Eyes of Nostradamus

I just purchased The Best of Manfred Mann's Earth Band. I'm surprised that Eyes Of Nostradamus is not on it, it's my favorite of his. Very catchy song, and yet very avant garde.

In fact, while their early work is nice, I prefer the much richer and more disciplined sound of Somewhere In Africa.

Story on the web

There used to be these books where at the end of each chapter you made a choice for your character, and then you jumped to the chapter corresponding to what happened then as a result of that choice.

What's the technical name for that kind of story? And has anybody made such things on the web?

Tobler and Anthon Berg

Gee, Toblerone is 100 years this year.

It might be the worlds' best chocolate if not for Anthon Berg's liqueur bottles. I've given these as gifts many times, and they never fail to get enthusiastic reviews.

On being good

"Being good" is such a plastic concept. In Copenhagen, if you want to go out and kill unbelievers, you'll be shunned or locked up. In Beirut, if you don't want to go out and kill unbelievers, you are not a man, and you're an enemy of the people and of god.

I guess you can only follow your own rudder, and try to be sensitive to what others think so as not to get into too much trouble.

Stopping SMS spam

[Update: It seems "SMS" is not used universally. It means: "Short Message Service (SMS), often called text messaging, is a means of sending short messages to and from mobile phones." I used "SMS" because I think "text" is another of those words which are too generic to be really useful.]

I'd e-mailed T-mobile UK and asked them how to stop their promotional SMS messages. They'd answered by e-mail before, but this time I was called up on the phone, and a guy asked me to verify my identity in various ways... I couldn't remember what my "account" was, it seems it was my password, and I had actually not called out for three months it seems, I use the phone mainly for backup and for those who really need a phone number, but I prefer e-mail, and so I couldn't give a recent phone number I'd called... and he finally gave up and just came to the point.

It turned out he had only called to give me a very simple way to turn off T-Mobile SMS spam. I guess they want to keep it secret.

So here it is: text the word "stop" to 49011. Boom.

In various countries and for various companies there are various ways to stop SMS spam, also from all companies. Because they are always sent by computer, not phone, and they can block computer-generated messages. So just look into it, you'll probably find a way.

1928 airplane ride

This looks like fun, could feel like flying. But I think it'd be hard to make safe, especially for windy weather.


Of course since adulthood, I can't go on rides which go around, I only get badly dizzy for a long time, quite unpleasant.
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On a different note, here is an amazing BW photo.

This one illustrates well why I think it's so important to get digital cameras with greater dynamic range. I think it's the main attraction of those old photos I've been showing recently, the large format and BW film had great dynamic range and exposure lattitude.

... The super-sized version (from the text link) looks absolutely fantastic on my 30-inch Apple screen. If you'd shown that to me ten years ago...

What The Duck

Stripes, the movie

"We're Americans with a capital A. You know what that means? It means our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world."
-- Bill Murray as John Winger in Stripes

I can't believe I never came across this movie before. It's really funny, and it has several top names, Murray, Sean Young, John Candy... All were unknowns, save for Murray, who was barely known.
Kim Basinger almost got in the movie, but she was unknown yet, and her agent had priced her at $250,000. How stupid is that? I'm guessing she changed agents, seeing as she actually got a career.

In the director's commentary they refer to movies of thirty years ago often have a lot of casual nudity or at least toplessness, and how that went away since. Generally I much prefer now to the seventies, but I admit that this free-spiritedness getting buried was a step back. Let's hope it turns again soon. Not just because it's stimulating, but because it seems to me that nudity is an expression of openness and freedom, and it's just a healthy sign psychologically. And so also a healthy influence psychologically and socially. You don't see nudists wage war. (In fact I find it interesting that those people most opposed to nudity are often also much in favor of war.)

No reciprocity

"There is no reciprocity. Men love women, women love children, children love hamsters."
-- Alice Thomas Ellis

3D printing

Through The Lens points to a news item about a new company, Shapeways, which aims to make three-dimensional printing accessible for the people. Even in metal one day. It sounds very promising for artists and so much more.
Do I have to learn to use 3D software though? I don't think that's gonna happen.

Update: resource for 3D printing, fab@home.

Bert points to RepRap.

Pogue videos

Pogue's new video today reviews the Sigma DP1. Remember, the DP1 is one of the first attempts to make a compact with a large sensor. David agrees with everybody: the pictures are great, but the camera is way too expensive, too slow, and too limited.

Don't miss the last two videos too, about the iPhone and its new apps, dead funny. Or totally hil, as we say around here. We have too many contractions, def. It's ridic.

Got my bread

So I got my Poilane bread by courier yesterday. Very quick service.

As you can see, the "Signature Loaf" is huge (I put the camera there for size comparison). It's also the one that, to me, is a bit blah. I don't know, maybe because it's not a type of bread I'm familiar with, it's not white, it's not dark, and it's a little sour.

The walnut bread and the raisin bread, both sort of snack breads really, are both delicious. Great stuff, even with just butter. Danish Lurpak butter for pref.




(I love that with the new digicams with stabilization I can just snap these pictures indoors without flash or tripod.)