[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

online video killed the …

Papierkrieg – imagination knows no limits in this german animation project.

A Babelgum Original: Banksy Vs. Robbo – video documenting the "war" between team robbo and banksy, this conflict does raise some interesting question about the dircetion banksy has been taking. but! zes queenz should get a hotel room…

Keynote: Bruce Sterling (us) on Atemporality – "If progress is to go beyond the banal indulgences that give rise to a never-ending array of car shell designs then we need to analyse our present time with regard to its aesthetics and its media. The second conference session is being introduced with Bruce Sterling's Keynote on Atemporality." snide as usual, but just as brilliant.

Roy Ayers- Can't You See Me? – one of the greatest feel-good tracks evar. has saved my life a few times already. and counting.

schmooze and abuse

This Just In: Not All World of Warcraft Players Are Deadbeats – "You there, sitting on the couch in your parent's basement, next to the Doritos, playing World of Warcraft for hours on end. Yes, YOU! What have you done to better mankind lately? More than 200,000 of your kind just donated $1.11 million to charity." i did buy that pet, yet i am still a deadbeat.

How and Why BitTorrent Works, a Visualization – "Millions of people use BitTorrent to share files every day, but only a small percentage actually understand how BitTorrent works and appreciate why it is such an efficient way to share large files. A simplified but insightful visualization helps to shed some light on the inner workings of the BitTorrent client."

Bovine Bombing – "Ron English and his crew found a new canvas for street art in south Texas, cows!"

naughty shop challenge – "Go into a shop and rearrange objects to make it say something naughty. Take a photo." lolololol

Full IN THE LOOP Screenplay Now Online – With a Special Note from Armando Iannucci – IN THE LOOP is a truely fantasic film, the whole screenplay is available to download here.

Google Buzz Trick – “Try this at home… And we wanna see it.”

Glasnost: Test if your ISP is manipulating BitTorrent traffic – "Glasnost creates a BitTorrent-like transfer between your machine and our server, and determines whether or not your ISP is limiting such traffic. This is a first step towards making traffic manipulation by ISPs more transparent to their customers."

Wi-Fi Turns Arizona Bus Ride Into a Rolling Study Hall – "Wi-Fi access has transformed what was often a boisterous bus ride into a rolling study hall, and behavioral problems have virtually disappeared. “It’s made a big difference,” said J. J. Johnson, the bus’s driver. “Boys aren’t hitting each other, girls are busy, and there’s not so much jumping around.”"

[delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed - with all the typos]

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

online video killed the …

YooouuuTuuube – puts youtube videos on LSD.

Kiss shreds – "The P.I.S.S is by far the most together group in the show biz" and togtehr really is the word. [via b3ta]

The Eurovision Song Contest's silliest entries – "From a man in a superman outfit to Macedonian cock rock, this year's Eurovision contenders are more ridiculous than ever. Paul MacInnes picks his favourites" i lol’ed at some of these videos.

Very funny Chinese wow video – drinking and fighting real world adventures with a world of warcraft interface.

Lo que hace falta es Jama! (EL ORIGINAL!) – "Cuba Tiene Hambre" has also spawned many a reggaeton fan remix. People are loading the audio clip onto phones as a ringtone, too. In the video, a "regular guy" identified as Pánfilo on the streets of Cuba is basically saying "What Cuba needs right now is FOOD. Cuba is HUNGRY." [via bb]

Hugo Chávez: Eat the Rich – "In this video clip which is making the viral rounds in the Spanish-speaking online world, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez says "The rich are not human, they are animals in human form.""

Obama is a popstar. And he is very good at it. – "Word up. — But all this makes me think, how different the political role is. Being funny is part of being an american president. Maybe european politicans should copy that. If they can. Is the role of a politician in europe so different? Or is it the job – and intelligent and funny people rather go somewhere else? Hm. " i have nothing to add to that, mrs. bunz.

schmooze and abuse

Bogost Releases Guru Meditation to iPhone, Atari 2600 – "The iPhone offers a unique opportunity for a true relaxation game, since it makes such constant demands on our attention—telephone, email, text messages, Twitter, etc. Guru Meditation for iPhone literally makes it impossible to pursue other activities while playing. As such, it offers a convenient secondary commentary on the often overwhelming values of "connection" that today's portable communication devices embrace." the game you beat by doing absolutely nothing.

Quasi O : Poupe & Soso: des poupées et de la Soso – we think this knitted digital wristwatch is awesome. but the knitter activist has some other great ideas on her blog.

markkit.net – the web highlighter – "markkit is a web2.0 text highlighter. Drag'n'Drop the markkit yellow pen into your browser toolbar. Whenever you want to highlight text in a web page, click on the markkit bookmarklet." [via swissmiss]

Cocaine and LSD found in air of Spanish cities – "Spanish scientists have discovered traces of cocaine and LSD in the air in the cities of Madrid and Barcelona." no wonder they be trippin.

Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic – "For the first time on PlayStation Network, we have partnered with Sprint to bring you the PSN exclusive game, Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic, for FREE in the U.S. store. That’s right. The game is free to download this week." US only? testing in a few minutes …

Beautiful Steve Jobs Portrait Made of Classic Apple Typefaces – "Artist Dylan Roscover did this amazing job recreating a famous Steve Jobs picture using Apple's classic typefaces, used since its beginning in the 70s. The most significant thing, however, is the message in it:"

Ban Fast Food Near Schools – "A recent study correlates the proximity of fast food to schools with the obesity of students."

Google unveils 'smarter search' – "Web giant Google has unveiled new products that it says will push search in a new direction. Google is using so-called semantic web technology to leverage the underlying data on websites to enhance results."

http://you-talking-to-me.com – or: http://who-the-fuck-do-you-think-you-are-talking-to.com/ or: robert-de-niro-in-taxi-driver-in-front-of-the-mirror.com. by jodi me thinks

France Passes “Three Strikes” Anti-Piracy Law – "The controversial French HADOPI anti-piracy law was passed by the National Assembly today, one step closer to being signed into action. The new law introduces draconian measures to combat piracy including a “three strikes” regime for persistent offenders."

Loo & Placido 'Electronic Popstar Killers' (New MixTape) – (Zip File = Mp3 + Tracklist) "Loo & Placido presents 'Electronic popstar Killers', their brand new party mix featuring 2 hours of exclusive mash-ups, remixes, Re-edits and covers [S]mashing today's hottest Electro, Rave, Fidget and Ghetto Bangers with some of the greatest Rock, Hip-Hop, Disco and Punk hits ever ! " these guys eat Girl Talk before breakfast! must-have mashup mix.

Web murderer given life sentence – "A man from Germany has been jailed for life for stabbing a Nottingham student 86 times after stalking his girlfriend."

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/ – "Spreading the Awkwardness"

Apple Rejects iPhone BitTorrent App – "Citing copyright infringement concerns, Apple won’t include a BitTorrent client in the App Store." but of course they would …

Lick to Experience – "This website/blog is ruled by 7 individuals who besides being addicted to pornography are also creative beings who enjoy taking photographs, drawing, doing computer stuff, music or things alike."

Subversive Fair — Subversiv Messe – "As the first trade fair for counter culture and resistance technology the Subversive Fair presents recent projects/actions/works …and poses questions: which inventions make resistance easier? Which ideas undermine the system? Where are revolutionary forces lurking? What can we do to successfully dissolve hegemonies?" wish i'd known about this earlier.

Vegan wants ILVTOFU on license plate. 2BAD, state says. – "Fearing the vanity plate could be misinterpreted in an offensive manner, Colorado officials put the request on a list of banned letter combinations. The ACLU has entered the fray." i love TOFU as well. yeh, both meanings.

swiss corner

Wirtschaftskrise: Schweiz will Einwanderung aus Deutschland bremsen – "Wegen Rekordeinwanderung und steigender Arbeitslosigkeit denkt die Schweizer Regierung über einen Einwanderungstopp nach – für Deutsche und andere EU-Bürger."

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

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

WoTLK

World First LVL 80 Explained – Interview with Nymh – “The biggest problem was to find a spot with enough monsters to grind without too much downtime … I spent some time on beta servers and eventually found the crypt in Drakil’ji Ruins (Grizzly Hills)” sounds passionating .. gah

World of Warcraft interview as new expansion launches – “Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion to World of Warcraft, launches tomorrow and I sat down with Blizzard's COO Paul Sams and Associate Producer Lee Sparks this afternoon.” i bet blizzard is kinda frustrated, here they create wonderful worlds and questchains, yet everyone just rips through them. but they should think why that is so. there is too much focus on end game, that’s why.

