Over the last few weeks, I've been receiving strange calls every few days on my mobile phone. A prerecorded male voice talks for about 20 seconds in Spanish and then hangs up. I don't speak Spanish so I have no idea what the guy is saying or why he's calling me. Tonight, my pal Jennifer Lum got a mystery call and after doing some Googling, came upon this fun site Who Called Us. You can enter the number that shows up on caller ID, see how many other people report the same caller, and share comments, clues, and speculations (peppered with some racist bullshit) about who or what is doing the dialing. Nobody has uncovered the identity of my mystery caller yet, but it makes me feel a little better to know that at least 563 other people are being annoyed by the same person. Link
Philadelphia Orchestra launches DRM-free music store
Gabriel sez, "I just got an e-mail from The Philadelphia Orchestra's newslist about the launch of their download store. They offer 256kbps MP3s or FLAC downloads -- 'without shackles,' as they put it. There are downsides -- for example, you can't download just one track from an album, you must purchase the whole album. But there are also upsides -- like being able to get copies of recent live performances that otherwise wouldn't be released."
Link
(Thanks, Gabriel!)
Furniture made from old bicycles
Bike Furniture Design makes elegant handcrafted furniture from old bicycle parts. It's all made to order, and I'm guessing it's a little on the pricey side, but it is handsome as anything. Link (via SciFi Tech)
WoW players plan raids in Second Life
Some World of Warcraft players have started planning their WoW games inside of the virtual world Second Life; they use Second Life on Tuesday afternoons, when WoW goes down for maintenance:
Link (Thanks, Theo!)
Well, some folks on the alliance side of We K(no)W finally figured out something useful to do there - plan raids during Tuesday downtime. Above is my Avatar standing on the UBRS map with a few notations. I'll admit I only lasted a few minutes in there again this time, but at least it was interesting finally!
Ex-RIAA agency "can't find" artists it owes money to, like Public Enemy
Fred von Lohmann sez,
SoundExchange (which is in charge of collecting and distributing royalties collected from satellite radio and webcasting) can't seem to locate the artists to whom these royalties are to be paid. If the monies are not disbursed, SoundExchange gets to keep them. Apparently SoundExchange was worried about publishing the list for fear that "middlemen" would try to swipe a piece of the action for connecting artists with their royalties. (Did they ever think to reach out to the fans?)LinkThey finally published a list of the artists they "can't find."
Check out all the major label artists they can't find:
Cassandra Wilson (Blue Note)?
J. J. Cale (Mercury)?
Jane Siberry (Warner)?
Jeff Buckley (Columbia Records -- they're still putting out his stuff posthumously, with help from his mother!)?
Loverboy?!!
Booker T & the MGs?!!!
Public Enemy? !!!!!!
SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES? !!!!!Not to mention major indie artists like:
Pizzicato Five
L7
Pete RockAnd they can't find Public Image Ltd, despite the fact that they found Johnny Rotten's "other band," the Sex Pistols? They can't seem to find "Neko Case & Her Boyfriends", despite the fact that they seem to have found Neko Case?
The only silver lining here is that to look at the list is to realize that webcasters are bringing real musical diversity back to America -- it's a much richer list than you'd get by aggregating playlists from FM radio!
For SoundExchange's sake, I hope there's a reasonable explanation for this.
Update 2: Fred sez, "Turns out SoundExchange WAS part of the RIAA until 2003. Now it's independent -- although each of the major labels has a board seat. Anyhow, the point is the same -- SoundExchange certainly has deep connections with the major label establishment, so. Here's the FAQ re SoundExchange.
Update: Laura sends in links to other pools of unclaimed royalties for artists: EMI, EMI music publishing, Sony BMG, Universal Music, Harry Fox, CMRRA
Making Comics: Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" for creators
I just finished reading Scott McCloud's magnificent Making Comics, a comic book for people who want to write comic books, or for those of us who want to know about what goes into making a comic. In this, McCloud's third nonfiction book about comics, he was produced his most significant achievement to date, and that's really saying something.
