25 years of wargames, ian m. banks, knol, etc.
Daily Soufron
- Cela fait 25 ans que les hackers sont devenus des héros populaires. En réalité, ca remonte plutôt au roman "shockwave rider" de john brunner en 1978, mais ne chipotons pas : Wired on The 25th Anniversary of WarGames
- Une conférence à ne pas rater : Virtual Worlds London : Save 15% on the October Event
- Neil Gaiman va faire du Batman : Daily Scan : 07.28.08 - Gaiman Goes Batman, Batman's Goyer Goes Invisible
- Bam - un nouveau livre de Michael Moorcock - tous dessus : Michael Moorcock’s biography of Mervyn Peake — excerpt
- 07/25/08 PHD comic : ’Average time spent writing one e-mail’
- Understanding Comics - The Books Of Scott McCloud
- LevelHead, réalité augmentée en espaces cubiques [vidéo]
- Iain M Banks est l'un des plus grands auteurs vivants de science fiction, et il joue les futurologues : Iain M. Banks : Humans Could Join the Culture via Genetic Engineering [Iain M. Banks]
- La différence entre facebook et le www, c'est qu'il est beaucoup plus difficile de vous éjecter du www alors que facebook fait ce qu'il veut de sa plateforme : Scrabulous a Stratego Risk to Hasbro Monopoly
- Hasbro Sues Makers of Scrabble-Like Scrabulous
- Hasbro Finally Sues Makers Of Scrabulous ; Invokes DMCA To Get It Removed
- Microsoft commence à financer des projets open source : Microsoft Funds Its Rival Apache Open-Source Web Server Software
- And This Is Why China is Every Internet Company’s Wet Dream
- Apple refuse de distribuer les apps iphone GPL : Apple and GPL iPhone Apps
- Mais Google fait pareil : Google Code blacklists Mozilla Public License
- Open Web Foundation Officially Launches (Nik Cubrilovic/TechCrunch)
- Les datas, toujours les datas : Why "Associated data" is important, and what should Mozilla do about it
- Critiquing Claims of an Open Source Jobs Boom
- Mlib.fr, le Vélib’ facile
- Quelques articles sur Knol : Your only hope is that Google will kill you last [Jason Calacanis]
- Jimmy Wales’s former Fox fling wins the Knol land rush [Rachel Marsden]
- What Is the Motivation for Editing Someone Else’s Knol Article ?
- Hello Knol, goodbye Wikipedia [Knol]
- Pour ceux qui ont un mac, il est maintenant possible de syncrhoniser ical et gcal : Google Calendar Adds CalDAV Support, Enabling iCal Sync [Google Calendar]
- Walt Mossberg on MobileMe
- Living on the Edge : Danny O’Brien’s talk about moving our personal info off Web 2.0 and onto our computers
- Cameraheads in Seattle protest CCTVs in public places
- Kaliya Hamlin : OASIS Identity Metasystem Interoperability TC - annouced
- Xbox Live Arcade To Get GeoWars 2, Braid, Castle Crashers Dated
- FreeCulture TV and Yes We’re Open : Two new free and open Internet TV channels
- RMT company Live Gamer to work with virtual economist
- Cartoon Network announces browser-based MMO
- Dragon Quest V Conquers Japan Sales Charts
- Radical pour spammer au bureau : 7 Stunningly Precarious Mountain and Cliff Dwellings : Part Two of an Eight-Part Amazing Houses Series
- 7 Stunningly Precarious Mountain and Cliff Dwellings : Part Two of an Eight-Part Amazing Houses Series
- Fate of the Book
- Great Opening Sentences From Science Fiction [Opening Sentences]
- John Lumea : Obama's "Bizarre" Bauhaus Flyers
- Le nouveau miyazaki : New Miyazaki trailer online
- Arty Genius Shorts Will Bring You Robot Enlightenment [Genius Party Beyond]
- DailyCandy is for sale, but Comcast might need more than $75 million [Rumormonger]
- We knew the web was big...
- Let’s celebrate !
- Résolution des litiges dans la zone .fr : du nouveau
- Google Acquires Omnisio
- RSS readers : why have just one ?
- Study : Obama Trip Abroad Soaked Up Media Coverage
- GOP getting this social network "friend" thing all wrong [Politics]
Google Acquires Omnisio
"
Maybe to counter some of the bad news around YouTube today, Google just announced the acquisition of the Y Combinator funded video annotation and mashup company Omnisio. According to Google, the acquisition of Omnisio will allow them to keep pushing the envelope of what is possible with online video. Neither Google nor Omnisio have commented on the price of the acquisition, but it is clear that the Omnisio team is going to join YouTube.
In the typical fashion of Google's latest acquisitions, sign-ups for Omnisio are now closed. Instead, Omnisio now redirects users to YouTube and its (relatively limited) annotation function.
As with so many Google acquisitions, Omnisio's product doesn't seem to be so advanced as that Google couldn't produce it in-house as well. There are, after all, Chances are that Google was mostly interested in the talent at Omnisio - something they hint at in the announcement of the acquisition that mostly focuses on how great the expertise of the Omnisio team is and less on the actual technology behind Omnisio.
Besides video annotations, Omnisio also allowed its users to make their own videos by assembling clips from blip.tv, YouTube, and Google Video. Clearly, Omnisio was already working closely with YouTube's assets, so this acquisition probably seemed like a natural fit, though it remains to be seen if using blip.tv videos will remain an option after this acquisition if Google ever brings Omnisio back in some form.
Users could also use Omnisio to synchronize slide shows with video clips. In many respects, Omnisio was similar to Viddler, which also has comments as its main distinctive feature, though Google, of course, also already allows its video publishers to add annotations to their videos.
Given the level of maturity of most YouTube commenters, it remains to be seen how useful this function is going to be when/if it gets integrated in YouTube. At least with the current commenting system, you can still stay away from the spam, flamewars, and ubiquitous "that sux" comments.
Here is an example of Omnisio's annotation technology in action:
Omnisio company profile provided by TradeVibes
"Voir en ligne : Google Acquires Omnisio
Iain M. Banks : Humans Could Join the Culture via Genetic Engineering [Iain M. Banks]
"
Apparently scifi author Iain M. Banks (Matter, Consider Phlebas) believes that future humans could conceivably reach the advanced techno-political state of the Culture, a vast, intragalactic society he describes in several of his novels. And we'll get there via designer babies. Over at Biology in Science Fiction, Peggy quotes the author saying we'll become like his A.I.-loving Culture folk by "genetically modifying ourselves, I suspect." And he's figured out exactly how we'll do it.
He continues:
Finding the set of genes that code for xenophobia in general - these days usually expressed though sexism, racism, homophobia, anti-semitism, Islamophobia, Romaphobia and so on (and on, and on) - and knocking them out. Possibly then we'll be nice enough for the Culture or something like it. Of course maybe inventing true AIs will be enough, always assuming that they're as benign - and yet sympathetically interested in us - as they are taken to be in the Culture.
I love it when a progressive author comes out in favor of genetic engineering like this. GMO humans are a huge can of worms that Banks just blithely opened before hurling those squirmy nematodes all around the room.
Banks isn't the only progressive scifi author to advocate extracting our xenophobic tendencies via genetic engineering. In her series Lilith's Brood, Octavia Butler describes how a group of (mostly) benevolent aliens think the basic problem with humans is that we are hardwired to be both intelligent and hierarchical, which is the most dangerous combination imaginable. They have to genetically alter humans to remove their hierarchical tendencies.
Could We Evolve into the Culture? [via Biology in Science Fiction]
"Voir en ligne : Iain M. Banks: Humans Could Join the Culture via Genetic Engineering [Iain M. Banks]
Arty Genius Shorts Will Bring You Robot Enlightenment [Genius Party Beyond]
"
Now you can gawk at the second trailer for Genius Party Beyond, a collection of Japanese animated scifi and fantasy shorts that run the gamut from cyberpunk to uncategorizable. Genius comes from the brilliant minds of the animation Studio 4°C. Click through to see the new trailer and check out new worlds, aliens crying for their mommy, and dead robots.
There are a few shorts in this awesome collection that I'm really excited about: Gala is set in an exploding anime world, which looks terrific; pretty much every image in the short Moondrive is so beautiful it could be framed; The Doggy is completely incomprehensible and that scares me in a good way, and Toujin Kit gives us a glimpse into the strange world of toy experimentation. Beyond will open in Japan on October 11. No word on any US release dates, but if you ask me the meditating robot film is worth the price of an international airline ticket.
Genius Party Beyond Trailer 2:
Genius Party Beyond Trailer 1:
[Twitch via Quiet Earth]
"Voir en ligne : Arty Genius Shorts Will Bring You Robot Enlightenment [Genius Party Beyond]
New Miyazaki trailer online
"We tend to get excited when there’s news of a new Studio Ghibli movie - let’s face it, Hayao Miyazaki is an absolute gem of world animation and he’s one of the creators most directly responsible for making Japanese feature-length animation so successful world-wide, not to mention inspiring many other animators in theor own works, not least among them many of the crew at Pixar. As the prestigious Venice film festival announces that the new Miyazaki film, Ponyo on the Cliff will be appearing there in late August, the First Showing site has a look at the first trailer for the film. It’s in Japanese but frankly regardless of your linguistic capabaility you can just sit and let your eyes drool over it.
(an image borrowed from the official Ghibli site for Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo on the Cliff; its all in Japanese but go and indulge yourself in the image gallery and widescreen trailer. (c) Studio Ghibli)
According to First Showing the film is pretty light-hearted, similar in tone to earlier work like My Neighbor Totoro, focussing on the relationship between a small boy and a goldfish princess who wishes to be human. Story aside though, I’d imagine as with all Miyazaki’s beautiful animations you can probably just let yourself sink into the wonderful world he conjures around you and wallow in it.The man is a wizard.
"Voir en ligne : New Miyazaki trailer online
RSS readers : why have just one ?
"
Recently my long love affair with Bloglines has been hitting the rocks. I’ve been seeing another RSS reader. Yes, it’s Google Reader.
It started on the bus to work. You see, the mobile version of Bloglines doesn’t do it for me. My ‘morning paper’, now, is to scroll through the headlines from the dozens of blogs I subscribe to - in Google Reader mobile. If it’s something I might want to return to later, I ’star’ it. If the blog post supports it, I might even bookmark it on del.icio.us.
When I get into work one of my browser homepages is Google Reader - I follow up on any starred items.
But one RSS reader is not enough. My second homepage is Bloglines.
Whereas Google Reader simply gives me a lucky dip of recent posts from the two hundred-plus feeds I subscribe to, Bloglines is organised: I only look at my top five blogs in ten categories: UK online journalism blogs, US OJ blogs, technology news, media news, and so on. You could call it my ‘local’ newspaper.
(note: That top-5-in-10 categories tip came from colleague Andrew Dubber, music industry blogger and co-founder of 5alist.com, where, not coincidentally, you can create, share and comment on top five lists. Cute idea.)
As if that isn’t enough, I have a third RSS reader: TailRank. You can import your feeds into TailRank and set it to only display the posts that have 10 or more incoming links. That’s my Sunday newspaper: the quality I’ve missed during the week.
So. Three RSS readers - one general, one local, and one quality. How about you? Which ones do you use - and how do you use them?
"Voir en ligne : RSS readers: why have just one?
Study : Obama Trip Abroad Soaked Up Media Coverage
"A new study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism shows just how much attention Barack Obama's trip abroad got last week:
Whatever the tone of the coverage, Obama's visit to the Middle East and Europe was an extraordinary media event. Coverage of the trip consumed 51% of the campaign newshole for the week of July 21-27, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism's Campaign Coverage Index. That was enough to make it the second-biggest campaign story line since PEJ began tracking them in mid-March. (Only coverage of the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, during the week of April 21-27, generated more attention.)
The biggest McCain-focused storyline was his vice-presidential pick (helped along by Robert Novak), but that took only 4% of coverage, and, PEJ reports, was often "couched in the context of a candidate desperately needing to create news of his own."
Of course, PEJ acknowledges that "not all of the coverage last week was flattering."
"Voir en ligne : Study: Obama Trip Abroad Soaked Up Media Coverage
GOP getting this social network "friend" thing all wrong [Politics]
"
BarackBook is the Republican National Committee's new faux-cial network. As a campaign tool, it's supposed to make clear the connections between Obama and his "questionable" friends, like "60's Radicals!" William Ayers of the Weather Underground and Marilyn Katz of the Students for a Democratic Society. They have cute profile photos, sure, but where are the Last Night's Party-style gossip shots of Obama circa 1968 in a Mao baby tee? Users can send a donation to the GOP; they cannot send John McCain a Friends-for-Sale request.
"Voir en ligne : GOP getting this social network "friend" thing all wrong [Politics]
#12349 - Woermann Tower in Palmas de Canaria, Spain. A...
"
Woermann Tower in Palmas de Canaria, Spain. A colorful leaning tower by Abalos & Herreros.
(Want more? See NOTCOT.org and NOTCOT.com)"Voir en ligne : #12349 - Woermann Tower in Palmas de Canaria, Spain. A...
Wired on The 25th Anniversary of WarGames
"
The current issue of Wired Magazine has an excellent article by Scott Brown on the 25th Anniversary of the 1983 film “WarGames” and it’s effect on the geek world:
“WarGames: A Look Back at the Film That Turned Geeks and Phreaks Into Stars”
The article has interviews with several people involved with the film, including screenwriters Walter Parkes and Lawrence Lasker, as well as commentary from real-world hackers John “Captain Crunch” Draper and Kevin Mitnick.
photo by Todd Hido
Related PostsThis is a blog post from Laughing Squid
For more content like this, subscribe to the RSS feed, Twitter & FriendFeed.
Wired on The 25th Anniversary of WarGames
"Voir en ligne : Wired on The 25th Anniversary of WarGames
Mlib.fr, le Vélib’ facile
"Le 15 juillet, Vélib’ a fêté son 1er anniversaire. Je vais vous présenter dans ce billet une application mobile que je viens de créer : Mlib.fr dédiée à la recherche de vélo ou d’emplacement Vélib’ sur la capitale.
+ 
Réflexions
L’idée de ce site mobile vient d’un constat : c’est assez facile de trouver une station Vélib’ dans Paris, il y en a à tous les coins de rue. Mais souvent, soit elles sont vides quand vous rechercher un vélo (en périphérie), soit elles sont pleines quand vous souhaitez déposer votre Vélib’.
Dans ces cas, l’utilisateur de Vélib’ aurait besoin d’un service pouvant lui indiquer la borne la plus proche selon son besoin. Un service sur téléphone mobile est donc des plus indiqué.
Besoins
- Site internet à utiliser sur un mobile … en situation de mobilité
- Être localisé simplement pour rechercher les stations proches
- Connaître en temps réel les disponibilités des stations
- Présenter sur une carte la recherche pour aider l’utilisateur à se repérer et à sélectionner plus facilement la station souhaitée
Réalisation
En mobilité
Même si la 3G (haut débit sur téléphone mobile) arrive sur de plus en plus de téléphone, il faut qu’un site mobile soit très rapide à charger… peu ou pas d’images, contenu réduit au strict minimum. L’information doit être accessible simplement et doit s’afficher rapidement. De plus le nom du site est le plus court possible… 4 lettres pouvant être facilement mémorisées ou tapées depuis le téléphone.
La géolocalisation
L’utilisateur doit facilement se géolocaliser : impossible d’utiliser un GPS sur un site mobile, pas de localisation par antennes relais ou par Wifi. Par contre pour Mlib.fr, l’utilisateur se trouve à une station Vélib’. N’oublions pas que cette application s’adresse aux personnes ayant trouvé une station Vélib’ (plutôt facile) mais qui malheureusement n’a pas de vélo ou n’a pas d’emplacement libre.
L’idée de Mlib.fr est donc de demander à l’utilisateur le numéro de la station où il se trouve. En effet chaque station Vélib est numérotée. Ce numéro est composé de l’arrondissement et d’un chiffre répresentant le numéro de la station dans l’arrondissement. Par exemple : arrondissement 1, station n°08, donne la station indéxée 01008.
Il est très facile de trouver le numéro de la station sur la borne. Soit il est clairement indiqué, soit vous le retrouvez sur le plan du quartier.
Ayant récupéré sur le site http://www.velib.paris.fr/ très facilement l’index complet des stations (voir fichier XML), Mlib.fr connait les coordonnées géographiques de chaque station… et donc peut faire une recherche de proximité des stations Vélib’ autour d’un lieu (en l’occurence une station Vélib’).
J’ai donc souhaité éviter à l’utilisateur de rentrer une adresse qui selon moi est très peu pratique sur un téléphone… surtout que dans notre cas, on souhaite être assez précis, un numéro de rue (que l’on ne trouve pas tout le temps) s’imposerait.
L’utilisateur doit donc simplement indiquer :
- s’il recherche un vélo ou une station
- l’arrondissement où il se trouve (indiqué sur la station)
- numéro de la station (indiqué aussi sur la station)
La recherche et le résultat
Avec tout cela, la recherche de proximité des stations est faite. Je demande pour chaque station la disponibilité (via le service REST Vélib) pour afficher les résultats correspondant aux besoins de l’utilisateur dans une liste et sur une carte Google Static Maps.