LBP

10 Favorite User-Generated Little Big Planet Levels (So Far) – "With hundreds of thousands of offerings already out there (and more appearing every day), it's quickly becoming a quagmire of overwhelming excess. Sure, you'll randomly stumble upon some gems among the chaff, but it helps if you know where to look."

Sony Killing Questionable LittleBigPlanet Levels, Without Warning – "LittleBigPlanet lets gamers create their own worlds, but some say that its developer is cracking down much too harshly on potentially infringing content. Amateur level designers say that the developer of Sony's recently-released PlayStation 3 game has been yanking their creations from the servers if the levels contain references to existing television shows or videogames." almost forgot that Sony are assholes too.

（Little Big Planet）リトルビッグプラネットでテトリス？ – tetris made in LBP

online video killed the …

Short Film: Circles – the latest hilman curtis short left me a little puzzled.

Hoboken Dance Off – "a local legend takes on a fresh face in a broad-daylight dance-off for the ages!" very gay. very cool. yeh, and that means gau is cool. of course.

Star Wait- Star Wars nerds beat up punk rockers from mrotman – "This is from the movie Star Wait- which is available for $10 only on starwait.com" absurd.

Monks brawl at Jerusalem shrine – "Israeli police have had to restore order at one of Christianity's holiest sites after a mass brawl broke out between monks in Jerusalem's Old City. Fighting erupted between Greek Orthodox and Armenian monks at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site of Christ's crucifixion." absurder, even f that is not correct engrish.

schmooze and abuse

Kids Games on ZuiGames – "The best games just for kids" gotta show this to my nephews.

Swiss Chocolate Knife – "This delectable Swiss Chocolate Knife is made of the finest Swiss chocolate, and is filled with hazelnut praline. Featuring the Victorinox Swiss Army logo, this fine confection is modeled after the Swiss Army Spartan multitool." and how would this knife cut through stuff, by melting?

TV-B-GONE goes open source – "Altman is publishing the firmware source code, board layout, numerous TV power codes, and all documentation online under a Creative Commons license. He believes the resulting surge of development and home-made models will ultimately boost interest in his product, and increase sales."

COLUMN: Bell, Game, and Candle – 'Press Releases from the Future' – "EA Signs the Legendary David Lynch for Three Game Deal. Auteur behind Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive to elevate the plane of interactive entertainment" lynch as game designer could be catastrophic or great.

The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia – "Saturday, July 4th, 2009"

New York Times Special Edition Video News Release – "Early this morning, commuters nationwide were delighted to find out that while they were sleeping, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had come to an end. See the full paper online: nytimes-se.com/"

New York Times: Fake New York Times Declares Iraq War Over! Here's Who Did It – "The Iraq War is over, according to the fake New York Times! This morning a cadre of volunteers has fanned out across New York City to pass out a remarkably good, faux-copy of the Times dated July 4, 2009."

Sul piu' illustre paesaggio – free strips of paper. no catch. [via rebel;art]

See the Steven Meisel Editorial That Was Too Racy for Italian ‘Vogue’ – "Editorials aren't often deemed too racy for a European magazine and then snatched up by an American one. But such is the case with Steven Meisel's recent shoot inspired by "dogging," the British term for engaging in sexually explicit acts in semi-public places, like cars or movie theaters. "

Spam Volumes Drop by Two-Thirds After Firm Goes Offline – "The volume of junk e-mail sent worldwide plummeted on Tuesday after a Web hosting firm identified by the computer security community as a major host of organizations engaged in spam activity was taken offline."

Google Flu Trends – "We've found that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity. Google Flu Trends uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity in your state up to two weeks faster than traditional systems."

Flickr: eBoy content tagged with eboy-pixorama – excerpts from the new eboy book

OhMiBod Naughtibod – "The Naughtibod does exactly what it promises, which is that it's a silky plastic, petite vibe that buzzes with or without music."

Obama! portrait made of cupcakes – "I worked over 40 hours with help of Photoshop and my friend Mo McKenna to design, bake, frost, and cover over 1200 mini cupcakes in 9 values of fondant. "

One Year Later, Saul Williams Talks Niggy Tardust's Wins, What's Next – "Saul Williams hasn't given up on the internet, though his pricing-optional album didn't sell nearly as well as Radiohead's In Rainbows — the album that inspired his strategy. Nonetheless, his taste for commercial and sonic experimentation is alive and well — and probably means his next album will feature a similarly "out there" approach." nice one saul.

piles-of-buildings cardboard sculptures by Ana Serrano – "The detail and energy, plus the large scale make these piles-of-buildings cardboard sculptures endlessly fascinating. Plus, Ana is relatively young, which makes these works of art all the more impressive."

CaptionX (around 7 players online) – captions to CC-licensed flickr photos multi-user game

Hands on: Songbird 1.0 music app soars – "In a desktop media realm dominated by iTunes and Windows Media Player, Songbird is an open source player that dances to its own beat. Built on Mozilla technology, Songbird offers a very customizable interface and integrates a pleasant variety of web services that offer everything from artist bios, lyrics, music store integration, and much more."

THE AQUARIUM L-13 NOT BANKSY collection – "So… to make it quite clear that these are by NOT BANKSY and NOT by BANKSY, the new stencil works come with original fake Pest Control Certificates of Authenticity declaring them to be authentic NOT BANKSY artworks and are NOT by BANKSY at all."

Online Piracy Becomes a ‘National Sport’ in France – "Now, a new report suggests that online piracy has become something of a ‘national sport’ in France."

as real as it gets… – photoshop interface made from real objects.

Darth Vader Toaster – "This black, ominous kitchen appliance easily leaves the mark of Vader's helmet in every yummy piece of toast."

Oxford compiles list of top ten irritating phrases – “The top ten most irritating phrases: 1 – At the end of the day 2 – Fairly unique 3 – I personally 4 – At this moment in time 5 – With all due respect 6 – Absolutely 7 – It's a nightmare 8 – Shouldn't of 9 – 24/7 10 – It's not rocket science” i agree sooo much with 1. place.

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

teh glorious interweb as it got stuck in my camino tabs this past week – the edited version. oh boy, long list this week.

avast! shiver me timberz … etc. etc.

:flash: Talk like a Pirate – "Learn to talk like a pirate." the “official” instruction video. [via habi]

:flash: Official Google Blog: Google in one more language – "It recently came to our attention that Google was not accessible to a large, influential, and notoriously quick-tempered community: Pirates. As of today we are proud and rather relieved to announce that Google Search is available in Pirate."

:flash: scurvy dog! ’tis pirate zen 2008 – arr, the webzen links, me matey

ipod touchness

:flash: E-reader on your iPhone – "Geek goddess Cali Lewis reports that a free application from E Reader.com turns your i-device into an e-reader, allowing you to buy books which automatically show up on your iPhone or iPod Touch." and now how do i get cory doctorow’s book content onto my ipod? ffs

:flash: iPhone App Shifts Hypermiling Up to iPermiling – "Budding hypermilers can become iPermilers with an iPhone app that costs less than three gallons of gas. GreenMeter uses the iPhone's built-in accelerometer to tell drivers, in real time, how much their lead-footed ways are costing them in carbon emissions and fuel economy."

:flash: Apple iPhone: Now available in cupcake form – "The genius of these iPhone cupcakes cannot be overestimated. Nor can their tastiness, I suspect. The set of 12 cupcakes, each decorated to look like a familiar iPhone app, is so geekilicious that we're torn between admiring the artwork and wanting to eat every last one."

:flash: Star Wars: Force Unleashed in App Store – "Experience the Star Wars universe as never before. The devastating power of the Force is in your hands. You are Darth Vader’s Secret Apprentice, trained by the menacing Sith Lord to hunt down the last of the Jedi." this is what my mate tells me: sound is shit, design is crap, but the ui seems like a great idea, you do attacks via the drawing of symbols on the screen.

:flash: Things That Podcaster's Rejection From the App Store Is Not About – "Podcaster, so far as I can tell, complies with every written guideline in the SDK Agreement. If other guidelines exist, Apple should add them to the agreement. It doesn’t even make sense from a thou shalt not hurt Apple’s music revenue stream standpoint."

:flash: App Store: I’m out. – "You have to wonder if Apple wants the App Store to be a museum of poorly-designed nibware written by dilettante Mac OS X/iPhone OS switcher-developers and hobbyist students."

:flash: Snubbed by Apple Podcaster Developer Turns to Ad Hoc Distribution – "Whatever the case, Sokirynsky isn’t taking the news lying down. Instead he’s distributing Podcaster using the “Ad Hoc App Distribution” system as an alternate to the App Store."