Like many, I first encountered McCloud's books with Understanding Comics, a comic about what comics mean and how they mean it. It's a guide for readers who love comics, and for readers who want to know why they might love comics. It's incredibly lucid and inspiring, and it explains some of the fundamental ways in which stories happen and some of the fundamental ways in which we perceive them. Reading that book was a watershed for me, something that made me reconsider every story I read, watched or heard.
After that came Reinventing Comics, a highly speculative book about what comics might be on the Web. In Understanding Comics, McCloud was telling us something he really knew cold, these incredible insights he'd had about how comics work. In Reinventing Comics, McCloud is more making it up as he goes along, talking about how he thinks comics might be someday. Like many predictions about the Web, some of it was obsolete by the time it went to press, and some of it was shown up over time. Reinventing Comics is an interesting book, but it's not a book that inspires the way that Understanding Comics did (McCloud seems to know this -- the third book contains some slightly wry jokes to that effect).
In Making Comics, McCloud presents a subject that blends the best of both of Reinventing and Understanding Comics. Like Understanding Comics, Making Comics visits territory where McCloud is a master. His explanations of how comics are made, the mechanics of the decisions that make a successful story out of words and pictures, are both theoretical and highly practical. McCloud is a great explainer, someone who makes the subject come to life -- even for someone like me, who'll likely never draw or write a comic. The insights he offers into how comics are made touched me like those in Understanding Comics, making me re-think the way that I see the world and understand it -- seeing how anything gets made tells you more about how to use it.
But there's some of the best of Reinventing Comics in this, too. Like any author, McCloud doesn't know exactly how he does what he does, and in the tradition of the best books about creating, this is a book where McCloud asks himself hard questions about how and why he tells his own stories. So he's not only visiting turf he knows intimately, he's also blazing new trail.
The book is in seven chapters, and each chapter ends with several pages of prose notes, which contain further explanations and exercises for the student comics-ist. It's a handsome, easy-to-absorb gift for the aspiring comics creator in your life. And it's a fine book for anyone who wants to understand how to take apart a comic and see how it works. Link
See also:
Scott McCloud takes "Making Comics" on the road with daughters
Wedding procession led by flower girl in Vader helmet
Bill celebrated his wedding last weeked in two unusual ways. First, the procession was led by a little girl in a Darth Vader helmet while a "hipster-country" version of the Imperial March played. Then Bill caught hidden-camera footage of his nogoodnik brother planting a camera in his nuptial suite as part of an elaborate "Shivaree" prank, and posted it on the Internet in revenge.
About Shivaree, Wikipedia sez, "In the American Midwest, along the Missouri River in Nebraska and Missouri, the term takes on the meaning of playfully kidnapping the bride, curiously similar to some Central Asian traditions."
Link to Vader flower-girl post, Link to practical joke post
(Thanks, Bill)
Audio from Toshiba's DRM lawyer talk at USC
Last Tuesday night, Toshiba's Michael Ayers led a fantastic public discussion about DRM at the USC Annenberg School. Michael negotiates Toshiba's DRM deals, and helped bring the CSS system for DVDs to fruition -- he's now working on next-gen DVD DRM for Blu-Ray and DVD-HD. For all that, he's generally an advocate for consumer rights in DRM, if only because the more crippled a device is, the less of it Toshiba can sell.
The attendees were split on this -- some people from the Disney studios attended, and they, too, were conflicted about this. All in all, it was one of the meatiest, most interesting and wide-ranging talks about DRM, copyright and freedom I've been a part of.
Link, Podcast feed, Subscribe to podcast (Thanks, Andy!)
Reminder: The next two speakers in the USC Annenberg series are Bruce Sterling, 2PM on Monday, Sept 25; and Bruce Schneier, 7PM on Tuesday, Sept 26. These are free, public talks, and I'll post the audio for them as well. Link
Search every code-example in every O'Reilly book
Tech-books publisher O'Reilly Media has launched Code Search, a single place to search all the code examples in every O'Reilly book -- 2.6 million lines of code!
