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18 August 2003 |
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14 August 2003 |
A new album from Kraftwerk, and music about Le Tour... you're thinking two boxes ticked. And so it proves: on a disc about the same length as a time trial, Kraftwerk keep their cadence up, relentlessly attack the peleton, and retain the yellow jersey. And as a bonus it has plenty of gravel-voiced speech in the Alphaville manner. It rocks. (Well, to be honest it actually clicks and beeps, but you know.)
4:08:24 PM 
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13 August 2003 |
Politics considered helpful in the selling-your-design game.
The title itself -- Make It Bigger-- refers to Paula's endless battle to help clients be able to see the design clearly, and accept it without the layers of hierarchy pissing on it (my words, not hers). By end running the hierarchy and then selling down rather than up, she is able to avoid watered-down design arriving for final approval.
11:49:04 AM
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12 August 2003 |
Logo for an entirely other rodcorp
12:40:14 PM
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Someone asked ET about the London tube map which prompted a linkful and thoughtful discussion. The interchange symbols on the Madrid map apparently indicate how far you have to walk to change lines - something the London tube might usefully provide because whilst some interchanges are conveniently across the platform, but others are loooong, eg: Bank-Monument, or (various examples) on the Northern line due to semi-permanent repair works happening in the stations.
The Moscow metro map is a little forbidding. But this one for the city of ??? is interesting: some stations have rotational symbols to indicate that you can change there, and it looks as if there are two, differently named stations ('I' and 'II') at those interchanges. Relic of bureacracy or cutting edge solution to problems with people-flow?
Also found whilst we were on ET.com:
11:54:54 AM
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08 August 2003 |
Darren Hobbs sez that agile means being ready to ship (literally, shrinkwrap and shelve up) whatever work you've done at any point throughout the project. Guards against the risk of the project being cancelled, though arguably if something is ready to go at all times and that thing meets some of the project goals, the project probably won't get whacked. Also: possible risk of not making sufficient progress in fear of breaking the product?
Looking at "agile" as it relates to the team rather than the project itself, the other "thing" that is ready to ship when a project is whacked is the team, what it has learned (individually and collectively), and its willingness/interest in going on to the next project and doing good. Not that these are necessarily all positive values: disillusionment and fear of failure are big risks in teams that have had projects cancelled.
See also the Agile Alliance, and its manifesto:
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.
Worth reading.
4:54:56 PM
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Mark Kostabi once said there is no "Duchamp market", because he produced so little work:
Many pseudo-purists will advise you to keep production low and prices high. But Picasso and Warhol are the kings and barometers of the art market because they had huge quantity as well as quality. Duchamp is just as important historically but no one makes an art-market decision based on how the Duchamp market is going. Because there is no "Duchamp market." He produced too little.
Interesting idea, and last year, perhaps, we saw the proof when a Phillips sale of readymades in NY failed to make their estimates:
However, the sale of 14 "readymade" sculptures by the father of conceptual art, Marcel Duchamp, was more problematic. The collection, which Phillips had guaranteed for an estimated $10 million, brought only $5.3 million. After the sale, dealers said there was nothing wrong with the prices realised - Phillips had simply put too high a price on the works.
To bring us up to date, here's Richard Polsky recommending good summer deals in the 2003 art market (no Duchamp).
1:38:48 PM
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07 August 2003 |
3:15:39 PM
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04 August 2003 |
Four different time systems are used: Coordinated Universal, International Atomic, GPS and GMT. They're gradually getting out of sync because they either observe or ignore (for mostly systemic or historic reasons) leap-second adjustments made for the earth's rotation slowing. Some outcomes: navigational/astronomic/legal quagmire; atronomers expensively upgrade their systems; a return to the kind of timezoning done in the railroad era (albeit on a smaller scale); each group redefines the second to get the different systems back in sync, and keep them there (which the ITU would never allow, but would be funny).
5:43:26 PM
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Antimega is receipt-mapping his life, which prompted the question 'What do the locations of his transactions tell us about him?'.
We put Holmes on the case, who observed the some of these receipts came from Northish London, and others from the Docklands, or thereabouts. Holmes then suggested that if we were to pick a tube station in Northish London (one in zones 1 or 2), we might be able to find him on the London Bloggers list, by taking advantage of the 'Weblogs Within 10 Minutes Of This Station' feature. We tried Baker Street, and then performed a 'Find in this page...' search. Elementary: Case closed.