Je vous avez déjà présenter ce service gratuit de carte statique de Google très pratique. J’affiche sur la carte, la station centre de la recherche (marqueur en blanc) et les stations trouvées correspondant aux critères recherches.
La taille de la carte est automatiquement déterminée en fonction du terminal mobile utilisé. En effet j’utilise le service Open Source WURFL qui est une sorte de base de donnée complète des caractéristiques des téléphones. Enfin la carte affichée est la version”mobile” comportant une charte cartographique allégée.
Une page “Détails” par station trouvée est disponible pour avoir une carte plus précise et l’adresse précise de la station choisie.
Conclusion
Mlib.fr n’a aucune prétention :-). C’est pour moi plus une réflexion autour des services mobiles. Bien évidemment c’était l’occasion de mettre en pratique Google Static Maps.
Il faut aussi être réaliste. L’utilisation d’un site mobile, n’est pas encore une pratique courante. Le boom de l’internet mobile n’est pas pour tout de suite. L’iPhone, sorti il y a un an, a vraiment révolutionné l’internet mobile, et l’engouement de la toute nouvelle version 3G ne le dément pas.
A noter bien évidemment d’autres applications du même type :
- le site mobile Vélib’ officiel qui utilise la localisation par cellId (antenne GSM). Malheureusement, la localisation est souvent peu précise et il est difficile de se repérer. L’adresse de la station Vélib’ n’aide en rien.
- Molib, qui n’est pas un site mobile mais une application sous Android très bien réalisée.
J’attends donc vos commentaires, critiques et suggestions! 
"Voir en ligne : Mlib.fr, le Vélib’ facile
Your only hope is that Google will kill you last [Jason Calacanis]
"
Flaxen-locked funtrepreneur Jason Calacanis says Google has been a content company for a while now. With Knol, the Googlers plan to become the Internet's reference library rather than just its card catalog. I used the editorial equivalent of gzip to compress Calacanis's arguments down to 1/10 size.
It seems Google is not satisfied with owning over 70% of search—now they want to own the first couple of pages in their search results. So, if you're digg.com, About.com, NYTimes.com, and Wikipedia you're faced with not only being traffic-dependant on Google, you're now competing with them for the traffic within their search result.
This feels exactly like what Microsoft did to its application vendors. Microsoft convinced folks to build WordStar, WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and Quattro Pro for their operating system. They grew that business together until the point that Microsoft had massive market-share in operating systems.
Then Microsoft pulled the rug out from under the 3rd party application vendors. The streets were littered with dead software companies, Microsoft faced massive lawsuits, and the industry became stagnant until the Internet shook things up again two decades later.
Frankly, it's insulting to say you're not in the content business and then launch Knol and compete with content companies for their authors, users, and placement in the rankings that you control.
For Google's own good they should not try to take over their own search results. If Google results start showing 20-30% Knol pages and YouTube videos then that is going to drive users away from Google in search of more diversity.
As a hedge we're partnering with Google. We've put 30 of our How To articles into Knol, and we're very big partners with YouTube on our Mahalo Daily show. If you can't beat them join them. If Google is destined to be the new Microsoft then it's best to get into the tent early.
"Voir en ligne : Your only hope is that Google will kill you last [Jason Calacanis]
What Is the Motivation for Editing Someone Else’s Knol Article ?
"
Reto Meier in a comment to the ranking debate over Knol wrote, “I don’t see any evidence that the moderated collaboration is working yet.” This led to some thoughts on the editing of other people’s Knols feature, and the question “What is the motivation for editing someone else’s Knol article?” For instance:
- When I edit someone else’s Knol article, as opposed to what happens on Wikipedia, my edit may never see the light of the day. To see the light of day, it also needs to pass a person who may disagree with my edit or who may be insulted by the correction.
- If I spot a factual error in an article, editing it to remove it would make the article’s message better perhaps, but it would also skew the original voice of the author. If someone else would now try to judge the overall factualness of the information contained within that article, then I did a disservice to that reader because I removed the easy indicators of non-factualness.
- If 20 articles on the subject X contain a factual error, and I’m an expert on X, will I go and edit 20 articles individually? Seems like a waste of energy, which would be better spent on Wikipedia, where one edit will suffice (if it stays in).
- If the article is written in first person like many articles are, and if they are highly opinionated or personal, who am I to tell someone else what they should say? This is great about opinions, there’s plenty of them and the diversity may make them great. Trying to unify all personal views into one seems impossible for a single-author-driven approach, and for articles using first-person writing, it also seems like you’d be fabricating lies. If someone says “I like Wednesdays because the Spaghetti Monster told people that’s when you can eat all the spaghetti you want” who am I to correct this and “adjust” the belief of the author just because I think the Spaghetti Monster doesn’t exist and that eating spaghetti on Wednesdays doesn’t have any special health-related benefits? If I would do that edit, I’d remove potentially valuable info about the author and their beliefs.
In most cases like these, unless you know the author and work together with them on the article in some way, a comment seems to be the better alternative, doesn’t it? The comment will be live immediately, and it won’t skew the original author’s voice. Admittedly, we may get most involved in with articles from people we know and trust and have read for some time, for which the blog format seems easier, because it will build communication over a longer period. Don’t we best like to alert people of issues with their articles if we know them? (The occasional reaching out to try to restore universal balance aside...)
Reto added, “I don’t really see the use-case for editing someone else’s article. I can see a use for the [multiple]-author model, but otherwise a comment, review, or message to the author suggesting a change seems more useful.”
Again I got to ask: What is the motivation for editing someone else’s Knol article?
[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: What Is the Motivation for Editing Someone El ... | Comments]
[Advertisement] PingPongPie - the art of linkbaiting and social media marketing 
"Voir en ligne : What Is the Motivation for Editing Someone Else's Knol Article?
Google Calendar Adds CalDAV Support, Enabling iCal Sync [Google Calendar]
"
Google Calendar has added support for the CalDAV standard, opening up a realm of syncing possibilities for business users and webapps. Right now it's somewhat limited, with a few known issues, but the big news is that it's now possible to sync your iCal and Google Calendars without any third-party software. As the Google Operating System notes, however, it's not an entirely simple process to hook the two up, so a free option like recently-made-free CalGoo might still be the best option for anyone who doesn't enjoy fiddling. Hit the link below for details on GCal's CalDAV options.
Google Calendar CalDAV support [Google Calendar support via Google Operating System]
"Voir en ligne : Google Calendar Adds CalDAV Support, Enabling iCal Sync [Google Calendar]
Xbox Live Arcade To Get GeoWars 2, Braid, Castle Crashers Dated
"
Microsoft has announced that this week's regular Xbox Live Arcade update will see the addition of Geometry Wars 2, the first title in its 'Summer of Arcade' lineup that will also feature Braid, Castle Crashers, and Bionic Commando Rearmed in coming weeks. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 is the sequel to the original that put Xbox Live Arcade on the map, and will feature six gameplay modes, and new enemies and scoring. The title will ...
"Voir en ligne : Xbox Live Arcade To Get GeoWars 2, Braid, Castle Crashers Dated
Virtual Worlds London : Save 15% on the October Event
"
Mashable is pleased to be collaborating with US-based Virtual Worlds Management to bring you to Virtual Worlds London, the premiere event focused on virtual worlds and Web 3D. Virtual Worlds London takes place 20-21 October 2008 in the heart of London at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. Virtual Worlds London is the leading event for businesses seeking to understand and maximize business strategies within virtual worlds. VW London is presented by leading VW business blog Virtual Worlds News.
Early registration is now open at www.virtualworldslondon.com. Registration gains you full access to all conference and expo elements. We have put together a special Mashable VIP promotional code that will save you 15% off the currently listed registration rate of £595. That brings the price down to £505.75. The promotional code is MashableVIP.
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:
Second Life Teams Up With IBM for Virtual World Interoperability
Myrl is a SocNet for your Virtual World Avatars
There.com Gets a Curvy Coca Cola Island
Gartner Report Warns Against Brands in Second Life
On-Demand Streaming for Second Life
The Daily Poll: Should Virtual Worlds be Regulated?
Vivox Raises $7.8M for Virtual World Voice Tools
"Voir en ligne : Virtual Worlds London: Save 15% on the October Event
Daily Scan : 07.28.08 - Gaiman Goes Batman, Batman's Goyer Goes Invisible
"
• The Dark Knight scribe David S. Goyer is adapting H.G. Wells's classic novella The Invisible Man, but promises it's not a statement about the amount of press attention he got for the latest Batman installment.
• The cast of Battlestar Galactica discuss the series' bullet-addled finale. And here we were hoping for an episode that takes place entirely in Baltar's harem. Wait a minute...
•Dr. Horrible's Nathan Fillion explains Captain Hammer's superpowers. Insert penis joke here.
•Watch four minutes of The Clone Wars. As if you needed more incentive not to go see it in theaters.
•Neil Gaiman is writing Batman! Neil Gaiman is writing Batman! Neil Gaiman is writing Batman!
"Voir en ligne : Daily Scan: 07.28.08 - Gaiman Goes Batman, Batman's Goyer Goes Invisible
FreeCulture TV and Yes We’re Open : Two new free and open Internet TV channels
"Parker sez,
I'm a summer intern at the Participatory Culture Foundation, who make Miro, and I just launched two new channels that Boing Boing readers might enjoy:
Free Culture TV is all videos about free culture and the copyfight. Check out cool documentaries, videos of lectures or CC Salon discussions, that kind of thing.
Yes, We're Open! Free Movies, Music Videos, and TV (catchy title, eh?) is all openly licensed entertainment... Movies, shorts, music videos, all kinds of fun stuff.
You can subscribe to either or both of these channels in any RSS reader that can handle video and torrent attachments, but they're built for Miro.
New Channels: Free Culture TV and Yes, We’re Open!
(Thanks, Parker!)
(Disclosure: I am proud to volunteer for Miro's board of directors)
"Voir en ligne : FreeCulture TV and Yes We're Open: Two new free and open Internet TV channels
Michael Moorcock’s biography of Mervyn Peake — excerpt
"Matt sez, "Michael Moorcock agreed to let me post the introduction to his work in progress, a memoir of Mervyn Peake, author of the "Gormenghast" books and his wife Maeve. It's going to be called "Lovers: Mervyn and Maeve Peake. A Personal Memoir." As a fan of both Moorcock and Peake, this is a big thing for me, as I suspect it will be for many other readers." Peake completely torqued my head around backwards when I was about 14.
The Peake parties were lush and rich but never self-conscious. The PreRaphaelite enthusiasms of the 60s, which brought Melvyn Bragg into a room dressed as if for the set of Isodora, which he was then writing, in black velvet, with silver rings, married well with the dark Fitrovian colours of Mervyn’s canvasses, though Peake had no particular enthusiasm for the previous century. His preference was for the present, for Soho and the post-war world of eccentric Londoners whose portraits he collected in what he called his head-hunting sessions. At this stage of his life, however, because it reflected the concerns of his generation, his painting was somewhat out of fashion. England had entered one of her uncertain, self-examining periods of nostalgia, looking back to the fin-de-siecle and Edwardian social certainties.
Mervyn was dramatically handsome and his wife Maeve was dramatically beautiful. They had been a remarkable couple for years, though they had not mixed a great deal with the fashionable bohemians of their day. They had spent quite a lot of time away from London, in Sark in particular. They had come to prefer each other’s company. Although an accomplished painter, she had put aside her own work for the most part, concentrating on her children. He drew her and painted her a lot. She is there in everything he did. He wrote her poems when he was taken into the army during the second world war, he produced fictional versions of her in his Titus Groan, which he wrote when he was drafted into the army. On leave, he would draw her and the children. He was an inexpert soldier. He had a mild breakdown, which kept him away from overseas conflict. Eventually, he was commissioned as a war artist. His pictures of Maeve are not exaggerated any more than the poems for and about her, of which he wrote so many
Link
(Thanks, Matt!)
"Voir en ligne : Michael Moorcock's biography of Mervyn Peake -- excerpt
Microsoft Funds Its Rival Apache Open-Source Web Server Software
"Microsoft, one of the biggest rivals to open-source programming, has begun funding the Apache Software Foundation, one of open-source software's biggest supporters. "Microsoft is becoming a sponsor of the Apache Software Foundation. This sponsorship will enable the ASF to pay administrators and other support staff so that ASF developers can focus on writing great software," said Sam Ramji, a senior director of platform strategy at Microsoft. He announced the move Friday in a speech at the Open Source Convention, and noted Microsoft's support of Apache on the software company's Port 25 blog as well. More...
"Voir en ligne : Microsoft Funds Its Rival Apache Open-Source Web Server Software
07/25/08 PHD comic : ’Average time spent writing one e-mail’
"
Piled Higher
& Deeper by Jorge
Cham
title:
"Average time spent writing one e-mail" - originally published
7/25/2008
For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE!
Voir en ligne : 07/25/08 PHD comic: 'Average time spent writing one e-mail'
Google Acquires Omnisio
"
Maybe to counter some of the bad news around YouTube today, Google just announced the acquisition of the Y Combinator funded video annotation and mashup company Omnisio. According to Google, the acquisition of Omnisio will allow them to keep pushing the envelope of what is possible with online video. Neither Google nor Omnisio have commented on the price of the acquisition, but it is clear that the Omnisio team is going to join YouTube.
In the typical fashion of Google's latest acquisitions, sign-ups for Omnisio are now closed. Instead, Omnisio now redirects users to YouTube and its (relatively limited) annotation function.
As with so many Google acquisitions, Omnisio's product doesn't seem to be so advanced as that Google couldn't produce it in-house as well. There are, after all, Chances are that Google was mostly interested in the talent at Omnisio - something they hint at in the announcement of the acquisition that mostly focuses on how great the expertise of the Omnisio team is and less on the actual technology behind Omnisio.
Besides video annotations, Omnisio also allowed its users to make their own videos by assembling clips from blip.tv, YouTube, and Google Video. Clearly, Omnisio was already working closely with YouTube's assets, so this acquisition probably seemed like a natural fit, though it remains to be seen if using blip.tv videos will remain an option after this acquisition if Google ever brings Omnisio back in some form.
Users could also use Omnisio to synchronize slide shows with video clips. In many respects, Omnisio was similar to Viddler, which also has comments as its main distinctive feature, though Google, of course, also already allows its video publishers to add annotations to their videos.
Given the level of maturity of most YouTube commenters, it remains to be seen how useful this function is going to be when/if it gets integrated in YouTube. At least with the current commenting system, you can still stay away from the spam, flamewars, and ubiquitous "that sux" comments.
Here is an example of Omnisio's annotation technology in action:
"Voir en ligne : Google Acquires Omnisio
Iain M. Banks : Humans Could Join the Culture via Genetic Engineering [Iain M. Banks]
"
Apparently scifi author Iain M. Banks (Matter, Consider Phlebas) believes that future humans could conceivably reach the advanced techno-political state of the Culture, a vast, intragalactic society he describes in several of his novels. And we'll get there via designer babies. Over at Biology in Science Fiction, Peggy quotes the author saying we'll become like his A.I.-loving Culture folk by "genetically modifying ourselves, I suspect." And he's figured out exactly how we'll do it.
He continues:
Finding the set of genes that code for xenophobia in general - these days usually expressed though sexism, racism, homophobia, anti-semitism, Islamophobia, Romaphobia and so on (and on, and on) - and knocking them out. Possibly then we'll be nice enough for the Culture or something like it. Of course maybe inventing true AIs will be enough, always assuming that they're as benign - and yet sympathetically interested in us - as they are taken to be in the Culture.
I love it when a progressive author comes out in favor of genetic engineering like this. GMO humans are a huge can of worms that Banks just blithely opened before hurling those squirmy nematodes all around the room.
Banks isn't the only progressive scifi author to advocate extracting our xenophobic tendencies via genetic engineering. In her series Lilith's Brood, Octavia Butler describes how a group of (mostly) benevolent aliens think the basic problem with humans is that we are hardwired to be both intelligent and hierarchical, which is the most dangerous combination imaginable. They have to genetically alter humans to remove their hierarchical tendencies.
Could We Evolve into the Culture? [via Biology in Science Fiction]
Voir en ligne : Iain M. Banks: Humans Could Join the Culture via Genetic Engineering [Iain M. Banks]
Arty Genius Shorts Will Bring You Robot Enlightenment [Genius Party Beyond]
"
Now you can gawk at the second trailer for Genius Party Beyond, a collection of Japanese animated scifi and fantasy shorts that run the gamut from cyberpunk to uncategorizable. Genius comes from the brilliant minds of the animation Studio 4°C. Click through to see the new trailer and check out new worlds, aliens crying for their mommy, and dead robots.
