The New Travel Section

1. Introducing a new section to this blog, the Travel section. With some 250+ posts behind me I thought it was time to do a little organising. This will be the first of a number of sections I’ll be adding to this blog, in addition to the leftbrain and rightbrain, representing specific topics I like rant talk about. As always, the link will appear on the navigation bar on the top of each page. Happy browsing!

Vanity Fair, December 1930

1. I was cruising about the Vanity Fair website (which is a nightmare, by the way. Seriously, with the amount of ads they’ve crammed on screen you’d think they could afford to hire at least one professional designer), looking for a book I had heard about, and I came across Vintage V.F.. Clicking on that led me to this edition of Vanity Fair, dating back to December 1930 where:

2. I love this stuff, love being about to flick back 75 years to read what people were reading back then. Find this just whets the appetite — why isn’t Walter Lippmann’s article admonishing Hoover available online? Why can’t I read the May 1979 edition of Vanity fair? The internet is hardly new, yet it is still not the global library as promised. I fear the internet is our generation’s jet pack; it’s our flying car, our meal in a pill, our colony on the moon. Somewhere along the line we blinked and it derailed, tugged along by commerce, further and further from our grasp. But that’s progress for you, isn’t it?

The Digital Point-and-Shoot to sell your car for

$35,000 22MP Cambo Wide DS

1. $35,000. U.S.

2. That’s some serious money, but we’re talking about a Schneider Digital 35mm f/5.6 lens with a Phase One P25 digital back, plus some metal bits to hold it together and keep the light out. No exposure meter, no auto focus…hell you don’t even get a view finder. But you do get a sharp-as-tacks lens and a sizable chunk of silicon in the sensor, and bits of wood and metal to hold it together. What more could you want out of $35,000?

Laser etched Powerbook!

1. From Digg: Dude! This is soooo awesome! Twenty thousand big ones for the laser cutter, another three for a 17in PowerBook, but using it to engrave a woodcut of a Tarsier (I’ve seen one :) is priceless!

read more | digg story

RIAA prez: I’m an ass-puppet

From Digg:

They have apologized for their mistake, ceased manufacture of CDs with that technology,and pulled CDs with that technology from store shelves. Seems very responsible to me.

1. That was RIAA President Cary Sherman’s response when asked about the Sony RootKitty Fiasco. Speaks for itself, really.

read more | digg story

Papercraft sculptures from single sheets of A4

1. From Digg: Peter Callesen is a sculptor who makes amazing papercraft fantasies out of single sheets of A4-sized paper. I particularly adore his Paper Cuts, 3D sculptures that magically rise from the 2D page…absolutely gorgeous!

read more | digg story

The Idiot Box

At a forum on the future of television last week, David Leckie, managing director of Channel Seven, was asked if he was worried about people obtaining programs via the net because they can’t get what they want from mainstream TV. He said this: “OK, the world’s gonna fragment, we know that, but have you seen how hard it is right now to download anything? In five, ten, 15 years nobody knows, but it’s not affecting our audience, I can guarantee that. And the two or three people … I’m sure they’ve downloaded and they’re having fantastic fun talking about Desperate Housewives going to air real time right now in the United States but you know what? It’s not really affecting our audiences.”

1. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

2. That was taken from this blog entry by David Dale, a journo and blogger for SMH. Yes, Mr Leckie, the internet is hard, no Mr Leckie, you’re not thick as pig shit (quick, torrent away!).

3. Seriously, did he even try? I suppose if you don’t have a computer then it might be a bit difficult. And a fat pipe (read: fast internet connection) helps. But bloody hell, as long as you have a computer and a pipe Google would fill in the rest. The very people who have the smarts and the gear are the same who are craving for good TV, and yet there’s High ‘n’ Mighty Leckie thinking he’s got us in a trap. Guess who’s gonna look stupid in a few years time?

4. Maybe mum was right, too much TV does make you stupid.

$100 laptops to Hollywood in five moves

All the more reason today’s copyright battles are so important, by the way: By limiting our ability to aggressively remix the digital stuff around us, Hollywood and the recording industry are tamping down on an explosively cool mode of thinking.

1. Read it here (From Collision Detection, probably my favourite blog).

The Sony Rootkit Fiasco

1. Bruce Schneier at Wired has a good piece on the Sony Rootkit Fiasco. The audacity and plain stupidity of these companies can no longer be expressed in words, only actions. I wouldn’t steal a handbag, no, but I won’t be installing trash on my computers either.

FUCK YEAH!!!!

1. Not often will you see me abuse the exclaimation point like so, but…

2. FUCK YEAH WE MADE IT!