Next week, Holmes says he may use inductive reasoning to delve further into Antimega's life, or to geographically stalk someone else.
5:30:49 PM
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In 'Of Two Minds and One Nature', Rhonda Roland Shearer and Stephen Jay Gould use the Jastrow duck-rabbit figure in discussing the idea that Leonardo, Duchamp and other artists successfully bridged art and science, and therefore show us the value of breaking down/through the unhelpful (false, even? - in the view of our authors, themselves a well-known partnership of art theorist and paleo-scientist) dichotomy between the two cultures.
In a key passage from one of the most influential books of our times (The Structure of Scientific Revolution), T.S. Kuhn bridged the disciplinary gap between visual representation and conceptual innovation when he used the famous gestalt illusion of the duck-rabbit [...] as a primary symbol for the meaning and nature of scientific revolution: 'It is as elementary prototypes for these transformations of the scientist's world that the familiar demonstrations of a switch in visual gestalt prove so suggestive. What were ducks in the scientist's world before the revolution are rabbits afterwards.'
An interesting article, but not sure it tells us anything new, unlike much of Shearer's research into MD.
Art students usually discover the duck-rabbit figure via Gombrich, who says:
we can switch from one reading to another with increasing rapidity; we will also 'remember' the the rabbit when while we see the duck, but the more closely we watch ourselves, the more certainly will we discover that we cannot experience alternative readings at the same time.'
[Art and Illusion, A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation, 1959, 5]
Yet this famous binary flip-flop between duck and rabbit always seemed insufficient: if you look at the picture long enough, the visual opposition starts to break down. The duck aspect becomes minimally contaminated by the (possibility of flipping over to the) rabbit aspect, and vice versa. This contamination is, we guess, what makes the flip-flop possible. You start with Jastrow's duck-rabbit = a rabbit OR a duck. You end up with Jastrow's duck-rabbit = a rabbit-duck OR a duck-rabbit. (Just found our embarrassingly confused explication of same, with images from 1997. Forgive our cod-Derridean enthusiasm.) Which is what we think Wittgenstein means when he writes about 'seeing-as' being a combination of seeing and thinking [Philosophical Investigations, 212e] and:
I am shewn the duck-rabbit and asked what it is; I may say 'It's a duck-rabbit'. But I may also react to the question quite differently. - The answer that it is a duck-rabbit is again the report of a perception; the answer 'Now it's a rabbit' is not. Had I replied 'It's a rabbit', the ambiguity would have escaped me, and I should be reporting my perception.
The change of aspect. 'But surely you would say that the picture is altogether different now!'
But what is different: my impression? my point of view? - Can I say? I describe the alteration like a perception; quite as if the object had altered before my eyes.
[...] The expression of a change of aspect is the expression of a new perception and at the same time of the perception's being changed.
[Philosophical Investigations, tr. G.E.M.Anscombe, 1953, 194-5]
More to be read:
1:26:19 PM
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01 August 2003 |
Counterfactual History is sometimes controversial (see this discussion of E.H.Carr's 'Counterfactual History is Bunk', and this), but it can be very thought-provoking and tempting - many WW2 geeks will have considered an alternate outcome if Germany had taken Stalingrad, or if the US hadn't had logistical superiority in tank building (or any one of a dozen other scenarios).
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ed Robert Cowley: What If? Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (1999) (am.co.uk | allconsuming), and More What If? (2002) (am.co.uk | allconsuming)
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ed Niall Ferguson: Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals (1997) (am.co.uk | allconsuming)
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Counter-factual fiction: too many to mention (Churchill, Deighton, Harris, Carr and many others just in the military section, and Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt recently), so: Uchronia has a gigantic list of counterfactual books
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possibly some good stuff in this DMoz alternate history directory
5:01:59 PM
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12:21:16 PM
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30 July 2003 |
Rodcorp's books read in 2003 (now you know what we've been doing instead of working) and 2002.