There are a few shorts in this awesome collection that I'm really excited about: Gala is set in an exploding anime world, which looks terrific; pretty much every image in the short Moondrive is so beautiful it could be framed; The Doggy is completely incomprehensible and that scares me in a good way, and Toujin Kit gives us a glimpse into the strange world of toy experimentation. Beyond will open in Japan on October 11. No word on any US release dates, but if you ask me the meditating robot film is worth the price of an international airline ticket.
Genius Party Beyond Trailer 2:
Genius Party Beyond Trailer 1:
[Twitch via Quiet Earth]
Voir en ligne : Arty Genius Shorts Will Bring You Robot Enlightenment [Genius Party Beyond]
New Miyazaki trailer online
"
We tend to get excited when there’s news of a new Studio Ghibli movie - let’s face it, Hayao Miyazaki is an absolute gem of world animation and he’s one of the creators most directly responsible for making Japanese feature-length animation so successful world-wide, not to mention inspiring many other animators in theor own works, not least among them many of the crew at Pixar. As the prestigious Venice film festival announces that the new Miyazaki film, Ponyo on the Cliff will be appearing there in late August, the First Showing site has a look at the first trailer for the film. It’s in Japanese but frankly regardless of your linguistic capabaility you can just sit and let your eyes drool over it.
(an image borrowed from the official Ghibli site for Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo on the Cliff; its all in Japanese but go and indulge yourself in the image gallery and widescreen trailer. (c) Studio Ghibli)
According to First Showing the film is pretty light-hearted, similar in tone to earlier work like My Neighbor Totoro, focussing on the relationship between a small boy and a goldfish princess who wishes to be human. Story aside though, I’d imagine as with all Miyazaki’s beautiful animations you can probably just let yourself sink into the wonderful world he conjures around you and wallow in it.The man is a wizard.
Voir en ligne : New Miyazaki trailer online
RSS readers : why have just one ?
"
Recently my long love affair with Bloglines has been hitting the rocks. I’ve been seeing another RSS reader. Yes, it’s Google Reader.
It started on the bus to work. You see, the mobile version of Bloglines doesn’t do it for me. My ‘morning paper’, now, is to scroll through the headlines from the dozens of blogs I subscribe to - in Google Reader mobile. If it’s something I might want to return to later, I ’star’ it. If the blog post supports it, I might even bookmark it on del.icio.us.
When I get into work one of my browser homepages is Google Reader - I follow up on any starred items.
But one RSS reader is not enough. My second homepage is Bloglines.
Whereas Google Reader simply gives me a lucky dip of recent posts from the two hundred-plus feeds I subscribe to, Bloglines is organised: I only look at my top five blogs in ten categories: UK online journalism blogs, US OJ blogs, technology news, media news, and so on. You could call it my ‘local’ newspaper.
(note: That top-5-in-10 categories tip came from colleague Andrew Dubber, music industry blogger and co-founder of 5alist.com, where, not coincidentally, you can create, share and comment on top five lists. Cute idea.)
As if that isn’t enough, I have a third RSS reader: TailRank. You can import your feeds into TailRank and set it to only display the posts that have 10 or more incoming links. That’s my Sunday newspaper: the quality I’ve missed during the week.
So. Three RSS readers - one general, one local, and one quality. How about you? Which ones do you use - and how do you use them?
Voir en ligne : RSS readers: why have just one?
Study : Obama Trip Abroad Soaked Up Media Coverage
"
A new study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism shows just how much attention Barack Obama's trip abroad got last week:
Whatever the tone of the coverage, Obama's visit to the Middle East and Europe was an extraordinary media event. Coverage of the trip consumed 51% of the campaign newshole for the week of July 21-27, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism's Campaign Coverage Index. That was enough to make it the second-biggest campaign story line since PEJ began tracking them in mid-March. (Only coverage of the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, during the week of April 21-27, generated more attention.)
The biggest McCain-focused storyline was his vice-presidential pick (helped along by Robert Novak), but that took only 4% of coverage, and, PEJ reports, was often "couched in the context of a candidate desperately needing to create news of his own."
Of course, PEJ acknowledges that "not all of the coverage last week was flattering."
Voir en ligne : Study: Obama Trip Abroad Soaked Up Media Coverage
GOP getting this social network "friend" thing all wrong [Politics]
"
BarackBook is the Republican National Committee's new faux-cial network. As a campaign tool, it's supposed to make clear the connections between Obama and his "questionable" friends, like "60's Radicals!" William Ayers of the Weather Underground and Marilyn Katz of the Students for a Democratic Society. They have cute profile photos, sure, but where are the Last Night's Party-style gossip shots of Obama circa 1968 in a Mao baby tee? Users can send a donation to the GOP; they cannot send John McCain a Friends-for-Sale request.
"Voir en ligne : GOP getting this social network "friend" thing all wrong [Politics]
#12349 - Woermann Tower in Palmas de Canaria, Spain. A...
"
Woermann Tower in Palmas de Canaria, Spain. A colorful leaning tower by Abalos & Herreros.
(Want more? See NOTCOT.org and NOTCOT.com)"
Voir en ligne : #12349 - Woermann Tower in Palmas de Canaria, Spain. A...
Wired on The 25th Anniversary of WarGames
"
The current issue of Wired Magazine has an excellent article by Scott Brown on the 25th Anniversary of the 1983 film “WarGames” and it’s effect on the geek world:
“WarGames: A Look Back at the Film That Turned Geeks and Phreaks Into Stars”
The article has interviews with several people involved with the film, including screenwriters Walter Parkes and Lawrence Lasker, as well as commentary from real-world hackers John “Captain Crunch” Draper and Kevin Mitnick.
photo by Todd Hido
This is a blog post from Laughing Squid
For more content like this, subscribe to the RSS feed, Twitter & FriendFeed.
Wired on The 25th Anniversary of WarGames
"Voir en ligne : Wired on The 25th Anniversary of WarGames
Mlib.fr, le Vélib’ facile
"
Le 15 juillet, Vélib’ a fêté son 1er anniversaire. Je vais vous présenter dans ce billet une application mobile que je viens de créer : Mlib.fr dédiée à la recherche de vélo ou d’emplacement Vélib’ sur la capitale.
+
Réflexions
L’idée de ce site mobile vient d’un constat : c’est assez facile de trouver une station Vélib’ dans Paris, il y en a à tous les coins de rue. Mais souvent, soit elles sont vides quand vous rechercher un vélo (en périphérie), soit elles sont pleines quand vous souhaitez déposer votre Vélib’.
Dans ces cas, l’utilisateur de Vélib’ aurait besoin d’un service pouvant lui indiquer la borne la plus proche selon son besoin. Un service sur téléphone mobile est donc des plus indiqué.
Besoins
- Site internet à utiliser sur un mobile … en situation de mobilité
- Être localisé simplement pour rechercher les stations proches
- Connaître en temps réel les disponibilités des stations
- Présenter sur une carte la recherche pour aider l’utilisateur à se repérer et à sélectionner plus facilement la station souhaitée
Réalisation
En mobilité
Même si la 3G (haut débit sur téléphone mobile) arrive sur de plus en plus de téléphone, il faut qu’un site mobile soit très rapide à charger… peu ou pas d’images, contenu réduit au strict minimum. L’information doit être accessible simplement et doit s’afficher rapidement. De plus le nom du site est le plus court possible… 4 lettres pouvant être facilement mémorisées ou tapées depuis le téléphone.
La géolocalisation
L’utilisateur doit facilement se géolocaliser : impossible d’utiliser un GPS sur un site mobile, pas de localisation par antennes relais ou par Wifi. Par contre pour Mlib.fr, l’utilisateur se trouve à une station Vélib’. N’oublions pas que cette application s’adresse aux personnes ayant trouvé une station Vélib’ (plutôt facile) mais qui malheureusement n’a pas de vélo ou n’a pas d’emplacement libre.
L’idée de Mlib.fr est donc de demander à l’utilisateur le numéro de la station où il se trouve. En effet chaque station Vélib est numérotée. Ce numéro est composé de l’arrondissement et d’un chiffre répresentant le numéro de la station dans l’arrondissement. Par exemple : arrondissement 1, station n°08, donne la station indéxée 01008.
Il est très facile de trouver le numéro de la station sur la borne. Soit il est clairement indiqué, soit vous le retrouvez sur le plan du quartier.
Ayant récupéré sur le site http://www.velib.paris.fr/ très facilement l’index complet des stations (voir fichier XML), Mlib.fr connait les coordonnées géographiques de chaque station… et donc peut faire une recherche de proximité des stations Vélib’ autour d’un lieu (en l’occurence une station Vélib’).
J’ai donc souhaité éviter à l’utilisateur de rentrer une adresse qui selon moi est très peu pratique sur un téléphone… surtout que dans notre cas, on souhaite être assez précis, un numéro de rue (que l’on ne trouve pas tout le temps) s’imposerait.
L’utilisateur doit donc simplement indiquer :
- s’il recherche un vélo ou une station
- l’arrondissement où il se trouve (indiqué sur la station)
- numéro de la station (indiqué aussi sur la station)
La recherche et le résultat
Avec tout cela, la recherche de proximité des stations est faite. Je demande pour chaque station la disponibilité (via le service REST Vélib) pour afficher les résultats correspondant aux besoins de l’utilisateur dans une liste et sur une carte Google Static Maps.
Je vous avez déjà présenter ce service gratuit de carte statique de Google très pratique. J’affiche sur la carte, la station centre de la recherche (marqueur en blanc) et les stations trouvées correspondant aux critères recherches.
La taille de la carte est automatiquement déterminée en fonction du terminal mobile utilisé. En effet j’utilise le service Open Source WURFL qui est une sorte de base de donnée complète des caractéristiques des téléphones. Enfin la carte affichée est la version”mobile” comportant une charte cartographique allégée.
Une page “Détails” par station trouvée est disponible pour avoir une carte plus précise et l’adresse précise de la station choisie.
Conclusion
Mlib.fr n’a aucune prétention :-). C’est pour moi plus une réflexion autour des services mobiles. Bien évidemment c’était l’occasion de mettre en pratique Google Static Maps.
Il faut aussi être réaliste. L’utilisation d’un site mobile, n’est pas encore une pratique courante. Le boom de l’internet mobile n’est pas pour tout de suite. L’iPhone, sorti il y a un an, a vraiment révolutionné l’internet mobile, et l’engouement de la toute nouvelle version 3G ne le dément pas.
A noter bien évidemment d’autres applications du même type :
- le site mobile Vélib’ officiel qui utilise la localisation par cellId (antenne GSM). Malheureusement, la localisation est souvent peu précise et il est difficile de se repérer. L’adresse de la station Vélib’ n’aide en rien.
- Molib, qui n’est pas un site mobile mais une application sous Android très bien réalisée.
J’attends donc vos commentaires, critiques et suggestions!
"Voir en ligne : Mlib.fr, le Vélib’ facile
Your only hope is that Google will kill you last [Jason Calacanis]
"
Flaxen-locked funtrepreneur Jason Calacanis says Google has been a content company for a while now. With Knol, the Googlers plan to become the Internet's reference library rather than just its card catalog. I used the editorial equivalent of gzip to compress Calacanis's arguments down to 1/10 size.
It seems Google is not satisfied with owning over 70% of search—now they want to own the first couple of pages in their search results. So, if you're digg.com, About.com, NYTimes.com, and Wikipedia you're faced with not only being traffic-dependant on Google, you're now competing with them for the traffic within their search result.
This feels exactly like what Microsoft did to its application vendors. Microsoft convinced folks to build WordStar, WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and Quattro Pro for their operating system. They grew that business together until the point that Microsoft had massive market-share in operating systems.
Then Microsoft pulled the rug out from under the 3rd party application vendors. The streets were littered with dead software companies, Microsoft faced massive lawsuits, and the industry became stagnant until the Internet shook things up again two decades later.
Frankly, it's insulting to say you're not in the content business and then launch Knol and compete with content companies for their authors, users, and placement in the rankings that you control.
For Google's own good they should not try to take over their own search results. If Google results start showing 20-30% Knol pages and YouTube videos then that is going to drive users away from Google in search of more diversity.
As a hedge we're partnering with Google. We've put 30 of our How To articles into Knol, and we're very big partners with YouTube on our Mahalo Daily show. If you can't beat them join them. If Google is destined to be the new Microsoft then it's best to get into the tent early.
"Voir en ligne : Your only hope is that Google will kill you last [Jason Calacanis]
What Is the Motivation for Editing Someone Else’s Knol Article ?
"
Reto Meier in a comment to the ranking debate over Knol wrote, “I don’t see any evidence that the moderated collaboration is working yet.” This led to some thoughts on the editing of other people’s Knols feature, and the question “What is the motivation for editing someone else’s Knol article?” For instance:
- When I edit someone else’s Knol article, as opposed to what happens on Wikipedia, my edit may never see the light of the day. To see the light of day, it also needs to pass a person who may disagree with my edit or who may be insulted by the correction.
- If I spot a factual error in an article, editing it to remove it would make the article’s message better perhaps, but it would also skew the original voice of the author. If someone else would now try to judge the overall factualness of the information contained within that article, then I did a disservice to that reader because I removed the easy indicators of non-factualness.
- If 20 articles on the subject X contain a factual error, and I’m an expert on X, will I go and edit 20 articles individually? Seems like a waste of energy, which would be better spent on Wikipedia, where one edit will suffice (if it stays in).
- If the article is written in first person like many articles are, and if they are highly opinionated or personal, who am I to tell someone else what they should say? This is great about opinions, there’s plenty of them and the diversity may make them great. Trying to unify all personal views into one seems impossible for a single-author-driven approach, and for articles using first-person writing, it also seems like you’d be fabricating lies. If someone says “I like Wednesdays because the Spaghetti Monster told people that’s when you can eat all the spaghetti you want” who am I to correct this and “adjust” the belief of the author just because I think the Spaghetti Monster doesn’t exist and that eating spaghetti on Wednesdays doesn’t have any special health-related benefits? If I would do that edit, I’d remove potentially valuable info about the author and their beliefs.
In most cases like these, unless you know the author and work together with them on the article in some way, a comment seems to be the better alternative, doesn’t it? The comment will be live immediately, and it won’t skew the original author’s voice. Admittedly, we may get most involved in with articles from people we know and trust and have read for some time, for which the blog format seems easier, because it will build communication over a longer period. Don’t we best like to alert people of issues with their articles if we know them? (The occasional reaching out to try to restore universal balance aside...)
Reto added, “I don’t really see the use-case for editing someone else’s article. I can see a use for the [multiple]-author model, but otherwise a comment, review, or message to the author suggesting a change seems more useful.”
Again I got to ask: What is the motivation for editing someone else’s Knol article?
[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: What Is the Motivation for Editing Someone El ... | Comments]
[Advertisement] PingPongPie - the art of linkbaiting and social media marketing
"Voir en ligne : What Is the Motivation for Editing Someone Else's Knol Article?
Google Calendar Adds CalDAV Support, Enabling iCal Sync [Google Calendar]
"
Google Calendar has added support for the CalDAV standard, opening up a realm of syncing possibilities for business users and webapps. Right now it's somewhat limited, with a few known issues, but the big news is that it's now possible to sync your iCal and Google Calendars without any third-party software. As the Google Operating System notes, however, it's not an entirely simple process to hook the two up, so a free option like recently-made-free CalGoo might still be the best option for anyone who doesn't enjoy fiddling. Hit the link below for details on GCal's CalDAV options.
"Voir en ligne : Google Calendar Adds CalDAV Support, Enabling iCal Sync [Google Calendar]
Xbox Live Arcade To Get GeoWars 2, Braid, Castle Crashers Dated
"
Microsoft has announced that this week's regular Xbox Live Arcade update will see the addition of Geometry Wars 2, the first title in its 'Summer of Arcade' lineup that will also feature Braid, Castle Crashers, and Bionic Commando Rearmed in coming weeks. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 is the sequel to the original that put Xbox Live Arcade on the map, and will feature six gameplay modes, and new enemies and scoring. The title will ...
"Voir en ligne : Xbox Live Arcade To Get GeoWars 2, Braid, Castle Crashers Dated
Virtual Worlds London : Save 15% on the October Event
"
Mashable is pleased to be collaborating with US-based Virtual Worlds Management to bring you to Virtual Worlds London, the premiere event focused on virtual worlds and Web 3D. Virtual Worlds London takes place 20-21 October 2008 in the heart of London at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. Virtual Worlds London is the leading event for businesses seeking to understand and maximize business strategies within virtual worlds. VW London is presented by leading VW business blog Virtual Worlds News.
Early registration is now open at www.virtualworldslondon.com. Registration gains you full access to all conference and expo elements. We have put together a special Mashable VIP promotional code that will save you 15% off the currently listed registration rate of £595. That brings the price down to £505.75. The promotional code is MashableVIP.
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:
Second Life Teams Up With IBM for Virtual World Interoperability
Myrl is a SocNet for your Virtual World Avatars
There.com Gets a Curvy Coca Cola Island
Gartner Report Warns Against Brands in Second Life
On-Demand Streaming for Second Life
The Daily Poll: Should Virtual Worlds be Regulated?