Link
(Thanks, Ryan!)
Umbrella shows a Flickr stream on the inside surfaces
A project in the handle of the Pileus umbrella paints the brolly's interior with a series of wirelessly-fetched Flickr photos while a camera in its tip lets you document your day.
Link (via We Make Money Not Art)The system is constructed by the Pileus Umbrella and the Pileus WebService. User can see and take a photo and video with the PileusUmbrella. User can hand on own experience in rainy day to next user with an umbrella type photoset. User Connects the Grip with the Screen, then the Grip reads the Screen’s ID and login to own Pileus Account. When user takes photos or videos, Pileus WebService evaluates media-type of data and uploads it to Flickr or YouTube, and then set a tag by screen ID. In addition, user twists the grip, it searchs contents at Flickr and YouTube by tag of screen ID, and displays contents in order.
Author replicates novel in Second Life for book-launch
Jason sez, "I run a culture blog about Second Life called 'In The Grid,' and just got done interviewing a fascinating science-fiction novelist named JC Hutchins. A grassroots podcaster who has 10,000 people now listening to each chapter, Hutchins recently decided to hold a book release party within the virtual universe there; and not only that, but one of his fans even built a series of key sets from the novel in which to hold the party, and even special avatars of each character that fans can wear throughout the event."
Link
(Thanks, Jason!)
Beheaded dolls from history
Artists Garith Pettibone and Shiva Rodriguez (photo right), er, hack dolls into representations of various historical figures who were beheaded or died other gruesome ways. They've made more than a dozen of the figures, including Anne Boleyn, Brunhilde, Francoise-Thérèse de Choiseul-Stainville, Gaius Julius Ceasar, Marie Antoinette (seen here), and many more.
From the HeadlessHistoricals "About Us" page:
Using forensic photographs, written historical accounts, and techniques used for creating horror effects in film, special attention is given to the details of the injuries sustained during the final moments of each character's life. All of the eyes are glazed over to produce the lack-luster stare of the dead. Torn flesh and deep gashes are shown in all their gory details and for decapitations the severed muscle tissue and bone is visible in the wound...Link (Thanks, Kirsten Anderson!)
These dolls were designed and created by a couple of artists who share a love for history and for horror, two things that often share the same stage in textbooks and films but are rarely seen together in commemorative dolls.
Bible for mobile phones
If you live in South African, you can download the holy bible to your mobile phone for 40 rand ($5.43). The service is the work of the International Bible Society and Christian Mobile, "a South African firm that sells mobile phone ringtones of Christian songs and an SMS Hopeline of daily bible verses and prayers." The text is available in English or Afrikaans. From Reuters:
UPDATE: BB reader Krisjohn points out that the Qur'an has been freely available for Nokia Series 60 phones for quite some time. Link
"The Virtual Bible will enable the Bible Society to supply the Bible to every modern cell phone user in a fast and affordable format," Rev Gerrit Kritzinger, chief executive of the Bible Society in South Africa, said in a statement...Link (Thanks, Lindsay Tiemeyer!)
Customers can choose between the traditional King James version of the bible or more up-to-date translations. Zulu and Xhosa version will be available soon and other languages will follow.
UPDATE: BB reader Krisjohn points out that the Qur'an has been freely available for Nokia Series 60 phones for quite some time. Link
Rebar's PARK(ing) Day prank in San Francisco
I've posted previously about San Francisco urban prankster group Rebar, who among other stunts converted a downtown parking space into a public park. (Link) Today, Rebar is celebrating PARK(ing) Day again, transforming several parking spaces into temporary parks, including the mayor's personal City Hall spot. Laughing Squid's Scott Beale is working out of Ritual Coffee Roasters today where the nearest parking space is now a little greener. As usual, Scott has the photo goods over at his blog.Link to Laughing Squid, Link to PARK(ing) Day site
UPDATE: Rebar is also celebrating PARK(ing) Day in NYC. Link to Gothamist coverage (Thanks, Jeremy!)