:flash: Convert Avi’s to iPhone mp4’s for free – convert avi to mp4 using vlc

zocken

:flash: THE FREE CULTURE GAME – "The Free Culture Game is a game about the struggle between free culture and copyright. Create and defend the common knowledge from the vectorial class. Liberate the passive consumers from the domain of the market." another great game (with a message) by molleindustria.

:flash: Bejeweled, Warcraft Combine to Form World's Most Addictive Game – "A version of the match-three game is set to launch next Thursday within the World of Warcraft MMO (massively multiplayer online), letting players kill time with puzzles during raids and long stints farming rare items."

:flash: Stepping into a world of hurt – "We tried to take the suck out of it," he said. "It's got the greatest hits of MMOs – 80% of what you know but 20% is new." BUT. sadly only available on PC again. so i am stuck with wow … yet again.

:flash: Spore and More: Activate against Electronic Arts – "Electronic Arts (EA) and Amazon have been the targets of a justified online rebellion the last couple weeks. The impetus for the backlash is EA's use of Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technology in its game Spore.”

:flash: Warcraft expansion gets release date – "The second expansion pack for the World of Warcraft (WoW) online game is going on sale from 13 November."

:flash: PAKIMONO! – oddly funny mac game, run around naked in copenhagen and jump in front of japanese tourist groups taking pictures.

online video killed the …

:flash: The 11 best film moments of Samuel L. Jackson yelling – "Many actors have trademarks in their on-screen performances. Robert DeNiro repeats things, Tom Cruise incredulously smiles and laughs, and Samuel L. Jackson yells."

:flash: Rollbots teaser trailer – "The official trailer for Rollbots, a new show coming to The CW4Kids in Febuary 2009!" geeky kids show trailer [via bb]

:flash: Two Guys Make Out CNN Lehman Brothers Report – "Two guys in a Howard Stern prank making out on CNN during Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy report."

:flash: Meme Breaks 1.0: scratch for great justice – "The Internet's most famous audio samples in DJ-friendly format."

:flash: Sneaky cat coming closer while not moving HORROR! – "Awesome vid, this cat is a sneaky bastard. Now with appropriate music "

:flash: People Trapping Themselves in Balloons to Seduce You – "Dancing in a bubble — kind of like cage dancing? Just without the uncomfortably in your face slave-girl connotations. So maybe a PG-13 version of cage dancing in the vein of mermaids, fish lips and pirate fantasies?"

:flash: Devendra Banhart – Carmensita – watch out for natalie portman in this bollywoodesque music video.

schmooze and abuse

:flash: Microsoft's 'I'm a PC' campaign created with Macs – "Metadata found on Microsoft's creative copy used in its 'I'm a PC' ad reveals that the graphics were actually produced using Macs running Adobe Creative Suite 3. After the details were published on the Flickr photo sharing site, Microsoft scrambled to polish off the embarrassing details last night." that’s gotta hurt.

:flash: Schöner kleben 2008 – International Sticker Awards – "Forget Christo! Friday, the 3rd october we are celebreting a day of the International Sticker and create an Intervention Memorial: we will wrap the FIT Gallery in Berlin – Freie Internationale Tankstelle (Schwedter Str. 262, Prenzlauer Berg) in a spectacular mass performance with stickers."

:flash: Twitter Blog: Changes Afoot – "The most significant change you'll notice on the logged-in homepage (/home) is that we've moved the tabs that were on the top of the timeline to the right sidebar." better, much much better. no rilly.

:flash: TwitterKeys: Enhance your Twitter conversations – "TwitterKeys is a small tool we developed here at The Next Web Blog which provides you with a floating window with all these funny symbols you can use in Twitter."

:flash: TwitterKeys: the first 48 hours… – "A little more than 24 hours ago we posted a bookmarklet here titled TwitterKeys and then all hell broke loose. Here is what happened before we launched it and what has happened since."

:flash: Conflux: Vertical Bed – "During the Conflux weekend, Jamie O'Shea was submitting his body to polyphasic sleep, the practice of sleeping multiple times in a 24-hour period. The artist walked around the Conflux area with his Vertical Bed in a suitcase, found himself a nice spot, anchored his prostheses above subway vents or other rigid contact points and stayed there sleeping in an upright position for 40 minute intervals several times in a day." a fantastic project.

:flash: too – sergei brin blogs … so?

:flash: The story behind the Palin e-mail hacking – "A tech-savvy reader who monitors the hackers’ site e-mailed me a detailed explanation of how it went down, who was responsible, and how someone with a conscience warned a friend of the Palin family of the crime"

:flash: Inside Obama's Emails – "Obama reportedly joined the MoveOn.org mailing list while attending the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston." a timely parody thanx to the onion.

:flash: Phone comes preloaded with porn – "A university student who bought a mobile phone found it "contained pornographic images of a female employee from a Cairns Dick Smith Electronics store where she had just bought the phone" omg rofl.

:flash: It's Not Gold, Jerry! – "Looks like those Odd Couple ads starring the "comedy" duo of Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld are going the way of Windows CE. Adding insult to injury? It isn't Gates that is being eased out. It's Seinfeld."

:flash: Cover Lay Down: Covers of The Clash classic Straight to Hell – "My usual pre-post iTunes search called up several great indiefolk and alt-folk covers of Straight to Hell, an underrated, unusually downbeat political song by old-school Britpunk faves The Clash." folksy stuff, in comments there is a M.I.A and a moby version, much better. [via bb]

:flash: Financial Melt Up – "In brief: there’s a real economy, and a speculative economy. While they are usually related to each other – even dependent on each other – that relationship changed over the past twenty years." lucid explanation by douglas rushkoff. now i have to decide, what should i start to fabricate?

:flash: Top 25 (Non-Obvious) Ways RSS Can Make Your Life Easier – "If you’re looking for ways to more fully incorporate RSS into your technology repertoire, here are 25 applications, sites and ideas that can help you make the most of RSS." led me to flightstats, where i was able to track my wife's trip to mexico … well, it didn’t work with all the features, since only flights in US are fully tracked. but nice stuff.

:flash: PMSBuddy.com – The free online PMS reminder – "PMSBuddy.com is a free service created with a single goal in mind: to keep you aware of when your wife, girlfriend, mother, sister, daughter, or any other women in your life are closing in on "that time of the month"" bloody hell … they even built a facebook app.

:flash: Columbia Heights Suspicious Package: Weird Bear Costume? – "we get this image from Irving and 14th Streets of an odd looking bear costume wearing tattered clothing and posed over a trash can. A lot of our readers are telling us this is the reason for the suspicious package alert."

:flash: Pirate Party Official Raided after Uncovering State Trojan – "The spokesperson of the German Pirate Party saw his house raided after the party published a leaked document which showed that the government uses a homemade “trojan” to wiretap Skype conversations."

:flash: Chrome on Mac and Linux – "Codeweavers, those cross-system wizards behind Wine, have shown off their prowess by releasing a version of Google’s Chrome to Mac and Linux ahead of Google’s own attempts."

:flash: Copy Paste Character – seen this a few month ago, nice reminder

:flash: Review Copies of My Next Book – "This is unorthodox, but what the heck? I’d rather do some “pull” media than all that “push” stuff. " order a pre-copy straight from the dude via his blog, me likee.

:flash: Caligula for President: Better American Living Through Tyranny – "Author and cultural critic Cintra Wilson's forthcoming new book, Caligula for President: Better American Living Through Tyranny is a powerful, funny, and scary satirical novel about the nature of politics." i read wilson's previous novel, and this is a sure pre-order for me.

:flash: AGDC: Bruce Sterling keynote – "So my PC is like a towel. Cheap and old and the dullest thing in the world, I have always had one. “2008, computer pioneers, they still think computers are exciting!” They don’t get that computers in 2043 are like brick, forks, toothbrushes, towels." odd, but funny.

:flash: Banksy Cleans Up – Cave Painting – "The latest work by mysterious street artist Banksy revealed at Leake Street, London this weekend. See the Banksy tag bottom right of the cave. The CCTV cameras above this were wrapped in grey poly bags to protect them from overspray!"

:flash: Winterthurer Wirt will mit Muttermilch kochen – "Der Wirt des Restaurant «Storchen» in Iberg bei Winterthur will mit Muttermilch kochen. Laut kantonalem Labor ist das nicht erlaubt – aber auch nicht verboten." swiss chef wants to serve meals cooked with mothers milk. turns out, that is illegal.