Vivox Raises $7.8M for Virtual World Voice Tools
Voir en ligne : Virtual Worlds London: Save 15% on the October Event
Daily Scan : 07.28.08 - Gaiman Goes Batman, Batman's Goyer Goes Invisible
"
• The Dark Knight scribe David S. Goyer is adapting H.G. Wells's classic novella The Invisible Man, but promises it's not a statement about the amount of press attention he got for the latest Batman installment.
• The cast of Battlestar Galactica discuss the series' bullet-addled finale. And here we were hoping for an episode that takes place entirely in Baltar's harem. Wait a minute...
•Dr. Horrible's Nathan Fillion explains Captain Hammer's superpowers. Insert penis joke here.
•Watch four minutes of The Clone Wars. As if you needed more incentive not to go see it in theaters.
•Neil Gaiman is writing Batman! Neil Gaiman is writing Batman! Neil Gaiman is writing Batman!
"Voir en ligne : Daily Scan: 07.28.08 - Gaiman Goes Batman, Batman's Goyer Goes Invisible
FreeCulture TV and Yes We’re Open : Two new free and open Internet TV channels
"Parker sez,
I'm a summer intern at the Participatory Culture Foundation, who make Miro, and I just launched two new channels that Boing Boing readers might enjoy:
Free Culture TV is all videos about free culture and the copyfight. Check out cool documentaries, videos of lectures or CC Salon discussions, that kind of thing.
Yes, We're Open! Free Movies, Music Videos, and TV (catchy title, eh?) is all openly licensed entertainment... Movies, shorts, music videos, all kinds of fun stuff.
You can subscribe to either or both of these channels in any RSS reader that can handle video and torrent attachments, but they're built for Miro.
New Channels: Free Culture TV and Yes, We’re Open!
(Thanks, Parker!)
(Disclosure: I am proud to volunteer for Miro's board of directors)
"Voir en ligne : FreeCulture TV and Yes We're Open: Two new free and open Internet TV channels
Michael Moorcock’s biography of Mervyn Peake — excerpt
"Matt sez, "Michael Moorcock agreed to let me post the introduction to his work in progress, a memoir of Mervyn Peake, author of the "Gormenghast" books and his wife Maeve. It's going to be called "Lovers: Mervyn and Maeve Peake. A Personal Memoir." As a fan of both Moorcock and Peake, this is a big thing for me, as I suspect it will be for many other readers." Peake completely torqued my head around backwards when I was about 14.
The Peake parties were lush and rich but never self-conscious. The PreRaphaelite enthusiasms of the 60s, which brought Melvyn Bragg into a room dressed as if for the set of Isodora, which he was then writing, in black velvet, with silver rings, married well with the dark Fitrovian colours of Mervyn’s canvasses, though Peake had no particular enthusiasm for the previous century. His preference was for the present, for Soho and the post-war world of eccentric Londoners whose portraits he collected in what he called his head-hunting sessions. At this stage of his life, however, because it reflected the concerns of his generation, his painting was somewhat out of fashion. England had entered one of her uncertain, self-examining periods of nostalgia, looking back to the fin-de-siecle and Edwardian social certainties.
Mervyn was dramatically handsome and his wife Maeve was dramatically beautiful. They had been a remarkable couple for years, though they had not mixed a great deal with the fashionable bohemians of their day. They had spent quite a lot of time away from London, in Sark in particular. They had come to prefer each other’s company. Although an accomplished painter, she had put aside her own work for the most part, concentrating on her children. He drew her and painted her a lot. She is there in everything he did. He wrote her poems when he was taken into the army during the second world war, he produced fictional versions of her in his Titus Groan, which he wrote when he was drafted into the army. On leave, he would draw her and the children. He was an inexpert soldier. He had a mild breakdown, which kept him away from overseas conflict. Eventually, he was commissioned as a war artist. His pictures of Maeve are not exaggerated any more than the poems for and about her, of which he wrote so many
Link
(Thanks, Matt!)
"Voir en ligne : Michael Moorcock's biography of Mervyn Peake -- excerpt
Microsoft Funds Its Rival Apache Open-Source Web Server Software
"
Microsoft, one of the biggest rivals to open-source programming, has begun funding the Apache Software Foundation, one of open-source software's biggest supporters. "Microsoft is becoming a sponsor of the Apache Software Foundation. This sponsorship will enable the ASF to pay administrators and other support staff so that ASF developers can focus on writing great software," said Sam Ramji, a senior director of platform strategy at Microsoft. He announced the move Friday in a speech at the Open Source Convention, and noted Microsoft's support of Apache on the software company's Port 25 blog as well. More...
Voir en ligne : Microsoft Funds Its Rival Apache Open-Source Web Server Software
07/25/08 PHD comic : ’Average time spent writing one e-mail’
"
| Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham | ||
| ||
title: "Average time spent writing one e-mail" - originally published 7/25/2008 For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE! | ||
Voir en ligne : 07/25/08 PHD comic: 'Average time spent writing one e-mail'
Wired on The 25th Anniversary of WarGames
"
The current issue of Wired Magazine has an excellent article by Scott Brown on the 25th Anniversary of the 1983 film “WarGames” and it’s effect on the geek world:
“WarGames: A Look Back at the Film That Turned Geeks and Phreaks Into Stars”
The article has interviews with several people involved with the film, including screenwriters Walter Parkes and Lawrence Lasker, as well as commentary from real-world hackers John “Captain Crunch” Draper and Kevin Mitnick.
photo by Todd Hido
This is a blog post from Laughing Squid
For more content like this, subscribe to the RSS feed, Twitter & FriendFeed.
Wired on The 25th Anniversary of WarGames
"Voir en ligne : Wired on The 25th Anniversary of WarGames
Mlib.fr, le Vélib’ facile
"
Le 15 juillet, Vélib’ a fêté son 1er anniversaire. Je vais vous présenter dans ce billet une application mobile que je viens de créer : Mlib.fr dédiée à la recherche de vélo ou d’emplacement Vélib’ sur la capitale.
+ 
Réflexions
L’idée de ce site mobile vient d’un constat : c’est assez facile de trouver une station Vélib’ dans Paris, il y en a à tous les coins de rue. Mais souvent, soit elles sont vides quand vous rechercher un vélo (en périphérie), soit elles sont pleines quand vous souhaitez déposer votre Vélib’.
Dans ces cas, l’utilisateur de Vélib’ aurait besoin d’un service pouvant lui indiquer la borne la plus proche selon son besoin. Un service sur téléphone mobile est donc des plus indiqué.
Besoins
- Site internet à utiliser sur un mobile … en situation de mobilité
- Être localisé simplement pour rechercher les stations proches
- Connaître en temps réel les disponibilités des stations
- Présenter sur une carte la recherche pour aider l’utilisateur à se repérer et à sélectionner plus facilement la station souhaitée
Réalisation
En mobilité
Même si la 3G (haut débit sur téléphone mobile) arrive sur de plus en plus de téléphone, il faut qu’un site mobile soit très rapide à charger… peu ou pas d’images, contenu réduit au strict minimum. L’information doit être accessible simplement et doit s’afficher rapidement. De plus le nom du site est le plus court possible… 4 lettres pouvant être facilement mémorisées ou tapées depuis le téléphone.
La géolocalisation
L’utilisateur doit facilement se géolocaliser : impossible d’utiliser un GPS sur un site mobile, pas de localisation par antennes relais ou par Wifi. Par contre pour Mlib.fr, l’utilisateur se trouve à une station Vélib’. N’oublions pas que cette application s’adresse aux personnes ayant trouvé une station Vélib’ (plutôt facile) mais qui malheureusement n’a pas de vélo ou n’a pas d’emplacement libre.
L’idée de Mlib.fr est donc de demander à l’utilisateur le numéro de la station où il se trouve. En effet chaque station Vélib est numérotée. Ce numéro est composé de l’arrondissement et d’un chiffre répresentant le numéro de la station dans l’arrondissement. Par exemple : arrondissement 1, station n°08, donne la station indéxée 01008.
Il est très facile de trouver le numéro de la station sur la borne. Soit il est clairement indiqué, soit vous le retrouvez sur le plan du quartier.
Ayant récupéré sur le site http://www.velib.paris.fr/ très facilement l’index complet des stations (voir fichier XML), Mlib.fr connait les coordonnées géographiques de chaque station… et donc peut faire une recherche de proximité des stations Vélib’ autour d’un lieu (en l’occurence une station Vélib’).
J’ai donc souhaité éviter à l’utilisateur de rentrer une adresse qui selon moi est très peu pratique sur un téléphone… surtout que dans notre cas, on souhaite être assez précis, un numéro de rue (que l’on ne trouve pas tout le temps) s’imposerait.
L’utilisateur doit donc simplement indiquer :
- s’il recherche un vélo ou une station
- l’arrondissement où il se trouve (indiqué sur la station)
- numéro de la station (indiqué aussi sur la station)
La recherche et le résultat
Avec tout cela, la recherche de proximité des stations est faite. Je demande pour chaque station la disponibilité (via le service REST Vélib) pour afficher les résultats correspondant aux besoins de l’utilisateur dans une liste et sur une carte Google Static Maps.
Je vous avez déjà présenter ce service gratuit de carte statique de Google très pratique. J’affiche sur la carte, la station centre de la recherche (marqueur en blanc) et les stations trouvées correspondant aux critères recherches.
La taille de la carte est automatiquement déterminée en fonction du terminal mobile utilisé. En effet j’utilise le service Open Source WURFL qui est une sorte de base de donnée complète des caractéristiques des téléphones. Enfin la carte affichée est la version”mobile” comportant une charte cartographique allégée.
Une page “Détails” par station trouvée est disponible pour avoir une carte plus précise et l’adresse précise de la station choisie.
Conclusion
Mlib.fr n’a aucune prétention :-). C’est pour moi plus une réflexion autour des services mobiles. Bien évidemment c’était l’occasion de mettre en pratique Google Static Maps.
Il faut aussi être réaliste. L’utilisation d’un site mobile, n’est pas encore une pratique courante. Le boom de l’internet mobile n’est pas pour tout de suite. L’iPhone, sorti il y a un an, a vraiment révolutionné l’internet mobile, et l’engouement de la toute nouvelle version 3G ne le dément pas.
A noter bien évidemment d’autres applications du même type :
- le site mobile Vélib’ officiel qui utilise la localisation par cellId (antenne GSM). Malheureusement, la localisation est souvent peu précise et il est difficile de se repérer. L’adresse de la station Vélib’ n’aide en rien.
- Molib, qui n’est pas un site mobile mais une application sous Android très bien réalisée.
J’attends donc vos commentaires, critiques et suggestions! 
"Voir en ligne : Mlib.fr, le Vélib’ facile
Your only hope is that Google will kill you last [Jason Calacanis]
"
Flaxen-locked funtrepreneur Jason Calacanis says Google has been a content company for a while now. With Knol, the Googlers plan to become the Internet's reference library rather than just its card catalog. I used the editorial equivalent of gzip to compress Calacanis's arguments down to 1/10 size.
It seems Google is not satisfied with owning over 70% of search—now they want to own the first couple of pages in their search results. So, if you're digg.com, About.com, NYTimes.com, and Wikipedia you're faced with not only being traffic-dependant on Google, you're now competing with them for the traffic within their search result.
This feels exactly like what Microsoft did to its application vendors. Microsoft convinced folks to build WordStar, WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and Quattro Pro for their operating system. They grew that business together until the point that Microsoft had massive market-share in operating systems.
Then Microsoft pulled the rug out from under the 3rd party application vendors. The streets were littered with dead software companies, Microsoft faced massive lawsuits, and the industry became stagnant until the Internet shook things up again two decades later.
Frankly, it's insulting to say you're not in the content business and then launch Knol and compete with content companies for their authors, users, and placement in the rankings that you control.
For Google's own good they should not try to take over their own search results. If Google results start showing 20-30% Knol pages and YouTube videos then that is going to drive users away from Google in search of more diversity.
As a hedge we're partnering with Google. We've put 30 of our How To articles into Knol, and we're very big partners with YouTube on our Mahalo Daily show. If you can't beat them join them. If Google is destined to be the new Microsoft then it's best to get into the tent early.
"Voir en ligne : Your only hope is that Google will kill you last [Jason Calacanis]
What Is the Motivation for Editing Someone Else’s Knol Article ?
"
Reto Meier in a comment to the ranking debate over Knol wrote, “I don’t see any evidence that the moderated collaboration is working yet.” This led to some thoughts on the editing of other people’s Knols feature, and the question “What is the motivation for editing someone else’s Knol article?” For instance:
- When I edit someone else’s Knol article, as opposed to what happens on Wikipedia, my edit may never see the light of the day. To see the light of day, it also needs to pass a person who may disagree with my edit or who may be insulted by the correction.
- If I spot a factual error in an article, editing it to remove it would make the article’s message better perhaps, but it would also skew the original voice of the author. If someone else would now try to judge the overall factualness of the information contained within that article, then I did a disservice to that reader because I removed the easy indicators of non-factualness.
- If 20 articles on the subject X contain a factual error, and I’m an expert on X, will I go and edit 20 articles individually? Seems like a waste of energy, which would be better spent on Wikipedia, where one edit will suffice (if it stays in).
- If the article is written in first person like many articles are, and if they are highly opinionated or personal, who am I to tell someone else what they should say? This is great about opinions, there’s plenty of them and the diversity may make them great. Trying to unify all personal views into one seems impossible for a single-author-driven approach, and for articles using first-person writing, it also seems like you’d be fabricating lies. If someone says “I like Wednesdays because the Spaghetti Monster told people that’s when you can eat all the spaghetti you want” who am I to correct this and “adjust” the belief of the author just because I think the Spaghetti Monster doesn’t exist and that eating spaghetti on Wednesdays doesn’t have any special health-related benefits? If I would do that edit, I’d remove potentially valuable info about the author and their beliefs.
In most cases like these, unless you know the author and work together with them on the article in some way, a comment seems to be the better alternative, doesn’t it? The comment will be live immediately, and it won’t skew the original author’s voice. Admittedly, we may get most involved in with articles from people we know and trust and have read for some time, for which the blog format seems easier, because it will build communication over a longer period. Don’t we best like to alert people of issues with their articles if we know them? (The occasional reaching out to try to restore universal balance aside...)
Reto added, “I don’t really see the use-case for editing someone else’s article. I can see a use for the [multiple]-author model, but otherwise a comment, review, or message to the author suggesting a change seems more useful.”
Again I got to ask: What is the motivation for editing someone else’s Knol article?
[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: What Is the Motivation for Editing Someone El ... | Comments]
[Advertisement] PingPongPie - the art of linkbaiting and social media marketing
"Voir en ligne : What Is the Motivation for Editing Someone Else's Knol Article?
Google Calendar Adds CalDAV Support, Enabling iCal Sync [Google Calendar]
"
Google Calendar has added support for the CalDAV standard, opening up a realm of syncing possibilities for business users and webapps. Right now it's somewhat limited, with a few known issues, but the big news is that it's now possible to sync your iCal and Google Calendars without any third-party software. As the Google Operating System notes, however, it's not an entirely simple process to hook the two up, so a free option like recently-made-free CalGoo might still be the best option for anyone who doesn't enjoy fiddling. Hit the link below for details on GCal's CalDAV options.
"Voir en ligne : Google Calendar Adds CalDAV Support, Enabling iCal Sync [Google Calendar]
Xbox Live Arcade To Get GeoWars 2, Braid, Castle Crashers Dated
"
Microsoft has announced that this week's regular Xbox Live Arcade update will see the addition of Geometry Wars 2, the first title in its 'Summer of Arcade' lineup that will also feature Braid, Castle Crashers, and Bionic Commando Rearmed in coming weeks. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 is the sequel to the original that put Xbox Live Arcade on the map, and will feature six gameplay modes, and new enemies and scoring. The title will ...
"Voir en ligne : Xbox Live Arcade To Get GeoWars 2, Braid, Castle Crashers Dated
Virtual Worlds London : Save 15% on the October Event
"
Mashable is pleased to be collaborating with US-based Virtual Worlds Management to bring you to Virtual Worlds London, the premiere event focused on virtual worlds and Web 3D. Virtual Worlds London takes place 20-21 October 2008 in the heart of London at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. Virtual Worlds London is the leading event for businesses seeking to understand and maximize business strategies within virtual worlds. VW London is presented by leading VW business blog Virtual Worlds News.
Early registration is now open at www.virtualworldslondon.com. Registration gains you full access to all conference and expo elements. We have put together a special Mashable VIP promotional code that will save you 15% off the currently listed registration rate of £595. That brings the price down to £505.75. The promotional code is MashableVIP.
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:
Second Life Teams Up With IBM for Virtual World Interoperability
Myrl is a SocNet for your Virtual World Avatars
There.com Gets a Curvy Coca Cola Island
Gartner Report Warns Against Brands in Second Life
On-Demand Streaming for Second Life
The Daily Poll: Should Virtual Worlds be Regulated?