Mind Performance Hacks
At FOO Camp last month, Brian Sawyer, editor of O'Reilly's Hacks series of books, gave me a copy of Mind Performance Hacks by Ron Hale-Evans. I've been dipping into it every chance I get and I'm delighted at every bit I've read so far. The book is like a user's guide to your brain complete with new "software subroutines" that you can run to optimize various mental processes like memory, creativity, emotional response, learning, and logical analysis. O'Reilly's online catalog has a handful of sample hacks from the book posted as PDFs here, and Hale-Evans also maintains a wiki for the book. Mind Performance Hacks is a thinking person's self-help book. Highly recommended.Link
Sanrio headquarters photo
Here are a couple of pictures of Sanrio headquarters. The sad, stained walls, the psych ward pastel color scheme, and the tiny windows into dismally-lit lifeless offices are exactly the opposite of what I would have expected. But I like it anyway. Link
People wash hands more often when a recorded voice tells them to
The Hand Hygiene Voice Module mounts on a restroom wall, reminding you in a "non threatening, non-intrusive" male or female voice to wash your hands after using the toilet.
It says, "Hand washing reduces the spread of germs. Thank you for washing your hands!"
The manufacturer claims it increases hand washing by 12%. Link (Via Neatorama)
The Margaret Thatcher Illusion
Mighty Illusions has a neat psychological illusion. Take a look at these photographs of Maggie Thatcher. You'll note that they're not quite the same. But when you rotate them 180 degrees, the differences appear much more pronounced. Link
Visualize product size before you buy
When I'm shopping online for a new camera or other expensive little box shaped item, I have trouble visualizing the size of it. For example, the Exilim EX-Z70 is 95.2 x 60.6 x 19.8 mm. That doesn't mean much to me. Even when I convert that into inches, it's still hard to visualize. A new site called sizeeasy lets you enter the dimensions of the gadget you're interested in and compare it to other common objects (a deck of cards, a box of matches, a CD case, etc.) so you can see how big it really is. Link (Via Lifehacker)
Commemorative 75th anniversary Airstream trailer
Airstream has commissioned a commemorative, 19-foot trailer for its 75th anniversary, and will produce 75 numbered units. The trailer's designer David Winick has more information on his site:
Link (Thanks, David!)
The 75th Commemorative Edition Travel Trailer combines ultra-refined, polished aluminum interiors with rich, natural materials such as warm wood veneers materials and details which pay homage to founder Wally Byam’s original designs.Designer David Winick took the lead in creating an interior space that is both ultra modern and retrospective. Natural linoleum in warm tones brings out the highlights of genuine wood veneers. Upholstery inspired by 1940’s tailoring heightens textural contrasts, reflecting in an array of aluminum surfaces. Porthole windows, round vents and yacht-inspired details further integrate the past and future in this very special travel trailer.
Clothes for baby cryptozoologists
Earlier this year, I posted about Amy Miller's baby onesies emblazoned with iron-ons of Bigfoot, the Giant Squid, Mothman, and other characters from cryptozoology. Amy makes tiny models of the creatures from cannibalized doll parts and other crafty bits and then photographs them to create the images. Now she's upped the quality of her cryptid baby tees by printing the images on fabric and stitching the prints like patches directly onto the shirts. Seen here, the Jersey Devil design. Each shirt is made to order for $20 including tax and shipping. Link
Eat a roach, skip the roller-coaster line
Eat a 3"-long Madagascar hissing cockroach and the coaster park Six Flags Over Texas will give you a pass that lets you skip the lines on their most popular rides:
Link (Thanks, Ethan!)Chew and swallow one of these crunchy, wiggling critters and Six Flags will also give you a Flash Pass for the evening that will let you bypass the line on many thrill rides...
The cockroaches, which Six Flags will buy from local pet stores, were chosen because they are considered a delicacy in many Asian and African cultures.
