Sunday, January 11, 2009
Zen habits
Good article on the issue of the creator and the brave new world of digital works flowing freely.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
New drawing, Girlface
(Marker and color pencil. About A4 size. Click to see very big.)
(Original for sale at £100.)
Pogue and Matt
[Thanks to TTL] David Pogue interviews Matt "Where The Hell Is Matt" Harding. Must-watch, very funny.
As is this one, related. And this graphic.
As is this one, related. And this graphic.
Dave Sim's Glamourpuss
Dave Sim's Glamourpuss. Dave Sim making comics again. I honestly didn't see it coming. When you read his non-fiction writing in recent years he sounds like his mind has imploded, he honestly can't go for two paragraphs without turning whatever the subject is into a rant against feminism. But I'm glad he's making comics again, for he's an amazing comic artist, so I'll buy Glamourpuss.
Here the official comic site (no up to date info though), and here is, amazingly, his blog. But true to form, it's done by proxy, Dave Sim apparently regards any technology newer than the typewriter as... well, I don't know what, but he either can't or won't use computers.
He once had a rant about how viewing art on the web is like printing paintings on postage stamps. I wrote to him that it was just a matter of time, and resolution. I was right. He ought to see what color art looks like on my 30-inch screen, compared to the cheap newspaper-print black-and-white line art of his comic books.
Here the official comic site (no up to date info though), and here is, amazingly, his blog. But true to form, it's done by proxy, Dave Sim apparently regards any technology newer than the typewriter as... well, I don't know what, but he either can't or won't use computers.
He once had a rant about how viewing art on the web is like printing paintings on postage stamps. I wrote to him that it was just a matter of time, and resolution. I was right. He ought to see what color art looks like on my 30-inch screen, compared to the cheap newspaper-print black-and-white line art of his comic books.
Friday, January 09, 2009
Leica and water
"When photographer shoot on-site, having an excellent camera like Leica M8.2 is not enough, staying hydrated is also an essence."
I'm not even sure what this is. An article? An ad for Fiji Water? An ad for Leica?
What combination next? Mercedes cars and Kitty Litter? Apple Macintosh computers and styrofoam? Bang and Olufsen stereos and McDonalds burgers?
I'm not even sure what this is. An article? An ad for Fiji Water? An ad for Leica?
What combination next? Mercedes cars and Kitty Litter? Apple Macintosh computers and styrofoam? Bang and Olufsen stereos and McDonalds burgers?
Stephen Fry on language
Stephen Fry has a podcast, kewl. In the latest one, he delightfully educates and waxes lyrical on the delights of language, particularly the English one.
Funny thing: when I heard that he was also railing against linguistic pedantry, I said: "hah, that's rich. I saw him on the TV show Q.I., giving a stern lecture to somebody about how it is supposed to be "there is none" and not "there are none". But then of course who is more likely to be interested in helping the world with a problem than those who themselves have suffered from that exact problem?"
And lo: it turns out that in the podcast, Fry admits he has had problems himself with excessive linguistic pedantry. And not only that, the "there is none" thing is the exact example he uses! He now proudly says "there are none". (The theory for "is", is that "none" is a contraction of "not one", and so is singular.)
I'm delighted in how he compares English to London, being a big, rich mishmash of times and styles, and in constant evolvement, so it can't be said that anything is "correct" or "incorrect". And I agree that we are better off delighting in the richness and variety, rather getting hung up on details of grammar.
I also applaud Fry for admitting in public to having issues also with "gluttony, anger, and selfishness" (me too), and saying part of his life is fighting these issues. I think recognizing our own issues and working on them despite the odds against fully winning any time soon is the mark of maturity.
I didn't know Stephen is a super-uber-geek.
"Tribal loyalties have riven the world of personal computing since Bill Gates came late on the scene and took every IBM-compatible user with him. A triumph of business manoeuvring, a triumph of opportunism, a triumph of financial acumen, a triumph of all kinds of things except computer science or technological advancement, in the opinion of people like me at least. Every time Windows had a rebirth I would get hold of it and buy a new machine to run it on believing that they must now have got things right and finally created an operating environment that could excite, impress and enthral me. But each time their system got more ham-fisted, more insulting and more indifferent to the pleasures and interests of the consumer."
Update:
"Weird to remind ourselves yet again of just how unanimous in their scepticism the press and professional techies were about the possibility of Apple being able to make a dent in the market as an untried newcomer while now we’re already thinking of them as the big brutal bullying champion. How could the major players have left a gap in the market so wide that a complete novice in mobile telephony could so instantly shame them? Shame them in the eyes of the world, at least, if not in their own. The excuses made by the CEOs and spokesmen of BigCell for their failures remind me of publishers I have met who have tried to explain why they turned down the manuscript of J. K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter novel. ‘Ah, yes. You see it was our publishing house’s policy not to consider MSS over 40,000 words for the children’s market… nothing I could do. No point even reading it….’ ‘Ah, yes, well, you see it’s not our fault it was the networks/It was not our fault it was the manufacturers.’ Hmmmmm."
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Funny thing: when I heard that he was also railing against linguistic pedantry, I said: "hah, that's rich. I saw him on the TV show Q.I., giving a stern lecture to somebody about how it is supposed to be "there is none" and not "there are none". But then of course who is more likely to be interested in helping the world with a problem than those who themselves have suffered from that exact problem?"
And lo: it turns out that in the podcast, Fry admits he has had problems himself with excessive linguistic pedantry. And not only that, the "there is none" thing is the exact example he uses! He now proudly says "there are none". (The theory for "is", is that "none" is a contraction of "not one", and so is singular.)
