Monday, November 10, 2003

Kevin Sites' blog: How a "sojo" files a live report -- or doesn't.
Kevin Sites, blogger and NBC News correspondent in Iraq, has posted a fascinating account of the unbelievable lengths to which solo journalists must go to file live satellite transmissions from remote battlefields. Equipment breaks, unexpected technical snafus come up, but news has to get through. Sometimes, the means disassembling gear to make a temporary laptop modem out of a videophone. Sometimes, that means your dinner becomes a tripod.

"At left -- adjusting the camera. See that dirt berm? That's Syria on the other side. See that guy with a gun? That's a new Iraqi border guard. Nice pose, huh. See that guy in camo -- that's Lt. Col. Arnold (he's going to be bummed because he wanted to take off his cold weather gear before going on camera -- too late. It's an Army macho thing).

See that guy behind the camera? That's me. See that tripod? It's a piece of crap -- one of the legs fell off en route to the border and will never be found. See that box of MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat)? That's my new tripod leg. See the Colonel's helmet? That's the counterweight that keeps the camera from tipping over. It's amazing how desperation can push you to new levels of creativity in the middle of the desert."

Swedish woodlands butter-footgear shock horror
Swedish hikers discovered 70 pairs of shoes in the woods, each pair filled with butter. No word on whether it was the very best butter.

A provincial spokesman says the buttered footwear ranges from sneakers to boots. There are even butter-filled high heels and tap shoes. Each contains about a pound of butter.

The province spokesman says they'd like to catch the person who did it and make them clean it up. He says it's going to create quite a mess when the butter starts to spoil.

Update: Erik sez, "It's an art project by German/Swedish photographer Boris Duhm who put the shoes on this mountain and filmed it and he will be showing it at an exhibition in Sweden in January. He forgot to tell the locals.
posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:41:11 AM permanent link to this entry

Hill of Crosses
Amazing photos of the Hill of Crosses in Siauliai, Lithuania, a small hill where hundreds of thousands of crosses have been deposited by pilgrims since the town was raided by Teutonic Knights in the 14th Century. Link (via Geisha Asboi)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:39:43 AM permanent link to this entry

Sunday, November 09, 2003

Merkins for virtual people
If your morph-porn is perfect save for the pubes, the virtual merkin is an $8 library that you can use to generate picture-perfect thatches.

This is a smart prop and it was formed to fit Victoria's default mesh with the Pubic Detail Dial set to 1.000...

3 Morphs are applied, which can be mixed as you like
- Mid Noise (default set to 1.000) allows you to control the roughness of the middle plane. Thus the look can be improoved when viewing the prop from side angles.
- Top Noise (default set to 1.000) does the same for the top plane.
- Gen Ctrl allows you to adjust the shape for existing genitals on the hip texture map.

Disney aping Pixar, going all-digital
Here's a great Slashdot article and discussion thread about Disney's abandonment of traditional, hand-drawn animation (which Disney has sworn, for years, it would never give up), in favor of 3D, computer-generated work.

Supposedly, all of their animators-- even staunch traditionalists such as Glenn Keane-- are being trained on 3D computer animation techniques. The last hand-drawn high-budget Disney feature scheduled for release is Home on the Range, which is due out next April. It appears that Disney is bowing to the supposed pressures of the market, even though the hand-drawn Lilo and Stitch was considered a success and the all-CG Dinosaur (done at Disney's now-defunct FX house The Secret Lab) was not. However, I believe there's another factor at work: Pixar's contract with Disney is set to expire soon, and the revered CG house has been making their own demands of Disney for the contract's renewal.

Well, helloooo, Fleshbot.
A new web magazine in blogtrepreneur Nick Denton's growing Gawker Media portfolio launches today. Fleshbot promises "all the porn that digital technology and distribution has made possible:" CGI, amateur girls, webcam guys, sex blogs, and plenty more juicy, geeky, NSFW goodies. Notably, the site combines gay and straight smut: will the unusual decision to mix genres tittilate or alienate? Either way, it's a ballsy move. From the FAQ:

"Q: I like straight porn. What's with all the gay stuff?
A: Fleshbot does not believe in the balkanization of pornographic desire. Fleshbot seeks to address and stimulate all varieties of tastes and sexualities. If you don't like what you see on the main page, simply use the text and graphic buttons in the sidebar to filter the content which most interests you."

