Archive for June, 2008
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Bloggers to Associated Press: “You can’t fire me, I quit!”
[ Comments Off ]Posted on June 17, 2008 by admin in Popular Media, Technology
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008Bloggers boycott Associated Press for being foolishly selfish buttheads.
Apparently the Associated Press is setting guidelines for how bloggers can repurpose their content (ironically, you’ll need a New York Times log-in to read that link). This has some bloggers in a bit of a tizzy. Enough of a tizzy, in fact, that some bloggers are trying to start a boycott and petition the AP. It all started with DMCA takedowns filed against Drudge Retort . Am I getting obscure enough here for you? Let me sum it up for you quickly: basically, bloggers will use excerpts from AP articles and then link to the article. The problem (from the AP’s point of view) is that this constitutes “hot news” misappropriation, and is a violation of copyright law. Patently absurd, in my opinion, and I don’t even rely on AP news feeds directly for content. It smacks of the continuing tendency of large, established organizations (the RIAA & MPAA spring to mind) that are used to monopolizing an industry suddenly figuring out that those weirdos on the intra-nets are actually having an impact on life, commerce, and the world in general. I’m not actually supporting the boycott, but I found it amusing that the same week I bought the domain dissociatedpress.com for personal & parody usage, Read the rest of this entry »
My.BarackObama.com
[ Comments Off ]Posted on June 17, 2008 by admin in Politics
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008How the Obama capaign is using the web to build support
Okay, maybe I should call this section “Obama” instead of “Politics”. I promise more diversity in content in coming posts, but a little disclosure is in order: I will maintain nothing like impartiality on this site regarding the upcoming presidential election. My stance – elevator pitch version – is that John McCain is a crusty, lying, self-serving turncoat. That being said, I just wanted to point out to any fellow Obama supporters that BarackObama.com has some great media tools & downloads, especially if you have your own site. I’ve installed a few widgets here and there, like a “Latest Video” feed, and a “Donate” button. The widget generator is well implemented and should offer users some usable color/design options. I also created a user account on my.barackobama.com . My initial impression wasn’t too positive; it seemed like a lot of the tools intended to help you network could’ve been implemented better, especially the search features, which don’t allow you to combine search parameters. I’ll be exploring it more and posting updates occasionally.
Dumpster Diving: It’s What’s For Breakfast
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on June 16, 2008 by admin in Clean & Green, Lifestyle & Culture
Monday, June 16th, 2008Living on the edible waste materials of our throw-away consumer society.
The next time it’s 4:30 pm and you’re eyeing the clock at your 9-5 job, wondering how you’re going to fill the tank, buy the groceries, pay the VISA bill, and still have some fun money left over, ponder this: Maybe you don’t have to work at all. No, I’m not about to pitch some multi-level marketing scheme. On the contrary, if you have some anti-capitalist sentiments, it would make becoming a Freegan that much more palatable. Imagine if all your food, your transportation, maybe even your housing, were free. Imagine if, when your friends and family asked why you were unemployed, you could say: “I’m not unemployed, I’m voluntarily jobless. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Kind of like when the military calls human beings “soft targets”.
For the procurement of food, all you need to do is get over that little issue you have with digging through garbage bins for dinner. Once you’ve gotten over your waste-disposal snobbery, there is, contrary to popular wisdom, indeed a free lunch. As well as dinner, breakfast, and maybe even high tea, too. All the while, you’re making a powerful statement by not supporting a society in which “…retailers plan high-volume product disposal as part of their economic model”, as so eloquently stated at Freegan.info, your one-stop (no) shopping destination and guide to Freegan living.
Transportation? No problem. Freegans utilize trainhopping, hitchhiking, walking, skating, and biking as their basic modes of transport. That means you’ll be late for that meeting across town because you skateboarded, but it won’t matter. Remember? You don’t have a job!
Housing’s a cinch too. Just squat! Occupying abandoned property isn’t very different from what you did all day in your cubicle job, except instead of an annoying boss poking their head into your space at Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t Be A Dummy Head
[ Comments Off ]Posted on June 15, 2008 by admin in Music, Technology
Sunday, June 15th, 2008More than you’ll ever want to know about binaural recording and 3D audio.
If you need to capture that feeling of your interviewee looking over the viewer’s head at the big alien that’s about to eat them, you might want to try the Binaural Mic from Otokinoko, pictured here. I don’t know how it compares to big name binaural mics like the Neumann KU 100 dummy head, but at $3,899.00, one would hope it sounds more real than the original sound. It’s sure to at least put a nice deer-in-the-headlights look on your subject.
If you’ve never heard binaural recordings, there are some interesting examples at virtualbarber.org. There are also some fun 3D audio illusions like the circling helicopter, which although most effective through headphones, works even through a decent set of speakers. One of the creepier illusions is something I’ve always wanted to use in a horror soundtrack. It’s called the Continuous Shepard Tone, and it sounds like a pitch that is infinitely falling. And I mean infinitely. Let it loop a few times and your brain should start melting slightly.
Space Toilets & Goat Love
[ Comments Off ]Posted on June 14, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture, Technology
Saturday, June 14th, 2008Today’s hot topics: Saudi Goat Beauty Contests; Space Toilets
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Only the Internet will provide the opportunity for a headline like that. And only on the Internet will you find a story about a Saudi Goat Beauty Contest via a Chinese news site.
Another hot topic on the MetaBlogs this morning: you may have heard about the space station’s broken toilet. Well, the station inhabitants are relieved (heh) to have it fixed. If you’ve never given much thought to zero-g elimination, be sure to check out astronaut Chris Hadfield‘s informative & humorous overview of space toilets (streaming video link). He seems flushed with excitement as he bowls the audience over. No, really. He’s a straight shooter. A number one expert.