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The user interface graphic designer for the first Apple Macintosh, Susan Kare, is the winner of a Chrysler Design Award: "Her bitmap wrist watch, travel-destination city fonts, lit bomb icon that signals a computer crash ('they told me it would almost never be seen') and smiling, welcoming Mac start-up screen helped re-envision the computer from machine to co-creator."
I Want My HBO: "We had the digital revolution 20 years ago, and now we're seeing the fruition... A lot of these (video-on-demand) interfaces look just like the Web. It's just a matter of getting the content out there from the consumer side –- and getting the infrastructure from the business side."
It is all but certain that Ars Digita Corporations, one of the bright lights of open source software development, will be releasing their new version of their Community System (ACS) as proprietary. Rumours to this effect had been floating around for a couple of months, and a recent article in digitalMass confirmed them. New ArsDigita CEO Dan Keshian is quoted as saying that while the ArsDigita products that have already been released will remain freely available as open source, "the future is currently open for discussion." A call today to Keshian confirmed that the new ACS collaboration modules are becoming a commercial product that will focus on what he calls "enterprise collaboration management."
I wasn't even aware that it was still around, but Marvel is replacing the Comics Code with its own movie and video game style rating system. The Code, created by an industry group called the Comics Code Authority, is a product of the juvenile delinquency hysteria of the 1950s, and was probably the main reason that comics in North America never fully matured as an art form.
The Artists Who Create Crop Circles: "As summer settles over England's green and pleasant land, so her fields become a living gallery for the display of dozens of beautiful and enigmatic crop formations... Veteran researcher Colin Andrews produced his latest theory on their origins... 80% of formations were man-made, the rest were the result of some peculiar geo-magnetic force... Mark Pilkington spoke to some of the artists formerly known as UFOs, plasma vortices, rutting hedgehogs etc..."
Frank Rich writing in the New York Times: "This is an administration that will let its special interests — particularly its high-rolling campaign contributors and its noisiest theocrats of the right — have veto power over public safety, public health and economic prudence in war, it turns out, no less than in peacetime... Since the administration tightly metes out the news from Afghanistan, we can only hope that the war there is being executed more effectively than the war here — even as Mr. Rumsfeld and his generals now tell us that the Taliban, once expected to implode in days, are proving Viet-Cong-like in their intractability."
Zope.org: "Zope is the leading Open Source web application server. Zope enables teams to collaborate in the creation and management of dynamic web-based business applications such as intranets and portals. Zope makes it easy to build features such as site search, news, personalization, and e-commerce into your web applications."
The EFF catalogues the chilling effect of anti-terrorism. Like Google clearing its cache of certain pieces of information and a fellow who was banned from flying because of the books he was carrying.
CheneyHeartWatch.com is monitoring a different subject these days.
AltaVista's catalog of 500 million Web pages hasn't been fully updated since July. AV used to be my search engine of choice, then (for a short time) Hotbot, and now Google. What will the search engine look like that replaces Google?
Microsoft Windows XP launches today. Yesterday I picked up the most recent issue of Maximum PC which included an XP migration app that checks one's system for apps and drivers that aren't XP compatable. But discounting my geek-driven desire to always have whatever is new, even if it doesn't actually work, I can't find any particularly strong reasons to upgrade. The interface appears quite Mac-like, and I would like what I expect to be much better resource management for my higher-end apps, but it seems too expensive for me -- $299.99 Canadian for the pro upgrade -- and I know it will be a bother to actually get it working. All logic tells me to wait a few months for the first service pack.
From Ben Miller at WrestlingObserver.com: "For the vast majority of wrestling fans, a return to the late nineties style of Japanese wrestling would be a welcome sight on all fronts. A look today at New Japan's junior heavyweight division paints a depressing picture compared to just three year ago. High flying, athletic matches have been replaced by physical, psuedoshoots [faked but real-looking matches]. New Japan's heavyweights worked a slower, more physical style than the juniors three years ago, but even their match quality has fallen precipitously with the shoot style trend."
"BlogTracker lets you see when your favorite weblogs have been updated last, so you can read the freshest blog entries. Based on Weblogs.com, BlogTracker lets you pick the sites you like from thousands available, and hides the rest. It can even show you new weblogs that have been recently added to the system, or automatically hide them so you only see the weblogs you like. BlogTracker is the first and most popular Weblogs.com interface, and the best way to keep up with the weblog world."