Vivox Raises $7.8M for Virtual World Voice Tools
Voir en ligne : Virtual Worlds London: Save 15% on the October Event
Daily Scan : 07.28.08 - Gaiman Goes Batman, Batman's Goyer Goes Invisible
"
• The Dark Knight scribe David S. Goyer is adapting H.G. Wells's classic novella The Invisible Man, but promises it's not a statement about the amount of press attention he got for the latest Batman installment.
• The cast of Battlestar Galactica discuss the series' bullet-addled finale. And here we were hoping for an episode that takes place entirely in Baltar's harem. Wait a minute...
•Dr. Horrible's Nathan Fillion explains Captain Hammer's superpowers. Insert penis joke here.
•Watch four minutes of The Clone Wars. As if you needed more incentive not to go see it in theaters.
•Neil Gaiman is writing Batman! Neil Gaiman is writing Batman! Neil Gaiman is writing Batman!
"Voir en ligne : Daily Scan: 07.28.08 - Gaiman Goes Batman, Batman's Goyer Goes Invisible
FreeCulture TV and Yes We’re Open : Two new free and open Internet TV channels
"Parker sez,
I'm a summer intern at the Participatory Culture Foundation, who make Miro, and I just launched two new channels that Boing Boing readers might enjoy:
Free Culture TV is all videos about free culture and the copyfight. Check out cool documentaries, videos of lectures or CC Salon discussions, that kind of thing.
Yes, We're Open! Free Movies, Music Videos, and TV (catchy title, eh?) is all openly licensed entertainment... Movies, shorts, music videos, all kinds of fun stuff.
You can subscribe to either or both of these channels in any RSS reader that can handle video and torrent attachments, but they're built for Miro.
New Channels: Free Culture TV and Yes, We’re Open!
(Thanks, Parker!)
(Disclosure: I am proud to volunteer for Miro's board of directors)
"Voir en ligne : FreeCulture TV and Yes We're Open: Two new free and open Internet TV channels
Michael Moorcock’s biography of Mervyn Peake — excerpt
"Matt sez, "Michael Moorcock agreed to let me post the introduction to his work in progress, a memoir of Mervyn Peake, author of the "Gormenghast" books and his wife Maeve. It's going to be called "Lovers: Mervyn and Maeve Peake. A Personal Memoir." As a fan of both Moorcock and Peake, this is a big thing for me, as I suspect it will be for many other readers." Peake completely torqued my head around backwards when I was about 14.
The Peake parties were lush and rich but never self-conscious. The PreRaphaelite enthusiasms of the 60s, which brought Melvyn Bragg into a room dressed as if for the set of Isodora, which he was then writing, in black velvet, with silver rings, married well with the dark Fitrovian colours of Mervyn’s canvasses, though Peake had no particular enthusiasm for the previous century. His preference was for the present, for Soho and the post-war world of eccentric Londoners whose portraits he collected in what he called his head-hunting sessions. At this stage of his life, however, because it reflected the concerns of his generation, his painting was somewhat out of fashion. England had entered one of her uncertain, self-examining periods of nostalgia, looking back to the fin-de-siecle and Edwardian social certainties.
Mervyn was dramatically handsome and his wife Maeve was dramatically beautiful. They had been a remarkable couple for years, though they had not mixed a great deal with the fashionable bohemians of their day. They had spent quite a lot of time away from London, in Sark in particular. They had come to prefer each other’s company. Although an accomplished painter, she had put aside her own work for the most part, concentrating on her children. He drew her and painted her a lot. She is there in everything he did. He wrote her poems when he was taken into the army during the second world war, he produced fictional versions of her in his Titus Groan, which he wrote when he was drafted into the army. On leave, he would draw her and the children. He was an inexpert soldier. He had a mild breakdown, which kept him away from overseas conflict. Eventually, he was commissioned as a war artist. His pictures of Maeve are not exaggerated any more than the poems for and about her, of which he wrote so many
Link
(Thanks, Matt!)
"Voir en ligne : Michael Moorcock's biography of Mervyn Peake -- excerpt
Microsoft Funds Its Rival Apache Open-Source Web Server Software
"
Microsoft, one of the biggest rivals to open-source programming, has begun funding the Apache Software Foundation, one of open-source software's biggest supporters. "Microsoft is becoming a sponsor of the Apache Software Foundation. This sponsorship will enable the ASF to pay administrators and other support staff so that ASF developers can focus on writing great software," said Sam Ramji, a senior director of platform strategy at Microsoft. He announced the move Friday in a speech at the Open Source Convention, and noted Microsoft's support of Apache on the software company's Port 25 blog as well. More...
Voir en ligne : Microsoft Funds Its Rival Apache Open-Source Web Server Software
07/25/08 PHD comic : ’Average time spent writing one e-mail’
"
| Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham | ||
 | ||
title: "Average time spent writing one e-mail" - originally published 7/25/2008 For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE! | ||
Voir en ligne : 07/25/08 PHD comic: 'Average time spent writing one e-mail'
Understanding Comics - The Books Of Scott McCloud
"
guest post by Aaron Muszalski
Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art is a richly insightful exploration of the medium of comics told, appropriately enough, in comic-book form. Originally published in 1993, it quickly came to be regarded as a classic, not only for helping to elevate sequential art to the same level as other, more “legitimate” art forms, but for its engaging, exuberant style. Understanding Comics is an absolute delight to read, full of humor and the author’s obviously deep affection for the unique magic that only comics can achieve.
But what makes Understanding Comics truly great is its scope. For in order to properly redefine how comics were viewed relative to other forms of art, McCloud first needed to define art itself. All art, from the origin of humankind through the era of mechanical reproduction and beyond. That he succeeded at such an ambitious task is not half as surprising as the fact that the result is so supremely accessible. Understanding Comics is no less than a comprehensive primer on human perception, creativity, storytelling, representation, abstraction, empathy and a million points in between.
This breadth earned McCloud accolades from a diverse range of fans, including Apple Macintosh co-creator Andy Hertzfeld, who provocatively called Understanding Comics “one of the most insightful books about designing graphic user interfaces ever written.” Stewart Brand, Co-Founder of The Long Now Foundation, described Understanding Comics as “a seminal work at the level of Edward Tufte’s Envisioning Information.” And Alan Moore, the famed writer behind such modern comic classics as Watchmen, declared Understanding Comics to be “quite simply the best analysis of the medium that I have ever encountered.”
Propelled by this cross-disciplinary seal of approval, Understanding Comics became essential reading for anyone working in graphic communication during the 90’s, from user interface designers to CD-ROM developers and, eventually, many of the early pioneers of the World Wide Web. Born of a love for comics, McCloud’s far-reaching insights inspired a generation of information architects, and helped to shape the form of the Internet.
McCloud enthusiastically embraced the Internet himself, and was one of the earliest proponents of both webcomics and micropayments, concepts he explored in the sequel to Understanding Comics, 2000’s Reinventing Comics. Like Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics was also told entirely in comic form. In it, McCloud described “12 revolutions” that were necessary for the comics medium to survive. A controversial book, Reinventing Comics was not as successful as its predecessor, and even McCloud himself now describes it as “wordy, dogmatic” and containing “genuine flaws.”
Despite its inconsistencies, Reinventing Comics played an important part in the continued growth of the medium, inspiring many people to explore the potential of digital comics, and online comic publishing. That neither idea seems particularly remarkable to us now - a mere eight years later - is certainly due, at least in part, to the controversial revolutions McCloud advocated in Reinventing Comics. Today, the book remains both fascinating as well as prescient.
In 2006, McCloud came full-circle with the publication of Making Comics. Also told in comic form, Making Comics focuses on the practical application of the comics theory he explored in his previous books. Or, as McCloud says, “It’s the book they all thought I was writing the first time. They would ask me [about Understanding Comics] “Is it a how-to book?” And I would say, “no, not exactly.”
Of course, given the breadth of McCloud’s knowledge, Making Comics was certain to be much more than a mere “how-to book.” In an era when the processes of comic creation have become infinitely diverse, McCloud wisely chose not to focus on any single technique or tool (though he does address the subject). Rather, Making Comics seeks to educate aspiring comic artists in the underlying grammar of the medium, from which all other choices - aesthetic, technical, dramatic, and so forth - derive.
As always, Scott McCloud remains an artist in love with big ideas, accessibly communicated.
images by Scott McCloud
This is a blog post from Laughing Squid
For more content like this, subscribe to the RSS feed, Twitter & FriendFeed.
Understanding Comics - The Books Of Scott McCloud
"Voir en ligne : Understanding Comics - The Books Of Scott McCloud
Google Code blacklists Mozilla Public License
"
Less is more
OSCON The Mozilla Public License (MPL) is the latest casualty of Google's decision to remove open-source licenses from its popular code hosting service.…
"Voir en ligne : Google Code blacklists Mozilla Public License
We knew the web was big...
"We've known it for a long time: the web is big. The first Google index in 1998 already had 26 million pages, and by 2000 the Google index reached the one billion mark. Over the last eight years, we've seen a lot of big numbers about how much content is really out there. Recently, even our search engineers stopped in awe about just how big the web is these days -- when our systems that process links on the web to find new content hit a milestone: 1 trillion (as in 1,000,000,000,000) unique URLs on the web at once!
How do we find all those pages? We start at a set of well-connected initial pages and follow each of their links to new pages. Then we follow the links on those new pages to even more pages and so on, until we have a huge list of links. In fact, we found even more than 1 trillion individual links, but not all of them lead to unique web pages. Many pages have multiple URLs with exactly the same content or URLs that are auto-generated copies of each other. Even after removing those exact duplicates, we saw a trillion unique URLs, and the number of individual web pages out there is growing by several billion pages per day.
So how many unique pages does the web really contain? We don't know; we don't have time to look at them all! :-) Strictly speaking, the number of pages out there is infinite -- for example, web calendars may have a "next day" link, and we could follow that link forever, each time finding a "new" page. We're not doing that, obviously, since there would be little benefit to you. But this example shows that the size of the web really depends on your definition of what's a useful page, and there is no exact answer.
We don't index every one of those trillion pages -- many of them are similar to each other, or represent auto-generated content similar to the calendar example that isn't very useful to searchers. But we're proud to have the most comprehensive index of any search engine, and our goal always has been to index all the world's data.
To keep up with this volume of information, our systems have come a long way since the first set of web data Google processed to answer queries. Back then, we did everything in batches: one workstation could compute the PageRank graph on 26 million pages in a couple of hours, and that set of pages would be used as Google's index for a fixed period of time. Today, Google downloads the web continuously, collecting updated page information and re-processing the entire web-link graph several times per day. This graph of one trillion URLs is similar to a map made up of one trillion intersections. So multiple times every day, we do the computational equivalent of fully exploring every intersection of every road in the United States. Except it'd be a map about 50,000 times as big as the U.S., with 50,000 times as many roads and intersections.
As you can see, our distributed infrastructure allows applications to efficiently traverse a link graph with many trillions of connections, or quickly sort petabytes of data, just to prepare to answer the most important question: your next Google search.
Posted by Jesse Alpert & Nissan Hajaj, Software Engineers, Web Search Infrastructure Team
"Voir en ligne : We knew the web was big...
7 Stunningly Precarious Mountain and Cliff Dwellings : Part Two of an Eight-Part Amazing Houses Series
"
(images via: Casa Pauline and Nathan Snider and BurlingameBarley)
We humans like a bit of adventure, as a rule. We drive fast, we hang glide, we even eat bacon with breakfast. But for the most adventurous among us, nothing is better than living in a dangerously precarious house. These houses are perched high on cliffs and mountains, giving their residents thrilling and, we would imagine, somewhat frightening views.
(image via: Bornemania)
Among the most famous of all cliff houses are the hanging houses of Cuenca in Spain. This ancient village found itself with a need to expand in the 18th Century. Instead of building out, they built up. The resulting buildings look like they will topple down into the ravine any day, but they are apparently quite stable. These clifftop homes are now a tourist attraction for the town.
(images via: Coolboom)
When the owners of this piece of cliffside real estate wanted to build a home here, the architects nearly wouldn’t take it on. The stunning finished product features panoramic views of the sea enhanced by the unique geometric architecture. Located in Australia, the view from this living space is not for the faint of heart. The owners have remarked that during a storm, it seems that the waves will simply wash the structure away.
(image via: Bzmch)
Italy is full of picturesque seaside villages, but Manarola, Cinque Terre is certainly one of the most precariously placed. It’s hard to say just how old this village is, but ancient Roman texts have been found which celebrated the wines produced there. Today, you can still enjoy strolls through the vineyards or a walk on the Via dell’Amore (Path of Love).
(image via: Jacob Metcalf)
Along the limestone cliffs of Bonifacio in Corsica are a number of precariously perched buildings that look to be at risk of collapse any day. But the buildings hold strong against the constant battering of the Mediterranean Sea, and Bonifacio is a popular tourist attraction. Although huge numbers of tourists flock to the island city every year, Bonifacio has somehow maintained its charm and its decidedly French atmosphere.
(Top image via: Peter Wolledge. Bottom images via: Sajith)
If you are hardy and adventurous enough to trek high into the Himalayas, you will eventually spot one of the most breathtaking monasteries in the world. Phuktal Monastery, home to the Gelug (or Yellow Hat) Buddhist monks, is only reachable by foot. It is built into the side of a cliff at the mouth of a cave and contains a natural spring. It is amazing that this structure has existed as long as it has, being constructed of mud bricks, stones, and sticks.
(image via: Ajuntament de Castellfollit de la Roca)
The tiny town of Castellfollit de la Roca takes up less than one square kilometer in Catalonia. The houses and other buildings are built right up to the edge of the cliff on which the town is situated. The basalt cliff was formed from ancient lava flows and is over 50 meters high and nearly a kilometer long. The spectacular vista is a favorite of photographers and painters everywhere.
(Top image via: JLBG. Bottom image via: Leo Palmer)
It would be impossible to gather a collection of precarious dwellings without a mention of the Meteora monasteries in Greece. Meteora translates literally to “hovering in the air.” They were built hundreds of years ago by monks who initially lived in caves in the area. During the times of Turkish invasions and occupation, the monks climbed higher and higher, finally building their monasteries atop the tall rocks. Although they were once accessible only by climbing the rock faces, the monasteries can now be reached by roads and steps.
Amazing Houses 1: Beach and Lake Houses
Want More? Check Out These Great Related Articles:
- 7 Unique Beach and Lake Houses: Part One in an Eight-Part Amazing Houses Series
- 7 Brilliant Building Conversion Projects: Superb Examples of Architectural Adaptive Reuse
- The Strangest Secession Since the Civil War: Leisurevilles and the Exodus of America’s Elderly
- 10 (More) Awesome Architectural Shipping Container Designs: From Loft Spaces to Emergency Housing
- 30 Awesome Websites for Adverturous Urban Explorers: Urbex Forums, Photos and More
Voir en ligne : 7 Stunningly Precarious Mountain and Cliff Dwellings: Part Two of an Eight-Part Amazing Houses Series
7 Stunningly Precarious Mountain and Cliff Dwellings : Part Two of an Eight-Part Amazing Houses Series
"
(images via: Casa Pauline and Nathan Snider and BurlingameBarley)
We humans like a bit of adventure, as a rule. We drive fast, we hang glide, we even eat bacon with breakfast. But for the most adventurous among us, nothing is better than living in a dangerously precarious house. These houses are perched high on cliffs and mountains, giving their residents thrilling and, we would imagine, somewhat frightening views.
(image via: Bornemania)
Among the most famous of all cliff houses are the hanging houses of Cuenca in Spain. This ancient village found itself with a need to expand in the 18th Century. Instead of building out, they built up. The resulting buildings look like they will topple down into the ravine any day, but they are apparently quite stable. These clifftop homes are now a tourist attraction for the town.
(images via: Coolboom)
When the owners of this piece of cliffside real estate wanted to build a home here, the architects nearly wouldn’t take it on. The stunning finished product features panoramic views of the sea enhanced by the unique geometric architecture. Located in Australia, the view from this living space is not for the faint of heart. The owners have remarked that during a storm, it seems that the waves will simply wash the structure away.
(image via: Bzmch)
Italy is full of picturesque seaside villages, but Manarola, Cinque Terre is certainly one of the most precariously placed. It’s hard to say just how old this village is, but ancient Roman texts have been found which celebrated the wines produced there. Today, you can still enjoy strolls through the vineyards or a walk on the Via dell’Amore (Path of Love).
(image via: Jacob Metcalf)
Along the limestone cliffs of Bonifacio in Corsica are a number of precariously perched buildings that look to be at risk of collapse any day. But the buildings hold strong against the constant battering of the Mediterranean Sea, and Bonifacio is a popular tourist attraction. Although huge numbers of tourists flock to the island city every year, Bonifacio has somehow maintained its charm and its decidedly French atmosphere.
(Top image via: Peter Wolledge. Bottom images via: Sajith)
If you are hardy and adventurous enough to trek high into the Himalayas, you will eventually spot one of the most breathtaking monasteries in the world. Phuktal Monastery, home to the Gelug (or Yellow Hat) Buddhist monks, is only reachable by foot. It is built into the side of a cliff at the mouth of a cave and contains a natural spring. It is amazing that this structure has existed as long as it has, being constructed of mud bricks, stones, and sticks.
