote his own music could he take liberties with a score. Keen on taking liberties, he became a jazz composer. He released his fifth album this year, making guest appearances on the Today show, 20/20, and NPR. Recently, his trio booked two shows at the Blue Note in New York City.link
In May, he will celebrate his 12th birthday.
Saturday, November 22, 2003
Invasion of the gremlins
It's my birthday and we won!! It's my birthday and we won!!! Hurray for Marv!! Hurray for England!! We're not as rubbish as usual!!
Friday, November 21, 2003
Unraveling
In the United States, the cover of Paul Krugman's new book is a little bit different than the cover in England. (from Atrios)
What to do if the internet goes down
Every year we grow more and more dependent on the Internet. But would you know what to do if your connection suddenly went down?link
No one knows when the Internet will fail. It could happen at any time, leaving you bereft of your e-mail, your sports scores, and your Blogs. Therefore, it's important that you and your family have a contingency plan for just such an emergency. If your connection to Cyberspace were to ever get severed, you should at least be prepared. We have included a few key points that should assist you if that were to happen.
1. Panic!
An excited, agitated state will give you that heightened sense of awareness and will increase your thought processes allowing you to come up with rational solutions. Panic is just nature's way of putting your body into over-drive. It's a defense mechanism that gives you an edge when dealing with potentially harmful situations, such as a severed arm or the loss of your Internet.
2. Find A Telephone
Do you have access to a telephone line? Early computers connected to the Internet using a dial-up device along with a hardware device known as a "modem." Since this technology is obsolete, it will be of no use to you. Instead, use your telephone to call your friends to see if their connection is also down, as you will have lost the ability to send an email or an instant message. You can also use a telephone to call 911, an emergency service that will first tell you to calm down, and then will send out specially-trained technicians to find the source of the Internet's failure.
3. Use Your Back-Up Computer
It's always good to have an emergency laptop handy, in case you need to harry over to a buddy's place where the Net is still up. If there is still no Internet at that location, at the very least you could connect to a small network or LAN (Less-than Adequate Network). Laptops can also be placed on tables at coffeeshops, while you sit around with a latte, nervously waiting for your connection to be restored.
4. Install A Game
In emergency situations, installing a single-player computer game can occupy your down-time. While it won't replace the adrenaline rush of intense networked multiplayer action provided by the Internet, a quick game of Sim City or Flight Simulator may distract you long enough for your connection to return.
5. Perform Routine Maintenance
While programs such as Norton Antivirus have removed most of the tedium of computer system maintenance, nothing could help pass the time faster than cleaning out your hard drive, emptying your cache, or organizing your celebrity fake porn collection. Take the time to stare at your screen while you perform a defragmentation. The time will literally fly while you barely notice your separation from the Internet.
6. Turn On A Television Or Radio
Televisions, strange boxes that sit in your parents' living rooms, were once used to provide entertainment, long before DVDs and Playstations were invented. Televisions have the capability of broadcasting streaming information similar to the content on multimedia websites. With a "remote control," a wireless device that is like a small one-handed keyboard, you may be able to surf a limited number of "channels," while you deal with the loss of your connection. Unfortunately, television is only a one-way media.
In ancient times, radios were also used to entertain. A radio allowed you to listen to news, sports, and music, much the same way that you listen to live streaming audio on a Shoutcast server. Like the television, a radio will only have a limited selection of listening stations, and no video. Hopefully your separation from the Internet will be brief.
7. Read
People in pre-Internet times used to read "books" and "magazines", written materials once created in printable format to pass the time. Some e-books are still available on paper, and may offer a short-term solution until your power is back and your broadband is restored. If reading is not an option, as a last resort, you may wish to try doing "chores," or try your hand at cooking. While these activities cannot replace the Internet, they may be able to make the down-time a little more tolerable.
8. Go Outside
The idea of leaving your workstation may seem a little extreme, but you can perform errands that you normally get parents or spouses to do: grocery shopping, drycleaning, etc. Leaving your dorm room, basement, or above-garage apartment suite, may be risky, but again, the time may afford an effective distraction from your Internet woes. NOTE: Be careful to avoid the sun, because your pasty white skin will not be used to the exposure.
9. Spend Time With Your Spouse
Communicating with your wife or girlfriend may seem like a radical suggestion, but the time investment may offer long-term rewards. Spending any amount of time talking about your "relationship" may free up more Internet time for you later on, when your ADSL or Cable link to the World Wide Web has been restored. WARNING: These will probably be the longest hours of your life.