Zeldman on A Designer's Journey: "Redesigning websites - making the change from HTML tables to CSS. Separating style from content, presentation from structure, design from data. Pitfalls and workarounds..."
With the FBI advising how to handle suspicious mail [pdf], the fine people who send you junk snail mail are changing their methods. The Canadian and American Direct Marketing Associations are recommending that their members ''consider notifying consumers by phone or e-mail that a direct-mail piece is on its way so they are not alarmed when it arrives." One cancelled campaign involved mailing marbles to some prospective clients.
From Krux on THCNET: "Ok, I admit it.. I was bored. So I came up with a cool way to finally make an interactive 404 error... For those of you who remember, Dungeon or "Zork" was one of the first, and is considered to be the all time classic of text adventures. The source code was made publicly available, so I thought a PHP version would be cool... So today I had the idea, why not just pipe the input and output? After a couple tweaks to the original code, I had something that I could interface to PHP. Check it out, it's cool."
There are several sites that present maps of the Internet: geographic, technical, and historical. And now, you can hang one on your wall.
Apple has a new MP3 players that, while cool -- FireWire, 5 gig storage for 1,000 songs, copies a CD in 10 seconds -- is sure to be a disappointment for the Mac faithful. Because it's just a high-end MP3 player.
Mike Ricciuti at CNET.com Tech News: "If the public has been unclear on [.Net], that may be precisely what Microsoft had planned all along. Although it has a 25-year history of trumpeting grandiose initiatives, sometimes with dubious intentions and chameleon-like business plans, .Net may appear uniquely enigmatic... 'This whole thing is driven by the fact that Microsoft has hundreds of millions of Windows users out there, but Microsoft doesn't have a direct monthly billing relationship with those users,' said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft."
Does not knowing much about dance help one appreciate it? I know too much about theatre, which is why I ask. But the subject is the Australian Dance Theatre's stunning Birdbrain, which D and I saw last night at the National Arts Centre. It reminds me of many theatre projects that attempt to rip apart some classic bit, perhaps Hamlet, and then remake it as a performance. Birdbrain's target: Swan Lake, examining "the ballet as a cultural icon and its position within the canon of classical ballet." Now, that doesn't sound like all that much fun, but it is actually amazing stuff, amusing and breathtaking in physicality. Go see this, if you can.
Emergency Broadcast Network: The Lost Tapes: "Formed during the Persian Gulf War of 1990-91, E.B.N. created its first arsenal of counter-psy-ops programming, cleverly disguised as music videos, inspired by the spectacular media frenzy surrounding the war and its aftermath."
I am not writing about Anthrax; at least, not until I get it.
Montreal and the New Cinema, New Media fest was a bit of disaster for reasons I won't go into, because I'm not sure if things had gone well it would have mattered. Saw the new David Lynch film Mulholland Drive and I think I've seen enough of his creepy stuff to last me the rest of my life. What I really needed were more over-the-top flicks like Electric Dragon; the 1996 Fantasia line-up might have made me feel better. Business of Strangers was fine, not great.
Canada gets it own Star Chamber: New "anti-terrorism" laws will allow police to arrest and hold "suspects" for 72 hours without a charge, permit the government agency that monitors foreign communications to spy on Canadians, and create "investigative hearings" in which you can be compelled to testify before a judge. Unfortunatly, there is a very good chance that the first "terrorists" detained under these laws will be anti-globalization activists, members of the peace movement, and people who "look Arab" who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not surprisingly, these new laws make me feel actually the opposite of safe.
The Wayback Machine is online: Explore Metafilter and Blogger from October 1999. Search Google in 1998 or read Salon in 1997. Visit Word, Yahoo, c|net, Feed, Crashsite, Cool Site of the Day, Village Voice, and NYTimes from 1996. Congratulate Mathowie on his new job in 1997, see Kottke's redesign from October 1999, Glassdog's 3-D logos from 1997, and Zeldman's pages optimized for Netscape 3.0. (Unsurprisingly, Jakob's site hasn't changed much since 1996.) Surf the past and share your greatest nostalgic finds. From Metafilter.