I'm delighted in how he compares English to London, being a big, rich mishmash of times and styles, and in constant evolvement, so it can't be said that anything is "correct" or "incorrect". And I agree that we are better off delighting in the richness and variety, rather getting hung up on details of grammar.
I also applaud Fry for admitting in public to having issues also with "gluttony, anger, and selfishness" (me too), and saying part of his life is fighting these issues. I think recognizing our own issues and working on them despite the odds against fully winning any time soon is the mark of maturity.
------------------------------------------------------
I didn't know Stephen is a super-uber-geek.
"Tribal loyalties have riven the world of personal computing since Bill Gates came late on the scene and took every IBM-compatible user with him. A triumph of business manoeuvring, a triumph of opportunism, a triumph of financial acumen, a triumph of all kinds of things except computer science or technological advancement, in the opinion of people like me at least. Every time Windows had a rebirth I would get hold of it and buy a new machine to run it on believing that they must now have got things right and finally created an operating environment that could excite, impress and enthral me. But each time their system got more ham-fisted, more insulting and more indifferent to the pleasures and interests of the consumer."
Update:
"Weird to remind ourselves yet again of just how unanimous in their scepticism the press and professional techies were about the possibility of Apple being able to make a dent in the market as an untried newcomer while now we’re already thinking of them as the big brutal bullying champion. How could the major players have left a gap in the market so wide that a complete novice in mobile telephony could so instantly shame them? Shame them in the eyes of the world, at least, if not in their own. The excuses made by the CEOs and spokesmen of BigCell for their failures remind me of publishers I have met who have tried to explain why they turned down the manuscript of J. K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter novel. ‘Ah, yes. You see it was our publishing house’s policy not to consider MSS over 40,000 words for the children’s market… nothing I could do. No point even reading it….’ ‘Ah, yes, well, you see it’s not our fault it was the networks/It was not our fault it was the manufacturers.’ Hmmmmm."
-
UK police and photogs again
Seriously, what the f**k is wrong with UK police these days? They seem to take pride in intense harassment of photographers of any stripe.
(Links here to other recent cases.)
US site: PhotographyIsNotACrime. (Deadly Ernest pointed to this article.)
That site also has a video of the BART shooting. What I don't get is: a dozen people saw and filmed the copper shooting an unarmed man in the back, killing him. Why hasn't he yet been charged with anything, much less murder? How come police apparently can get away with shooting people? (Even in peaceful Denmark, there was a protest in the nineties where police shot at the crowd. So far as I know, nothing was ever resolved from the official "investigation".)
(Links here to other recent cases.)
US site: PhotographyIsNotACrime. (Deadly Ernest pointed to this article.)
That site also has a video of the BART shooting. What I don't get is: a dozen people saw and filmed the copper shooting an unarmed man in the back, killing him. Why hasn't he yet been charged with anything, much less murder? How come police apparently can get away with shooting people? (Even in peaceful Denmark, there was a protest in the nineties where police shot at the crowd. So far as I know, nothing was ever resolved from the official "investigation".)
Ponzi scheme, investing and gambling
Reading about the current affair with Bernard Madoff, I came across a term of something I was a bit familiar with, a Ponzi scheme.
Back just after the millennium, I met an old acquaintance who told me of some fantastic investment opportunities he had found: you could get 10-15% on your money per month, and you even got a special debit card to withdraw money from anywhere in the world. There were papers about it describing practice and theory, and my friend was an old hand and had been a very successful businessman for decades, so I believed it all. And lost around $5,000 eventually.
Sometimes these schemes collapse suddenly, and sometimes they are dragged out and there keep popping new explanations up about why you can't yet get all the money you were promised. For example they "have trouble from traditional banking institutions", who obviously are trying to suppress competition from this new amazing investment business!
Basically, what I have learned since then is that anything which promises you more than around 5% (per year!) has risk. The higher the return, the higher the risk, it's very simple. That's because the economy as a whole doesn't grow more than a couple of percent per year, and nobody can predict the future. (Track record is no indication.)
Investing is always gambling to some degree. Even for experienced investors. Don't gamble with money you can't afford to lose, no matter what hot tips you get. If something is certain, others will already have heard about it, and the price will have gone up.
TC said:
Who knows how many stories, like this one there will be to read, in the coming years!
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Back just after the millennium, I met an old acquaintance who told me of some fantastic investment opportunities he had found: you could get 10-15% on your money per month, and you even got a special debit card to withdraw money from anywhere in the world. There were papers about it describing practice and theory, and my friend was an old hand and had been a very successful businessman for decades, so I believed it all. And lost around $5,000 eventually.
Sometimes these schemes collapse suddenly, and sometimes they are dragged out and there keep popping new explanations up about why you can't yet get all the money you were promised. For example they "have trouble from traditional banking institutions", who obviously are trying to suppress competition from this new amazing investment business!
Basically, what I have learned since then is that anything which promises you more than around 5% (per year!) has risk. The higher the return, the higher the risk, it's very simple. That's because the economy as a whole doesn't grow more than a couple of percent per year, and nobody can predict the future. (Track record is no indication.)
Investing is always gambling to some degree. Even for experienced investors. Don't gamble with money you can't afford to lose, no matter what hot tips you get. If something is certain, others will already have heard about it, and the price will have gone up.
---------
That Madoff guy, jeeeezuz! Swindling for billions! Did he expect to get away with it? And what's the point? How much better will your life be at 100 billion than it is at 100 million?TC said:
Who knows how many stories, like this one there will be to read, in the coming years!
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Thursday, January 08, 2009
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