(Photo thumbnail from a larger picture entitled Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches by Flickr user Corwinok)
How physics killed Spiderman's girlfriend
Jim sez, "I teach a class at the University of Minnesota originally called "Everything I Know About Science I Learned from Reading Comic Books." I have written a popular science book, and have given many public talks on this subject. A friend taped and posted some clips from a recent talk at a science fiction/comics convention, and posted clips on YouTube."
Link
(Thanks, Jim!)
Knitted English garden
A woman in Surrey has made an entire English garden out of knitted items, from carrots to snails to squirrels to a picnic lunch -- she solicited contributions from all over England:
Link (via Craft!)
The project has been painstakingly completed by more than 300 contributors, including a group of gay men knitting in Brighton, and a 12-year-old boy in Sussex, who spent six months making the pond and waterfall.Ms Bolsover, 46, of Dorking, Surrey, estimates her team made 4million individual stitches, knitting together 80km (50 miles) of wool.
Orchestral performances of Commodore 64 music
The C64 Orchestra performs orchestral renditions of classic music from games for the Commodore 64 personal computer -- Monte on the Run, One Man and his Droid, Cybernoid 2 and others.
Link
(Thanks, Viper Fantastic!)
Bruce Sterling story: How kids' lives will be ruined by Internet control
Bruce Sterling's uproariously funny story "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by Google" has just been published in the New Scientists -- it's a short short story about the life of a teenager when today's tools of ubiquitous computer control and surveillance are perfected. Like all great science fiction, this doesn't so much predict the future as it predicts the present:
I tried hard to buy us another spray can. I'm a street poet, so really, I tried. I walked up to the mall-store register, disguised in my Dad's business jacket, with cash in hand. They're cheap, aerosol spray cans. Beautiful colours of paint, just screaming to get sprayed someplace public where everybody has to see what's on our minds. The store wouldn't sell me the can. The e-commerce system simply would not allow that transaction. The screen just went gray and stayed gray.Link (this goes to the ad you have to look at if you're not a New Scientist subscriber, which redirects to the story) (Thanks, Steve!)That creepy "differential permissioning" sure saves a lot of trouble for grown-ups. Increasing chunks of the world are just... magically off limits. It's a weird new regime where every mall and every school and every bus and train and jet is tagged and tracked and ambient and pervasive and ubiquitous and geolocative... Jesus, I love those words... Where was I?
Windows Media Player new DRM - worse than ever
The Inquirer's Charlie Demerjian shreds the new Windows Media Player 11 DRM, which is far more restrictive than previous versions. This is the anti-copying built into Microsoft's smart-phones, media centers and PCs:
One of the problems with WiMP11 is licensing and backing it up. If you buy media with DRM infections, you can't move the files from PC to PC, or at least you can't and have them play on the new box. If you want the grand privilege of moving that content, you need to get the approval of the content mafia, sign your life away, and use the tools they give you. If you want to do it in other ways, you are either a lawbreaker or following the advice of J Allard. Wait, same thing...Link (Thanks, Matthew!)Yes, WiMP11 will no longer allow you the privilege of backing up your licenses, they are tied to a single device, and if you lose it, you are really SOL. Remember that feeling I mentioned earlier? This is nothing less than a civil rights coup, and most people are dumb enough to let it happen...
But it gets worse. If you rip your own CDs, WiMP11 will take your rights away too. If the 'Copy protect music' option is turned on, well, I can't top their 1984 wording. "If the file is a song you ripped from a CD with the Copy protect music option turned on, you might be able to restore your usage rights by playing the file. You will be prompted to connect to a Microsoft Web page that explains how to restore your rights a limited number of times." This says to me it will keep track of your ripping externally, and remove your rights whether or not you ask it to. Can you think of a reason you would need to connect to MS for permission to play the songs you ripped from you own CDs? How long do you think it will be before a service pack, masquerading as a 'critical security patch' takes away the optional part of the 'copy protection'? Now do you understand why they have been testing the waters on WiMP phoning home? Think their firewall will stop it even if you ask?