(image via: Ajuntament de Castellfollit de la Roca)
The tiny town of Castellfollit de la Roca takes up less than one square kilometer in Catalonia. The houses and other buildings are built right up to the edge of the cliff on which the town is situated. The basalt cliff was formed from ancient lava flows and is over 50 meters high and nearly a kilometer long. The spectacular vista is a favorite of photographers and painters everywhere.
(Top image via: JLBG. Bottom image via: Leo Palmer)
It would be impossible to gather a collection of precarious dwellings without a mention of the Meteora monasteries in Greece. Meteora translates literally to “hovering in the air.” They were built hundreds of years ago by monks who initially lived in caves in the area. During the times of Turkish invasions and occupation, the monks climbed higher and higher, finally building their monasteries atop the tall rocks. Although they were once accessible only by climbing the rock faces, the monasteries can now be reached by roads and steps.
Amazing Houses 1: Beach and Lake Houses
Want More? Check Out These Great Related Articles:
- 7 Unique Beach and Lake Houses: Part One in an Eight-Part Amazing Houses Series
- 7 Brilliant Building Conversion Projects: Superb Examples of Architectural Adaptive Reuse
- The Strangest Secession Since the Civil War: Leisurevilles and the Exodus of America’s Elderly
- 10 (More) Awesome Architectural Shipping Container Designs: From Loft Spaces to Emergency Housing
- 30 Awesome Websites for Adverturous Urban Explorers: Urbex Forums, Photos and More
Voir en ligne : 7 Stunningly Precarious Mountain and Cliff Dwellings: Part Two of an Eight-Part Amazing Houses Series
And This Is Why China is Every Internet Company’s Wet Dream
"
According to the latest government data, China now has 253 million Internet users, due to recent sharp growth - 56 percent from last year. The inevitable has happened: China now has more Internet users than the USA, which is at 223.1 million with 71% online penetration. The fact that the Chinese government is exercising very strict control and censorship over internet use has immensely slowed down the growth of Internet use in this country, but when you’ve got a population of over 1.3 billion, even a relatively small fraction of it is enough to become a global leader.
Yes, the really amazing thing is the fact that the online penetration is China is mere 19.1 percent, way, way lower than the USA and most European countries. Financial facts are even more revealing: total revenues for all of China’s internet companies was $5.9 billion in 2007 while in the U.S. online advertising revenues alone in that same year were $21.2 billion. For companies such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and other giants, this means two words: untapped potential.
Research firm BDA China Ltd. estimates that China’s online population will keep growing by 18 percent annually - a modest estimation, considering that this growth was 56% this year - and reach 490 million by 2012. The US online market suddenly seems small in comparison. Due to strict Chinese government regulation of the Internet, financially the Chinese market will not catch up as fast as it could, but with a little (inevitable) westernization and a little globalization it’ll get there, and every online firm will want a slice of the pie. This one growing market might be more important than most other world’s markets put together.
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:
Google Gaining on Baidu in China
Microsoft & Yahoo Sign Pact Pushing Blog Censorship in China
Skype Falling Prey to Chinese Censorship?
Google China Adding 200 To Workforce
China Blocks RSS Feeds
China Becomes Largest Web Surfing Country In The World
Yahoo China Launches a MySpace Clone
Voir en ligne : And This is Why China is Every Internet Company’s Wet Dream
LevelHead, réalité augmentée en espaces cubiques [vidéo]
"
LevelHead est un jeu (puzzle/memory game) en réalité augmentée créé par Julian Oliver composé d’un ensemble de 3 cubes reliés par des portes. Un personnage se trouvant dans l’un de ces cubes peut être manipulé en inclinant les cubes, ces inclinaisons permettant de diriger les déplacements de ce personnage d’un cube à l’autre. Le but du jeu est de guider le personnage à travers ces cubes et ce jusqu’à la sortie en sachant que certaines portes ne mènent nulle part…
(Via Make)
Article original publié sur 
.
(Tous droits réservés!)
"Voir en ligne : LevelHead, réalité augmentée en espaces cubiques [vidéo]
Scrabulous a Stratego Risk to Hasbro Monopoly
"
Hasbro has finally dropped the hammer on Scrabulous, the online knockoff of its 75-year-old word game. On Thursday, the company filed suit against Scrabulous creators Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla, claiming trademark and copyright infringement. “Hasbro has an obligation to act appropriately against infringement of our intellectual properties,” said Barry Nagler, Hasbro’s general counsel, in a statement. “We view the Scrabulous application as clear and blatant infringement of our Scrabble intellectual property, and we are pursuing this legal action in accordance with the interests of our shareholders, and the integrity of the Scrabble brand.”
An understandable view, I suppose. Scrabulous has well over two million users and was generating over $25,000 a month in revenue back in January. That said, Scrabulous could have been the perfect licensing opportunity for Hasbro (HAS), had the company decided to view it that way. Two-million-users-and-growing is a hell of a lot better than the 8,900 users the official Scrabble Facebook app has garnered since its launch earlier this month.
Voir en ligne : Scrabulous a Stratego Risk to Hasbro Monopoly
Living on the Edge : Danny O’Brien’s talk about moving our personal info off Web 2.0 and onto our computers
"
Here's some (way shakycam) video of Danny O'Brien's OpenTech presentation, "Living on the Edge," an extremely provocative and interesting talk about how we might restructure the Internet so that our personal and important moments aren't hosted by YouTube, Flickr, and Blogger, but rather on our own machines.
Link, Link to slides
"Voir en ligne : Living on the Edge: Danny O'Brien's talk about moving our personal info off Web 2.0 and onto our computers
Cameraheads in Seattle protest CCTVs in public places
"The Camerahead Project is a Seattle protest group upset about the growing prevalence of CCTV cameras there -- they're staging a bit of theater tomorrow in Cal Anderson Park, walking around with giant cameras on their heads to get people thinking about what it means to have their public spaces under constant surveillance.
Local artist Paul Strong, Jr. says he’s holding the demonstration, called the Camerahead Project, to remind people that video surveillance cameras are recording their every move at Cal Anderson Park and three other parks around town. “The project not only raises the questions of who is watching who and who is watching the watchers, but also … why we are being watched at all,” he says. “There is so much going on in the news about wiretapping and data mining, all these little thing that happen locally go right by.”
I met Paul at one of my signings in Seattle for Little Brother and loved his camerahead outfit -- he says it was inspired by Pablo Defendini's Little Brother poster.
Link
"Voir en ligne : Cameraheads in Seattle protest CCTVs in public places
Fate of the Book
"Originally posted in The Technium
Attention Conservation Notice: This is a long stream in an unordered distributed debate. It may not make much sense unless you've read the discussion that is taking place on various websites indicated in the following paragraphs. There are many strands in the conversation. The one I am following here is about whether books will be dethroned from their centrality in culture.
Nick Carr is the current smart critic of the new. He is articulate and informed, which is why his worry about the decline of book-thinking gets a hearing. But a decade and a half ago there was another articulate critic of the rising internet who similarly yearned to protect the superior, but endangered book. That critic was Sven Birkerts. He even wrote a book about the waning of the book called "The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age".
Fast-forward to 2008. Carr’s provocative Atlantic article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" generated a lot of responses, including a previous post by me. Danny Hillis weighed in with some incredibly cogent insights focused on why we need so much info, which brought more responses on John Brockman’s Edge. Here George Dyson noted that maybe the elevated stature of books was over. Carr favors the bookish Encyclopedia Britannica (EB) over the webby Wikipedia, and since he advises the EB leadership, another round of discussion about his article was jump started on the EB forum. Among those summoned by this lively discussion was Clay Shirky and Sven Birkerts, who addressed the fate of books. The collective discussion of books vs. web reminded me of a face to face conversation between myself and Sven Birkerts, John Barlow, and Mark Slouka on this very topic thirteen years ago. The sides were Barlow and Kelly for embracing net versus Birkerts and Slouka for refusing it. The conversation was edited and published as “What are we doing on-line?” in Harper's Magazine, August 1995. Because today’s debate is an echo of so many points raised then, and because Birkerts might have said the same points better, I think this excerpt is worth resurrecting.
A note on context. The original discussion included four speakers covering much ground over an afternoon. Harpers' editor Paul Tough’s reduction of that discussion to ten pages omitted appropriate responses to questions raised, skipped over important qualifications, and slipped things out of context – as it rightly had to in order to squeeze it into a magazine. I have further severed some the remaining context by abbreviating the text to these excerpts. I indicate intra-speaker snips with ellipses. You can buy an official PDF of the full forum here. Or you can see a crummy free version missing the last three pages here.
And then there is the unrecoverable context of the times in mid 1990s. This forum took place at a point when the web had just been born. The internet referred to here is text-based – no images, no sound, all ascii characters. Users watched as light text on dark screen scrolled up. Email accounts were uncommon. Very few computers were connected. They stood alone. No handhelds, virtually no cell phones. To get on the internet was a chore, and it was a very small place.
BIRKERTS: The last two words in my book are "Refuse it." I don't mean that this is necessarily a realistic mass proposal. I mean that speaking subjectively, for myself, this is what my heart tells me to do…In living my own life, what seems most important to me is focus, a lack of distraction -- an environment that engenders a sustained and growing awareness of place, and face-to-face interaction with other people. I've deemed these to be the primary integers of building and sustaining this self. I see this whole breaking wave, this incursion of technologies, as being in so many ways designed to pull me from that center of focus. To give you a simple example: I am sitting in the living room playing with my son. There is an envelope of silence. I am focused. The phone rings. I am brought out. When I sit down again, the envelope has been broken. I am distracted. I am no longer in that moment. I have very nineteenth-century, romantic views of the self and what it can accomplish and be. I don't have a computer. I work on a typewriter. I don't do e-mail. It's enough for me to deal with mail. Mail itself almost feels like too much. I wish there were less of it and I could go about the business of living as an entity in my narrowed environment…But what I see happening instead is our wholesale wiring. And what the wires carry is not the stuff of the soul. I might feel differently if that was what they were transmitting. But it's not. It is data. The supreme capability that this particular chip-driven silicon technology has is to transfer binary units of information. And therefore, as it takes over the world, it privileges those units of information. When everyone is wired and humming, most of what will be going through those wires is that sort of information. If it were soul-data, that might be a different thing, but soul-data doesn't travel through the wires.
KELLY: I have experienced soul-data through silicon. You might be surprised at the amount of soul-data that we'll have in this new space. That's why what is going on now is more exciting than what was going on ten years ago. Look, computers are over. All the effects that we can imagine coming from standalone computers have already happened. What we're talking about now is not a computer revolution, it's a communications revolution. And communication is, of course, the basis of culture itself. The idea that this world we are building is somehow diminishing communication is all wrong. In fact, it's enhancing communication. It is allowing all kinds of new language. Sven, there's this idea in your book that reading is the highest way in which the soul can discover and deepen its own nature. But there is nothing I've seen in online experience that excludes that. In fact, when I was reading your book I had a very interesting epiphany. At one point, in an essay on the experience of reading, you ask the question, "Where am I when I am involved in a book?" Well, here's the real answer: you're in cyberspace. That's exactly where you are. You're in the same place you are when you're in a movie theater, you're in the same place you are when you're on the phone, you're in the same place you are when you're on-line.
BIRKERTS: It's not the same at all…When you write the word across a football stadium in skywriting, you're not just writing the word, you're writing the perception of the word through the air. When you're incising a word on a tombstone, you're not merely writing the word, you're writing a word as incised on a tombstone. Same for the book, and same for the screen. The medium matters because it defines the arena of sentience. The screen not only carries the words, it also says that communication is nothing more than the transfer of evanescent bits across a glowing panel.
SLOUKA: But it seems to me that the kind of writing that's done in the electronic media has a sort of evanescence to it. There's an impermanence to it. A book, though, is something you can hold on to. It is a permanent thing. There is something else going on here, too. And that is what happens in the process of reading. When you read a book, there's a kind of a silence. And in that silence, in the interstices between the words themselves, your imagination has room to move, to create. On-line communication is filling those spaces. We are substituting a transitional, impermanent, ephemeral communication for a more permanent one.
BARLOW: …I think that the book is pretty damn ephemeral, too. The point is not the permanence or impermanence of the created thing so much as the relationship between the creative act and the audience. The big difference between experience and information is that with an experience, you can ask questions interactively, in real time. Sven, because you're sitting here, I can ask you questions about your book. As a reader I can't.
BIRKERTS: But as a writer I didn't want you to.
BARLOW: Well, you may or may not. But in order to feel the greatest sense of communication, to realize the most experience, as opposed to information, I want to be able to completely interact with the consciousness that's trying to communicate with mine. Rapidly. And in the sense that we are now creating a space in which the people of the planet can have that kind of communication relationship, I think we're moving away from information--through information, actually--and back toward experience.
BIRKERTS: But that wasn't what I wanted in writing the book. The preferred medium for me is the word on the page, alone, with an implicit recognition that I'm not going to be there to gloss and elucidate and expand on it. It is what drives me, as a writer, to find the style that will best express my ideas. I would write very differently if I were typing on a terminal and my readers were out there already asking me questions. Writing a book is an act of self-limitation and, in a way, self-sublimation into language and expression and style. Style is very much a product of the print medium. …Language is our evolutionary wonder. It is our marvel. If we're going to engage the universe, comprehend it and penetrate it, it will be through ever more refined language. The screen is a linguistic leveling device. We may be evolving on all fronts, but we only comprehend ourselves by way of language. And I think that the deep tendency of the circuited medium is to flatten language.
KELLY: Here you are wrong. If you hung out online, you'd find out that the language is not, in fact, flattening; it's flourishing. At this point in history, most of the evolution of language, most of the richness in language, is happening in this space that we are creating. It's not happening in novels.
BIRKERTS: I wish some of this marvelous prose could be downloaded and shown to me.
KELLY: You can't download it. That's the whole point. You want to download it so that you can read it like a book. But that's precisely what it can't be. You want it to be data, but it's experience. And it's an experience that you have to have there. When you go on-line, you're not going to have a book experience.
BIRKERTS: Well, I want a book experience.
KELLY: You think that somehow a book is the height of human achievement. It is not.
SLOUKA: But there is a real decline in the kind of discourse taking place. I go back to what John said in an interview that I read not too long ago. He said that the Internet is "CB radio, only typing." That really stuck in my mind, because there's an incredible shallowness to most on-line communication. I realize that there are good things being said on the net, but by and large the medium seems to encourage quickness over depth, and rapid response over reflection.
KELLY: My advice would be to open your mind to the possibility that in creating cyberspace we've made a new space for literature and art, that we have artists working there who are as great as artists in the past. They're working in a medium that you might dismiss right now as inconsequential, just as the theater, in Shakespeare's day, was dismissed as outrageous and low-class and not very deep.
SLOUKA: At some point do you think the virtual world is basically going to replace the world we live in? Is it going to be an alternate space?
KELLY: No, it's going to be an auxiliary space. There will be lots of things that will be similar to the physical world, and there will be lots of things that will be different. But it's going to be a space that's going to have a lot of the attributes that we like in reality--a richness, a sense of place, a place to be silent, a place to go deep.
BIRKERTS: … If we're merely talking about this phenomenon as an interesting, valuable supplement for those who seek it, I have no problem with it. What I'm concerned by is this becoming a potentially all-transforming event that's going to change not only how I live but how my children live. I don't believe it's merely going to be auxiliary. I think it's going to be absolutely central….But even if I've pledged myself personally, as part of my "refuse it" package, to the old here and now, it still impinges on me, because it means I live in a world that I find to be increasingly attenuated, distracted, fanned-out, disembodied. Growing up in the Fifties, I felt I was living in a very real place. The terms of human interchange were ones I could navigate. I could get an aura buzz from living. I can still get it, but it's harder to find. More and more of the interchanges that are being forced on me as a member of contemporary society involve me having to deal with other people through various layers of scrim, which leaves me feeling disembodied. What I'm really trying to address is a phenomenon that you don't become aware of instantly. It encroaches on you…Maybe it's because I'm not on-line, but it seems to me, as an adult human being living in 1995, that the signal is getting weaker. I find that more and more I navigate my days within this kind of strange landscape. People have drawn into their houses, and the shades are down. You go into a store and the clerk isn't looking at you, he's busy running bar codes. And you multiply that a thousandfold: mediation, mediation, mediation. I want an end to mediation. And I don't think I can break the membrane by going on-line.
KELLY: Sven, I think part of what you're saying is true. You're ignoring the center of the culture, and therefore you feel sort of cut off. The culture has shifted to a new medium. But it's not going to be the only medium there is. The introduction of fire produced great changes in our society. That doesn't mean that everything is on fire. Digital technologies and the net can have a great effect without meaning that everything has to be the net. I listen to books on tape. I have for many years. I couldn't live without them. I listen to the radio. I read books. I read magazines. I write letters. All of these things are not going to go away when the net comes.