10. Use Your Emergency AOL Disk
If you find that your connection to the Internet is going to be longer than you can possibly stand, as a last resort, pull out an emergency AOL CD, the one with 910 free hours of connection to the AOL service. Take the CD in one hand...and slash it across your wrist! Suicide will probably be a better alternative than connecting to that service.
Hopefully some of these Internet alternatives will be able to assist you during an offline crisis. Emergency radio broadcasts will likely advise you of the state of the Internet and be able to predict when your bandwidth will be restored, but remember to have an emergency plan in case your digital detachment is longer than you expect.
Two Towers again
After watching the extended version, I sort of feel that the cinema version was unfinished. I can see why they left it that way, because of time constraints, but the stuff that was left out is really the heart of the movie. In a way, the cinema version is almost a trailer for the extended version. I wonder if the extended one will ever make it onto the big screen?
By the way, after some parlay with Marvin Marblesons, it seems that no amount of improvement can lessen her revulsion for the movie's Faramir character. I don't mind that it's different, but I can kind of see her point. In the book, Faramir is a particular type of character - amazingly, one of the handful who's able to shrug off the ring's influence (along with maybe Aragorn). He may be more human and interesting in the film, but what you lose is a larger-than-life hero type person.
I realised that one of the reasons I like the Faramir/Boromir/Steward scene so much is it reminds me of me and my brother. In the movie, Boromir is shown giving a big speech in traditional hero mode, but then afterwards he's palling around with his brother and is just a regular guy. With his brother, he can relax, but when their dad shows up he has to go back into the big hero schtick again.
It reminded me of family get-togethers where me and Nate have to act one way around the family, meanwhile biding our time until we can go down to the pub and let off steam.
Turkey soda update
Good God, it looks like it wasn't a joke after all. It's been reviewed by a Web site called 'bevnet'. They give it 3.5 out of 5 stars as well, despite the fact that 'it was pretty hard for any of our testers to keep from spitting the product out'. The review ends with the immortal line, 'we really hope meat flavored beverages don't become a lasting trend'.
Apparently, this is the first soft drink ever created for the sole purpose of a clever marketing gimmick, and not for actual consumption.
Turkey & Gravy Sodalink
Category: Other; Packaging: 12 oz glass (355 ml)
Jones Soda's Turkey & Gravy soda is one of the strangest things we've ever tasted. First of all, the product uses an interesting formulation that contains a variety of ingredients rarely (if ever) seen in beverage products and it's zero carb/calorie. Not to mention that we've never had turkey and gravy that was carbonated and sweetened with Splenda ;). Anyway, the product's aroma definitely smells like turkey and gravy, but the flavor is another story.
The taste is noticeably salty and has a mild sweetness to it. There is a slight "turkey 8 gravy"-like finish to the product, but the addition of carbonation and sweetness generally hide the taste otherwise. Honestly, it was pretty hard for any of our testers to keep from spitting the product out.
So is this product a failure? No, not at all. We have to give Jones Soda credit for putting this product out there purely to create buzz -- and they definitely succeeded on that front. The real challenge is yet to come -- can Jones turn this buzz into something that helps energize the brand and gets consumers to buy more of the product? The potential is there, but only time will tell. Overall, we give this product good marks for creativity and execution, but we really hope meat flavored beverages don't become a lasting trend ;)
Thursday, November 20, 2003
Captain Dolphin
This is a corking read! Two full issues online!
Lord of the Rings 2 extended version, James' review
Ugh, I just noticed that Amazon.com is selling this for about £10 less than I paid...
We watched the extended edition last night, although we probably should have started it earlier, as we started at around eight and it didn't finish until around midnight, admittedly with loo breaks (I can see why this is on a DVD and not in the cinema). The changes were very interesting. I think this is one of the few films where they had to make cuts not for quality but simply because there's way more material than could possibly be squeezed into a normal cinema-going experience, thanks to the complexity of the books.
My take on the cinema version of Two Towers was that it had some glaring flaws, and I didn't have any particular desire to watch it a second time. Some of the problems that spring to mind are to do with the way the story was compressed: with Gandalf, for example, he sort of comes back and does some wizard type stuff and rides around on a horse, but it starts to veer into the realm of swords and sorcery cliche. For example, you see him sitting beside the king of the horse-realm, striking this sort of wizard-giving-advice pose, and it could be straight out of a Lord of the Rings parody.
