Bookmarks for June 21, 2011
- Scientists Create First Memory Expansion for Brain
When if is available for humans, sign me up! At least, I think someone should. I'll probably forget…
XXI Universe- Alternate Take
You might recall a photo of mine from some years ago, featuring a woman and a snake. It’s the most popular photo I’ve ever taken, as measured by flickr (largely because I got linked by Warren Ellis and then BoingBoing). Well, by coincidence, the lady in question happened to be performing at White Mischief the other week. So I got some new shots of her, and I rather like this one – sufficiently different to my previous work to be worth sharing, I think.
Notebook
I was at this conference today, and made this notebook, in addition to sphericising tomato puree, having fun with miracle fruit, watching some extremely interesting musical performances, and making a little plasticine octopus monster. The notebook contains the phrase “Hugo was rescued from the attic of a dead magician”, which in addition to being a factual statement made by one of the speakers today, is possibly the finest story prompt I have ever heard.
Bookmarks for June 16, 2011
- Construction Equipment Playground Opens In Las Vegas – PSFK
What's that you say? An opportunity to play with heavy machinery in a giant sandbox? Why yes, I would like a go on that. Another thing added to the list of reasons to visit Vegas.
House of Hapsburg I
Not sure how many of them I’ll wind up putting on line, but here’s one of the few shots I like from last weekend’s White Mischief/House of Hapsburg event.
Bookmarks for June 13, 2011
- Infovore » Where’s @towerbridge?
The lovely bot that tweeted the activity of Tower Bridge has been killed, and with it, the very, very pleasing history of its activity over the last few years. Come on twitter, you can do better than this.
Bookmarks for June 10, 2011
- Apple's iTunes in iCloud 'won't launch in the UK this year' – Telegraph
I am spittingly furious about this. Fucking PRS shitehawks, screwing the consumer once again. I have bought and paid for my music. There is absolutely no reasonable argument that says I should not have access to it wherever I damn well please, because shockingly, it is *mine*. I have already paid their members what they are entitled to when I bought the fucking stuff, and I find it infuriating that they somehow believe that they have the right to get in the way of my use of their product past that. (Why yes, I do really, really want iCloud.) It's not as if it's remotely meaningful – I *can* (and do) already do everything iCloud will let me do, just less conveniently. Yet PRS want someone else to give them money in exchange for making my life more convenient a third party making my life. They very embodiment of the standard music industry practise of getting between artist and consumer and making things worse for both while skimming the money off the top. How is that related to what their artists do? PRS are playing territory marking office-politics type games on matters that are unrelated to the actual rights in the music, and everything to do with ownership of products. What's next, are they going to GPS tag all my CDs, to make sure I don't carry them outside my house?
Bookmarks for May 31, 2011
- UK Mobile Internet Usage Statistics February 2011 | Tecmark
Need these for work. They're not very interesting unless you're writing about mobile internet strategy, and if you are, you have my sympathies.
- Why Privacy Matters Even if You Have 'Nothing to Hide' – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education
Good article about well, what it says on the tin.
Bookmarks for May 20, 2011
- Amazon.com now selling more ebooks than print books
In the UK, they're only selling more ebooks than hardbacks, but in the US, it's only taken 4 years for ebooks to pass print, so I imagine it'll be even quicker here. Still: if your business depends on dead trees, it's time to start thinking about switching. And when I say "time to start thinking about", I mean "if you don't have a plan in place already, you're probably fucked".
Bookmarks for May 19, 2011
- The People vs. Goldman Sachs | Rolling Stone Politics
If you haven't already read this, do so now. And then join me in praying for some criminal prosecutions.
- Namib-Naukluft Park Picture – Travel Wallpaper – National Geographic Photo of the Day
I got this one from kottke.org, and I'm just going to quote what Jason said about it: "The caption says that this is a photo. My brain is having a difficult time agreeing." Go look.
- On TermKit | Steven Wittens – Acko.net
This looks interesting. He's right – while I need the power of Terminal a lot of the time, there is absolutely no reason why it has to look and behave like it did 20 years and more ago.