BIRKERTS: But don't you think it's a push-pull model? If you send out a net that allows you to be in touch with all parts of the globe, you may well get a big bang out of doing that, but you can't do that and then turn around and look at your wife in the same way. The psyche is a closed system. If you spread yourself laterally, you sacrifice depth.
KELLY: I question that trade-off. That's my whole point about this kind of environment. It's not that we're going to deduct the book, though the book will certainly lose its preeminence. The flourishing of digital communication will enable more options, more possibilities, more diversity, more room, more frontiers. Yes, that will close off things from the past, but that is a choice I will accept.
SLOUKA: See, the confusion is understandable because so much of the hype surrounding the digital revolution revolves around this issue of inevitability.
KELLY: But it is inevitable.
SLOUKA: Well, which is it? Is it inevitable or isn't it?
KELLY: It's inevitable that the net will continue to grow, to get bigger, to get more complex, to become the dominant force in the culture. That is inevitable. What's not inevitable is what you choose to do about it.
SLOUKA: So I have the option of being marginalized?
KELLY: That's right. You can be like the Amish. Noble, but marginal.
BIRKERTS: …We are being forced to adapt by a pressing social consensus that seems to say that if you don't have "x" you're out of the loop. You're going to be marginalized in your workplace. If I don't have a disk to send my articles in to a journal, I feel like there's a problem. If I don't have a fax machine, I'm losing business. If I don't have a phone-answering machine, God knows what might happen. The attitude is, "If you're not on the bus then forget it, man. You're just rooting around for potatoes." I don't want to be forced into that either/or. I want to be able to say, "Let me think about it." Maybe in ten years I'll get a fax machine. I don't want to feel that if I'm not receiving a fax every second I am no longer existing in the cultural community in which I want to exist.
BARLOW: …I've watched what has happened to my own community, where I still live, my little town in Wyoming, as a re-suit of broadcast media. I see what happened to that culture as soon as the satellite dishes bloomed in the backyards. And it has been devastating.
BIRKERTS: You don't see cyberspace as the extension of the satellite dish?
BARLOW: Absolutely not. If you had experienced this to any large extent, if you had been around it in the way that Kevin and I have, you would see that it is absolutely antithetical to the satellite.
KELLY: I wasn't joking when I said that when you're reading a book, you're in cyberspace. Being in cyberspace is much closer to reading a book than it is to watching TV. A lot of the things you seem to be looking for in the culture of the book, Sven, can actually be found in the culture of the screen.
A decade later I stand by my point that we should resist the idea that the book is the apex of human culture. It seems likely we’ll soon invent other forms of media that take what the book has done and do it better. Maybe someday books may not be central to our culture or identity. I don’t think a desirable bookless world is hard to imagine. It could be a very oral society, where the spoken word regains some the stature it lost when printing came along. At one time not too long ago some people thought that replacement media was television. That seems laughable now. So when some fans today say the web may raise to the level where books once soared, it seems just as laughable. But I think it is too early to laugh.
As books as we know them wane, there is a deep sense of loss among those who love them. Unlike Clay Shirky, I have read the unabridged "War and Peace", and was awed by it. The book kept getting deeper and deeper as the pages piled up, and I really would not mind reading it again. It deserves the respect it gets, but it does not deserve to be shielded from change. I work on my computer in a two-story library surrounded by books. I am acutely aware of the shift our media is undergoing.
I thought that Sven Birkerts summed up our collective concern about the internet in this perfect one line of poetry from the Harper’s conversation: “If you touch all parts of the globe, you can't do that and then turn around and look at your wife in the same way.” However the literary tone of Birkerts’ nostalgia implies regret: that we should be unhappy to alter our perspective of our own family. Or it implies that the new perspective is, without questioning, an undesirable one. But we could just as easily imagine the experience of contacting the rest of the world as a process that enhances our view of our spouse. " I have touched all parts of the globe and now I see my wife differently." But this possibility is not suggested by Birkerts’ wonderfully crafted line of poetry. Instead his koan contains an inherent conservativism in which any change is assumed to be negative.
Imagine my surprise then to see Sven Birkerts hanging out online in the EB forum. I hope he did not get a fax ten years later but they were pretty useless by then. It looks like he is using a computer and not a typewriter, posting to internet forums. Instead of refusing it, he has embraced it.
My question, then, is framed as a question for Sven, as the reprenstative of the worried: Sven, now that you have embraced the internet do you look at your wife in the same way? This is a serious question. I have been on/in the internet so long so deep I can’t remember what it was like off it, just as I can’t remember not reading. You are deeply attuned to the hidden biases in this media, and very self-aware, and recently on (unless I am mistaken). Has the manner in the way you view your wife been changed by embracing the web? If so, in what ways?
UPDATE: Sven Birkerts eloquent reply is posted here.
"Voir en ligne : Fate of the Book
Apple and GPL iPhone Apps
"
Aristotle Pagaltzis on why I was wrong about the GPL and the iPhone SDK:
Sorry, John. I can clearly write GPL software for the iPhone — but not free software. And if I do that, Apple can’t give it to you — not on the App Store’s current terms and conditions. They impose restrictions on the recipient of the software that the GPL forbids third parties from placing upon the recipient on pain of losing the right to distribute the software. Apple is in violation of the software’s licence for distributing these GPL applications through the App Store in the first place.
Interesting conclusion. I think the counter-argument is that the GPL (as well as any other software license) applies to third-parties, not to the developers of the apps themselves. And when developers grant Apple permission to distribute their apps through the App Store, they’re explicitly granting Apple permission to distribute them under Apple’s licensing terms, not the GPL.
Update: And the counter-counter-argument to that — as pointed out by numerous thoughtful readers — is that the above would only apply if the developer in question were the sole author of the entire app. If the app makes use of GPL’d frameworks or libraries written by others, the developer would not have the right to grant Apple permission to distribute the app under the App Store terms. And then there’s the whole GPL3 vs. GPL2 thing.
"
Voir en ligne : The App Store and GPL Apps
RMT company Live Gamer to work with virtual economist
"
Filed under: Business models, Economy, MMO industry, News items
Live Gamer, the legit Real Money Trading (RMT) company that handles all legal transactions for EverQuest II and other games, has brought on "noted virtual econonomist" Vili Lehdonvirta. Lehdonvirta is a former game designer who now researches virtual consumerism at the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki University of Technology TKK.The prominence of economists and other financial experts in the MMO and virtual world industries has been steadily growing in recent years. For example, CCP's EVE Online hired a full-time economist to work on its staff and to put together quarterly economic reports, among other things.
Live Gamer's ambition is to transform an RMT black market that's causing the industry to bleed away potential profits and that's sending waves of instability and frustration through various MMO communities into a legitimate business that can be monitored and controlled by developers with their communities' and business' best interests in mind.
[Via MMORPG]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
"Voir en ligne : RMT company Live Gamer to work with virtual economist
Scrabulous a Stratego Risk to Hasbro Monopoly
"
Hasbro has finally dropped the hammer on Scrabulous, the online knockoff of its 75 year-old word game. On Thursday, the company filed suit against Scrabulous creators Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla, claiming trademark and copyright infringement. “Hasbro has an obligation to act appropriately against infringement of our intellectual properties,” said Barry Nagler, Hasbro’s general counsel, in a statement. “We view the Scrabulous application as clear and blatant infringement of our Scrabble intellectual property, and we are pursuing this legal action in accordance with the interests of our shareholders, and the integrity of the Scrabble brand.”
An understandable view, I suppose. Scrabulous has well over 2 million users and was generating over $25,000 a month in revenue back in January. That said, Scrabulous could have been the perfect licensing opportunity for Hasbro, had the company decided to view it that way. Two million users and growing is a hell of a lot better than the 8,900 users the official Scrabble Facebook app has garnered since its launch earlier this month.
Voir en ligne : Scrabulous a Stratego Risk to Hasbro Monopoly
Cartoon Network announces browser-based MMO
"
Filed under: Business models, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Browser, Kids
Today at Comic-Con, Cartoon Network has announced the release of the first-ever MMO for kids which will be entirely browser-based. Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall is a futuristic adventure set during an alien invasion of the Cartoon Network universe. This means that players will not only be able to team up together to defend the universe from this alien invasion, but the game will incorporate all of Cartoon Network's most popular characters including stars of Ben 10: Alien Force, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Ed, Edd n Eddy, Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls and more!This game will consist of 60 play areas and utilize the Unity Technologies game engine. This engine has been the cutting-edge choice for several gaming projects such as Freeverse, Shockwave.com, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Flashbang Studios and more. Look for FusionFall to release later this fall.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
"Voir en ligne : Cartoon Network announces browser-based MMO
Kaliya Hamlin : OASIS Identity Metasystem Interoperability TC - annouced
"
Kermit brought this annoucment to my attention via Twitter.
“A draft TC charter has been submitted to establish the OASIS Identity Metasystem Interoperability (IMI) Technical Committee. In accordance with the OASIS TC Process Policy section 2.2 the proposed charter is hereby submitted for comment. The comment period shall remain open until 11:45 pm ET on 7 August 2008.”
It is interesting to see who is behind the effort:.
* Abbie Barbir (Nortel)
* Adnan Onart (Nortel)
* Paul Knight (Nortel)
* Marc Goodner (Microsoft)
* Michael McIntosh (IBM)
* Anthony Nadalin, (IBM )
* John Bradley, (Individual)
* Richard (Dick) Brackney (US DoD - [NSA])
It seems like an interesting addition and in some way “counter balance” to all the activity and energy and people involved with the Information Card Foundation and Open Source Identity Systems work.
The Information Card Foundation launched around the time of Burton Group Catalyst. Here is the Information Card Foundation Community board member list:
* Kim Cameron
* Pamela Dingle
* Patrick Harding
* Andy Hodgkinson
* Ben Laurie
* Axel Nennker
* Drummond Reed
* Mary Ruddy
* Paul Trevithick
Business board members
* Equifax
* Google
* Microsoft
* Novell
* Oracle
* PayPal
OSIS is going into its 4th Interop at DIDW this September. Their is a huge list of participants (far to many to bullet point on this blog).
The good news is that it does what both the ICF and OSIS communities have been saying for a while is that the ISIP (the MS information card guide) needs to be a real standard — not something MS controls. This TC will support this happening.
To me it speaks to the value of the shared community meeting, collaboration and innovation space we have with the Internet Identity Workshop this November 10-12 all the more important.
I have skimmed highlights and links from the OASIS IMI TC below.
The TC will accept as input:
Identity Selector Interoperability Profile specification and associated guides as published by Microsoft, the July 2008 Web Services Addressing Endpoint References and
* Identity Selector Interoperability Profile V1.5, July 2008
* A Guide to Using the Identity Selector Interoperability Profile V1.5 within Web Applications and Browsers, July 2008
* An Implementer’s Guide to the Identity Selector Interoperability Profile V1.5, July 2008
Identity specification [4] published by Microsoft and IBM:
* Application Note: Web Services Addressing Endpoint References and Identity, July 2008
OSIS (Open Source Identity Systems) Feature Tests published by Identity Commons.
First Phase of TC Work will focus on producing an Identity Selector
Interoperability Profile and the supporting WS-Addressing Endpoint References and Identity specification.
* Identity Selector Interoperability Profile
* Information Card Format
* Information Card Transfer Format
* Information Card Issuance
* Token Request and Response
* Identity Provider Requirements
* Relying Party Requirements
* Self Issued Identity Provider
* Invoking Identity Selectors from Web Pages
* WS-Addressing Endpoint References and Identity
Second Phase of TC Work will work on how Information Cards work with other common claim dialects like WS-Federation [12]
Ongoing TC Work
The TC shall focus on interoperability test definitions and runs to validate its work on an ongoing basis.
Out of Scope for the TC
The following items are specifically out of scope of the work of the TC:
- Definition of the form and content of privacy statements.
- The establishment of trust between two or more business parties.
- Definition of new key derivation algorithms.
- Definition of claim type transformation rules or mappings to other formats
The TC will not attempt to define concepts or renderings for functions that are of wider applicability including but not limited to:
* Addressing
* Policy language frameworks and attachment mechanisms
* Reliable message exchange
* Transactions and compensation
* Secure Conversations
* Metadata Exchange
* Resource Transfer
Voir en ligne : Kaliya Hamlin: OASIS Identity Metasystem Interoperability TC - annouced
Dragon Quest V Conquers Japan Sales Charts
"
One thing becomes very clear when looking at this week's Media Create sales chart: Japan loves its Dragon Quest.
Exploding to the top spot is the Nintendo DS port of Dragon Quest V. Incredible sales of 644,000 units -- that's even better than Metal Gear Solid 4's first week -- should be enough to convince anyone who doubted the popularity of Japan's crown jewel of RPG series.
Not only would these be blockbuster numbers for a brand new game, keep in mind that this is a DS port of a PlayStation 2 port of a Super Famicom title. The love for this series in Japan never ceases to amaze me, and whatever fandom you think Final Fantasy enjoys pales in comparison.
This successful release also guarantees that when Dragon Quest IX -- the next official installment in the series, and built specifically for the DS -- finally does come out, it should break all records for first-week sales.
With second place mech sim Gundam Battle Universe on the PSP racking in sales of 138,000, and a respectable second week for Persona 4, it looks like game sales in Japan are finally back on track following a series of slow weeks.
Below, Media Create's top 10 for the week of July 14-20. The list shows this week's rank, with
the sales figures showing this week's numbers, followed by total sales.
- 1. [NDS] Dragon Quest V - 644,000 / NEW
- 2. [PSP] Gundam Battle Universe - 138,000 / NEW
- 3. [PS2] Persona 4 - 41,000 / 233,000
- 4. [PS3] Tears to Tiara: Kakan no Daichi - 34,000 / NEW
- 5. [WII] Wii Fit - 27,00 / 2,380,000
- 6. [WII] Mario Kart Wii - 24,000 / 1,584,000
- 7. [NDS] Daigasso! Band Brothers DX - 21,000 / 212,000
- 8. [NDS] Derby Stallion DS - 16,000 / 223,000
- 9. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2 G - 16,000 / 2,293,000
- 10. [NDS] Densetsu no Stafi: Taiketsu! Dire Kaizokudan - 16,000 / 44,000
Image: Square Enix
Media Create Sales: 7/14 - 7/20 [NeoGAF]
See also:
"Voir en ligne : Dragon Quest V Conquers Japan Sales Charts
Hasbro Finally Sues Makers Of Scrabulous ; Invokes DMCA To Get It Removed
"
The latest turn in this saga doesn't look so good for Scrabulous… Hasbro, the maker of Scrabble, is suing the creators of Scrabulous, the uber-popular Facebook app. In a statement, the company says the suit was filed against Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla in the Southern District of New York, and it adds that it has filed a DMCA takedown notice with Facebook, demanding that the app be removed now. We'll monitor how fast or whether Facebook complies, but hopefully you don't have too many unfinished games. Just a guess: Faced with a DMCA takedown notice from a company that has a solid complaint, Facebook will cave (right now it's still up). Back in January, Hasbro and Mattel first demanded that Facebook deal with the app. It's clear what's going on timing-wise: An official version of Scrabble was just launched on Facebook with the help of Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS), and obviously that's the version Hasbro wants folks playing. Perhaps we need some sort of non-profit "Scrabble-portability" organization to ensure that users can move their in-process games from one to the other. Release.
Update: The full lawsuit is embedded below (RSS readers may have to click through)..read pages 9-11 for the most relevant part...after the jump.
Related
- Scrabble Makers Order Facebook To Take Down Scrabulous
- RealNetworks Doesn't Buy Scrabulous; Launches Own Version Instead
- Will RealNetworks End Up Buying Scrabulous?
- Scrabble Makers Order Facebook To Take Down Scrabulous
Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
Voir en ligne : Hasbro Finally Sues Makers Of Scrabulous; Invokes DMCA To Get It Removed
Hello Knol, goodbye Wikipedia [Knol]
"
The back-channel chatter on Google's Wikipedia-like Knol database, which opened to public editing today, is simple: Google plans to use Knol to replace Wikipedia, then serve ads on it.
Jimmy Wales's open encyclopedia sits conspicuously high in Google's results for just about any search. See above: There are only two links in Google to the iffy Wikipedia page about me. Both come from other Wikipedia entries. Yet Google ranks that page higher than any of the articles from my 12-year online writing career.
Whether Google artificially boosts Wikipedia's rank or not is a popular drinking topic among search engine optimizers. But Google's certainly not trying to push Wikipedia down any, as they've done with sites deemed problematic in the past.
Wikipedia provides a handy reference-book-like entry among the first three results for most searches on famous people or popular topics. Great for us. But imagine if every customer clickthrough to Wikipedia could be rerouted to an AdSense-powered page from Google's own servers. Would they do that? Hell, they'd be stupid not to.