Link
posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:35:55 PM permanent link to this entry

Captchas as random poetry
Patrick Swieskowski has written a scraper that sucks in four random captcha words from AOL Instant Messenger's sign-up screen and arranges them as serindipitous, random poetry. Link (Thanks, Patrick!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:32:47 PM permanent link to this entry

Infinitely expressive smileys
This highly tweakable smiley-generator is part of a computational semiotics project to refine the expressivity of machine-mediated communications. Link (Thanks, Hamish!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:27:12 PM permanent link to this entry

Adult magazines screwed by the Internet?
Interesting AP story about the web's impact on the economics of adult print magazines:

After 35 years in the business of titillating and offending, pornographer Al Goldstein says his magazine can't compete anymore. The audience is just as large, he says, but the Internet has transformed the product and its delivery. Just over a month ago, Goldstein stopped publishing Screw magazine and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, giving him a chance to cut costs, relaunch the magazine and refocus attention on his Web site.

Goldstein said circulation woes throughout the field show "we are an anachronism; we are dinosaurs; we are elephants going to the bone cemetery to die. ... The delivery system has changed, and we have to change with it if we want to survive."

Back and to the Left
"Back and to the Left" is a "scratch-video" composition produced by a Canadian video artist. It makes very witty use of classic film footage and a catchy tune to create an audiovisual composition. Link
posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:40:59 AM permanent link to this entry

Average Internet self-identity
Inter.Face is the winner of last year's Machinista Russian art festival. It invites visitors to drag and-drop graphic facial-anatomy elements to avatars of themselves; once the project ran through, all the avatars were combined and smoothed to generate an "average net self-identity." Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:35:41 AM permanent link to this entry

Tetrapaks as pop art
The Viennese artists' group Monochrom has a web exhibit of Tetrapak milk cartons, treating Tetrapak design as a form of pop art:

The breakfast table and other battle sites of the packaging struggle between Burma and Belgium are the real exhibition sites of everyday consumer design, packaging nutrition and luxury foods, filling garbage sacks, but also focusing our aesthetic sensors. There is also a delivery of literature for the table, offering the possibility of studying a language in foreign contexts.

Since the collected examples not only come from shop counters and were saved from garbage death but have also been discovered in ditches and sinks during a situationist meandering through the world with trained eyes, there is also a link to securing evidence.

Dog Harry Potter Hallowe'en costume
There's a Dog Hallowe'en Parade in NYC -- who knew? Link (via Exciting Monkeybum Stories for Boys and Girls)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 4:44:57 AM permanent link to this entry

Daily Show on Nat Heatwole
Amazing Daily Show segment on Nat Heatwole, the "blade runner" who stashed weapons on dozens of Southwest Air jets to prove that Homeland Security's invasive searches do nothing to secure our skies. 5.03MB Quicktime Link (via On Lisa Rein's Radar)
posted by Cory Doctorow at 4:38:34 AM permanent link to this entry

Michael Moore AV archive
The Unoffocial Michael Moore Media Archive is an enormous collection of unauthorized sound and video recordings of Moore's speeches, films, videos and so forth. Link (via On Lisa Rein's Radar)
posted by Cory Doctorow at 4:20:24 AM permanent link to this entry

High ersatzery from Farkistani photoshopper army
Good Fark photoshopping contest: come up with cheap imitations of well-known products, the cheaper the better. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 3:21:32 AM permanent link to this entry

We've had Napster since 1909, and the sky still hasn't fallen
In 1909, residents of Wilmington, DE, were able to subscribe to an online music service that piped phonograph recordings over their telephone lines and through loudspeakers. 1909 was one year after the sheet music publishers were told to get bent by Congress: see, they'd grown alarmed at the prevalance of unauthorized piano rolls and had asked the Congress for a Broadcast-Flag-like regime that would let them veto any new music tech that would endanger their business (like online music delivery), making it illegal. Congress told them to get lost. Good thing we rescued those idiots from themselves back in 1908 -- can you imagine a music industry where the most lucrative product in the market was sheet music?