:flash: Dance Dance Revolutionary INFORMATION – "Dance Dance Revolutionary is an arts initiative that aims to share information about radical activism through fun, participatory activities." they held a angela davis remix contest …

:flash: Rats Prefer Organic Food, Shouldn’t You? – "40 lab rats were offered a choice between organic and conventional biscuits by Swiss and Austrian scientists. The rats preferred the organic biscuits, which makes you wonder if rats are smarter than humans."

:flash: AirBed & Breakfast: Better Than a Cheap Hotel – "Forget Hotels" a bed and breakfast resource site using web 2.0 elements.

:flash: Witchcraft rumor sparks riot at Congo soccer game – "Accusations that a soccer player was using witchcraft during a match in eastern Congo sparked a riot that killed 13 people, a U.N.-funded radio station reported Monday." [via bb]

:flash: Top 10 Hip-Hop Songs that Sampled a Video Game – "I researched and tried to find as many hip-hop songs that I could that sampled a video game"

:flash: NIN Dazzles With Lasers, LEDs and Stealth Screens – "Nine Inch Nails fans are accustomed to such sonic and visual feasts whenever Reznor and company go out on tour. But this time around, NIN has pulled out all the stops, creating a groundbreaking, fully interactive visual display that is as much a part of the show as the band's instruments."

:flash: …and Finally… – "When is a robbery not a robbery but a mere redistribution of wealth? This is the question being tested in a wave of supermarket hold ups in Greece. With food prices soaring, Greek anarchists have decided do something about the problem by becoming modern day Robbin' Hoodies. The latest in a string of raids came last Thursday (4th) when around 20 unarmed people carried out the midday robbery of a supermarket in the northern city of Thesaaloniki."

:flash: Jill Greenberg – mcCain reworked

recipe of the week

:flash: Recette Raisiné – with one e it’s made from grapes, while Raisinée is made from apple and pear juice.

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

it has finally happend. finally i have reached this juncture with WoW. i am terribly bored with the game, it feels like i am “done”, like i have gone as far as i can go – given the characters i have, the guild i am in, the arena teams i play in. it feels like there is nothing left for me to do. i have played WoW for 2 and 1/2 years now, which is remarkable. impressive really. for someone who got bored with GTA IV after playing it 3 – 4 times. but blizzard seems to now focus mainly on the next big extension, callled WoTLK, so i suspect not much new content will get released before then. the elite guilds and arena players still have things to do, but i belong to neither category. to illustrate the extent of my frustration: i have been leveling the cooking on my paladin these days, that’s how very bored i am.

many of my WoW-”friends” have left to play AoC, Age of Conan. [excursion: yes, i still call them "friends", even if i have known some of them for a long time now. it might have been on and off with some, but we kept chatting, meeting, helping each other, listening to each others frustrations etc. in a way i should say friends without the "", but i guess i am either too old school or too desillusioned to call them that. anyway]. i would be more than ready to give AoC a spin, test it. but they only develop for PC and still only have a Mac. and get this, i even considered buying a gaming PC, yup, i am very ashamed to admit it, me the old hater of all things microsoft almost caving in. that’s simply outrageous.

so what now? non-MMO games are simply too boring. WoW is on hold. ffs, what am i gonna do? the next three weeks are covered, i can watch tons of f***ball, maybe beat up some hooligans (just kiddin), meet interesting tourists from around europe. but after? hmmm

[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.

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

question of the week

gene therapy raises a lot of ethical questions. but what if we could influence human genes to become more cold-resistant, thereby reducing the amount of oil we consume? [interview with craig venter in das magazin - in german]

why the f*** are kittens still funny?

:flash: Strange Cat – I Has Invisible Piano. [via neatorama]

:flash: Feline Terrorism – kittie suicide bomber [via al4ie]

O_o_ my wife fancies ze frank

:flash: wonder_for_site – ze snowflake generator. [vie neatorama]

:flash: strike #2 – more on the writers guild strike from ze. [via waxy]

schmooze and abuze

:flash: Buy Nothing Day – BND is on the 23rd of november this year.

:flash: Religious scholars mull Flying Spaghetti Monster – “When some of the world’s leading religious scholars gather in San Diego this weekend, pasta will be on the intellectual menu. They’ll be talking about a satirical pseudo-deity called the Flying Spaghetti Monster …” i mean come on, who at this point still DOES NOT believe, that the universe was created by Teh FSM? [via bb]

:flash: It’s like AllOfMP3 for movies – “a movie site mirroring the cheap, DRM-free model … ZML has made a quiet debut over the last couple of months, but boasts over a thousand movies”. movies for download for a very reasonable price? tempting. much needed. would work. lets see how the legal battles go.

:flash: Taming Baby Rage: Why Are Some Kids So Angry? – “It is not the cartoons that make your kids smack playmates or violently grab their toys but, rather, a lack of social skills, according to new research.” i was an angry boy.

:flash: What the F***? – “The strange emotional power of swearing … suggests that taboo words tap into deep and ancient parts of the brain.” why we swear.

:flash: B3ta served DMCA notice for Photoshop Prince challenge – “A number of users of b3ta.com have been slapped with DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) notifications after posting images that poke fun at the pint-sized popstar’s ongoing crusade to rid the internet of unauthorised Prince material.” prince is gonna clean up teh interweb – yeh very likely.

:flash: How Addicted to Apple Are You? – “How Addicted to Apple Are You? You are 33% addicted to Apple!” i am proud to say, i am a recovering mac addict. [via habi]

:flash: A storm is brewing – “The changes to Warden effectively remove our ability as a community to police Blizzard’s activities, and may lead to undetected violations of personal privacy, among other possibilities.” blizzard introduced new software to fight the bots, but does this represent a privacy infringement?

:flash: Internet Map: City-to-City Connections – “Using their most recent city edges data (Feb 2007), I created a set of visualizations that display how cities across the globe are interconnected” [via swissmiss]

:flash: Miro – free, open source internet tv and video player – miro has gone 1.0. gratz!

:flash: 90 suicides a day spur Japan into action – “The practice, which claims more than 90 lives each day, should no longer be seen as “the honourable way out” but as an act of desperation and – perhaps – preventable misery.”

:flash: Social networkers warned of risk – “A quarter of the 11 million Britons who use social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook may be leaving themselves open to identity fraud.”

:flash: Italy launches “gay baby” ad campaign – “A picture of a newborn baby wearing a wristband reading “Homosexual” will go up soon on billboards across Italy’s Tuscany region as part of a new campaign by the regional government to end homophobia.”

online videos killed the …

:flash: Cowbell Hero – weeee, finally a game i can play. like Guitar Hero but for Cowbells.

:flash: WoW 12 Step – i think the apology would have to go to the wow widows and others, who suffer most from wow addiction of their partner. but the cartoon is still funny.

:flash: Monty Python Lumberjack Sketch – “Monty Python’s full 6 minute sketch, not just the song.”

:flash: “You Must Be At Least 18 to View FOX News” – “FOX News Porn. Which is made entirely of video clips taken from FOX “News” broadcasts. ”

:flash: Hot Teen Busted By Dad Dancing On Webcam – oops, but it feels a little bit like a fake.

swiss focus

kunstsupermarkt – 82 Künstlerinnen und Künstler aus der Schweiz und dreizehn weiteren Nationen präsentieren und verkaufen am 8. Schweizer Kunst-Supermarkt ihre Werke.

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

gmail goes imap

:flash: Turn Thunderbird into the Ultimate Gmail IMAP Client – “Gmail’s IMAP support roll-out this week had nerds all atwitter about the possibility of synchronized email access across devices, computers, and clients.” How-to!

:flash: How do I enable IMAP? – gmail now offers IMAP.

OiNK deb-oink

:flash: OiNK Database Didn’t ‘Self Destruct’, Wasn’t Encrypted But Users Safe? – “The rumor: The OiNK database was encrypted and self-destructed. The truth: It wasn’t and it didn’t but ex-users still might be safe. In the meantime, OiNK got fired from his job.”

:flash: Oink founder: We’re just like Google – “I don’t sell music to people, I just direct them to it. If somebody wants to illegally download music they are going to do it whether my site is there or not.” an interview.

:flash: Anti file-sharing laws considered – “The UK government could legislate to crack down on illegal file-sharers, a senior official has told the BBC’s iPM programme.”

:flash: The OiNK Fallout: Should Its Ex-Users Be Watching Their Backs? – “They should be very, very scared. There are at least two reasons why this is not just your average, everyday, run-of-the-mill file sharing copyright infringement: this involves music that has not yet been commercially released, and money changed hands.”