"Voir en ligne : Hello Knol, goodbye Wikipedia [Knol]
Hasbro Sues Makers of Scrabble-Like Scrabulous
"Dekortage writes "As today's lawsuit indicates, Hasbro has apparently had enough of Scrabulous, the online word game remarkably similar to Scrabble. Filed in New York, Hasbro's suit is against Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, brothers from Kolkata, India, and asks the court to remove the Scrabulous application from Facebook, disable the Scrabulous.com web site, and grant damages and attorneys fees to Hasbro. Why did Hasbro tale so long to 'protect' its intellectual property rights in court? They waited 'in deference to the fans' until EA had launched the official Scrabble Facebook app earlier this month. EA's version has netted fewer than ten thousand players, versus Scrabulous' estimated 2.3 million. This was the next logical step for Hasbro after filing DMCA takedown notices against Scrabulous in January."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
"Voir en ligne : Hasbro Sues Makers of Scrabble-Like Scrabulous
Open Web Foundation Officially Launches (Nik Cubrilovic/TechCrunch)
"
Nik Cubrilovic / TechCrunch:
Open Web Foundation Officially Launches — This morning at that OSCON conference David Recordon of Six Apart will announce on stage the formation of the Open Web Foundation. The new foundation is about providing a home for the development and ratification of web-related standards efforts.
Voir en ligne : Open Web Foundation Officially Launches (Nik Cubrilovic/TechCrunch)
Walt Mossberg on MobileMe
"
Walt Mossberg:
Unfortunately, after a week of intense testing of the service, I can’t recommend it, at least not in its current state. It’s a great idea, but, as of now, MobileMe has too many flaws to keep its promises.
I am not referring to the launch glitches that plagued MobileMe earlier this month, such as servers that couldn’t keep up with the traffic and email outages that, for some users, persist as I write this. Those were bad, but they have eased considerably. Apple already has apologized for them and is giving customers an extra 30 days on their subscriptions to make up for the poor start. The problems I am citing are systemic.
My biggest complaint about the MobileMe web apps is that after logging in, everything goes over HTTP, not HTTPS. Google offers HTTPS for free, but MobileMe costs $100 a year.
"
Voir en ligne : Walt Mossberg on MobileMe
Critiquing Claims of an Open Source Jobs Boom
"snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Bill Snyder examines what appears to be an open source job market boom, as evidenced by a recent O'Reilly Report. According to the study, 5 to 15 percent of all IT openings call for open source software skills, and with overall IT job cuts expected for 2009, 'the recession may be pushing budget-strapped IT execs to examine low-cost alternatives to commercial software,' Snyder writes. But are enterprises truly shifting to open source, or are they simply seeking to augment the work of staff already steeped in proprietary software? The study's methodology leaves too much room for interpretation, Savio Rodrigues retorts. 'That's why the 5% to 15% really doesn't sit well with me,' Rodrigues writes. 'I suspect that larger companies are looking for developers with a mix of experience with proprietary and open source products, tools and frameworks,' as opposed to those who would work with open source for 90 percent of the work day."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
"Voir en ligne : Critiquing Claims of an Open Source Jobs Boom
Great Opening Sentences From Science Fiction [Opening Sentences]
"
You can tell a lot about a science fiction book from its first sentence. Those first few words (or few dozen, in some cases) have to pull you into the story and bring you into a whole alternate world. A good first sentence "hooks" you, pulling you into the story with a quick jolt of action and mystery. But a great first sentence does way more than that — it establishes a tone, it sticks in your mind, and it's like a little otherworldly koan, confounding your expectations. And maybe freaking your shit a little. Here are our favorite science fiction opening sentences.
Having looked through a few thousand opening sentences at the bookstore and online — no exaggeration — I can generalize a bit. There are a lot of opening sentences that announce the start of a rollicking yarn, with an action sentence. Like this, from Dan Brown's Angels & Demons: "Physicist Leonardo Vetra smelled burning flesh, and he knew it was his own." Boom! A guy's flesh is burning. It's exciting! A slight variation is the juxtaposition of the mundane activity with the exciting thing that interrupts it, sort of like, "I was hanging some kitchen shelves when the cyber-rhinoceros burst through my floor, tusks exploding with brilliant fire."
And then there are tons of opening sentences that are just quirky, or rambling, letting you know the author is settling in to tell a long, rumbly bulldozer of a story. And honestly, most of the opening sentences I looked at were either very business-like, or not very interesting. Or both.
Here are the ones which actually stuck with me and lodged in my brain a bit:
"'I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he's the one.'" — Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Starting a story, let alone a novel, with a piece of dialog is a bold choice, and most of the time it's super cheesy. I really like this line, though, because it's so intriguing and it drops in a lot of info. How have they been watching through his eyes? Listening through his ears, and what's "the one"?
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." — William Gibson, Neuromancer. People always cite this as a great opening line, and it's easy to see why. It's such a vivid image.
"They set a slamhound on Turner's trail in New Delhi, slotted it to his pheromones and the color of his hair." — Count Zero by William Gibson. Okay, come on. This is just so fun. It's got the wacky jargon: "slamhound," "slotted," and the idea that it can be tied to random things like hair color and pheromones. And it's crackling with energy!
"The morning after he killed Eugene Shapiro, Andre Deschenes woke early." — Undertow by Elizabeth Bear. This is almost the mundane/exciting juxtaposition, but it's more than that, because the mundane comes after the exciting. And it makes you curious about Andre Deschenes and how he can sleep after killing a guy. And who Eugene Shapiro is. I was reading Undertow a while back, and this sentence sucked me in.
"Monday morning when I answered the door there were twenty-one new real estate agents there, all in horrible polyester gold jackets." — Rudy Rucker, The Hacker And The Ants, Version 2.0. Surreal — transreal, even — and garish and weird. And the fact that there are 21 real estate agents just makes it that much better.
"I lived long enough to see the cure for death; to see the rise of the Bitchun Society, to learn ten languages; to compose three symphonies; to realize my boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World; to see the death of the workplace and of work." — Cory Doctorow, Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom. I like a nice brisk opening. Again, the wacky jargon (the "Bitchun Society") and the weird longevity, and then the personal suddenly gives way to the larger picture, with the death of the workplace.
"He woke, and remembered dying." — Ken MacLeod, The Stone Canal. I don't really think I need to explain why this is a great opening. It's spare and intriguing. And no adjectives or adverbs. Yay!
"The manhunt extended across more than one hundred light years and eight centuries." — Vernor Vinge, A Deepness In The Sky. This is pretty close to being your standard brisk, action-packed opening. Except for the huge scope of it, coupled with the precision.
"Two glass panes with dirt between and little tunnels from cell to cell: when I was a kid I had an ant colony." — Samuel R. Delany, The Star Pit. It's almost a poem, and it zooms outwards in a lovely way, from the dirt tunnels to the ant colony. For a moment, you think it could be an alien zoo or something.
"The five small craft passed from shadow, emerging with the suddenness of coins thrown into sunlight." — Scott Westerfield, The Risen Empire. This one, I was on the fence about. It's a little adjective-heavy, and it has the passive construction at the end. But I really liked the coins thrown into sunlight, it's a lovely image and it's about the last thing that comes to mind when you think about spaceships emerging from somewhere.
"At the end, the bottom, the very worst of it, with the world afire and hell's flamewinged angels calling him by name, Lee Crane blamed himself." — Theodore Sturgeon, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea. Again, it's got great energy, and even though it has my pet peeve — the random "it" occupying the space where a real world should be — it's got the Blakeian imagery, and then you absolutely have to know why Lee Crane blames himself.
"In the summer of his twelfth year — the summer the stars began to fall from the sky — the boy Isaac discovered that he could tell East from West with his eyes closed." — Axis, Robert Charles Wilson. It's got so much going on, what with the coming-of-age thing and the stars falling. But then you get that human-compass thing, which is intriguing and fascinating. And this is a nice, spare sentence, with no excess clutter. It's snappy!
"Today is the two-hundredth anniversary of the final extinction of my One True Love, as close as I can date it." — Saturn's Children, Charles Stross. It's like the start of a romance novel, except for the mention of 200 years and the word "extinction." They stick out like jagged little spurs, amidst the shmoopy "One True Love" jargon.
Oh, and I came across one opening sentence that stuck in my mind afterwards, but then I couldn't find it again. It was something like, "He did not often think about kidnapping his daughter and stealing the spaceship." But there was more to it than that. What am I thinking of?
Voir en ligne : Great Opening Sentences From Science Fiction [Opening Sentences]
Jimmy Wales’s former Fox fling wins the Knol land rush [Rachel Marsden]
"
The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.You guys are slow! Conservative pundit Rachel Marsden has already penned roving Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales's first biography on Knol, Google's write-it-yourself compendium of articles. "And it will be a closed collaboration," she adds. Unlike Wikipedia, Knol lets an article's initial author control all subsequent edits. Other contributors can write their own articles about Jimmy, but Marsden's prank hints that Knol fights — in which multiple people attempt to author the definitive entry on a topic — will be a lot more fun to watch than re-re-re-reversions of the same old Wikipedia page.
"Voir en ligne : Jimmy Wales's former Fox fling wins the Knol land rush [Rachel Marsden]
John Lumea : Obama's "Bizarre" Bauhaus Flyers
"
Mayhill Fowler wrote yesterday about the
blue postcards advertising Barack Obama's appearance tomorrow at the Siegessaule....Yesterday and today volunteers from Americans Abroad for Obama, as well as college students...have been plying Berliners and tourists with these rather bizarre cards -- the artwork reminiscent of both German Expressionism and Soviet Constructivism in its depiction of a frowning Barack. Is the Obama brow wrinkled in thought? Is the Senator squinting at the future? Or is he hectoring an audience? Take your pick. [emphasis mine]
Mayhill can be a little too sure of herself, sometimes. What both she and The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder fail to recognize -- or even to consider, apparently -- is that the design of any effective card or flyer or poster starts with a couple of basic questions: Who am I trying to reach, and what's the best way to reach them? The answer to the first question being "Germans," in this case, Obama's savvy design team answered the second question by paying subtle but conscious tribute to the Bauhaus movement of the 1920s -- a German movement which found expression in German graphic design (among so many artistic and architectural endeavors). By employing Bauhaus-inspired graphic cues, the Obama campaign was tapping in to the German cultural psyche -- speaking to Germans in a design language that is familiar to them. That was smart. After all, it's the Germans the campaign was trying to draw to the Tiergarten today -- not Mayhill Fowler or Marc Ambinder.
With his speech today, Obama will be offering himself as a leader who can repair the damage George Bush has done to the friendship between Europe and the United States, and will be reminding the world of the importance of that alliance. So it's also worth recalling that the reverberating influence of the Bauhaus movement was, in the 1950s and 60s, a key impetus in the development of the American skyscraper by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe -- a development which was itself a signal moment in the accelerating internationalization of American culture in the postwar period.
There's a really thoughtful item about some of this over at Meaningful Distraction -- including an image of Obama's Berlin poster alongside images of two Bauhaus posters from 1923 and 1928.
Reflecting on Obama's Bauhaus homage, the writer concludes:
Many Germans will recognize this little tip-of-the-hat, and those that recognize it will appreciate it. This type of move wouldn't even occur to the McCain campaign, despite the fact that McCain was born around the time when German Bauhaus was all the rage.
Thanks to Meaningful Distraction for the image.
"Voir en ligne : John Lumea: Obama's "Bizarre" Bauhaus Flyers
DailyCandy is for sale, but Comcast might need more than $75 million [Rumormonger]
"
Former AOL boss Bob Pittman's Pilot Group Ventures is rumored to have sold its popular email list DailyCandy to Comcast for $75 million. We're not so sure. DailyCandy is for sale — we hear Pittman's lieutenants have acted like absentee landlords during site's redesign — but that if sold, "it would be for much much more." Gossips have also suggested Yahoo as a potential buyer — all of which may well be noise issuing from the Pittman camp, meant to extract a higher price from Comcast.
"Voir en ligne : DailyCandy is for sale, but Comcast might need more than $75 million [Rumormonger]
Why "Associated data" is important, and what should Mozilla do about it
"
Quoting Mitchell Baker, thinking about data:
Our online lives are generating increasing data about us as individuals and about how groups of people are using the Internet. At the dawn of the World Wide Web 15 years ago people “surfed” to websites and viewed information. Today Internet life is more participatory and people create more information. In addition, a range of tools have been developed for tracking and generating data about people and our activities. The existence and treatment of this data is important to our online security and privacy. The treatment of this data also affects the public ability to understand how people use the Internet.
So there is a lot of value in knowing people's behaviour on the Internet. So far, a lot, if not all, of this value is captured by commercial organizations. In many cases, people don't get much of the data they generate, other than getting "targeted ads"[1]
In a series of posts, Mitchell lays the ground for a discussion about this data, and what I see coming is groundbreaking:
- Thinking About Data ;
- Framework for discussing “data” ;
- Why focus on data? ;
- Data Relating to People. Mitchell lists several kinds of data, which she calls altogether "Associated Data":
- "Personal and potential personal data" (Credit card number, Social Security number, etc.)
- “Intentional Content.” Data intentionally created by people to be seen by people.
- “Harvested Data.” Information gathered or created about an individual through the logging, tracking, aggregating and correlating of his or her online activities.
- "Relationship Data". Our relationships with other people, such as our “friends” or followers at various sites.
I call this "groundbreaking" because it's unchartered territory. The ownership and control of "Associated Data" is very important for all of us Internet users, and some of the principles of the Mozilla Manifesto are at risk if we sit back and let someone else take control over our data.
What can and should Mozilla do to help people be safe and in control of their online experience in the midst of this rising sea of data?
We've seen in too many occasions (and this is just the beginning) data about people abused by companies (I won't give names, because there are two many of them).
So the questions we should ask ourselves today are:
- Who's standing on the side of users on the Internet when it comes to "associated data"? (My answer is "nobody with the same levers as Mozilla, so we have to do something about it")
- How can Mozilla unleash the value of this "associated data" and give it to the users?
If you have ideas, if you feel (like me) that this topic has to be discussed, please leave your comments below or on Mitchell's blog. We can't leave this data issue unaddressed, unless we're ready to see it come back later to bite us...
Update
Mitchell has just posted another article: Data — getting to the point. Short excerpts:
I would like to see Mozilla provide more leadership in helping people manage the collection and treatment of data related to them — what I’ve called “Associated Data.“
I would also like to see Mozilla provide leadership in treating some basic aggregate, anonymized usage data as a public asset.
Like Mitchell says, it's a sensitive topic, and I think that Mozilla has potentially a unique perspective on this important issue. We should not be shy... Let's not avoid having this important discussion. Jump to Mitchell's blog, read her whole article and tell us what you think...
"
Voir en ligne : Why "Associated data" is important, and what should Mozilla do about it
Let’s celebrate !
"
Joyeux anniversaire, mon blog !
Nouvelle saison qui commence en plus avec le nouvel habillage, c'est la classe !
Encore quelques chiffres parce qu'on ne s'en lasse pas:
Comme de bien entendu, vous venez tous majoritairement de France, Belgique, Suisse et du Québec. Suivi pour les non-francophones par l'Allemagne, le Royaume-Uni, le Japon et l'Australie (va comprendre)
Une mention particulière au îles Christmass: il y a trois ans, je m'étais amusé du fait d'avoir un lecteur unique là-bas, il m'avait écrit en me disant "je vais faire plein de pub autour de moi".
Je pense qu'il s'agissait du meilleur publicitaire du monde, parce que désormais vous êtes plus de 200 à me lire de là-bas, soit plus qu'en Irlande, en Pologne, en Espagne, en Italie ou au Danemark.
Parmi les "égarés": toujours un irréductible lecteur par an au Qatar, aux Seychelles, à Norfolk Island, en Malaisie, aux Maldives, en Ukraine, au Vénézuela et en Lithuanie.
Et toujours mon "un lecteur par an" référencé "US Military" qui me fait peur.
Et donc un grand merci à ces chers copains bloggueurs qui m'ont mis en lien. Vous l'aurez compris, l'injure gratuite était un stratagème habille pour vous encourager à aller lire leurs blogs !
Concernant l'album, son titre est NOTES (tome 1-Born to be a larve) il sortira en principe le 10 septembre dans la collection Shampooing de Delcourt, je ne sais pas combien il coûtera, il fera 196 pages (dont 30 d'inédits) et regroupera les notes de la saison 1. La saison 2 sortira pour Angoulême.
Et je déclare ouvert le coin des questions que tout le monde se pose !
"
Voir en ligne : Let's celebrate !
Résolution des litiges dans la zone .fr : du nouveau
"C'est un peu dans une nouvelle ère qu'entrent les noms en .fr, depuis la mise en vigueur hier d'une nouvelle procédure de règlement de certains litiges.
Il est en effet désormais possible de demander directement à l'A.F.N.I.C. le blocage, la suppression, ou la transmission d'un nom qui contreviendrait à des règles du code des postes et des communications électroniques. Il s'agit d'une procédure distincte des mécanismes judiciaires ou extrajudiciaires existants. Elle ne s'applique que dans les cas de violation manifeste des textes visés par la procédure. Il en coûtera 250 € par nom de domaine.
Je détaille plus précisément cette procédure dans une chronique pour DomainesInfo.
"Voir en ligne : Résolution des litiges dans la zone .fr : du nouveau
Editeur : Daily Soufron
http://dailysoufron.happycontent.com