teh glorious interweb as it got stuck in my camino tabs this past week – the edited version.

online video killed the …

Christmas present from Daichi – "This is Christmas present for you from Daichi. I wish your merry christmas and happy new year!!" japanse beatbox merry xmas vid.

schmooze and abuse

Delicious Spaghetti Monster – "If you don’t celebrate Christmas because you belong to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, there’s no reason you can’t still enjoy delicious goodies this holiday season. Here’s instructions on how to make your own edible spaghetti monster, complete with edible googly eyes."

Israeli programmer hacks Kindle, breaks DRM protection – "Nothing makes you feel like you truly own your media and content like being able to do almost whatever you want with it. We’re already used to DRM for our MP3s and the limitations it puts on device selection and sharing, but the idea that the same kind of protection would be put on our books was a head-scratcher."

The xx – found this band on top of a few best of 2009 lists, and it’s really quite something…

After The Pirate Bay, Web Sheriff Takes On Jamie Oliver – "Defending the rights of The Village People, the legendary Web Sheriff threatened The Pirate Bay’s operators with legal action in an attempt to get compensation for the losses the six had suffered. The threats didn’t lead to much unfortunately, so The Village People and the infamous Sheriff are now pointing the gun at Jamie Oliver instead."

LISTS: 2009 – "This page aggregates all of the lists related to 2009. Please email me list suggestion."

Printing Your Toast – "Am Berner Design Award BEDA’09 erhielt der «Toaster» den 2. Preis. Er soll nicht nur als Gerät, sondern als ästhetisch wertvoller Einrichtungsgegenstand wahrgenommen werden." this printer was boingboinged.

delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed – with all the typos.

[teh glorious interweb what got stuck in my :flash: camino tabs this past week]

thought-provoking rant of the week

:flash: Better Than Free – “From my study of the network economy I see roughly eight categories of intangible value that we buy when we pay for something that could be free. In a real sense, these are eight things that are better than free. Eight uncopyable values. I call them “generatives.” A generative value is a quality or attribute that must be generated, grown, cultivated, nurtured. A generative thing can not be copied, cloned, faked, replicated, counterfeited, or reproduced.” [via bengston]

online video killed the …

:flash: Devo-Mongoloid – love em. [thx klav]

:flash: Fanboy Supercuts, Obsessive Video Montages – Waxy.org – “This insane montage of every instance of “What?” from the LOST series started me thinking about this genre of video meme, where some obsessive-compulsive superfan collects every phrase/action/cliche from an episode (or entire series) of their favorite show/film/game into a single massive video montage.” i didnt watch all, but lovesd this one: Every “What?” from the LOST series.

:flash: Tom Cruise Scientology Deutsche original Übersetzung von Dr. Phillip Herforth – german performer delivers a babblefish translated tom cruise speech in german.

:flash: Urban Honey – “Jon Rolston is a young urban bee keeper.” he thought about chicken then went for bees. wise choice.

:flash: Robot Nexi by MIT – “This is Nexi, a small humanoid robot designed by MIT Media Lab’s Personal Robotics Group. Her arms, wrists, and hands are fully controllable, allowing her to grip and lift objects of up to 10 pounds, and her face features an array of movable (and quite expressive) features including eyes, eyebrows, eyelids, and mouth.” slightly creepy.

:flash: Canada on Strike – the whole south park episode with the boys encounter of the internet stars is now online.

:flash: The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time – timewaster alert!

:flash: Wendy O. Williams remembered. – Boing Boing – “10 years ago this week, former Plasmatics front-woman Wendy O. Williams died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Chainsaws, shaving cream, destroyed guitars, exploding cars, nipple spikes, anarchopornoveganism, rock ‘n’ roll.”

schmooze and abuze

:flash: Postcards From Yo Momma – “Does your mom still have an AOL account? Does she email you her random, yet charming, thoughts on life and love?” collection of the cute emails our mothers tend to send us.