In the first movie, Merry and Pippin are amusing side-characters, but in the second your main impression is of them staring around in awe or bewilderment and saying lines designed to remind you of the story's context.
The Faramir character is controversial because he's different from in the book, but my main problem with him was you don't get much of a sense of his character. He captures the hobbits, plans to take them to Gondor, and then changes his mind.
Overall, that is how the plot goes in the second movie. Situations are set up, and then they are taken down again. Saruman is set up as an evil power, and then he's defeated. Frodo and Sam are in danger, then they get out of danger, etc. But in the end you're left only marginally further ahead in the story, plot-wise. The lack of plot development is more obvious because the movie feels more like a summary of the important plot points, without a chance to really get into the atmosphere of what's going on. Also, because of the type of material that's being dealt with, when you simplify things too much it starts to feel like a string of clichés.
So, did the 45 minutes of added material make a difference to this? I need to watch it again to make sure, but I thought it did, surprisingly.
The new scenes aren't just extra battle excitement or filling in more background detail; they really change the impact of some of the key moments. A good example: there's a scene where everybody's on the road, tromping along, and Aragorn is flirting a bit with Eowyn. At the end of this bit, there's a shot of Eowyn looking lovingly at Aragorn - a real cornball moment. But in the extended edition, this shot is interwoven with a conversation between Aragorn and the horse-king, whose name I forget, where the king is telling Aragorn bitterly that he's failed Eowyn as a father-figure. So that shot becomes an ironic moment about the relationship between Eowyn and the king, rather than a corny reminder of Eowyn's feelings for Aragorn.
The other scene I have to mention is a new bit dealing with Faramir, where we actually see Faramir and Boromir together, and their relationship with their father. Not only does this make Faramir seem way more interesting, it makes Boromir seem far more sympathetic as well, not to mention introducing the character of the Steward of Gondor (their dad), who is a key figure in the third film. It's worth getting the extended edition for that scene alone, I'd say.
That's pretty typical of the way the new material is used. I'm not totally sure, but I think almost all the scenes that had seemed real weak points in the movie get this type of treatment. Gandalf is more human, Merry and Pippin's situation is fleshed out, Aragorn and Eowyn's relationship is less cheesy and more ambiguous, etc. It goes from being a fairly dry recital of adventures and battles to a story with a human element. I really can't believe what a difference it makes - it seems like a completely different, better film. Bravo, folks. Now I'm actually looking forward to the third film again...
Has anybody else watched it? What do you think?
link
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Cultural sensitivity
Actual email from the Los Angeles County Purchasing and Contract Services Director. People aren't allowed to use the term 'master' or 'slave' device because it's offensive.
The County of Los Angeles actively promotes and is committed to ensure a work environment that is free from any discriminatory influence be it actual or perceived. As such, it is the County's expectation that our manufacturers, suppliers and contractors make a concentrated effort to ensure that any equipment, supplies or services that are provided to County departments do not possess or portray an image that may be construed as offensive or defamatory in nature.link
One such recent example included the manufacturer's labeling of equipment where the words ''Master/Slave'' appeared to identify the primary and secondary sources. Based on the cultural diversity and sensitivity of Los Angeles County, this is not an acceptable identification label. We would request that each manufacturer, supplier and contractor review, identify and remove/change any identification or labeling of equipment or components thereof that could be interpreted as discriminatory or offensive in nature before such equipment is sold or otherwise provided to any County department.
The dangers of mixing relationships with video games
Breaking Up is Hard to Dolink
We broke up. I moved out. We divided our possessions. All the hardware was mine - the Xbox, the Gamecube, the PS2; most of the software, his. A sad sifting of the content of two lives once shared.
It all went fairly smoothly - until we discovered that we both had large game files on one Xbox. No problem, Justin said, I can probably copy them over using ethernet. So he bought a new Xbox and I brought over mine one afternoon and we tried to transfer our respective games. Just to be on the safe side, I had brought along an official Xbox-approved memory card.
Turns out the saved games we want the most - KOTOR, which we both love - won't fit on a Microsoft-licensed Xbox memory card.