:flash: Time to clear up the murk about Oink – “for example, the implication that Oink was a subscription service is not true. It was private and, like many other sites, accepted donations from users, but – as most web entrepreneurs will tell you – that hardly ever covers your true costs.”

seasonal skullz^^

:flash: Skull-A-Day: 72. Papercraft Skull – papercraft skull with moveable jaw. here’s the .pdf [via bb]

:flash: I Want Your Skull – cool pumpkin skull stencils. .pdf to download here.

:flash: Wrath of the Death Worm! – For the Love of the Great Pumpkin – “Just in time for Halloween – the Jack O’ Lantern version of conceptual artist Damon Hirst’s “For the Love of God”

schmoose and abuse

:flash: Top 11 Geek T-Shirts – “T-shirts have come into their own as a form of media, one that uniquely documents messages and stories, not to mention emergent technologies and companies changing the way we use the Internet.”

:flash: Windows Machines Represented in Leopard With Blue Screen of Death – apple left “the blue screen of death” easter egg in leopard. “Oh, Apple. You shouldn’t have. It’s far too accurate” [via waxy]

:flash: BeastieMixes.com – “For the longest time I have been collecting Beastie Boys remixes, I’ve collected over 1800+ so far. They need a place where people can download them.” [via beatmixed]

:flash: Welcome to the world of social casual gaming – “MySpace has announced a partnership with casual gaming giant Oberon Media to create a dedciated gaming channel. Due for launch in January, the brilliantly named MySpace Games service will allow users to place free casual titles on their profile pages and then play them against friends.”

:flash: www.apb.com – GTA style MMO. the question if i would chose law enforcemnet or thug doesnt even come up.

:flash: Greenpeace Vs IPhone: Greenpeace Responds to Alarmist Claims, Admits Targeting Apple Grabs Headlines – “Greenpeace’s report on the iPhone was inaccurate and alarmist.” some apple fan-boy is mighty pissed, lol.

:flash: Tibetan monks beaten as police halt dissent – “Hundreds of Tibetan Buddhist monks celebrating the award of a US honour to the exiled Dalai Lama have clashed with Chinese police, resulting in an unknown number of injuries and arrests.”

:flash: ATYPYK::TALKBUBBLE – learn the basics, puzzle for kids. [via rebel-art]

italy

:flash: Paint the Town Red: Futurist Vandals at the Trevi – “Yesterday, October 19th, the waters of Rome’s famous Trevi Fountain turned blood red when a man threw paint into the basin in a bizarre act of vandalism apparently inspired by the Futurists of the early 20th century.”

:flash: The Levi-Prodi law and the end of the Internet – italy to demand blogs to register: “The Levi-Prodi law lays out that anyone with a blog or a website has to register it with the ROC, a register of the Communications Authority, produce certificates, pay a tax, even if they provide information without any intention to make money.”

the world [of warcraft]

:flash: Farm Fetish – in the US more people play WoW than work on a farm.

:flash: World of Warcraft tips from a drug addict – “Here we have this French drug addict (I think he’s French anyway) who, while trying to talk like a gangster, succeeds at making a complete ass out of himself.” scary stuff.

swiss/german focus

:flash: Hilfe! Page Rank halbiert! Das Bloggen ist sinnlos geworden! – apparently swiss bloggers be moaning regarding the cuts in page rank they experienced…

:flash: Nazi-Dance-Trash für Teenie-Handys – “Richtig gruselig ist allerdings der Es-spricht-der-Führer-Adolf-Hitler-house-track-ringtone. Das Leben ist verrückter als Scheiße.”

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

fantastic

:flash: mymobilesite.net – this is fantastic. nokia has released a server, to be installed on your mobilephone, that makes it possible to handle all contacts, calendar entries, photos etc. via a simple web browser on any computer. you can even remotely trigger the camera to take a photo. [via de-bug]

iPhone not worth the hype

:flash: The AT&T/iPhone Moral Quandary – “The problem is, the iPhone is only available through AT&T, in my opinion one of the most unscrupulous telecoms around. AT&T’s tactics combine Microsoft-style anti-competitive maneuvers and anti-privacy efforts á la RIAA for a chilling effect. I avoid giving AT&T any of my money; it’s a personal boycott.” this is pretty much how i feel about swisscom, rumored to be the swiss iPhone partner, and the reason why i won’t but the iPhone, if in fact they partner with swisscom.

:flash: l-rs.org – apple shrink the iPhone by using large hand model. [via bb]

looking for alternatives to WoW

:flash: the 5 stages of WoW – i hope i can soon add phase 6: Recovery “damn i am so over WoW. now back to my real life.”

:flash: DOFUS – cute, online flash game. new version available.

:flash: Myst Online | URU – this looks awesome. but its not available in switzerland yet.

:flash: The Lord of the Rings Online – people are raving about this game, it’s supposed to have a very good engine, storyline, interface. but i am not quite sure if i want to support this franchise. pc only.

:flash: Age of Conan – looks a little to gory. and vista only.

:flash: Hellgate: London – i love the scifi setting, the story line, the look and feel of this game; very promising. pc only.

:flash: Warhammer Online – the first M rated MMO, abit gory as well. pc only.

:flash: The Chronicles of SpellBorn – this looks kinda cool, but i somehow don’t understand much else about it from the website. pc only.

manhunt ban

:flash: Take suspends Manhunt 2 release – “Inevitable really. This morning, Take 2 announced that it would be suspending the release of Manhunt 2.”

:flash: Manhunt 2 ‘ban’ – it’s good, but is it right? – “Forget all the guff about parents, in the real world Manhunt 2 would have been played by 10 year olds on their Wii. Imagine how long it would have taken for the usual media suspects to pick up on little Johnny’s wiimote garroting pastime.”

:flash: Manhunt 2 banned in England – “Forget all the guff about parents, in the real world Manhunt 2 would have been played by 10 year olds on their Wii. Imagine how long it would have taken for the usual media suspects to pick up on little Johnny’s wiimote garroting pastime.”

my two cents: i played manhunt 1 for some shivers of epic proportions. yet i haven’t turned into a massmurderer. yet. and i must be TEH most immature 45 year old ever.

polynapping

:flash: Polynap MP3 Soundtrack – this guy offers m3 tracks for naps of various lengths, i downloaded the 5, 15 and 23 minute variety and have uploaded them on my mobile phone now. looking forward to some public napping in trains, trams. white noise ftw.

:flash: Power Napping: How To Fall Asleep Anywhere – “The trick is the use sleep MP3’s such as these. They are essentially MP3’s that play white noise for the duration of the nap, and then slowly wake you up by playing a variety of sounds.”

art in switzerland

:flash: BEN REARDON ON TERENCE KOH AT DE PURY & LUXEMBOURG GALLERY, ZURICH – “Terence Koh Until 15 July de Pury & Luxembourg Limatstrasse 264 Zurich T: +41 44 276 8020″ one of the photos used in this article is bt play.

:flash: PLAYLUST – who also covers art38. no permalink to the entry, scroll please.

local interest

:flash: fw 2007 – programm filmwoche, alternatives open air film programm auf einer kleinen insel in der aare in der nähe von bremgarten bei bern.

schmooze

:flash: Piece Of Plastic Slogans from The Advertising Slogan Generator – b3ta used in a much more, erm, shall i say, profane, way, but this works too.

:flash: Bush’s approval rating plunges to new low – “George W. Bush’s approval rating plunged to a new low of 26 percent, making him the least popular US president since Richard Nixon”

:flash: Study finds guys not so naughty, gals not so noble – “women on hormone-filled birth control pills were interested in the overall view of the photos and “background” items like jewelry. But women not on the pill were more interested in areas of both men and women normally covered by clothing.” ah, the pill sounds horrible.

:flash: Where Daft Punk got their samples from – bloody hell, the daft punk versions sound literally almost the same as the originals.

:flash: How Serious Is Polling’s Cell-Only Problem? – “If people who can only be reached by cell phone were just like those with landlines, their absence from surveys would not create a problem for polling. But cell-only adults are very different.”

:flash: bayimg – free uncensored image hosting – “bayimg.com is a place where you can host all your images. We do not censor them. We believe in freedom of speech, it’s of utter importance to us.”

:flash: How Many Licks Does it Take To Get to the Center of the Internet? – “The Internet may be referred to as the “information superhighway,” but a better analogy might be an enormous, hulking Tootsie Roll pop.”

:flash: The Guardian gets a Second Life – “Weekend after next The Guardian and Intel are hosting SecondFest inside virtual world Second Life, a three-day music and performance festival chokka block with big name real-life bands and in-world talent.” somehow exiting but i wonder, is this this gonna work? hmmm…

:flash: Michael Moore Calls For New 9/11 Investigation – “Michael Moore discusses 9/11 eyewitness testimony of explosions, suppressed video footage from the Pentagon and the unlikelihood of a plane striking a five story building at 500mph with ultra precision.”