:flash: Say No to Flickr Video – “All we are asking is for Flickr to be left as a Photography website and if they want Video create a sister site. ” not sure i agree, hmm…

:flash: Rules of Thumb – About Rules of Thumb – “With this website, you have at your fingertips all the best rules of thumb I’ve col­lected since book number one plus everything voted into the Main Collection by online contributors like you.”

:flash: Russian girls support Vladimir Putin with panties – “The ribboned red-and-white knickers will help tackle Russia’s shrinking population by encouraging girls to have more babies.” oh really?

:flash: A Capital City With The Devil in the Details? – “Presidential candidate John McCain keeps calling Washington the city of Satan. Turns out he’s not alone.” satan satan satan!!!!

:flash: Net gains and pains for journalism – “They also seem to have realised that anyone who wants to break into professional journalism needs to have some sort of online presence beyond a Facebook profile”

:flash: Bloggers, DIY Filmmakers Capture S.F. Olympic Protest – “midst bull-horned demonstrators, agitated protesters and throngs of motorcycle cops, bloggers posted messages, videos and photos with handheld cameras and phones, while indie-media correspondents streamed live interviews with dissidents and images of the unfolding scene.”

:flash: Watch as Olympic Torch Protests Hit San Francisco – “As thousands of activists mass in San Francisco to protest the Olympic torch relay through the city Wednesday, the events are playing out online.”

:flash: Lies I’ve told my 3 year old recently – “All fish are named either Lorna or Jack.” [via al4ie]

:flash: 6 Insane Cults (That Would Probably Be a Lot of Fun) – “Politics, sex and religion are the three things you’re not supposed to discuss in mixed company. Fortunately, if you’re in a cult, odds are you get to discuss those topics as much as you want. In the right cults you probably get to discuss them while having group sex. If you’re allowed to speak, that is.”

:flash: Official Google Blog: Developers, start your engines – “In the same way that Blogger made it easy to create a blog, Google App Engine is designed from the ground up to make it easy to create and run web applications.”

:flash: LSD History Comic – the mind-boggeling drugs history as a comic. [via other michael]

:flash: Battlestar Galactica Returns to Stellar Ratings – “Battlestar Galactica roared back into action Friday night, as the Season 4 premiere delivered more than 2.1 million total viewers”

:flash: Meat Beat Doses the World With New Manifesto, ‘Autoimmune’ – “Today, the synth collector and sonic experimentalist is hobbled by psoriatic arthritis and, he jokes by phone, he’s “walking around like Howard Hughes.” The autoimmune disease hits you hard in the joints and digits — the worst possible places for guy who makes a living pounding on synths and sequencers.”

:flash: MEN ARE BETTER THAN WOMEN – “Are Men Better Than Women? watch! youtube.com — Well one interesting man definitely thinks so. Dick Masterson has been on a crusade to try and educate the world on why Men Are Better Than Women…” oh please.

:flash: SoapBoxxer – What’s Your Opinion? – “This site is a fun and interesting mish-mash of people’s opinions, questions, and thoughts. It’s simple to use and highly addicting, be careful!”

:flash: Pro-Tibet protesters climb Golden Gate Bridge cables – “Three demonstrators scaled cables near the south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge today and unfurled banners intended to draw attention to Chinese human rights violations in Tibet.”

:flash: Home copying – burnt into teenage psyche – “for 18-24-year-olds, home copying remains more popular than file sharing. Two-thirds of people it surveyed copy five CDs a month from friends. Overall, 95% of the 1,158 people surveyed had engaged in some form of copying, including taking the music contents of a friend’s hard drive – 58% – and the more old-fashioned method of recording from the radio.”

:flash: Inkjet tattoo paper – “These decal papers enable you to use your inkjet printer to print ‘tattoos’ that look just like the real thing – from your own customised designs.”

:flash: Flickr: frenzy’s photos tagged with antarctica – amazing photos of an amazing art show in milano’s hangar biccoca.