It's a pattern: the Vaudeville artists sued Marconi over the radio -- which made them rich. The movie studios boycotted TV until Disney sold out to get the funds for Disneyland -- and TV rights made the studios rich. Jack Valenti told Congress that the VCR was the Boston Strangler of the film industry, and then it doubled his income through pre-recorded tape sales and rentals.

Now, of course, Congress has given up on saving the entertainment industry -- and us -- from itself. With the Broadcast Flag, new technologies will only come into the market if they don't disrupt the industries built on the old ones. And with the WIPO Broadcast Treaty in the works, it's fruitless to pray for some technology safe-haven where we'll be able to develop our gear in peace, far from the short-sighted, greedy lunacy of the entertainment companies. The FCC should be ashamed of itself.

When plugged up to a phonograph the subscriber's line is automatically made busy on the automatic switches with which the Wilmington exchange is equipped. Several lines can be connected to the same machine at the same time, if more than one happens to call for the same selection.

Each musical subscriber is supplied with a special directory giving names and numbers of records, and the call number of the music department. When it is desired to entertain a party of friends, the user calls the music department and requests that a certain number be played. He releases and proceeds to fix the megaphone in position. At the same time the music operator plugs up a free phonograph to his line, slips on the record and starts the machine. At the conclusion of the piece the connection is pulled down, unless more performances have been requested.

Saturday, November 08, 2003

McDonald's should get a dictionary and look up "trademark"
McDonald's misunderstands the nature of dictionaries: that is, to observe the language as she is spoken and document her. McDonald's is up in arms over Merriam-Webster's inclusion of "McJob" in its current edition. Naturally, McD's has trumped up a completely groundless trademark claim to back this up. Trademarks don't let you control how people speak -- they only allow you to stop other commerical outfits from confusing your customers; certainly, they don't give you the power to stop the reporting of the fact that English speakers use "McJob" to describe a crappy job.

Walt Riker, a spokesman for McDonald's, said the Oak Brook, Illinois-based fast-food giant also is concerned that "McJob" closely resembles McJOBS, the company's training program for mentally and physically challenged people.

"McJOBS is trademarked and we've notified them that legally that's an issue for us as well," Riker said.

Chimp filmstar turns to painting
JWZ just got the coolest birthday present ever: a painting painted by Cheeta, the chimp who played opposite Johnnie Weismuller in the Tarzan movies.

The artist is now 71 years old and living in Palm Springs, Florida, enjoying his new career as a painter.

His name is Cheeta, and he's the world's oldest living primate.

Shirky on SemWeb
Clay Shirky has published a ringing denouncement of the Semantic Web, pointing out that this is a project that elides the hard bits and solves the easy bits -- it's not far off from the digital identity world, where 70 percent of the use cases are easy problems that could be solved with some new W3C form elements, and the remainder are deep, philosophical problems we've been arguing about since Roman times.

First, take some well-known problem. Next, misconstrue it so that the hard part is made to seem trivial and the trivial part hard. Finally, congratulate yourself for solving the trivial part.

All the actual complexities of matching readers with books are waved away in the first sentence: "You browse/query until you find a suitable offer to sell the book you want." Who knew it was so simple? Meanwhile, the trivial operation of paying for it gets a lavish description designed to obscure the fact that once you've found a book for sale, using a credit card is a pretty obvious next move...

No one who has ever dealt with merging databases would use the word 'simply'.

Friday, November 07, 2003

Amazing sculptures by woman with Down Syndrome
"Judith Scott (born 1943), a fifty-five year old woman with Down's Syndrome, has spent the past ten years producing a series of totally non-functional objects which, to us, appear to be works of sculpture, except that the notion of sculpture is far beyond Judith's understanding. As well as being mentally handicapped, Judith cannot hear or speak, and she has little concept of language." Link (via Geisha Asobi)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 3:31:36 PM permanent link to this entry

Fair Seuss on SCO
The Grinch Who Stole Linux:

SCO hated Linux! The GNU Linux season!
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be that their heads weren't screwed on quite right.
It could be, perhaps, that their shoes were too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that their bank account was two sizes too small.