:flash: dwaesha 25h – scroll to: braille graffiti! super. [via pasta & vinegar]

:flash: Required Reading: the next 10 years – Larry Lessig on switching the focus of his work to the corruption that makes copyright policies possible: “I am not (as one friend wrote) “leaving the movement.” “The movement” has my loyalty as much today as ever. But I have come to believe that until a more fundamental problem is fixed, “the movement” can’t succeed either.”

:flash: Spaghetti-eating trucker jailed – “A lorry driver caught steering with his knees while he ate spaghetti from a pan has been jailed for eight weeks after he admitted dangerous driving.”

:flash: Six months of veganism – “When I started this diet, I thought that it would be a sacrifice and that I would be trading good health for less fun. I am happy to say that I enjoy eating as much or more than when I was eating meats and fish.”

:flash: The Life of the Chinese Gold Farmer – “At the end of almost any working day or night in a Chinese gaming workshop, workers can be found playing the same game they have been playing for the last 12 hours, and to some extent gold-farm operators depend on it”

:flash: Server2Go – “Server2Go is a Webserver that runs out of box without any installation. That means it is a webserver that can run directly from cdrom, usb stick or from any folder on harddisk.”

:flash: 20070616_cory_doctorow.mp3 – an interview w. cory doctorow [viw de-bug]

:flash: Turning Plants into Plastic—And Replacing Oil in the Process – “Ultimately, the plastic in a fork used at a backyard barbeque may be as directly plant-based as charcoal in the grill and the chef’s polyester apron.”

:flash: world’s smallest pacman game – tiny, itsy bitsy, shortstuff pacman [via neatorama]

video

:flash: GOOD COPY BAD COPY – “a documentary about the current state of copyright and culture” well done. [via bb]

:flash: Nina Simone – Ain’t Got No…I’ve Got Life – “This version kicks ass!” idd

:flash: Dramatic Chipmunk – best 5 second video ever? i dunno, but up there, deffo.

:flash: Wirebreakers at the driving range – “The wirebreakers are a group of krump dancers who surprise unsuspecting members of the public with their krump skills.” a sort of amusing motorola campaign.

:flash: Google Video result for http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6703482849079349175 – “Documentary on American Healthcare system” sicko on google video. tee hee.

:flash: Fiktivní výbuch atomové bomby v Krkonoších – “ZTOHOVEN connected up to one of the stationary camera during TV weathercast and in real time broadcast their own shots, which showed nuclear exposion.”

:flash: First Act As Prez – rx2008 of partyparty.com is running for president.

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

this summer i shall wear prisoner tshirts

:flash: T-Shirt «Close Guantánamo» — Amnesty Schweiz – the guantanamo model.

:flash: Viking and Sema Stripe – bd has made 2 new tshirts, BD Viking and BD SEMA-Stripe (the old school prisoner model), but they seriously screwed up their claim, betray yourself? erm, why? why should anyone betray (betrügen) themselves? i wonder if they meant to say: portray yourself. swinglish!

art

:flash: Banksy builds portable toilet monument on Glastonbury festival site – “The central monument in Banksy’s latest installation, a replica of the ancient monument built on the site of the forthcoming Glastonbury festival, is a portable toilet that has been sawed in half and sunk into the Somerset field.”

:flash: Tim Knowles – Tree Drawings – “Drawings produced by pens attached to the tips of tree branches, as the branches move in the wind the tree draws on to a panel or drawing board on an easel. ” [via waxy]

:flash: DJ SPOOKY: Venice Biennale 2007 – “For the Venice Biennial 2007 I decided to go through a lot of my files of music from around the African Continent to accompany my installation for the Africa Pavilion.”

:flash: Brian Eno’s 77 Million Paintings – an art installation – “Conceived by Brian Eno as “visual music”, his latest artwork, 77 Million Paintings is a constantly evolving sound and imagescape which continues his exploration into light as an artist’s medium and the aesthetic possibilities of “generative software”.”

the end of the world … of warcraft?

:flash: Apocalypse WoW? – “Is the end nigh for World of Warcraft? Okay, that’s a little over-dramatic, but Wowinsider.com has a post wondering why so many people are leaving the game only months after the Burning Crusade expansion.” comments are intersting.

:flash: Why are people leaving WoW? – WOW Insider – “Why then are people leaving the game? Is it that they see it as something conquered once you reach 70? Is it that despite how much content Blizzard puts out it just never is enough? What do you think Blizzard can do to stem this downward spiral?” same as above.

:flash: Karazhan Bedtime – zomfg. hear wow addiction in action in this conversation between a boy and his parents. i guess the other guys listened in on vent (an application like teamspeak) and recorded it.

apple is doomed

:flash: Apple – Mac OS X Leopard – Features – i don’t know about you, but i have never seen a new mac os release with so few features that made me think, i must buy this – maybe maybe the file browser would make up for 1/2 a reason. weird, is apple forgetting its core business over sheer iPhone madness.

:flash: Apple’s iPhone iTunes ID set-up demand – “Apple will require iPhone customers to have an active iTunes Store account, in order to set-up their device, the company has revealed.” = weird, microsoftish/sonyish.

:flash: Why You May Not Want An iPhone – no G3, sucky battery, not sure if shareware will be allowed, touchscreen as only navigational option and new, exclusive contracts.

:flash: Who in Their Right Mind Would Run Safari on Windows? – “There’s only one problem with that scenario — Safari sucks. A lot of Mac users won’t run the browser (I’m one of them), so why would anyone run it on Windows?” who???

schmooze

:flash: Plazes – Right Plaze, Right People, Right Time – it’s been redesigned, twitterised, but sadly i am locked out. password retrival emails never make it to me /cry …

:flash: Military gas masks for animals – he hee, regine is having a good morning, visiting places like this one, Gas-Mask Community – yeah well, as you would.

:flash: LOL Metal – lolcats w. metal bands.

:flash: Vera Rollić :: Putzjob gesucht! – swiss blogger asked to stop blogging about her job…

:flash: Bruce Lawson’s personal site – check out the goatse bunny at the bottom. [thx klav]

:flash: Ärger um neue Flickr-Filter – “Wenn Sie eine Yahoo-ID aus Singapur, Deutschland, Hongkong oder Korea verwenden, können Sie aufgrund der dortigen Geschäftsbedingungen die sichere Suche nicht abschalten.”

:flash: cencorship sucks – why the fuck you think i’m paying for this here? – “If your Yahoo! ID is based in Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong or Korea you will only be able to view safe content based on your local Terms of Service so won’t be able to turn SafeSearch off.”

:flash: Plastic That Heals Itself – “Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have made a polymer material that can heal itself repeatedly when it cracks.”

:flash: Crocs of Shit – “I think the downfall of this country is arguably not violence on television, or what exactly high fructose corn syrup is doing to our brains, but really, what the hell people see in these shoes”

:flash: NOSJOURNAAL – Wat gebeurde er met Bush’ horloge? – did someone steal bush’s pocketwatch?

:flash: area/code – “The game itself is a pirate adventure, in which players move from island to island to buy, sell and fight for goods. ”

:flash: I Want To Bring The Nike Corporation To Its Knees – “The former professional soccer player’s crusade against the apparel titan began when he was canned from a coaching gig at St. John’s University for refusing to wear Nike’s products, as required by the school’s $3.5 million endorsement deal”

:flash: MyspaceMP3.org – Download Music from MySpace – generates the link to downloadable mp3s on myspace.

:flash: Pentagon Confirms It Sought To Build Gay Bomb – “The Ohio Air Force lab proposed that a bomb be developed that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soliders to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistably attractive to one another”

:flash: Pollen – j’accuse, this is the culprit. this is what makes me suffer each spring/summer. and watching how somehow evil these things look in high res photos i kinda understand better.

:flash: Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality – “Each item was purchased, taken home, and photographed immediately. Nothing was tampered with, run over by a car, or anything of the sort. It is an accurate representation in every case. Shiny, neon-orange, liquefied pump-cheese, and all.” a masterpiece!!!!!!1

video/online movie

:flash: Requiem for Borat – “This is a recut trailer for the movie “Borat” as a drama. Made by myself.”

:flash: Sarkozy bourré ridiculise la France au G8. Pire que Ségogo. – was sarko drunk or not?

:flash: Four Eyed Monsters – Watch our entire indie film for free – “Watch our entire indie film for free”, this is quite good, the distribution model, the story, the animations. me likee.