Justin is a man of action. He promptly called customer support. "I have two Xboxes," he said breathlessly. "A memory card that's too small and an ethernet cable. Lets try to figure this out."
Impossible, he was told. There was no way to transfer my saved games.
"That's ridiculous," Justin countered. He doesn't back down easily. "There are a lot of brilliant people at Microsoft and you can't tell me that they didn't think of this problem. Now we're going to stay on the phone and fix it together."
Not possible.
"Well, could I get a bigger memory card then?"
That is the biggest memory card Microsoft makes.
Justin started to get frustrated. "Okay, maybe I could talk to someone else who would know how to help me?"
No one knows, because it's impossible.
"So you're telling me it's not possible for my ex-girlfriend to take with her her own saved games? I can't believe that! You make it sound like hacking my Xbox is a good idea!"
Turkey soda
Probably a joke, which is too bad.
Seattle, WA, U.S.A.-- Jones Soda Co. (the "Company" or "Jones Soda"), announces today that it will introduce a new seasonal flavor in its popular Jones Soda line-- Turkey & Gravy flavored beverage.link
In time for the Thanksgiving holiday, Jones Soda will launch a limited production of the sugar-free and no carbohydrate Turkey & Gravy flavored beverage in the Washington and Michigan markets.
"We are really excited about the limited test launch of our new flavored Turkey & Gravy beverage. This seasonal flavor allows us to enter a new market segment, the meal replacement market. The new flavor will also appeal to new consumers, those who prefers a savory type flavor to the traditional soda flavors," says Peter van Stolk, President & C.E.O. "With consumers becoming more and more health conscious, Jones Soda's Turkey & Gravy flavored beverage is a zero calorie and zero carbohydrate beverage that can be served warm or cold with a full flavor that will meet and will exceed our customer's expectation."
Epson-bot
Swallow
"Finally, the question is answered: What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? A designer with too much time on his hands uses his new method for graphically representing Strouhal numbers to clarify a truly pressing question for all armchair zoologists (and a few Monty Python fans)."
If the first diagram (St = 0.2) is accurate, then the cruising speed of the European Swallow would be roughly 16 meters per second (15 beats per second * 1.1 meters per beat). If the second diagram (St = 0.4) is accurate, then the cruising speed of the European Swallow would be closer to 8 meters per second (15 beats per second * 0.55 meters per beat).link
If we settle on an intermediate Strouhal value of 0.3... We can estimate the airspeed of the European Swallow to be roughly 11 meters per second (15 beats per second * 0.73 meters per beat).
Blake and Mortimer
I am kind of addicted to this series, though sometimes I wish I weren't. Along with Tintin it's one of the iconic Francophone comics series, but is more in the spirit of B-movie adventures. The main characters are British, amusingly, which means you get to see the Continental stereotypes of the UK and its inhabitants, circa 1958. One is a scientist, the other an Air Force guy - actually I think he might even be head of MI5. They battle aliens, evil dictators with secret weapons, 3000-year-old monarchs etc.
But for all that, the series seems totaly devoid of humour and imagination, weirdly enough. You'd expect that a story about time-travelling alien invaders would have a bit of a sense of its own absurdity, or at least a sense of fun, but it's all treated in a very matter-of-fact, literal fashion.
I guess it's the eurocomics equivalent of those trashy airport adventure novels: they seem to promise escape, with their outlandish plots and situations, but end up boring you to tears with their stale regurgitation of cliches.
They've restarted the series in the last couple of years, and I keep buying the books, usually when I'm on a trip to France - they're just the cup of tea when you're sitting in an airport with nothing to do...
Symbole mythique de la bande dessinée grand public de qualité, la série est devenue au fil des ans un best seller incontestable. L'auteur, E.P. Jacobs, qui fut un proche d'Hergé, aimait la démesure qui prend toute sa dimension dans les inventions scientifiques (dont le fameux Espadon). On citera aussi une extraordinaire galerie de personnages tels Septimus, Olrik ou Miloch.
link
Writing letters
I have been writing some letters by hand again the past couple of days. It's an interesting experience actually. I can't believe how different it is writing a letter again after doing emails for a long time.
When you write an email (or a blog post for that matter) you tend to keep it short... it isn't that pleasant sitting at a computer, it's not fun staring at the screen and long things are hard to read anyway. But when you're writing something by hand you tend to blather on and on because it's actually a relaxing thing to do. I got a nice fountain pen to see if it's true that writing with one of those is nicer, and it actually is quite good using those. I got a Sheaffer pen, which amusingly, turns out to be a subsidiary of Bic, maker of the cheap ballpoints I usually am partial to.