:flash: STIFLES Product Fotos – “the stifles are 2,15 inch (5.5 cm) tall with 180° turnable heads. they are available in blind boxes (4000 in total) or in 20 boxes containers for wholesale and collectors.”

[stream: del.icio.us/pieceoplastic | links or subscribe to this RSS feed]

[teh glorious interweb what got stuck in my :flash: camino tabs this past week]

robots

:flash: Military Machines do Robot Yoga – “you can see Souliere twist the FasTac into poses that are straight outta kundalini.” om namaste.

:flash: 25 Coolest Robots That You Can Have Sex With – you can, but do you want to? “there are a number of robots and robotic products out there that can satisfy sexual desires, and we’ve profiled a number of them here.”

:flash: The Three Laws Of Robotics – “Robots do not want to have sex with you. Are you listening, Japan?” tell us, warren.

schmooze and abuze

:flash: Kaugummi-Kunst: Maurizio Savini – art made from chewing gum by an italian artist. don’t show this to kids!

:flash: Radiohead Finds Sales, Even After Downloads – “In a twist for the music industry’s digital revolution, “In Rainbows,” the new Radiohead album that attracted wide attention when it was made available three months ago as a digital download for whatever price fans chose to pay, ranked as the top-selling album in the country this week after the CD version hit record shops and other retailers.” well, it’s radiohead. dunno if an other band would be equally succesful.

:flash: Two views from an airplane window – “One of these might be fake. Can you guess which?” the shadow gives the giraffe away, but what about the other? [via boingboing]

:flash: This was a triumph – account of how one guy to beat cybersquatters. nice one.

:flash: The Best 19 Movies You Didn’t See in 2007 – “This is about those movies that were phenomenal yet hardly anyone saw, so now we’re giving them one final moment in the spotlight.”

:flash: Steal This Wi-Fi – “To me, it’s basic politeness. Providing internet access to guests is kind of like providing heat and electricity, or a hot cup of tea.” more like offering them a free download spot for their kiddie pr0n. nah, just kiddin. silly me. i wanted my wifi open. in theory. but then got cold feet. wimp.

:flash: Stickeraward 2007 – “Top 150 nominated Stickers for the international Stickerawards in 2007.”

:flash: 15 Minutes of Fame: Noor the pacifist – WOW Insider – a guy is leveling two pacifist charctersin WoW. without ever actively killing anything. “what’s the concept behind Reinisch, your first pacifist character? – I started him from a roleplaying point of view, based very loosely on a real German priest, Franz Reinisch, who refused to serve in Hitler’s army and was executed. My undead priest’s back story is basically the same, and he still refuses to kill.”

:flash: Vegetarian Survival Kit – “what to include in a vegetarian survival kit”

:flash: EFF’s 17th Birthday Party | Electronic Frontier Foundation – “join EFF in celebrating our 17th year of defending digital rights! Since 1990, EFF has been there fighting for freedom and civil liberties.”

:flash: David Lynch on iPhone – “David Lynch talks about watching film on a cell phone. Clip from special edition of Inland Empire, with music and graphics by the super awesome xmas.” he seems grumpy.

:flash: Confessions of a technophobe – “Why are so many dramas and thrillers now set in the past? Is it because, in a world of mobile phones, satnav and Google, suspense is impossible?” yeh, well 24 is full on in cell-phone, pda land.

:flash: How to Read Wired Revisited – “How To Read Wired. In short, his advice was to take a hearty dollop of irony and then rip out all the back-to-back ads.”

:flash: Photos from the decapitator – very impressive, if rather gorey adbusting in london.

[stream: del.icio.us/pieceoplastic | links or subscribe to this RSS feed]

[teh glorious interweb what got stuck in my :flash: camino tabs this past week]

birthdays

:flash: The computer virus turns 25 – “The computer virus turns 25 years old this year. It’s been a rocky quarter-century, but according to Richard Ford and Eugene Spafford, two computer scientists writing in this week’s issue of the journal Science, viruses can look forward to a long,fruitful life.”