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IS CLICK MEK BIG

also:

ZOMFG teh pwnage

the admittedly pretty sick number here is 75’840. yep that’s the number of pvp kills. /hide

today 13:32 i finally reached level 70. that’s mainly good, cause my life gets me back. woohee. and the flying mounts do rock…

yesterday around noon i reached level 65, which ofc is not the half way point (because the levels get bigger to cross), but somehow still feels like it.
hold your horses, i am not bragging at all. others are already zapping around Shattrath on their flying mounts. i am just saying.
so there’s another wow induces ausnahmezustand here … sorry guys. won’t bother you much with it though, and thats a promise.

[via ... - ... - vvork]

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

art/street art

:flash: l.a. raven – anorexia art comes to zurich – twins living in amsterdam create art exploiting anorexia. now shown in zurich gallery.

:flash: Banksy : Shop – “Everything in the shop is free. All the images can be downloaded to print or use as a desktop.”

:flash: FKK GRAFFITI ACTION – “a naykid sprayer in action at 2006. filmed in hidden position.” gotta love the englilish. [via stillalive]

:flash: Mourning and digital culture – “I’m currently investigating the way new media artist and designers explore mourning, its rituals and the ways to keep some form of life after death”.

:flash: The Whores of Tel-Aviv – The Video – “In November we profiled a group of artists who to protest extremely high rent prices in Tel-Aviv, took to the streets with cardboard “whores” attempting to show the city government that they “had enough of prices going up day after day.” and here’s the video.

:flash: Patricia Waller – brilliant artist knitting situations that made me laugh.

:flash: womaniser – “Deitch Projects is pleased to announce a group exhibition of dangerous females featuring Julie Atlas Muz, Kembra Pfahler, E.V. Day, Breyer P-Orridge, Vaginal Crème Davis, Bambi, and Liz Renay. These artists utilize various media for their confrontational, edgy exploits but all share a background in cutting-edge performance.” does make me wonder if they understand the meaing of the word “womaniser”?

iPhone

:flash: iPhone Countdown to June – uhm, like get a life dude. cute cutout iPhone for those who can’t wait till june.

:flash: Cisco Suing Apple Over “iPhone” – “Wasting no time at all, Cisco is suing Apple over the “iPhone” name, according to the Wall Street Journal.”

:flash: Top 5 Worst Things About The iPhone – “Here are the top five worst things about the phone, media player, computer and news frenzy” hah, many of the points the raise are the same i mentioned also a few days ago.

other

:flash: Siege of Ironforge – “Ironforge is under attack by Highlord Kruul”. pheew, the allies got attacked by Kruul as well …

:flash: RAW Data: Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night – “Please pardon my levity, I don’t see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd.” last RAW blog entry before he died …

:flash: Theme Magazine – excellent looking asian hiphop/graffiti magazine launches blogs.

:flash: Hugg – “Hugg is your source for user submitted green news. Want to hugg stories?” the digg for ecological news.

:flash: Sock Mobs – “There’s a relatively new phenomenon occurring online these days – an illusion of populist group hostilitiy I’ve come to call “Sock Mobs,” after the “sock puppets” people use to feign multiple identities in online conversations. [...] It turns out, however, that many of these “gangs” of seemingly unrelated, individual posters are just one person.” socks!

:flash: Second Life Goes Open Source– First Thoughts, With Linden Lab’s Replies – “starting today, the company behind the user-created world will open source the code that runs the SL viewer.” interview w. linden cto cory ondrejka.

:flash: They’re Soft and Cuddly, So Why Lash Them to the Front of a Truck? – “All are soldiers in the tattered, scattered army of the stuffed: mostly discarded toys plucked from the trash and given new if punishing lives on the prows of large motor vehicles, their fluffy white guts flapping from burst seams and going gray in the ray in the soot-stream of a thousand exhaust pipes.”

:flash: The Urban Beast Project – “There exists an Urban Tradition among truck and van drivers of strapping found stuffed animals on their grills and allowing them to weather and rot. In 2000, I tracked hundreds of trucks with plush grill ornaments.”

:flash: Wired News: Who’s Killing MP3 and iTunes? – “Here are seven reasons why MP3 is the future of the music industry.” btw. did you notice how apple boss steve jobs appropriated that accomplishment in his recent keynote.

:flash: the soup nazi’s indian mulligatawny soup – the soup nazi’s mulligatawny soup was seinfeld kramer’s favorite soup.

:flash: die schweiz wählt eine neue hauptstadt – senden sie BERN an 977 (.50 pro sms) bis 14.1.2007.

:flash: Watch… – chimp toy and add from hell

:flash: Grand Illusions Ltd Music and Audio Toys – “Along the length of the strip is a pattern of fine ridges or lines. Run your thumb nail along the ridges, and the tape speaks. However the sound needs to be magnified, so that you can hear it. One method is to hold one end of the strip between your teeth.”

left-over end-of-year crap

:flash: 2006 blogs and mags discoveries – regine’s list of discoveries in blogs and mags for 2006 ain’t crap at all ….

:flash: my hopes for 2007 – flipflopflying can’t decide if he should wish for world peace or for a liverpool premiership win… both are not gonna happen. in this lifetime.

:flash: a very late happy new year… feliz 07 – great happy new year’s video human enactment of a brwoser window.

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

with “The Burning Crusade” (the WoW addon) about to get released (16.1.) everyone (and his pet) is getting giddy in anticipation. the kids are starting to brag that they will receive their copy on the day of release – gullible fools that they are, falling prey to some vendors publicity stunt. i pre-ordered my copy about a month ago at solid, trusted amazon.de. but what a big shock it was, when i recently checked my order and it stated the ETA as 20. Januar – 5.Februar 2007. naturally i freaked. luckily the problem had an easy solution. i placed the order in conjunction with another product, a book, so this morning i decided to try and delete the book from the order. and lookee here, ETA now is 17. Januar 2007 – 20. Januar 2007. that’s much better!

but but but, i really don’t understand why blizzard would not sell this software over the internet? as a downloadable torrent?

—–

i do realise, that this would have been the perfect opportunity to call it quits and give the World of Warcrack a rest.
but i might not have hit rockbottom yet.
omg.

omg. i feel like i am just now waking up from a nightmare. or an obsessive binge. where was i this past week? what just happend here?

well i did it. i PvP’d my way to High Warlord in WoW. [for non WoWers: thats the highest rank in the PvP ranking system]

now before you say anything let me state: yes! pathetic! embarassing! and: i should grow up! and get a life! and get out more! all that … 100% true.

this clearly will go down in my auto-biography, an auto-biography that may very likely never get written, as one of the, if not THE, silliest things i have ever done. and the crap part is, i can’t even really explain why i did it. i always defined this endeavor as a social experiment, but that lame attempt at a justification lost its validity quite awhile ago. instead it became this almost obsessive fixtation to make it, to see this thing through, to push myself to my limits and beyond, to bite my way through this mad mad challenge.

on this quest to wards high warlord the pressure had been building up over the past month, yet this last week was the epitomy of crazy. it made me neglect my blog, something that has not happened in ages and i guess that means alot. i never would have thought a game could get to me in such a way, but this past week i got extremely nervous, afraid to fail on the home stretch. i must have slept a grand total of maybe 25 hours during the last 7 days, and not because i was playing all the time, although almost, but because i was simply too nervous to sleep. anything could happen to prevent me from reachung my goal. my internet connection could get screwy, some n00bs could decide to start using bots and push me out of the top standings. i tried to remind myself “its only a game” … but somehow i did not believe it anymore.

last wednesday i had reached 99.27% of rank 13, which is an almost sadistic result. even with only 0.73% of the rank were missing, i still needed another top 3 standing this week to make it to rank 14. needless to say the pvp ranking system blizzard has set up is nuts, and thats putting it mildly. it would go to far to explain it all here, no interest. but the skinny of it is, once you reach rank 13 you need 4 weeks of top 3-5 standings to make it to rank 14. if you don’t make a top 5 standing on your server you retro-grade. this means you have to play ALOT. more than most players on your server.