The other thing I discovered is the PDF format. Using the paid version of Acrobat you can just drop some images (in this case scanned pages of letters) into the program and then save it as a PDF. The size is roughly the same as if it were just a folder of image files. And it's a lot easier to read on the computer than a bunch of JPEGs.
I'm planning to make some of my comics available in English via PDF, since it's basically free to distribute that way - at the moment it doesn't seem likely that the stuff will be printed in English any time soon.
link
Monday, November 17, 2003
Woob the genius
Woob has been doing some work for the print version of the New Scientist (as opposed to the online). How is it going there Woob? Have they realised yet that you are the future editor in chief?
link
Hello folks... I was in Toulouse over the weekend, well nearby anyway, in Colomiers. It was interesting. I spent most of the time in my hotel or at the convention, and we were in a suburban area with nothing nearby, but it was cool to be in a different place (you get tired of seeing the same four walls all the time when you work from home...) and to see some of my friends from the comics industry.
I flew over on Friday afternoon. It was actually really easy because the Birmingham airport is quite small and easy to get to. I couldn't believe how chilled out it was compared with flying from, say, Heathrow. The trip took two hours.
Most of the time I was sitting at the table with the others from my publisher (Editions Flblb) and signing a few books - i did about five dedications (with a drawing inside, which is fun). The funniest thing was on Sunday. We got in around 11 a.m. and it was kind of dead, as you'd expect for a Sunday. I thought it was just going to get slower and slower as the day went on. But we came back after lunch and theplace was absolutely heaving with people! I was really surprised. Apparently all the families have their sunday lunch and then they go out and do something together, and in this case a lot of them decided to go to the comics convention...
link
Friday, November 14, 2003
Opel Exposition Robots
HEre are some robots designed to wander around a car expo in germany.
Thursday, November 13, 2003
Segway door-bot
This robot is based on the Segway transporter and was built by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is designed to open and close doors within the AI lab.
'Her power is to open what is shut; to shut what is open.'link
Monday, November 10, 2003
Lonesome
It's a bit lonely over here in Robot Alert now that Anna is off posting on her own blog. Will, post something!
link
Friday, November 07, 2003
A particularly fine example of robothood
The Two Towers extended version
Some details are coming out about this DVD which is released in the next few days sometime...
"Among the new treasures in store for fans are several more moments with Gollum, more background on the Ents and additional scenes involving Treebeard in Fangorn Forest, Gandalf telling Aragorn that Sauron is afraid of what he may one day become, Theodred's funeral at Edoras, more of Faramir capturing Frodo and Sam, new scenes between Aragorn and Eowyn on the road to Helm's Deep, more intense footage during all of the major battles... and this is just scratching the surface. There's also a major new flashback scene in which we see Faramir with his brother, Boromir, and their father, Denethor, who is the Steward of Gondor. We learn why Boromir tried to take the Ring from Frodo in the last film, and why Faramir struggles with the same decision here. It's fantastic stuff that really fleshes out both Faramir and Boromir. It's also important for introducing us to the character of Denethor, who plays a larger part in the forthcoming Return of the King."link
Return of the King predictions
I hadn't realised that they had (relatively) new Return of the King trailers out... it looks quite good. (Compare with the apparent crapness of Matrix Revolutions, which is like a sequel to a sequel, desperately searching for new material...)
I wasn't a huge fan of the second movie, just because not a lot really happens, despite all the battles and destruction. That film was more of a holding action, after the first movie introduced all the important stuff. It doesn't read that way in the book -- the second book is really all about fleshing out Middle Earth and giving some depth to the world, but it's kind of hard to show "depth" on screen.
The third movie looks like it will work better. Plot-wise it will have to bring everything to a conclusion, so it should have a bit more of a sense of direction, and hopefully the battles will have more of a sense of meaning. I think it will be hard to watch the disintegration of Frodo on screen though... I might have to hide behind my seat.