Economist replies to Valenti on Broadcast Flag
Arnold Kling has a PhD in Economics from MIT, and took great umbrage at Jack Valenti's characterization of the Broadcast Flag decision at the FCC as a victory for consumers. He's written an open letter to Valenti in reply.

I will not buy any device for the purpose of receiving HDTV. Instead, I will gladly purchase devices that will route packets via the Internet Protocol over that spectrum. In the neighborhood of my house, IP packets will take precedence over HDTV signals.

I recommend that other consumers adopt the Jack Valenti Spectrum Re-allocation. I am talking about massive civil disobedience of the FCC. Remember, anyone who receives television over cable or satellite will give up nothing by assigning higher priority to IP packets. For anyone who misses broadcast television, it would be better to give them taxpayer dollars to subscribe to satellite TV than for consumers to pay the Broadcast Flag hardware tax.

By re-allocating spectrum from HDTV to wireless IP, we can kill two legacy birds with one stone. We can hasten the demise of the phone companies--because with a wireless "last mile" the wireless Internet can replace traditional land lines and cell phones; and we can show Jack Valenti, the movie industry, and the television industry what it really means to "score a big victory for consumers."

Link-Fu contest: Here are the winners.
The votes are in. For this week's battle to find the most bizarre and obscure links on the web (background) there were many judges, and countless submissions: so, we have multiple winners. And no, those aren't hanging chads you see scattered around the floor of Link-Fu competition headquarters. That's just leftover confetti from the inauguration party last night. Today, my friends, a generation of Link-Fu masters is born.

* Christina James was the first to submit Koonago Factory. Comments: Several judges picked this one. Dark, violent Japorn featuring tiny cartoon fairy-doll women? What's not to like? (NSFW rating: some nudity and grossness, but nothing Rotten-grade).
* Wayne Mercier submitted The International Trepanation Advocacy Group. Comments: Invisible Cowgirl says, "Because nothing says scary like I Got a Hole Drilled in My Head personal testimonials."
* Steve Lew submitted Mutant Midget Interracial Lemon Porn. Comments: Xeni says, "Strange fruit. Mmmmmmm."
* Steve Mills submitted Coffee Table Wife. Comments: Warren Ellis liked it. Go figure.
* Lucas Emery submitted Aussie Scrotum Shop. Comments: Made Warren smile.
* Zach Rodgers submitted Ordo Magazine. Comments: Invisible Cowgirl says, "A beauty of a blog chock full of everything that's weird and wonderful on the web." (NSFW guide: Links to some sexually explicit stuff, but links to lots of other stuff, too).
* An anonymous Link-Fu Master Ash Kalb submitted Jesus is With You Everywhere. Comments: Xeni liked the scary trucker picture.
* Peace Rug and Wholesome Swimsuits came from from Judson. Comments: Mark thought they were weird, silly and fun.
posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:17:19 AM permanent link to this entry

Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act
Several members of Congress who (now looking back with regret) voted in favor of Ashcroft's PATRIOT act are supporting a bi-partisan bill called the Benjamin Franklin True Patriot act, which will restore many of the Constitutional Rights that Americans had before Bush and his cronies gutted them.

Rep. Butch Otter, a conservative Republican from Idaho, joined Rep. Bernie Sanders, a liberal independent from Vermont, to call for the repeal of the PATRIOT Act provision Ashcroft claims to have never used [spying on the library habits of citizens -- Mark]. Otter had his own quote from the same founding father.

"It was Thomas Jefferson who said, 'In questions of political power, speak to me not of confidence in men, but bind them down from mischief with the chains of a Constitution,'" Otter said. "That mischief is what we're seeing today and could see tomorrow."

3) Both of these bills look like they're buried in committees. The last listed "significant action" on the Freedom to Read Protection Act was nearly six months ago. The Benjamin Franklin Act has been referred to five different committees.
Link (Thanks, Mack!)
posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 9:35:09 AM permanent link to this entry

IRS has a $1MM tax-refund form

How much is Dubya's tax-break worth to the hyperrich? Enough that the IRS has a new (thanks, IAW!) form for the electronic deposit of a tax refund of $1 million or more. 28k PDF Link
posted by Cory Doctorow at 8:29:52 AM permanent link to this entry

Web Zen: Hipster Zen
handbook
mr. hipster
free williamsburg
trucker hat
feathered hair
bingo
bumplist
terrorists
why hipsters suck
anti-hipster forum
not lost in translation
her
i hate nyc
six months ago

and, of course...
gawker [which we love, shamelessly. --XJ]
web zen home, web zen store, (Thanks, Frank).
posted by Xeni Jardin at 8:01:07 AM permanent link to this entry

Hey! My first short story collection is out. Download a bunch of the stories for free here, or buy the physical, dead-tree book!