:flash: Upgrading Jamaica’s Cultural Shareware: Trojan Records at 40 – “One of the funniest things I noticed going through Trojan’s archives is how many cover versions of American pop culture were in play,” Miller says.”

:flash: DJ Spooky: How a Tiny Caribbean Island Birthed the Mashup – “you can think of the whole culture as a shareware update, a software source for the rest of the world to upload.”

iphone killers

:flash: Free the iPhone : Support wireless freedom! – “Apple touts the iPhone as the “Internet in your pocket” — but it’s not. You can’t use it without signing on with AT&T, and once you do they cripple services, limit what you can do and restrict where you can go on the wireless Web.” hope this works.

:flash: My Mom Hand-Knit An iPhone – “a kid needs his own iPhone so he won’t play with his dad’s. So I asked my mom if she could knit one. And she did. Frankly, I think it’s cooler than the Steve Jobs version.”

:flash: Teen iPhone hacker predicts two weeks: Interview – “What motivates you to do this? I need a summer project And wouldn’t I look cool walking around with a T-Mobile iPhone?”

:flash: openmoko.com – this linux opensource iPhone killer looks kinda great.

humor

:flash: bort – borat is kind of a muppet.

:flash: batman’s recurring dream – i believe i can fly.

schmooze

:flash: Three blind mice – “I really have to emphasize again that the procedure was extensively researched and done by people who were aware of the risks and possible complications and that it should not be casually attempted.” i can’t watch.

:flash: Squelch that belch: Cows that burp less could help climate crisis – “Manners aside, getting cows to burp less could help reduce global warming. Using modern plant-breeding methods to find new diets for cows that make them belch less is a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, scientists reported this week.” does that work against human farts? ok ok, lets not go there.

:flash: 5 reasons why EVERYONE should know how to Photoshop their head onto someone else’s body – “5. Because while a middle-aged mommy blogger up in Seattle might be a little bit blah, you’re sure as heck gonna sit up and take notice when you see that blogger lady’s profile picture that looks like THIS” [via sk-rt]

:flash: DSC_0005 on Flickr – Photo Sharing! – cupcake pixeled super mario.

:flash: handsoap – “this is actual soap. shaped like little hands! each ‘hand’ is hand made. wash your hands with hands.” i can’t decide if i want to say eww or aww. [via neatorama]

:flash: Should we simplify spelling? – “They’ve been campaigning for a century to make the spelling of the English language easier and recently picketed a spelling bee in the US to make their point.” and there are many typos in teh interviu.

:flash: Cliff Pickover’s RealityCarnival – “News that shatters the ice of our unconscious!” i wish this website had a RSS-feed.

:flash: Streamy Online – the digg killer? [via digg] “Streamy is a new way to read and share the best stories on the Web.”

:flash: tun3r – very cool online radio interface. [via de-bug]

:flash: The Pirate Bay WILL NOT Be Shutdown After All – “The Swedish BitTorrent tracker site considers filing charges for slander or official misconduct against the Swedish police officer involved.”

:flash: More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics – “if at least some abstemiousness is due to shyness and the inability to find partners (while the promiscuous have relatively little trouble in this regard), then the answer might be to establish a government-funded dating service: bring us a used condom and we’ll get you a date.” makes 100% sense to me.

:flash: The Grafitti Frame. – that’ll work, fight graffiti with graffiti.

:flash: Open-Source Journalism: It’s a Lot Tougher Than You Think – “we’ll need support services: without this support, citizen journalists up against entrenched power structures will likely end up at best nowhere, at worst toast.”

:flash: Add More Jam! – that would be a good morning indeed.

:flash: LOST Theory Generator – Produces random LOST theories – “The numbers, when decoded correctly, give the exact date and time of the end of the world.” ??? zomfg *runs*

:flash: Terrorist organization logos – “terrorist organizations have logos. It recently occurred to me that someone had to actually design those logos. But how did they decide who gets to do it?”