Also, check out the cool video here talking about Minas Tirith...
link
Gandalf money
In New Zealand, Sir Ian McKellen is quite literally on the money. From this week, the Kiwi 50 cent piece will come engraved with the Queen on one side and Gandalf (as played by McKellen) on the other. It's part of a set of coins minted to celebrate the success of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was entirely shot in New Zealand.link
Thursday, November 06, 2003
Anna's Web log
Please read Anna's Web log and post lots of comments. She hasn't put anything there yet by the way.
link
National men make dinner day
Strictly speaking, this doesn't apply to the UK, but it's still a good idea. Since I usually make dinner (I need the distraction after working alone in the closet with my computer all day) maybe this should be national Anna makes dinner day.
Now , as the year-round cook in the household, maybe you have tried to get your man to cook the occasional dinner. But, after being bombarded with questions like: "What's a spatula?", "Why do you call it 'sauté' when it's exactly like 'frying'?", and "Why does a chafing dish sound like something that'll hurt?".... you give in and make dinner after all because it just seems so much easier.link
This scenario is the inspiration behind "National Men Make Dinner Day". Officially it is 'celebrated' on the First Thursday of every November. One guaranteed meal cooked by the man of the house one day of the year.
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
Hurray for James and Argos!! The wonderful world of Riggs
I, on the other hand, grew up in a house where nothing quite worked properly. Riggs equipment, particularly electronics, seems to fail in a very particular way. If things break completely, you are forced to fix them, or get another one instead. But Riggs goods break just enough to be really inconvenient, but not enough to give up on them completely. My parents' TV remote, for example, is held together with a rubber band, so that the batteries don't fall out. the water in the shower turns off if you take too long; it gives you long enough to wash your body, but not your hair as well. The on switch is in the garage, which involves going downstairs into the cold, wet and in the nude, to turn it back on. the shower also runs cold if someone uses the cold tap in the kitchen, but people usually remember when they hear the scream of agony. The courtesy lights on our cars don't work - how rude. Our portable phone cuts out if someone has a conversation lasting more than ten minutes because...er... well... we don't know why...no-one ever finds out. I have grown up assuming that if things break, they stay broken, because it is beyond the wit of anyone called Riggs to fix them. Living with James has allowed me to learn that it is possible for someone else to mend things. Perhaps one day I will take another huge step and start mending things myself.
link
cool book title
I just came across this while researching for a story i'm working on. It looks cool! It's called "Fundamentals of III-V Devices: HBTs, MESFETs, and HFETs/HEMTs". What does that mean you ask?? A handy 'explanation' follows:
I think I'll have to continue my search for enlightenment on this topic...
link
After an introductory chapter on basic properties and device physics, this textbook covers the dc and high-frequency operations of the major semiconductor devices based on III-V materials<-- >heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs), metal-semiconductor field- effect transistors (MESFETs), and heterojunction field-effect transistors (HFETs), which include the high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs).
I think I'll have to continue my search for enlightenment on this topic...
link
Cat heads
This is something you should look at if you like psychedelic animations with bouncing cartoon Japanese cat heads. (Woob?)
link
comments
I don't know exactly what the deal is, but Backblog seems to be out of commission for the moment - they're the site that provides the comment feature. :(
monkey toys
These come from Hong Kong I think.
One more
Because they're so dang good
Let me touch him
Who listened to these exactly?
Bad album covers
Some of these are kind of sad and make me think of my childhood. Others are merely amusing.
Monday, November 03, 2003
I'm starting to have a bad feeling about this...
That is, about The Matrix Revolutions. It's starting to look like the thing is not just going to be kind of vaguely crap, but with cool visual effects, like the other two, but actually terrible. The problem being that I'm going to end up sitting through it anyway. Save me, Trinity!
Variety review: The Matrix Revolutionslink
By TODD MCCARTHY
Those who never really bought into the "Matrix" faith in the first place will feel vindicated by "The Matrix Revolutions," the third and, one can safely assume, the last installment in the saga of Neo and his Brethren. You can virtually see the mystique peeling away while beholding the turgid melodrama, patchy plotting, windy dialogue and, yes, spectacular combat effects of this grand finale, to the point where the One is revealed as having no clothes -- or at most a fashionable black undergarment....
Do you like cranes?
If so then you'll want to check out craneporn.org. It's a site with lots of pictures of cranes...