9-20-03: Read the Island Chronicle Dispatches at LA WEEKLY.

Mark and Carla are in the South Pacific! Read and see all about it on The Island Chronicles

Visit Mark Frauenfelder's Mad Professor site!
Discuss

The Guestbar! A tiny, guest-edited blog! Todd Lappin Todd Lappin is a senior editor at Business 2.0 in San Francisco. He also serves as fleet operations officer for Telstar Logistics, an imaginary supply-chain management firm that provides integrated client services by land, air, sea, and space. OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Halloween Costumes 2003 While looking over some digital pix I took during Halloween, I came across a few photos of my favorite costume of 2003, spotted at the annual Mystery Ball benefit for the Headlands Center for the Arts. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present for you, Mr. and Mrs. Golden Gate Bridge. (Note the very eerie resemblance??) The costume was split down the middle, so each half of the bridge could travel independently (avec cocktails, of course). The detail was superb… with little Matchbox cars glued to the road surface and red LEDs blinking atop each tower to warn off passing aircraft. My favorite feature? The foamy-ocean boots. posted by Todd Lappin at 4:10:02 PM | permalink ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO TELSTAR LOGISTICS The Secret of Eternity, revealed at last. Create your own here. posted by Todd Lappin at 6:23:28 PM | permalink FLEET OPERATIONS: Minesweeping San Francisco Oh, the simple joys of a waterfront vista, a pair of binoculars, and ready access to Google. Business 2.0 occupies the 29th floor of a downtown San Francisco high-rise. From different vantage points in the office, it’s possible to take in all the sights from the Bay Bridge, to the Golden Gate, to the fabulous shipyard that lies to the south, beyond Pac Bell Park. From my desk, I stare out at the channel that separates San Francisco’s Embarcadero from Treasure Island. This is the main thoroughfare for ships passing in or out of San Francisco, Oakland, or Alameda. So while I work, I get a great view of all the seafaring traffic -- container ships, tankers, barges, tug boats, military transports, warships, cruise ships, or the occasional very large oddity. I keep a pair of binoculars next to my computer. That way, when a ship passes by, I can type the name into Google to quickly learn more about what I’m seeing. Today has been bountiful: two U.S. Navy minesweepers have been cruising slowly back and forth past my window. The USS Warrior and the USS Gladiator have been trolling the Bay for the last few days… time for some crew training, perhaps? posted by Todd Lappin at 4:30:04 PM | permalink TELSTAR LOGISTICS: Our Mission Statement So, among its many other purposes, this whole Telstar Logistics thing turns out to be a fun way for me to pursue my interest in the history of transportation and infrastructure. I don’t really want to intellectualize this too much -- I’m no big fan of creative statements or online navel-gazing -- but to the extent that I’ll be using this space to discuss my explorations of the last few years, that’s part of what you’ll find here. I promise, it’ll be more show than tell. posted by Todd Lappin at 2:41:54 PM | permalink Guestbar Archives

Boing Boing Boutique

Good Germ Baseball Jersey: $21.95. (More items inside)

Mailing lists

Sign up to receive every Boing Boing post by email.

Sign up for infrequent news from Boing Boing.

Join Mark's art mail list.

The Ukulele Weblog.

MARK'S COMICS
Guru.com comics
Digital Living comics
Illustration portfolio

WWW Boing Boing

BEST BLOGS
Irregular Orbit
Wiley Wiggins
Weblogsky
Electrolite
Making Light
Scrubbles.net
Mooselessness
Follow Me Here
Jimwich
Kottke.org
Blather
The Null Device
Pigs & Fishes
Factovision
randomWalks
Subterranean Notes
Oddball Comic Book of the Day
Due Diligence
stevenberlinjohnson.com
Howard Lovy's NanoBot