Ice Jackets encase vodka bottles in ice
IceJackets are molds that fit around vodka and other liquor bottles that you can fill with water and then freeze, producing a vodka bottle that's encased in a jacket of ice.
I've done this before with a big milk-carton -- just cut the top off and slide the bottle in, then fill with water and pop it in the freezer. You can even do things like suspend flowers, curios and other detritus in the ice.
Link
(via ShinyShiny)
Ghost dance video from "India's filmic Shakespeare"
Avi sez, "Google Video now hosts the dance of the Ghosts sequence from 'Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne', Satyajit Ray's rare 1968 film fable. Ethnic psychedelia by India's filmic Shakespeare!
Link (Thanks, Avi!)
This is the dance of the Ghosts sequence from 'Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne', Satyajit Ray's rare 1968 film fable. The action occurs in an ... all imaginary land. Goopy the singer and Bagha the drummer are untalented musicians whose playing provokes as much ridicule from the peasants as it does contempt from the king. The only audience they manage to charm is the ghosts. Wearing magic sandals, they arrive in the kingdom of Shundi where, to everyone's amazement, the ruler admires their music. Meanwhile, the king of the neighboring realm of Halla, who is the twin brother of the king of Shundi, wants to declare war. Goopy and Bagha do everything in their power to dissuade him, and finally it is their singing that demobilizes the troops at the last moment. Reconciled, the twin brothers offer to reward Goopy and Bagha with their daughters in marriage.
The "Remember Ring" is programmed to breifly heat up to 120 deg F every hour on the hour on a specific date -- such as your anniversary. It powers itself with a "micro thermopile" that turns heat from your hand into stored electricity that runs its internal clock and the heater.
For some reason, this gorgeous Space Invaders wrapping paper is sold as "dude wrap" for guys' presents. I'm pretty sure that Space Invaders are unisex.
FCC screws deaf people
The FCC has changed the rules on Closed Captioning, creating a large number of exemptions that will make it easier for shows to be aired without accessible text. Natalija sez, "As someone who grew up without being able to understand movies or television, and wasn't able to afford a closed captioning machine until near adulthood, this is a severe blow to those with hearing disabilities. People don't realize how much more deaf people are willing to buy something when they can see it advertized in words, or how much more willing they are to watch something when it is captioned instead of having to rely on another person to explain things."
On Wed. Sept 13, 2006, the FCC issued one of the worst decisions it has ever issued on closed captioning. The Order is on the web site shown below. Basically the order grants two requests for exemptions from the requirement to closed caption, a requirement in place since 1996 and that has ensured more and more closed captioning on television.Link (Thanks, Natalija!)In taking this action, the FCC states that it is "inclined favorably" to grant new exemption requests to organizations that do "not receive compensation from video programming distributors from the airing of [their] programs," and who also say they "may terminate or substantially curtail [their] programming" or "[curtail] other activities important to [their] mission" if forced to caption.
The gist of what the FCC has done is to open the door to many more exemptions. It appears also the FCC's action creates a rule change that defines a new category of exemption from the captioning rules, cutting the legs out from the current "undue burden" proof currently needed to get an exemption for captioning requirement.
Update: François sez, "The adverse impact goes much beyond the hearing impaired: close captioning attaches a synchronized stream of text to a video stream, which opens up useful ways to index, search and retrieve video for anyone, deaf or not."
Open source prosthetics movement
Quinn Norton's written a stupendous piece for Wired News on a new open-source prosthetics movement started by a Iraq-war veteran upper-arm amputee named Jonathan Kuniholm, who has vowed to produce a prosthesis "that's so cool, somebody with two arms would want an amputation to get one."
Kuniholm was an engineer before his Marine reserve unit was sent to Iraq, where he lost his arm to an IED. His engineer/design partners in North Carolina worked with him to improve the nonfunctional smooth plastic prosthesis he was issued by the VA, making substantial improvements over the basic design. Then they decided to open up the designs to help other amputees. The site has grown into a collection of prosthesis hacks that includes mounting a Spider Man fishing rod on a child's prosthetic arm.
All this week