I find cranes, especially tower cranes, to have a strange sort of beauty. The sharp vertical and horizontal lines combined with the contrast between the implied strength and the skeletal, ephemeral quality they have makes them worth my time photographing them.link
Nausicaa
This weekend I re-read the comic Nausicaa by Hayao Miyazaki, best known as the animation director of movies like Totoro, Spirited Away (terrible English title), Princess Mononoke etc. I last read it about five years ago and at the time it struck me as a kind of Japanese Lord of the Rings, with a very detailed post-apocalyptic world. In place of all the Tolkein language stuff there is, well, obviously a lot of thought has gone into which countries use which types of airplanes... I actually started reading this comic for the first time in high school, but he didn't actually finish drawing it until 1994 which was 13 years after he started it. (The picture below is from Metropolis.)
Anyway on re-reading I didn't find it quite as compelling as the first time. I was also watching this Japanese animation, Metropolis, yesterday evening, and both of them end in huge destructive explosions that destroy a lot of stuff and are rendered in lots of detail. I hadn't noticed before how much the comic is like watching an animated movie - there's a lot of focus on the cinematic effects, like moment-by-moment renderings of air battles and the like - I think this is typical of manga generally.
That didn't bother me though, it was more the substance of it that I felt was disappointing. It's basically an ecological fable, with a lot of spiritual mumbo-jumbo about nature and the earth thrown in. It seemed a bit dated and 1970s. There are a lot of mysteries that get revealed but somehow they didn't really seem to add up to a lot, despite the serious, earth-shattering tone of the story. It was just very earnest and with a very heavy-handed moral message about ecology, which seemed kind of oversimplified. The main things I still liked were the battles and the interesting depiction of the corrupt aristocratic elite running things in the empire of Torumekia and the far-out flying gunships and things. I sort of wanted the ecological fable aspect of it to go away so I could enjoy the escapist-fantasy side of things.
link
Belgian hackers
I had a pretty good weekend. I spent most of it drawing pictures, specifically the cover and back cover for my book. I also watched a couple of videos, namely Once Upon a Time in the West and the anime Metropolis, both of which were disappointing. It looks like in Belgium they had a more exciting time, according to this post on Slashdot:
Some belgian linux hackers met this week-end to hack some wireless access points based on the samsung4510 chip. They have succeeded in compiling and booting a uClinux kernel on a Dlink 614ap+, which is equipped with the infamous acx100 wireless chipset. There's still some work to do, but if you want to help, open your 22mbps AP and try to built your own JTAG adaptator to get access to the flash..."
I can't really read much of that, but let's just say, I'm glad we don't all have to have the same kinds of hobbies in this world.
Image: a happy Belgian and his soldering iron.
link
Sunday, November 02, 2003
wise beings
I've just started reading the Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. There's a great bit about sloths.
The three-toed sloth lives a peaceful, vegetarian life in perfect harmony with its environment. "A good-natured smile is forever on its lips," reported Tirler (1966) I have seen that smile with my own eyes....looking up at sloths in repose, I felt I was in the presence of upside-down yogis deep in meditation or hermits deep in prayer, wise beings whose intense imaginative lives were beyond the reach of my scientific probing.
Other sloth facts, also from Life of Pi:
They sleep or rest for twenty hours a day, on average.
On the ground, when motivated, they crawl at a rate of 250 metres per hour. When unmotivated, they cover four to five metres in an hour.
"The sloth is not so much deaf as uninterested in sound."
link
Saturday, November 01, 2003
Robots and chocolate
Friday, October 31, 2003
San Antonio folk tales
Here's some interesting stories from San Antonio, where I grew up.... follow the link for more.
It was Halloween 1975 at the El Camaroncito Nite Club off Old Highway 90 when a handsome stranger waltzed in and turned all the women's heads.link
A brilliant dancer, he had all the moves. Even the shyest girl in the room, says local historian and author Docia Williams, couldn't resist his request for a cumbia.
"But something strange happened when they were dancing," Williams said. "For a moment the enchanted woman broke out of her almost hypnotic trance and she glanced to the floor. 'Your feet! Your feet!' she screamed, and tore herself from the tight embrace of her partner."
Horrified patrons stared at the dance floor and saw long, skinny claws protruding from the stranger's trouser cuffs — chicken feet.
"It's the sign of the devil," Williams said. "Other women began to scream and say prayers."
Suddenly, the stranger disappeared into the men's restroom and left without a trace.
That is, except for a strong smell of sulphur — the devil's scent.
