I really needed that one. (Nothing seriously wrong – just sitting here with the clock going towards 2am, with a bit of the weird kind of backlash blues you sometimes get hit by as you realize that things aren’t too bad)
Researchers experiment with “evanescent coupling” as a way to wirelessly recharge mobile devices. I think that sounds like a brilliant idea. As soon as it is ready it should be written into international standards before people go around proprietizing it and we end up needing to have one wireless recharger for each device, like AC-adapters…
I can imagine a load of uses. Not only for devices like phones and media players – the ones you take out of your home – but for all cordless devices as well as those that could be. Imagine never having to replace the batteries in your remote controls. Or not needing to have base stations for toothbrushes, shavers and landline cordless phones all over the place. My cordless mouse would be even better if it didn’t have to be recharged.
Then there’s probably more than a few stationary that could use it, for example a smoke detector that feeds off wireless power would be able to keep its battery safely charged all the time. Would work for clocks as well, in many cases even for corded ones like clock radios that only need power to make some noise a few minutes a day.
I guess it would have to be limited to low power/short use devices or all the power in the air would make us face the same experience as a psychopathic kid’s hamster in a microwave oven, but there are enough possibilities to make wireless power as useful as a regular, old-fashioned outlet power.
And imagine the resource savings, I just got inspired to put my phone and the charger on the scales, and the charger weighed in at twice the weight of the phone, and that’s a clunky three year old low-range phone. What a freaking waste – not only the materials themselves, but also the costs and effects of shipping them across the globe.
Oh, and I bet it takes about three weeks from the breakthrough until someone puts the first “always ready to please” sex toys on the market. ;)
…and that makes me even more sluggish than usual. I wouldn’t mind a thunderstorm to clear the air. Thunderstorms are nice. (as long as all gadgets make it to the other side alive)
I was channel surfing and a boxing match on Eurosport caught my eye. Not the fight itself, never been into boxing, but rather the fighters’ apparel. Fringes. Like those lining the edges of the kind of lampshades grandmothers prefer. Loads of them. One of the fighters had one fringe around the waist of his trunks, and another two forming an inverted “U” over his butt and down the thighs. Like a circus costume designer’s idea of “Native American”. And he was the one who had chosen the moderate approach! The other pugilist must have had three rows around the waist, and the sides of his trunks were totally covered with the stuff. Like 20 centimeter wide patches cut out of a cheap Yeti costume.
I thought I’d try a new category, listing things I for some reason are worth pointing out. But since I mostly end up mumbling a lot when something asks me about something general, like movies or bands (that is probably because I have very varied taste in such things) the categories will be a bit more vague. Anyway, the best opening line of a novel is:
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
It is the opening line of William Gibson’s Neuromancer. There are few lines that have set the ambience of a scene so efficiently, and in so few words. I really can’t put my finger on why, maybe it is because days with skies befitting that description often come with a certain mood.
Q: You are a manufacturer of a questionable product who for a long time has enjoyed a partnership with a high-profile sporting team. This arrangement has been so successful that if asked what they associate with your brand many people would name the sporting team second only to the product itself. Now the governing body of the sport has decided to remove advertising for your line of products. What action do you take?
A: Since the benefits of said arrangement is not only a matter of exposure, maybe putting images representative of the sporting team on the packages of your product will continue to give it the status of the association – even if the brand is not visible at the events. Enter: Marlboro Racing Edition…
And I once had plans to work in the advertising business. I suppose I’m not weasely enough, now that I think about it…
Suddenly it got warm, like someone flicked a switch. Went outside, and the air felt like cotton in my lungs. And it’s only 25°C. I guess I’m of the weird minority who doesn’t like their weather too warm.
I have ordered a new leather jacket, the old one mysteriously having become several sizes too large, and it got me thinking about how useful those online parcel tracking services that any shipment company with self-respect has nowadays really are. I really don’t have any use for the knowledge of where between points A and B my leather jacket is, but still I check the link every few hours to see what’s going on. Maybe it has a positive psychological effect on some people, but I’m not one of them. And especially not in this case, when there’s a weekend involved, and the status has read “The parcel is on the way to the recipient’s Post-agent*” since Friday. It could as well have said “Yeah, we moved your parcel to the right stack, but we decided to let it sit at the loading bay for a few days to annoy you, you restless twat” for all I care.
