Link Latte #11

A load more stuff etc. Bits and bobs.

1) 3D Printed Alumide Things

Quite impressive if you like that sort of thing.

But like, what’s the background? Is that a dead (or wintering) vineyard or something? It looks like an American version of what Russia looked like when no one had painted it for 20 years. The New Frontier.

2) Inflatable space-habitats

Apparently stronger than the existing ones – and has the added advantage that if it falls into the sea, it’s already a sort of massive water-wing. Just remember – these are the people who invented velcro.

3) A bunch of toy robot things

Light-seeking snakey thing

Spiderying thing obediently (for the moment) obeying a smartphone

Lego robot arm

4) That OK Go thing.

Everything’s raving about this, but I think it kindof sucks

Why do I think it sucks FFS? It’s the greatest Rube-Goldberg machine ever made.

It sucks because they’re piggy-backing on Maker Culture (aka what nerds do to get attention), not by making something but by just fucking buying it. Something that’s all about tinkering about and doing something for yourself – labours of love has just become a great big spend-fest.

It worked – that video has had over 2 million views already. But like… whatever. It looks to me like cool kids with money getting attention by nicking the uncool kids… thing. What Nike (and everyone) have been doing to Black Urban culture forever. Sorry. Once the mainstream gets hold of it, it sucks.

But don’t mind me, I’m just some twat shooting his gob off from the safety of the cheap seats.

This on the other hand is beautiful.

A labour of love – rather than something that someone’s bought so they can advertise their single, on behalf of EMfuckingI, who don’t deserve to live.

5) Beautiful Tilt-Shift thing of New York

I went to New York for a week once, and didn’t see daylight the whole time. It rocked.

6) Petri Dish Bacteria Soap From Etsy
(via)

AND YOU CAN GET GLOW IN THE DARK ONES!!!

There’s a nice circularity to de-bacterialising yourself with a petri-dish.

When Etsy first turned up it looked a lot to me like a load of tedious crafty tat, but the quality of the stuff (well, some of it) on there truly gob-smacks me now.

I’m not sure how it’s happened – whether it’s the community… or competition… or what, but there seems to have been a really radical bar-raising. In London in the 90s, Camden Market went from being a couple of hundred yards of knock-off Goth stuff (and hippie-wigs), to miles and miles of really high-quality, up-market… everything.

Etsy has done the same thing in a fraction of the time – except that instead of starting out as a goth thing, it started out as a 1970s local-church craft fair. Now it’s all boutiquey and designery. Well… some of it.

That Umair Haque bloke who I’m going to slag off in the next post once said that Etsy was probably going to be The Next Google. No one knew what he was talking about. And they still don’t… but… it’s looking a whole lot more convincing than it once did. He’s not just a pretty face.

7) Military Androids.

Looks like DARPA are attempting to make an “Apps Store” for military… applications. What could possibly go wrong?

Not much probably – if it introduces diversity/resilience into the mix of stuff being used – though I imagine the main reason to do it is to co-opt the collective intelligence of the great-geek-unwashed, and get them to dream up more stuff to sell to the taxpayer.

The problem isn’t imaginary enemies, or forn terrsts. The problem is the military itself. It’s destroying the country by taking about 1/2 of the tax revenues. Remember kids. Spending money on the military is like breaking windows in 19th Century France. When you need it, you need it – 50% of your tax? Come on. It’s out of control.

But forget about all that. According to the article, it’s specifically targeting Android phones. Which I find interesting.

8) The Bible

Have you read it? It’s mental.

Most Christians haven’t apparently, so it’s worth slogging through it to piss them off etc… but anyway, things I have noticed so far:

a) There are numerous references to other gods (eg: Exodus 18.11)

b) There is an incredible amount of Christian Lore that isn’t actually in it. Stories surrounding the Tower of Babel, and the Ark and whatnot. Still… that whole business surrounding Sodom and Gomorrah – did you know that the only “pure” person to escape, wound up procreating with his own daughters? It’s ok though – because (although) they were virgins at the time, he was drunk. The Bible does actually frame this as an excuse.

c) Any experienced programmer will immediately see it for what it is. Really badly written legacy code. It’s filled with bugs, contradictions, repeated code, lack of structure etc. It’s like an old version of Oscommerce or vbulletin or something. Nightmare.

If this is the source-code of the OS of the Christian Religion, no wonder it’s so fucked up. It needs more than an upgrade, or more patches (The New Testament was a patch, attempting to correct the hysterical bug-fest that is the Old Testament)… it needs a total rewrite from the ground up – starting with a a re-think of the core principles, because… well, let’s face it possums, the New Testament Patch didn’t really work. The world is still being fucked up by people employing Old-Testament morality.

d) It’s interesting from an historical perspective, but The DaVinci Code is easier to get into.

e) Don’t even think about reading anything other than The King James version. The others are for thick people.

9) Robo-thesp

LOL

Yours for $82,000

10) Yea, whatever, I’m not wearing that

Brain controlled pimball innit. Def dumman blinekid.

11) White House Cyber Czar: ‘There Is No Cyberwar’

“I think that is a terrible metaphor and I think that is a terrible concept,” Schmidt said. “There are no winners in that environment.” – Howard Schmidt

Mon Dieu, the voice of reason. Where have you been all my life?

Similar logic ought to be applied to “The War on Drugs” and the “War on Terrorism”. Whenever you hear the words “War on…” you know the originator is after one thing: Money. And manpower. And unquestioning political support. And a remit to attack the general population.

12) Google’s Auto-Subtitling (you’ll need to click through to get the actual CC controls)

LOL – in which google attempts to a) censor the Irish… language and then b) figure out what the fuck they’re talking about. No chance. Dylike Dags?

13) Ronald Searle

I’ve been a fan of this guy forever. Another 3rd Culture Kid. One of us. One of me.

14) At Last !!! An Instrument that sounds worse than the Stylophone

But which is kindof cool regardless. A lego sequencer.

My Brother used to make models for advertising/movies… everything from animatronic sheep to model cities, to Treebeard off LOTR to… Hellboy’s Gun…

… and something really noticeable about these things is that they only need to be used once – often only need to look good on one side. Miracles of invention happen, then they’re thrown away, or stored. The latex stuff doesn’t actually last all that long apparently.

Seems like a similar sort of effect, if not intent with a lot of this maker stuff. Someone goes to a huge amount of trouble to make something – and then… what? It’s “stored”? Because it sure as shit ain’t going to be used. Take a look at the stuff that people are making that’s getting attention – most of it will be shown off a couple of times… and then… next project. It’s an incredibly ephemeral culture. The life-span of the average Maker project is shorter than the life-span of a 20th Century pop-single – derided in the early years as “Wallpaper music”. A throwaway culture.

So much innovation is going into things who’s only purpose seems to be a) Because I can, and b) Awesome! Put it on Youtube!

I’m not complaining mind. But there is a weird strand of truth in Karl Pilkington’s assertion that “everything’s been invented… and now we’re just messing about”.