9:45:23 PM
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(in progress)
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Geography/latitude: Greenwich (meridian). St Pauls / The Thames / Charing Cross as the centroid - thanks to Chris (and also: Hammersley has some interesting comments on geographic centres of continents)
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Systemic
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Charing Cross station is the centre of London for Black Taxis
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Piccadilly Circus is considered the centre of the Underground network (though Victoria is the busiest, and the first line ran from Farringdon to Paddington via King's Cross)
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Postal districts: useful explanations here and here, but no mention of an origin
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In name (historically): Apsley House - 'No 1, London'
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Historical, again: Roman London. The square mile roughly defines where Roman London stood, and there was a basilica and forum in Cornhill, dating from 70/90AD. (Where were roads measured to? - thanks Chris)
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the flow of people: multiple centres (Struan)
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retail and finance: where are the most/highest transactions and revenue? Oxford Street? City of London for non-retail.
Sort of related: openguides, a network of free, community-maintained city guides to which anyone can contribute (thanks Paul)
Sources: London Encyclopaedia, various
To check: histories of London, Museum of London.
9:06:24 PM
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28 July 2003 |
5:19:01 PM
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555-numbers are fake numbers earmarked for use in movies, tv, radio etc so that real numbers don't get used (and then called). These guys have gathered together a list of 555-numbers that have been used, and where. The UK's equivalent for 555-numbers is Oftel's numbers for drama use.
[via PR-Otaku]
5:16:10 PM
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David Thomson meditates on what glued viewers to 24, and why the show fell short He hints at its fetishisation of mobile phones, which always seemed to be more than simply a plot device to glue together the different story strands and locations.
The sharpest pleasure in 24 has always been to awaken the scenarist in us all. It was evident early in the first series that hooked viewers were not simply asking story questions like, 'Do you trust Senator Palmer's wife?' Or, 'Are Jack and Nina over?' No, we were identifying with the team behind the show, and their self-imposed dilemma. We wanted to know, 'How are they going to spin this out through the middle sections without losing us?' Or, 'It's not just who is the traitor, but is anyone telling the truth?' Or, 'The secret is, it's all about cell phones.'
[...]
[T]he show required commentary. It needed its own talk show, with real-life pundits and senators coming on to discuss President Palmer's situation. It needed a great dash of what Altman tried to do in Tanner, and what Welles was always after – the organic confusion of fact and fiction. It needed to bleed over into the rest of television.
Go one step further: the commercials should have been written and directed by the show's talent, and they should have had the show's actors or characters. Thus you cut away from a car chase to have Kiefer Sutherland proposing this or that SUV. In the midst of telephonic deceit, Nina confides to the camera about the 'love-affair confidentiality' of her latest Nokia. And so on.
[...]
Someone should show it all in one day (Antonia Quirke had that idea for the ICA in London – but there were print problems). And everyone in the audience has a cell phone so they can call home. Or wherever you'd call if the bomb flashes. But the doors are locked – only as much food and weaponry as you can carry in. Give claustrophobia a chance. I told you we needed Buñuel. It's The Exterminating Angel, with Nina presiding, waiting for Jack to sleep.
Also: Top 100 British tv programmes.
[via philgyford]
12:26:58 PM
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22 July 2003 |
And other urban legends of the space age - a powerpoint by NASA's Jim Gerard
[via ?]
9:49:31 PM
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21 July 2003 |
Taipei Times: Vietnamese painters profit from copying craze:
Demand for look-alike masterpieces is so great that Dong has to turn away "vanity" clients who want their portraits done.
On average, Dong's studio of six workers churns out 400 pieces a year with about half sold locally and the rest exported.
Prices are calculated on a basic rate of US$50 per square meter and US$20 extra for paintings with more than one face due to "more intricate copy work", Dong said.
If his studio was in the Western gallery system, Ngo Dong would be Andy Warhol or Mark Kostabi.
Related: Rome is making all of its street artists perform a test to ensure that they are the artists of the work they're selling - some people have been importing pictures from Thailand at a few dollars apiece.
9:08:20 PM
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This weekend we met a bunch of bike couriers at a barbecue. Interesting people, with a strong sub-culture - sub in the sense that non-couriers know very little about what they are like, how couriering works etc. Unsurprisingly, most of them are mad about bikes, and it's a way to earn a crust. So there was much talk of the Tour de France. They knew only one person who'd gone on from couriering to 'proper' road racing. There are 600-1000 couriers working London at any one time, and they do about 70-80 miles a day in town, mostly within the Circle line area, though they may travel further west to Notting Hill, and further east to the Docklands. This bunch had a strong sense of identity and shared culture/community. Some have expensively tricked-out rides, some something seemingly more standard (the playoffs between lightness/efficiency, reliability and cost being the key equations couriers run in choosing the tools of their trade), with single/no brakes and single gears common.