so i made it. and now what? my toon now wears fully epic armour and weapons. but it’s only pixels – and it means nothing. i may try to enjoy my 5 seconds of fame on my server, after all i am only the 8. player, who reached HWL on khadgar, and only the second from a non-pvp guild. but anyone who knows anything about ranking system knows, that it means nothing to reach rank 14. i don’t think the intensive pvp’ing has made me a skilled pvp player. i am still a lousy player tbh, even if i may have picked up the odd skill and quite a few tricks along the way. all it says is that i have determination and will power. and – most importantly – lots of time on my hands – yes, i still don’t have a day job. but it also says i have thick skin to put up with a huge amount of BS, and i don’t mean blacksmith in that instance …

it’s not all been bad, i did meet some great players during this time, people who realise that only the social aspect makes this all worthwhile, the chats, the humor, the playfullness, the silly moments, the moments of magic when people are just playing together in sync, helping eachother out. but i was also confronted with some of the worst of human behavior, some pretty lame stuff; all the dissing, the jealousies, the shamings, the ganks, the bickering, the venting, and tons of unethical behavior. at times it was almost too much. several times i cried from shame and humiliation. other times i was ready to throw my computer out the window or bunk my head on the keyboard.

if anything i am quite disillusioned. i always used to say that MMORPG games will teach people ethics in online behavior. we all have experienced how alot of people behave like pigs when they interact online, hiding behind the “anonymity” of the internet. in theory MMORPG games force people to interact and you would think they have to do so in socially acceptable ways. so in theory MMORPGs could be great instruments to get people to learn ethical ways of interaction. but after pvp’ing in WoW i am starting to doubt that this will work out. i am now convinced, that blizzard, the WoW developers, has cleary failed to provide the tools that allow this community of players to really evolve towards better online ethics. on the contrary, nobody seems to care anymore. its just wtfpwn your way to HWL.

if anything i hope to show, that one can make it by playing for the team, by staying polite with and respectful of both co-players and opponents, by taking it all with a grain of salt, and by always remembering, that it’s not the end of the world … of warcraft if one loses a game. or fails to make it to rank 14. although that would have stung …

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

:flash: tim wewstwood soundboard – another mad dj soundboard [via b3ta newsletter]

:flash: White & Nerdy – nerd power ftw!

:flash: Creative Commons Letters – “In support of our 2005 Fundraising Campaign Creative Commons chair Lawrence Lessig is writing a weekly letter explaining where Creative Commons comes from, where it is, and where it is going.”

:flash: COMEDY CENTRAL® – Ab dem 15.01.2007 – hah. comedy central makes it to germany. including the daily show. but not the stephen colbert show??? [via de-bug]

:flash: beck album blocked from charts – “Sell a million copies first week and not make the chart? Beck may pull off that feat with his new album “The Information”, as UK chart guardians have rendered Beck’s new baby ineligable due to unconventional cover art.” [via bengston]

:flash: Wired Travel Guide: Second Life – “Our guide tells you where to go, what to do – and how to buy sex organs.”

:flash: EI Solutions – the google solar panel project in 3D.

:flash: CBGB Brings Down the Curtain With Nostalgia and One Last Night of Rock – patty smith helps close shop. sniffie…

:flash: MySpace Predator Caught by Code – “The automated script searched MySpace’s 1 million-plus profiles for registered sex offenders — and soon found one that was back on the prowl for seriously underage boys.”

:flash: After Google, Belgians go for MSN – “The newspaper group, called Copiepresse, wrote a letter to MSN Belgium earlier this week, asking it to stop posting Belgian newspaper articles to its Web site without permission, said Margaret Boribon, the group’s secretary general.”

:flash: Ambassador Youth – Blogs – and God’s Youth – “blogging is simply not to be done in the Church. It should be clear that it is unnecessary and in fact dangerous on many levels.”

:flash: TXTual Healing – “A participant sends a text message to the provided phone number and it is then displayed inside the speech bubble. Multiple bubbles may be used and the audience can direct their input to a specific bubble.” [via wooster]

wow not-wow corner

:flash: Formulas:Honor System – WoWWiki – these are the formulas how rank gets determined in wow. in short, its a science … lol

:flash: The View From the Top – an ex-wow-addict writes about his experiences. [via waxy]

:flash: We Know/We No Forums – Joi and Guuji’s BC escapades – some screenshots and movies of TBC of alpha tester … surprise … joi ito

:flash: Uru Live – a myst sequel MMORPG. nice!

:flash: Mythic Entertainment – Warhammer Online – upcoming MMORPG. could be huge according to daglock.

switzerland

:flash: Tara McPherson in person – “Meet Tara McPherson in person @ buro discount Tara presents her new book «Lonely Heart» and shows her work on the holy walls of buro discount.”

:flash: Webflaneur – Das Zwiegespräch * – matthias born gets an Eugen.

:flash: Blick Blogs TBC – after failed attempts with blogs blick tries a wow blog, Zwergenpriester Nerrim reports from the burning crusade extension. [via blog.ch]

[del.icio.us/pieceoplastic | links]

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

now that it’s over

:flash: friday the 13th – “Strangely, there is evidence to suggest that Friday the 13th is actually unlucky. Psychologists have found that some people are especially likely to have accidents or fall ill on Friday the 13th[citation needed]. This has been attributed to such people feeling a heightened state of anxiety on that day (see nocebo effect)”

zocken

:flash: Interview with a High Warlord – interview with 3 players, who made rank 14 in WoW.

:flash: What is your real-life World of Warcraft Race and Class? – a tauren druid? no bloody way, man.

:flash: swords and sandals – perfect game for times when WoW is down. hilarious.

:flash: Berner Gesundheit | EMOXgame – a little flash game we conceived and designed for a non-smoking campaign – quite awhile ago actually, it finally made it online.

:flash: Chasm – cute point’n'click game.

the rest

:flash: Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters – adbuster now has a video blog.

:flash: Rock Band Name Origins at WHAT’S IN A NAME – as in: “THE VELVET UNDERGROUND – 60′s experimental band associated with pop artist Andy Warhol, they took their name from a paperback book they found on the street – the book was about sex in America.” [via bb]

:flash: SexyBeast – canine perfume?!? i wonder how it combines with that lovely wet dog smell?

:flash: Jobless man asks judge for jail time – this guy may have watched prison break and thought to himself, hmmm good idea.

:flash: grrrr_gibmer.mov – i had never seen this collaboration between swiss cartoonist GRRRR and rapper big zis. nice animations. [via stillalive]

:flash: JAJAH – web-activated telephony – “Insert your phone number * Insert your friends phone number * Click “CALL” ” voip site.

:flash: Abducted by aliens? Call now for compensation – “A German lawyer hopes to drum up more business by pursuing state compensation claims for people who believe they were abducted by aliens.”

:flash: danilo pasquali book1 – oh the joys of blasphemy. slightly nsfw.

local

:flash: www.sous-soul.ch – the new club in town. will it be as great as komfort?

:flash: SWITCH innovation awards 2006 – switch innovation awards 2006 was won by etoy with mission eternity. “Die Preisverleihung findet am Dienstag, 17. Oktober 2006 im Museum für Kommunikation in Bern statt.”

:flash: cleanpolitics – not only in switzerland xenophia is used to get votes in politics. we are with you bretheren in austria.

[del.icio.us/pieceoplastic | links]

why, tbc stands for “to be continued”. of course.

wrong. it used to.

the meaning of TBC will shift real quick to “The Burning Crusade”, the soon to be released WoW extension. at least for the 7 million of us playing TBC starting november 22. another smart move on blizzards part. blizzard always had a knack for catchy acronyms, already WoW is like … wow. but not always do they hit the nail on its head. in the WoW forums they call what basically is a stripped down version of BB-Code “BML” = Blizzard Markdown Language. lol.

but anyway. awhile ago i tried to pre-order my copy of TBC and i noticed a discrepancy between the product descriptions at amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. while amazon.com lists it as compatible for the platforms windows xp and mac osx, amazon.co.uk says it will only run on xp.

i need the mac version so sent an email to the amazon customer service. the guy answering me obviously had not understood my questio. instead he just sent back a reallllyyyy looooong standard email saying in essence something like, “all items are delivered as listed”. i am beginning to think, that the amazon customer service guys are paid per word. or something. they always send extremly long and elaborate emails, where the actual answer to my usually simple questions is hard to find. ok, i’ll admit, i’ve only written maybe 2 so far. so this hardly counts as statistical evidence. but anyway, i was more looking for something like “thank you for noticing this discrepancy. we will look into the matter and get back to you asap.” done. tbc.

wow videos for the server maintenance:

The Pinkside of WoW: not new at all, but i had never seen this. hilarious

WoW Commercial: finally a solution for women who’s boyfriends constant;y want sex

awhile ago i made this silly photoshoppery of my WoW char visiting me at my home:

meanwhile i have become a warlord. yeah i know, sick!

WoRL = WoW chars in their players RL environment. feel like contributing to the series: call for submissions here

[via does not apply - dna - waxy]

[so sorry about this. i do feel like a dirty old man now. but i just could not resist the temptation ... naturally only 18+ are allowed to cl1ck]