:flash: Psychic TV – Hell Is Invisible…Heaven Is Here – a new psychic tv album …

odd lists

:flash: Guess You Did Not Know This! – “There are over 18,000 pieces of plastic floating on every sq. kilometer of ocean today.” great list of odd facts.

:flash: Psychology Today: Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature – “Why most suicide bombers are Muslim, beautiful people have more daughters, humans are naturally polygamous, sexual harassment isn’t sexist, and blonds are more attractive. ” erm… not sure about some of these.

[stream: del.icio.us/pieceoplastic | links or subscribe to this RSS feed]

[teh glorious interweb what got stuck in my :flash: camino tabs this past week]

an ode to myspace

:flash: www.myspace.com/kamloopsmusic – “For your info… the whole project (ie the music, vocals, mixing, video creation and editing was all done in 1 day (yeah, yeah…I know it may look and sound like it was! lol)” oh really? we never would have thought with such deep lyrics: “Thanks for finding me on myspace A beautiful place Thanks for finding me on myspace By clicking on my face)”.

:flash: www.myspace.com/knutdereisbaer – knut is on myspace! it’s all good now [via de-bug]

:flash: www.myspace.com/mikeshiva – “TRETEN SIE EIN IN DIE WUNDERBARE WELT DER HYPNOSE!” make sure to turn off your speakers before you enter mike shiva’s myspace page. when i read the comments i can’t shake the feeling that mike shiva does not really get sarcasm.

hip hop dead or dying

:flash: Hip Hop Isn’t Dying, It Just Sucks – “I’m not saying hip hop is dying or dead. But I am saying that if hip hop wants to be more than top 40 fluff, if it wants to mean something to people like it did in the 80’s and early 90’s, if it wants to speak for a generation, then it needs to get out of the money game and start getting back into making real music for real people. It is the only way.” [via beatmixed]

:flash: The 25 Worst Rapper Names of All Time – “you know when you’ve heard a good rap name. And just as certainly, you know when you’ve heard a bad one. We count down the 25 worst.”

lists of the week

:flash: April Fool’s Pranks For Nerds - – “Geeks love April Fools’ Day. Once a year, we get to take advantage of our non-geek friends’ and co-workers’ flimsy grasp on technology. The best geek pranks involve making a gadget or a piece of software appear “broken.”

:flash: TOP 30 WordPress Plugins in Blogosphere – “I compiled a true TOP 30 list of the most popular plugins in blogosphere”

odds and ends

:flash: Internet suicide inquest opens – “The inquest into a man’s apparent suicide, which was broadcast live on the internet, will open today. The body of Kevin Whitrick was found at his home in Telford, Shropshire, on March 21 after a chat room user contacted police to report that the father-of-two had “self-harmed” while online.”

:flash: Origins of the word w00t – “w00t” was originally an trunicated expression common among players of Dungeons and Dragons tabletop role-playing game for “Wow, loot!”

:flash: Cort Doctorow ETech 2007 – see, he does wear a cape and goggles and blogs from high-altitude balloons. in reference to this onlinecomic.

:flash: Collecting: Skulls – “A collection of photographs of the back end of white vans that, to me at least, look like skulls.”

:flash: Michael Jackson wants Vegas robot – “Michael Jackson is in discussions about creating a 50-foot robotic replica of himself to roam the Las Vegas desert, according to reports.” excellent.

:flash: Pink plan to deter male drivers – “Traffic officials in a Swiss city are hoping to stop men using parking spaces reserved for women drivers by painting them pink and adding flowers.” the swiss city in question is bern! omg

:flash: My life as a bearded dwarf – “Similarly, a visible copy of World of Warcraft makes me want to shout: “I don’t seek to nullify my rampant sexual dysfunctions by pretending to be a Paladin called Thrusthammer Orcbash! IT’S FOR WORK!” Of course, the person I want to shout this to the most is myself.” what a hilarious read…

:flash: Thai Zoo Hopes Porn Will Get Sluggish Pandas to Mate – “Chuang Chuang the panda has been spending his days in front of a big screen television watching panda porn.”