Radio play upsets Americans
It's scary to think what the War of the Worlds radio play must have seemed like when it was originally aired - just a few months before the outbreak of war against Germany. The world was a dark and threatening place, and to prove it, here's some invading martians...
On a more contemporary note, the reaction of listeners isn't that different to the way people have responded to recent government warnings of terrorist attacks. In 1938 they were pressing wet cloths against their faces to protect themselves from alien gases, and in 2003 they are emptying the local hardware stores of duct tape. In both cases, of course, the warnings are fiction intended to manipulate people's emotions.
Tuesday November 1, 1938link
A wireless dramatisation of Mr. H. G. Wells's fantasy, "The War of the Worlds" - a work that was written at the end of last century - caused a remarkable wave of panic in the United States during and immediately after its broadcast last night at eight o'clock.
Listeners throughout the country believed that it was an account of an actual invasion of the earth by warriors from Mars. The play, presented by Mr. Orson Welles, a successful theatrical producer and actor, gave a vivid account of the Martian invasion just as the wireless would if Mr. Wells's dream came true.
The programme began with music by a New York City hotel dance band, which was interrupted suddenly by a Columbia news announcer who reported that violent flashes on Mars had been observed by Princeton University astronomers. The music was resumed, but was soon interrupted again for a report that a meteor had struck New Jersey. Then there was an account of how the meteor opened and Martian warriors emerged and began killing local citizens with mysterious death-rays. Martians were also observed moving towards New York with the intention of destroying the city.
Many people tuning in to the middle of the broadcast jumped to the conclusion that there was a real invasion. Thousands of telephone calls poured into the wireless station and police headquarters. Residents of New Jersey covered their faces with wet cloths as a protection against poisonous gases and fled from their homes carrying with them their most valuable possessions. Roads leading to a village where a Martian ship was supposed to have landed were jammed with motorists prepared to repel attackers.
Federal inquiry
A wireless audience of the entire nation was fooled to a considerable extent in spite of repeated announcements during the broadcast that the drama was purely fictional. The Federal Communications Commission has begun an inquiry into the broadcast with a view to preventing the repetition of such a terrifying event. A senator from Iowa said to-day that he has prepared a bill for the next session of Congress with the same purpose.
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Robots to Gain Eyes in the Back of Their Heads
This one kind of speaks for itself...
LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers in the United States are developing robots with "eyes in the backs of their heads" in the form of nine digital cameras attached to a frame the size of a beach ball.link
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
indestructible books
I had a really good day today. We went to a talk from a master bookbinder who has invented a concave spine, which he says makes books indestructible (sorry if this is wrong, I can't be bothered to check the spelling). Apparently a normal convex spine moves around a lot and wears out; a concave one stays still while the book is being handled and therefore doesn't wear out. It looks a bit funny tho. I've just tried to find an image, but can't, so here instead is Mr Brockman's amazing silver binding made for a Kelmscott Chaucer.
link
Monday, October 27, 2003
Would Like to Meet has ended. My life is a desert. It's so much easier to watch other people trying to improve themselves...
Gotta dance!!
By popular demand, here is a better picture of a great non-robot. Hope you like it, Woob.
Save the Green Planet!
Save the Green Planet! is a Korean film showing as part of the London Film Festival. Its totally unhinged and brilliant. The main character, Byeong-gu, (shown left) kidnaps a famous businessman whom he believes to be an alien come to take over the Earth. He rubs stain remover (the thing he's holding) into his feet because he thinks it will break down his alien DNA and shaves his head to stop him communicating telepathically through his hair. It all goes a bit bonkers after that. It's funny and shocking and sad all at the same time. link
Names that turn out to be desperately wrong
From the BBC...
Red-faced officials at General Motors in Canada have been forced to think of a new name for their latest model after discovering it was a slang word for masturbation.link
GM officials said they had been unaware that LaCrosse was a term for self-gratification among teenagers in French-speaking Quebec. They are now working on a new name for the LaCrosse in Canada. The car will go on sale next year to replace the Buick Regal.
More recently, Mitsubishi had to change the name of its Pajero model in Spanish speaking countries, where the word is a slang term for "masturbator". While Toyota's Fiera proved controversial in Puerto Rico, where fiera translated to "ugly old woman".
And Ford didn't have the reception it expected in Brazil when their Pinto car flopped. They then discovered that in Brazilian Portuguese slang, pinto means "small penis".
