Start with the world and the present, not yourself and the past

"The question is, 'what are the premium resources that the publishing industry can provide that someone can't get on their own'. 
The publishing industry until now, as all media industries have, has been approaching the question from the opposite direction, which is 'how do we slowly evolve what we currently are, and what ways to step into these new areas. 
And I think that's the human condition in general, we think of what is now based on what was a moment ago. [...] If I was to write a book called 'The End Of The Book', I would still publish it as a book, I suppose, and that says a lot." 
- Sam Ford, interviewed on The Kindle Chronicles.

In other words, forget about yourself and what you are/have been doing, and look at the world and what is needed.

Then you look at how can you provide this. It may be that only a completely different entity can provide it, or it may be that you can provide it with minimal changes of attitude and procedures, or anything in between.

It should be said that this is easier said than done! "Forgetting yourself" goes against the very grain of the character of the human creature.

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Sam also talks about the shift between a world where information was scarce, to a world where information is in abundance, to put it mildly.
I think personally that the best solution to get heard is also in many ways the most difficult: it is to create something that simply is better and more unique, something that others can't do, or at least haven't done yet (the latter is more time limited, because others will try to emulate it and steal market share). Harry Potter became the best selling book in the world not because of smart marketing, but because Rowling had created something that others couldn't make and which people really loved.

Net oddity

Ahhh, the Net. Can't live with it, can't live widdaht it.

Sometimes I buy from Dominos, despite the outrageous prices they somehow have managed to get UK citizens to pay*. And I pay sometimes with Paypal. Last time they told me that the charge would only get taken once I had gotten the pizza. OK, that sounds like a good thing, if unnecessary, since there has never been a problem.

But: until now I've gotten at least four email messages, following that damn little payment as it moves along towards completion. And it smells like I haven't even seen the last of it yet.

I think beurocrazy (as it should be spelled) is based on fear and the inability to face things and take responsibility for them. And it breeds.

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*I'm told in the US they are cheap. But in this town, a normal pizza is about 4-5 dollars more expensive than other local alternatives. (But they must have a special recipe, maybe for the bread, because sometimes you just find yourself wanting one from Dominos.)

Look at this: 16 pounds (over 20 dollars)
for a chicken/bacon large pizza! Robbery.
I've never paid over 9 pounds anywhere else.

"Steam Noir", a café

Shis showcases both the wonderful detail of HD video (cartoons), and the same of the iPad 3's screen (as well as some other new tablets). Screenshots get much larger when seen on normal monitors, because of the tiny pixels on the 'pad.

The full sized version is here. (Blogger only goes to 1600 pixels.)

In screenshots from video the high-rez iPad, in other words, I have found a new source of wallpaper pictures. That's great for somebody like me, who has a wild appetite for new visual stuff.

I could note that live-action video, even in HD, generally is not as sharp and detailed as animation (flat or CGI), because it deals with cameras and movements and light and depth of field, whereas cartoons are made in a fully digital process. See, hereunder is a shot from Arrested Development in HD. And I looked for the best frame I could find, with the least motion blur and blown highlights and such. (It really is a science to make really good film/video.) (Full size.)

... Of course this does not mean that live-action HD is *bad*, it rather means that animation HD is astounding.

West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band II

Amazing they are still known. I found this record in the early eighties. I got it given by a friend who got it from a friend who'd been to the states and gave her two different LPs. To her it was the same odd stuff. To me, one was total crap, and the other was this. Very unique.
They were amazingly obscure. And still are, while at the same time being very influential, and has been called the "number one cult band".


Beware beautiful goddess
You are tomorrow's temptation
Be sweet, and gentle and thin
Stay away from all dirty old men.

Here's a long interview about the band:

Student's thigh doodles lead to internet fame

Student's thigh doodles lead to internet fame, article.
(Warning, some of her art is pretty gruesome.)

I've found there's one type of art which always gets press: that which directly involves the body of a pretty young woman. Bless 'em.

(Oo-la-la. I find women artists are often beautiful, and I can't stand it, too much.)

Strange phenomena on Twitter

Here is one of those little straaaaange things I meet sometimes on the Net.
I have one tweet which by far is the one which gets "favorited" by others. I have no idea why, because it's the least likely to be so. It does not even make sense on its own:

... It only makes sense if one has read the preceding couple of tweets from me, about a long series (16?) of VERY, VERY LOUD explosions which happened one night at 4am a couple months ago, 200 meters from where I sleep.
The strangest thing was that apart from like 8 people discussing it on a discussion web site, it got NO ATTENTION AT ALL! ... a couple of days the newspaper had a small mention about "a fire on parked trucks", but no mention of any explosions. And I was not kidding they were loud. They woke up people living more than 2 miles away.

I went down there as it happened (well, the explosions had ended after a minute or two) (with the trusty RX100 with low-light power), and the day after:

Look at the "new iPhone"

I've been pining for a bigger iPhone (say 5-inch), which Apple, in typical stubborn style, so far refuses to give us. But an 8-inch iPhone, in the guise of an iPad Mini, may be a step too far.
Nevertheless, Kimmel is able to convince many of these poor interview subjects that an iPad Mini is the new iPhone.
It's amazing, I knew there's a difference between us geek-wanna-bes and normal folk, but not being able to tell an iPad from an iPhone, that's just...



Funny stuff. Just see the young lady trying out the "new click-and-lick" technology! "Wait, I can tast it!"

Irv Gordon's 1966 Volvo P1800 nears 3 million miles

[Thanks to Russ]

Irv Gordon's 1966 Volvo P1800 nears 3 million miles, article.

I didn't know Volvo once made such hot looking cars.

Driving the same car for 53 years

I'm sure many company heads start hyperventilating when considering products that last 50 years. What will they sell after everybody has one as is satisfied?
It sounds like a stupid problem, that quality might ruin the economy, but I'm sure we must be looking wrongly at it somehow.
For example, if things last, you need buy much less, that's good for the individual's economy. And if that then is bad for companies' or countries' economy, they have based their income on false idols.

Hockey Z-9; Isabella the marauder

This Phineas And Ferb sequence is one of the most inventive ever. It is so packed with details and jokes, I don't think anybody will get it all at once.
Notice little girlscout, sorry, "Firesite Girl" Isabella taking out big bully Buford at around 0.42. I love her, she is the only one who is not the least bit afraid of Buford. She is small, very feminine (her hockey marauder costume is pink!), very romantic (hopelessly in love with Phineas), yet at the same time she is probably the strongest and toughest and most competent character in the series.



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By the way, hard rock 'n roll, the most violent hockey game ever... this is a Disney show??

Another drone video

Thanks to A for finding this. Never mind the music, the video is so well done. Music recorded live, everything done in one shot, and the flying and filming is beautiful.


Phoenix - Entertainment | A Take Away Show.
The band Phoenix performs their song 'Entertainment' for La Blogotheque's Take Away Shows.
Watch it large by the link.

Carbon-fibre laptop case

Carbon-fibre case for MacBook Pro or Airbook.
I have never before bought a case for a laptop. But this one makes so much sense that I signed up. It will look beautiful (carbon fibre is gorgeous just on its own), it'll be really tough, and it will be light-weight (I have a cf tripod, it's amazingly light, despite being completely stiff).