Ninth Art

I've compiled a not so obvious list of future must readings. First of all, Achewood's Roomba! The Robotic Floor Vac, a series that satirizes the robotic appliance that is gaining a strange fetish momentum. Second in the row is Une Semaine De Bonte, Max Ernst's surrealistic novel - a collage recommended by the New Weird Fiction outside right, China Miéville. The last one is not a comic character, but deserves a look anyway. I'm talking about Sunflower, the black female centaur that mysteriously was wiped out from Disney's Fantasia (1940).

[Listening to: Kaija Saariaho - Chateau De L'ame: I, La Liane]

Sonic Backlash

I've installed Winamp 5. In the site, the user can read: Winamp 5 combines the best aspects of Winamp 2 and Winamp 3 into one player. Hence Winamp 2 + Winamp 3 = Winamp 5! Well, this is not true, because in the new version the stream info is not yet implemented. Hum... Winamp 3 had it. Darn! It was not supposed to be backward compatible? This sucks... UPDATE: Winamp 5 is a bloated beast. All hands on the deck for the downgrade! Ahoy!

The Newcomer

Whilst most of the blog developers are worried about money - in a rather greedy manner - the ex-b2 guys are launching WordPress, a new blog tool made under GPL. I'm gonna see how it behaves in my LAN corral.

[Listening to: Esa-Pekka Salonen - Gambit]

Negativland and Decentralization

"Bootstrap" for Douglas Engelbart and Dave Winer has different meanings. To the first, is to boost the society to successfully cope with complex and urgent problems. To the second, is stuff the trunk with groupies. Decentralization is the key word. As the time of connection passes by, dynamic IP addresses acquire the status of a true and perennial peer. Even for the eyes of BitTorrent networks and Donkey meshes. Decentralization and freedom are actually key words. Scoble has been complaining that his newsreader doesn't read Atom feeds. Why implement an auto-censor policy against yourself, my friend? Go change the newsreader! Next time better choose a decentralized one, as the cool Bloglines. Speaking of BitTorrent, I was flopped today trying watch The Mashing' of the Christ, the last Negativland prank and top-secret-not-for-viewing video. Video? Why not call it beforehand a footage frottage? Yes, because the guys had filtered the most violent movie scenes related with Christ's crucifixion, like Barabbas (1962) and, sure, Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. UPDATE 1: A new flop with Negativland's video. Seems like I don't have a MPEG-2 codec installed in my box. Thanks God, VideoHelp.com exists. UPDATE 2: Now I have seen Negativland's work craft. It was well edited. The devil baby skull morphing into Nikita Khrushchev's head is very scary, though I'd like to better know the connections between communist leaders and the martyr. UPDATE 3: Jon Udell is as much dazzled as I'm. The network is the computer. And the computer is the network. We live in interesting times! This is exactly what I meant by "decentralization". The circle is closed now. Good night.

[Listening to: Iron And Wine - Bird Stealing Bread]

The Infantile Disorder of Blogunism

Why adopt Blogger and Atom? A recent change in Blogger world speaks for itself. Concerning Atom, I have the same opinion that lead Tim Bray to promote an Atom Meeting in some Sun's quarters next month. We want them entirely free of intellectual-property encumbrances, in particular patents, said him about the new syndication format. Well, as anybody know, Dave Winer tried to register RSS in United States Patent and Trademark Office (I lost the link of Winer's filing, sorry). Radio Userland is the infantile disorder of blogunism.

[Listening to: Nikakoi - Trz2]

Sickness

When Mark Frauenfelder got the ringworm in Rarotonga, I humbly suggested him look for some advice in Dermatologic Image Database. Many days after, he helped me too. Indirectly, I mean. How? He put out a post in Mad Professor about Zicam, a new medicine, or better say, a method for refrain the cold virus action in the turbinates of the nose. Inspired by that, I made a little adaptation, covering the Q-Tip head with propolis. Believe it or not, that worked for me like a charm, even facing the situation of having to live together with two sick co-workers. I didn't end up like Jeremy Zawodny and have gained a better resistance and willingness to read Tim Bray's article about Jython.

[Listening to: Yvette In English - David Crosby - Thousand Roads (05:55)]

Shaken, But Not Stirred

James Bond likes his Blue Martini shaken, but not stirred. Or did M16's Boy Scout wanted mean something completely unlike? I really don't know. I'd like to know a lot of things. How to make a screen scraping of KEXP's play lists directly to Audioscrobbler's log list, for instance. Preferably with Eclipse IDE. I know, though, that Sofia's gypsies are tourch. And well humoured. At the same time.

[Listening to: Jony Iliev & Band - Gaida Cocek - KEXP]

LW&C

Who wouldn't like to see it?

[Listening to: CAT BLUES - Yoko Kanno - COWBOY BEBOP (02:37)]

From the ocean depths...

Maciej Ceglowski tells how Poland reacted to the new European Union recent add-ons. In an opposite direction, Jeremy Zawodny and Nelson Minar, both enthusiastically, have found a precious book in the form of a Vintage Polish erotica flash animation.

[Listening to: Secret Agent - DJ Shadow - Changeling]

Cryptoislamic

Try to remember "Audioscrobbler" by hearth, in the mid of a purple haze. You sure will come up with key words like "audio discover" or something like that. But, in the view of the A9/Google bots, "discover" should also means the results of a "sartori", or other type of spiritual enlighten. So, the brave looking for just a simple song list, would also find the "American Splendor" way of life and the pitch of a mesmerized wahabite. Audioscrobbler, however, is not fitted for me, because it doesen't read plenty HTML streams, and I'm listening too much Internet radios lately.

[Listening to: Secret Agent - Nucleo Antirapina]

The Black Bridge of John Negroponte

Aliette Guibert pointed out to a Council On Hemispheric Affairs memorandum about the nomination of John Negroponte to be U.S. ambassador in Iraq. The document alerts that he has a sordid human rights record in Honduras and is famous for admin the brigades of the death in Nicaragua. This guy is a kind of Rudolf Hess wannabe. Maybe they are sending him to Iraq in order to improve the torture techniques of Abu Ghraib prison.

Akma on Switchers

AKMA was wondering exactly about the process of moving from one CMS/Blog to another CMS/Blog. How many variables one must take into account before take a decision! The most predominant factor is how one can migrate the database. Well, one may choose not take any ancient post to the new blog at all. Start from the scratch. Literally. Why not? After all, if someone is looking for a specific entry of the late blog, he or she have Google and Internet Archive as friends. And I'm happy with Blogger. No muss, no huss.

[Listening to: KEXP - Charles Leonard - Funky Driver ona Funky Bus]

Wave bye-bye

Well, Radio Userland is now history. I got tired of Winer's World. I confess it was useful in the beginning and I'm grateful for that. But now is time to migrate. It was not the $40 bucks regarding the renewal of the licence key that made me change of mind. Radio Userland software is stuck in time. Besides the outliner tool, Userland has nothing more to offer. Oh! All Manila farms were abandoned too. Ghost towns. Let's move!

[Listening to: KEXP - The Beatles - It's All Too Much]