:flash: Recycled Paper Coffin :: Ecopod Environmentally friendly Coffin – “Ecopod is a revolutionary design in coffins made from naturally hardened, 100% recycled paper.” [via bb]

:flash: Blog death threats spark debate – “Prominent blogger Kathy Sierra has called on the blogosphere to combat the culture of abuse online.”

:flash: skype is gaining acceptance… – how extremly cute and symbolic to see habi’s parents goof off with skype.

:flash: Buddha Machine: spiritual, generative transistor radio – “It is the single most interesting gadget I’ve held all month. It doesn’t feel like something manufactured this decade. ”

:flash: Viacom Sues YouTube – the dailyshow covers Viacom Sues YouTube, Demetri Martin suggest to kids to make their own dailyshow.

:flash: Desktop Tower Defense – “A live action puzzle game written for fun in flash. You have to stop your enemies, or ‘creeps’, from travelling all the way across the screen.”

:flash: nine inch nails: current – another NIN remix project in apple’s garageband format.

[stream: del.icio.us/pieceoplastic | links or subscribe to this RSS feed]

:flash: Top 20 Gayest Video Game Characters

and katamari’s king cosmos made it to #5

:flash: List of video games considered the worst ever

the article is considered disputed on wikipedia, but it still has tons of valid info in there.

screenshot of SNES Revolution X

:flash: Top Online Games

:flash: Online, no Install

:flash: MMORPG

oh nein, was haben “wir” da bloss losgetreten? wie es scheint ist die schweizer bloggerszene aus ihrem dornröschenschlaf aufgewacht. die ganzen top-100 listen und aggregatoren gärtchen-kämpfe zeigen auf, dass die schweizer blogger szene kompetitiv geworden ist. und ich sage “wir”, weil ich mich als mitorganisator des swiss blog awards frage, ob auch unser projekt zu dieser entwicklung beigetragen hat.

schade. das medium, welches eigentlich zu einer demokratisierung des informationsflusses hätte führen können (und sollen), kürt jetzt wieder könige und baut sich zentralorgane auf. ein weiteres mal stelle ich bedauernd fest, dass die hackordnung offensichtlich nie fehlen darf. ich hab diese ganze entwicklung schon einmal miterlebt und zwar als DJ. was mich anfangs der 90er jahre dazu motiviert hatte DJ zu werden, war genau die distanzierung vom starkult gewesen – weg mit den fetten rockstars, den dancefloor zum star küren, die tanzenden leute machen die party aus, nicht der DJ. die weitere entwicklung ist bekannt, schnell gab es star-DJs und das ganze wurde langweilig.

blogs waren anfangs wieder so ein erfrischender gegenpol. jeder konnte, jeder durfte in alter DIY manier einfach drauflosschreiben und eigentlich war es scheissegal, ob irgend jemand mich liest (ich lese zum beispiel nachwievor bewusst fast nie meine sitestats). die resultierende euphorie war gross. aber leider überlebte der traum vom egalitären medium nicht lange. international (seit einiger zeit) und auch national (relativ neu) wurde wieder an einer rangordnung rumgebastelt. und siehe da, plötzlich hächeln alle um die position des alpha-bloggers. who da top-dawg? (das schlimmste ist jeweils, wenn ich mich selber dabei ertappe… soooo peinlich).

dabei sollten die internationalen top-dawgs von boingboing.net als abschreckendes beispiel doch eigentlich genügen. seit boingboing als DER top-blog schlechthin gilt sind die publikationskriterien des gruppenblogs aus kalifornien zunehmend fragwürdiger und vorallem untransparenter geworden. während projekte aus ihrem freundes- und kollegenkreis und sogar aus ihrem familiären umfeld stark gepusht werden, scheinen die boingboings ansonsten nur noch an exklusivität interessiert zu sein. ob sie eine spannende geschichte als erste bringen können ist entscheidend und nicht mehr die relevanz des themas. kennen wir doch von irgendwo…

aber konkret jetzt, wie läuft diese entwicklung in der schweiz ab? ich habe anfangs die top-100 liste und das gerangel um blog.ch erwähnt. ich mag eigentlich die macher beider dieser sites gar nicht angreifen. ihre absichten sind glaube ich in ordnung. und natürlich kann man sich fragen, was zuerst kam: diese listen oder das bedürfnis der leute nach hirearchien?