About 50+ of the London couriers are into "alley cat racing": illegal checkpoint-to-checkpoint race where the racers only know the next checkpoint. Ie: orienteering on a bike, in (and often against) the traffic. AC Racing was imported from US couriers in the mid-90s. Last night they showed a video made by film students by mounting a camera on one of the alley cat racers. 8 minutes of crazy, often-dangerous riding through traffic and people; ends with the cyclist getting hit by a truck when he attempted to zoom across a red-light and straight across the traffic going both ways (he'd successfully done this a few times already in the film). He wasn't hurt too badly, but the bike probably was. "Oh well, that's racing", he concludes.
Even though you don't quite get a sense of the true speed on film, it was fantastic, and reminiscent of several other illegal car or motorbike films (Claude Lelouch's infamous C'etait un Rendezvous, the Getaway in Stockholm films, Black Prince Peripherique).
Couriers, alley cat racing, etc:
Other films:
(Update: Struan correctly reminds us that alley cat racing perpetuates the image of 'cyclists as arrogant, self-righteous grumps with only limited respect for the law'. Which, together with the rest of us non-courier cyclists going through red lights, really doesn't help. Perhaps the racing is symptomatic of a bike culture that sees itself as *against* motor traffic. Alley cat racing isn't safe or particularly clever, but we have to admit it was quite exciting to watch.)
8:35:01 PM
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18 July 2003 |
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Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's Oblique Strategies: One hundred worthwhile dilemmas, "each of which is a suggestion of a course of action or thinking to assist in creative situations"
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Charles and Ray Eames' House of Cards: Comes in five flavours. "The images are of what Eameses called 'good stuff', chosen to celebrate 'familiar and nostalgic objects from the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms'. The six slots on each card enable the player to interlock the cards so as to build structures of myriad shapes and sizes"
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IDEO's new Method Cards: "Each card describes one method and includes a brief story about how and when to use it. This is not a 'how to' guide. It's a design tool meant to help you explore new approaches and develop your own. Use the deck to take a new view, to inspire creativity, to communicate with your team, or to turn a corner"
9:32:53 AM
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("best of" according to Rodcorp, who've only read the website)
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MEART, the semi living artist: mammalian neurons (emryonic rat cortex) + software + drawing arm + feedback = drawings + behaviour
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Drawing Machine, which takes feedback via microphones, and draws
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Fotron2000, seemingly a photobooth which uses led light on polaroid film to draw portraits
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Automated Architecture Robot creates a building design with ice and water in one hour. "The robot sculpts a block of ice into an organic form using water (The water is stored and recycled by the robot). Every 10 minutes the sculpting stops and the robot's water tubes move into their 'stored' positions. Doors, windows and other architectural elements are projected onto the ice with a slide projector. Visitors can influence the outcome of the sculpted architectural model by making adjustments to a large control knob. They can choose between 'Palatial Home', 'Discreet Home', 'Mixed-Use Development', 'Company Branch Office', or 'Company Headquarters'. The robot will do its best to create the home/office of their dreams"
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Scratchrobot: send an e-mail to robot@spess.com. The scratchrobot will scratch your message and reply in a unique way
9:31:40 AM
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17 July 2003 |
Many artefacts found on UK's largest dig. Including, no doubt, the remains of the teams that started working on T5 several hundred years ago.
3:37:12 PM
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we've fount rerembrandtsers, their hours to date link these heirs 2
to here but wowhere are those yours of Yestersdays? [FW 54.2]
Be sure and link him, me O treasauro [FW 462.22]
Jorn Barger's James Joyce portal is often a good place to start, and his abstract of FW is interesting. And from there we find:
10:58:43 AM
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In what must be an attempt to correct the recent tendency of birds to change their song in response to cities and mobile ringtones, the British Library is working with iTouch and Mobiletones to provide authentic bird and animal ringtones for Samsung handsets. Separately, the RSPB is working with Mobileavenue to provide birdsong ringtones for Nokias. The BL's tones are "real tones", the RSPB's are standard polyphonic.
10:33:52 AM
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16 July 2003 |
2:31:48 PM
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© Copyright 2003 rodcorp.
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| Jul Sep |
We're moving:
Rodcorp's new home
Various Things
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