Yesterday I sat in on Iain Cook's The Hearing Trumpet radio programme on CKUT 90.3 FM in Montreal. In a conversation almost free of irony we spoke about cryptography and the ongoing crackdown on free speech percipitated by the New War but long hoped for by many.
New stuff I am going to sort through: Something called Big Blog Tool, to be released on October 12th, for yes managing weblogs. Interesting new feature: multiple blogs on the same page ... Wikipedia, a collaborative project to produce a complete encyclopedia from scratch. Can I use the software for anything? ... Josh Santangelo has created a PHP parser that adds hyperlinks to static HTML; it is hard to discribe but when you see it... He has some other gizmos at DBZ ... b2 is another blogware that I need to check out ... Making the big splash right now is Movable Type, which seems to be able to do everything except milk my cows. Moo!
On September 11th there were some people asking if the United States "had the belly" to "do what must be done." I'm reminded of that today, reading through the unscientific polls at various news Web sites.
Would you support sending U.S. ground troops into Afghanistan? Yes: 79% No: 21%
Should Canadian troops participate on the front lines of Operation Enduring Freedom? Yes: 65% No: 35%
Fox News scroller - National Mental Health Assistance: 800-FOR-TRUTH - connects to Church of Scientology. If people called crying and upset they were told they could visit a Scientology center.
Movie critic Roger Ebert says that if your interest is in using the Internet, not getting rich from it, then stock prices are insignificant: "The Internet Bubble has been compared to the Tulip Craze, when 17th-century investors bid the price of Dutch bulbs to insane heights. Both bubbles burst. The collapse of the Internet economy was inevitable, and clears the way for sane and reasonable rebuilding. Good news: There are more tulips in the world than ever before."
"Let's by all means grieve together. But let's not be stupid together. A few shreds of historical awareness might help us understand what has just happened, and what may continue to happen." ~ Susan Sontag, The Talk of the Town, The New Yorker, 2001-09-24.
"In the current context, when you ask that question you're going to get that kind of response [...] I would say if you asked people, 'Should terrorist sympathizers have their toenails forcibly plucked from their toes?', you would probably get something akin to that." ~ James Zogby, president of the Arab-American Institute, reacting to news that one third of New York residents polled by the Sienna College Research Institute favor the establishment of internment camps for "individuals who authorities identify as being sympathetic to terrorist causes" (Newsday via Declan McCullagh's politech list serve).
"Well, this privacy you're concerned about is largely an illusion [...] All you have to give up is your illusions, not your privacy. Right now you can go onto the Internet and get a credit report about your neighbor and find out where your neighbor works, how much they earn and if they had a late mortgage payment and tons of other information." ~ Oracle chairman and CEO Larry Ellison in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, explaining why there is no valid privacy argument against the creation of a national identification card system. Ellison's offer to provide the US government with the software necessary for creating such a system "absolutely free" has so far been rebuffed.
"It is not a wish list; it is a modest set of essential proposals." ~ US Attorney General John Ashcroft, using an unfortunately Swiftian turn of phrase to describe provisions he urged the House Judiciary Committee to include in a draft for the new Patriot anti-terrorist legislation (via Ditherati.com).
"A strange thing happened after the cold war ended: patriotism all but disappeared from American politics. The right and the left essentially offered a choice between hedonisms: tax cuts or spending. No one asked for sacrifice; no one spoke of a common purpose. Liberalism settled for irony and contempt, which mobilize no one. [...] Sept. 11 changed all that, instantly. That day a policeman tried to help an investment banker who had fled the twin towers and seemed to be in shock. 'I'm not in shock,' the banker replied. 'I like this state. I've never been more cognizant in my life.'" ~ Excerpt from "Recapturing the Flag," an article by George Packer published in The New York Times Magazine on September 30.
"What we're seeing isn't the death of irony. It's the death of apathy. And thank fucking God." ~ John Krewson, writer for The Onion, the immensely popular satirical newspaper and website.
Zero-Knowledge's Freedom Network to shut down: The network provided Internet and email anonymity. I always found it very slow and cumbersome, and stopped using it in favour of SafeWeb many months ago.
USA TODAY is reporting that the September 11th terrorists didn't use encryption. There had been some speculation that steganography and PGP might have been used, but given the terrorists habit of using Kinko's and library computers to communicate, I always doubted it.
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