und doch, die auswirkungen gerade der top-100 liste ist spürbar, das klima in der schweizer blogosphäre hat sich deutlich verändert seit ihrer publikation. als chregu von freeflux/bitflux mit seiner top-100 liste rauskam war das glaubs eher so eine furzidee, mal was machen, coden, w00t und raus damit. eigentlich geil. das einzige was man ihm dabei vorwerfen kann ist, dass er damit ein wenig dem syndrom des unbedachten forschers verfallen ist. techniker überlegen sich bekanntlich die sozialen und kulturellen auswirkungen ihrer erfindungen manchmal etwas zuwenig. sie interessiert die machbarkeit. das verstehe ich gut, und eigentlich stimmt es schon: was die leute aus der erfindung machen ist nicht ihre schuld.

und trotzdem… die top-100 liste beruht auf quantitative faktoren, und quantitative parameter sagen nicht zwingend etwas über qualität aus. wieviele links von technorati auf einen bestimmten blog zielen, sagt mehr über das soziale netzwerk des autoren als über seine fähigkeiten als blogger aus. und trotzdem schleift sich eine solche liste schnell ein. und sie trägt dazu bei die hackordnung innerhalb der szene zu etablieren. kein wunder also, dass es sofort blogger gibt, die versuchen werden diese liste zu manipulieren… (oder die schmollen, wenn sie aus den top-20 fallen, shame on me!)

bei blog.ch liegt der fall natürlich komplett anders. matthias macht ja keine wertung, sondern listet ungefiltert die neusten posts (fast) aller schweizer blogs. und trotzdem kann es nicht erstaunen, dass sich jetzt andere leute solche aggregatoren aufgebaut haben. hier geht es um das thema macht. blog.ch hat sich zum zentralorgan der schweizer blogger szene hochgearbeitet (manche sprechen sogar von einem monopol) und sich die legitimation dazu selber gegeben. soweit kein grosses problem, jeder blogger, so auch ich, gibt sich schliesslich selbst die legitimation einen blog zu führen, und gerade in meinem fall ist dies ja äusserst fragwürdig.

und doch darf man sich fragen, warum matthias die zügel seines projektes so eng führt? sollte er sich nicht breiter abstützen, andere leute mitarbeiten/mitentscheiden lassen, und was soll das ganze copyright zeugs? da kommt schon ein starker kontrolletti vibe daher. ein weiteres problem sind die aufnahme kriterien, die nicht wirklich transparent kommuniziert werden. es ist nirgends ersichtlich (oder jedenfalls habe ich es nicht gefunden), warum matthias gewisse blogs aufnimmt und andere nicht. ein durchaus vertretbarer standpunkt könnte ja sein, dass ein aggregator ungefragt alle blogs auflisten sollte. matthias sollte also zumindest seine kriterien transparent machen. wenn er jetzt andere der klauerei anschuldigt, dann finde ich das eigentlich relativ absurd. da wäre es doch sinnvoller sich die darin enthaltene kritik zu herzen zu nehmen. man kann nicht zuerst alles an sich reissen und sich dann wundern, wenn andere leute irgendwann reagieren.