*) The Swedish Post doesn’t deliver parcels to individuals anymore, it only transports them. Shortly after it became a government-owned company in the 90’s, they decided to save money by closing all post-offices and delegate the consumer services like stamp sales and parcel-handling to local businesses like convenience stores and gas stations. I’m pretty sure they would have replaced the mailmen with trained monkeys if it weren’t for the animal rights-people.
Last weekend ago I watched Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb – one of the best movies ever, very brilliant satire, Kubrick was a genius and so on – but it had an annoying side effext, namely the tune “When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again” (I found a midi here). It’s sort of the theme song for all the scenes taking place in the bomber. It’s quite catchy. Too damned catchy, to be honest. I had that fucking tune in my head for days, and after a while it got as annoying as having an itch on the nuts while standing in front of a crowd. I thought I had gotten rid of it yesterday, only leaving the question of where I had heard it before…
…but I got an answer to that tonight, when I had nothing better to than watch tv and the best thing on was Die Hard: With a Vengeance. Quite entertaining, both for an action movie and a second sequel. But there it was. And now it’s back in my head… Johnny marching back home again… well, with a vengeance. I need to find something to help me get rid of it, or I’ll go crazy. Really crazy. Any suggestions for good music I should listen to while trying to purge it? Any similar experiences?
Oh, and I’m mostly posting this because people have reminded me that I havn’t updated the blog in a long time. It’s not that I lack ideas of things to write about, but more that I have a black belt in the Art of Procrastination… I’ll see if I can find some CDs or books to review, or something.
And some links for those who feel inspired to get the movies or just to be infected with the tune themselves:
I was thinking about the Saddam Hussein trials for some reason, and I think that inspired this idea about how to solve the problem of unemployment. No, I’m not suggesting that we make all people who are out of work dictators and depose them – there’s not enough countries to go around, and if they would have to share them they wouldn’t be dictators anyway.
The idea has to do with the trial itself. If all court procedures were based on the example of those against former heads of state they would keep a lot of people busy for a long time. With enough shenanigans like critisizing the authority of the court, threatening the judges and hunger-striking a trial for petty theft could take a month, murder cases and large financial messes several years.
But, you may say, a large part of the unemployed population doesn’t have a job because they are unable to get a higher education, so there’s no way all of them could achieve a degree in law. Well, that is easily solved by requiring different levels of education depending on the severity of the crime. At the top of the list you would require a degree from a prestigious university, but to defend (or prosecute) someone for shoplifting or parking violations you would only need a basic education from a franchised law firm. People could get their basic degrees at Hamburger & Law University, and you would only have to go to the nearest McDonald’s and supersize your meal with the level of defense you need.
It could be that this solution only last for a while, since eliminating unemployment surely would reduce the crime-rate drastically. But for some reason I don’t think that would be a problem with all those lawyers around.
A robot may not seek to be promoted above a human being who has been at the company longer, because the human being may have a wife and kids to look after whereas the robot just goes home and tries to have relations with a bucket. -Isaac Asimov's 30 Laws of Robotics
I've mentioned that I decided it's about time I set up an artist's site, and I'll try to do better than most artists, who in my opinion very often don't take that very seriously. But I doubt it will end up as ambitious as Wim Delvoye's site, with a whole little pixel town to explore. At least not until I have studio emplyees to delegate that to. And a studio to keep them in....
Firefox 3 (you have gotten it already, haven't you?) comes with support for color profiles. Even though it's disabled by default for various reasons, I think it's good news since it means that when everything gets ironed out more images will get to be seen as they were intended to. More info from DRIA.
...haven't I read Ken MacLeod before? Why, why, why? I picked up The Star Fraction yesterday, and I'm probably going to finish it tonight. It's so damned brilliant I'm almost considering sunglasses to be a good precaution when going near it. Got to make a note to get the rest of the Fall Revolution series asap!
I think this needs some sort of change in direction, as far as there ever was one. Both closing the site down or just letting it sit here being updated every other month seem a bit like the wrong options.
...William Gibson's Spook Country, and I just "accidentally" added the Deluxe Collector's Edition of Chan-wook Park's "Vengeance trilogy". Probably the most extravagant film item I've ever bought. More to follow on that, and that much anticipated book, when they arrive.
So, the multiplying posts are gone. Seems it was an older version of this otherwise very nice Sideblog plugin not playing nice with a newer version of Wordpress.
Weird Al is back, kicking off his upcoming album with "Don't Download this Song", a Band Aid-style anthem about not downloading songs. "Don't take away money from artists like me, how else could I afford another solid gold Humvee".