wir sehen also machtkämpfe und ein gedränge um die obersten plätze irgendwelcher listen. dabei sind die grossen und wirklich wichtigen herausforderungen, welche die blogs jetzt dringend angehen müssten, wie man die immense informationsflut filtert und dadurch sicherstellt, dass wichtige informationen weiterhin gut zirkulieren. hirearchien und machtkonzentrationen, wie wir sie momentan entstehen sehen, führen bekanntlich nicht zu einer besseren verteilung, sondern zu einer zentralisation. statt ausufernden aggregations-listen brauchen wir nach klugen kriterien und mittels demokratischer strukturen editierte “frontpages”, welche wichtige beiträge aus der flut der blogs herausheben. und statt eine pyramide der macht entstehen zu lassen, sollten wir die bildung von clustern von gleichgesinnten blogs fördern.

und noch etwas: es ist doch wie schon damals im sandkasten. ein weiteres mal! die jungs balgen sich um den besten platz und die besten schäufelchen, während die mädels sich nobel zurückhalten. gerade in der schweiz ist dies speziell absurd, weil hier bekannterweise die wirkliche pionierarbeit in sachen aggregation von stephanie booth, einer frau, geleistet worden ist. ebenso bezeichnend ist deshalb, dass sie edit: swissblogs.com vor ein paar monaten an matthias gutfeldt abgegeben hat.

darum hier mein vorschlag: alle blog mackers der schweiz, alle wanna-be-top-dawgs, sollen sich nächsten mittwoch beim sandkasten im wäldchen treffen und dann schauen wir doch mal in echt, wer denn jetzt den grössten hat. und ich schlage dies nicht nur vor, weil ich dann eh gewinnen würde…

[stuff what got stuck in my browser tabs this last week or so]

LISTS & MAPS & SHIT

:flash: the european blogosphere – who’s blogging in various european countries. the swiss blogosphere is here. [via blog.ch]

:flash: map of swiss bloggers – this was started awhile ago after a swiss blogger meet up by chregu/bitflux

:flash: fetish map – as in, and now for something completely different: a map of all the various fetishes out there. [via 4rthur]

:flash: gataga.com | blinkx.com – lets you search social bookmarks | hailed by some as the next google.

CENSORSHIP & ONLINE DEMONSTRATIONS & SHIT

:flash: fotolog.net/neckface – this popular public fotolog account got deactivated by the fotolog admins, because someone working in the pornindustry had posted this picture. the good news is, the account is back up. the bad news: the image in question is gone. [via woo]

:flash: when bears growl – first person account by a guy who got a visit from the american secret service (SS) because he had posted photoshopped images of president bush and published them via his blog. should i be scared? [via al4ie]

:flash: stop software patents – online demonstration protesting the pending revision of software patent laws in europe. i wonder if my photo ain’t showing up because i am swiss hence not part of the EU? [via de:bug newsletter]

:flash: the anarchist cookbook disowned – the author of the controversial anarchist cookbook uses amazon to distance himself from its content. interesting on so many levels. [via waxy/links]

LAWS & SHIT

:flash: schweizer urheberrecht revision – in german! urs circle.ch gehrig hat den scoop zur revision des urheberrechtes in der schweiz.

:flash: EFF legal guide to blogging – a much needed overview as more and more bloggers get in trouble for what they post. [via bb]

ADVERTS & FLYERS & SHIT

:flash: delete! – these 2 austrian artists from vienna have somehow managed to convince their city government to cover up all adverts and signs for a whole 2 weeks in a busy downtown shopping area. brilliant! makes you wonder why city governments fight graffiti but not this mess of adverts and signs. [via stay free!]

:flash: “no thank, you have i stopped smoking” – is what she says in this german anti-smoking campaign. if that does not get you, what will? [via b]

:flash: juiced – nothing deep to say about this. kinda funny, if it wasn’t for an xbox/microsoft game. [thanx elgato]

WEIRD & FUN & SHIT

:flash: vagina lady – uhhhhh uhmmm. is kinda not what you think, and kinda is. [via 4rthur]

:flash: pacman turns 25! – damn… somebody should make a version where pacman eats cakes. or blows out candles.

:Question of the week:

why should i keep asking a question of the week if nobody ever bothers to answer one? as a matter of fact, why should i keep blogging at all?

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