[Ray Harryhausen's special effects are incredible in this film. what's a torrent file? waxy explains —AG]

Thanks to GameSpot for its story discussing the new release of agriculture-themed PC videogame John Deere American Farmer, "the first game to be licensed by agricultural equipment manufacturer Deere & Company", which "charges players with establishing and maintaining a successful farm." The official videogame site has much more information on this Harvest Moon-esque value-price PC title with a great box cover, noting the player must "overcome bug infestations, unpredictable weather and disgruntled employees", all the while "purchasing and controlling authentic John Deere branded equipment - tractors, combines, planters, cultivators and more."

oh god

or read coverage in wired

Flickr (Ludicorp's amazing, witty, easy photo-sharing/community service) has just added two spiffy new features: an uploader for OS X that works with iPhoto and a tool for automatically adding Creative Commons licenses to the photos you upload and share. (Disclosure: I'm on Ludicorp's advisory board)

Link

Since 1999, Mattel, the manufacturer of Barbie, has been locked in lawsuits with artist Tom Forsythe for his controversial artwork that depicts the doll in various poses. According to Forsythe, the art draws on "Barbie's power as a beauty myth." But Mattel claims that the art constitutes copyright and trademark infringement. Last week, a federal judge ruled in favor of Forsythe and ordered Mattel to pay $1.8 million for his legal fees. As Berkman Professor Jonathan Zittrain explained in a story in today's New York Times, "Maybe now when an angry C.E.O. picks up the phone to counsel and says 'sue this guy, instead of saluting and sending the bill, the lawyer may say 'I have to warn you, this could boomerang.'" ( Photo courtesy of illegal-art.org.)

With a bit of help from Roger I was able to complete my Folder Action script for auto uploading BitTorrent files. Download it here and save it to your /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/ directory. Then make a new folder on your desktop, call it somthing like 'torrent drop box' and make sure you have Radio UserLand running. Don't forget to change the username, password, upstream directory and category to route to in the script and you should be good to go. Just drop a torrent into the folder and you will be prompted for a title of the file and a description.

(Continued at Adam Curry's Weblog)

Apple released a sneak preview of Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger (what a lame name) today at their World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

I have mixed feelings about some of the features, not because I don’t think they aren’t cool, but because it looks to put small 3rd-party Mac developers out of business.

Safari will contain a built-in RSS reader which looks to widen the RSS audience but at the same time force NetNewsWire and PulpFiction out of the market.

Dashboard looks cool; did Apple buy Konfabulator? Dashboard is a complete and utter rip-off of Konfabulator.

The changes to iChat AV look very exciting. It sports a new, very cool 3d interface for group video conferences. To bad there isn’t a way to use the power of the video conferencing abilities of this app as a 3rd-party developer. Imagine the possibilities for real-time streaming performances and etc which would be open to net artists…

There was a bunch of other stuff too, check it out.

Seeking ways to keep troops more mobile and harder to detect, the U.S. military is leaning more and more on solar technology. By John Gartner.

holy crap!  

[ok, first you should see this in the theater. cause it's excellent, and moore deserves every penny. but if you are unable to see the film for one reason or another then here you go.. —AG]

Yardboy writes "A Yahoo! News/Reuters story discusses students in Los Angeles paying $4,000 to attend 'Hacker College' and become 'Certified Ethical Hackers'. ...

Iraq is trying to take control of its internet domain name, .iq, from the firm in Texas which runs it.

The corpse flower is about to bloom! I'm very excited. The corpse flower, in case you don't know, is nature's single-most revolting plant. When one of these three-foot-tall beauties opens up, it gives off the scent of rotting flesh. The University of Connecticut has managed to cultivate one, the first example in the northeast in 60 years, and any day now it's due to open up. If you're lucky enough to be nearby when it opens, here's how University officials describe the smell: The corpse flower is specifically adapted to attract carrion flies and beetles, which ferry pollen between plants so they can produce seed, a job accomplished for more ordinary plants by bees or butterflies. The colors of the corpse flower � a sickly yellow and blackish purple -- imitate a pot roast that sat out in the sun for a week. The fragrance is universally described as...

Gravity and Resistance is a new project by Japanese artists Seiko Mikami and Sota Ichikawa that combines a real-time, pressure sensor equipped floor and topographic map projection with a GPS tracking device above the gallery space. Set up last month at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, as part of their ongoing series focused on the “Dialogue between Science and Art", the project allows people to interact with each other’s gravitational pull along with the earth’s relative position in orbit. From their description: “The place of the installation is simultaneously surveyed by GPS satellites, so it has the observatory point outside the earth. It expands our area of perception, and reveals that the installation site itself is no longer static but always moving by gravity in relativity. The installation provides us with a device to sense the possibility of the dissolution of gravity, which has multiple meanings.” This project has really lofty ambitions and I think it’s one of those pieces that you really need to be there and experience to understand fully. If anyone has checked it out, let me know.

A group of artists in Lyon, France are installing fake, but beautifully designed and built, road signs. Link (Via The Cartoonist)

LA-based artist, Brody Condon’s new work “Untitled War”, open this July and pits two medieval warriors in full armor, fighting (to the death?) @ Machine Gallery in Los Angeles. “"Untitled War” is a performative event combining fantasy role-playing, fabricated history, extreme sports, and computer games, where warriors of various historical periods from the Society of Creative Anachronism will endure an ongoing First Person Shooter Game style Deathmatch battle. Live camera views (similar to the spectator camera views found in online FPS games) will be projected next door at the Echo Park Film Center, creating a game-like viewing experience for those outside the space.” Combining live theatrics with 3D gaming viewpoints, Condon attempts to instill “fear” into those visiting the space, as the action might get a bit too close for comfort! Definitely worth checking out!

Creative Commons Weblog

CC Search Plugins

Earlier today Steve Griffin announced a CC Search Sidebar for Mozilla-Based Browsers. Previously Steve has worked on a C# API for CC metadata.

A mycroft search plugin for the CC search engine is also available.

The mycroft plugin adds a new search engine to those available from the Mozilla Firefox toolbar.

Very nice. It's still a tad slow, but definitely shows where we are headed with this. Imagine Google images and Napster on CC. You could find sound-clips for your family album, images for your presentation and movie clips for your class project, all without worrying about copyright infringement or asking permission. Conversely, you could upload content and find it quickly integrated into courseware in other countries and DJ tapes and your creative content would travel freely as long as people gave you credit. These are the sorts of tools that CC needs to really go viral. Thanks Steve!

PS For CC newbies: There are a variety of licenses to choose from so the artists can select what sorts of rights they would like to grant. Free for non-commercial use with attribution is quite common. This blog is free for commercial use as well as long as I get credit.

When writing my last entry, I remembered a question that some people ask me. Why choose the Creative Commons license that allows people to use content free for commercial use? more

For reBlog readers that want to know how to view the movies Alex keeps posting.

A Yorkshire graffiti writer has come up with a really clever writing technique: he lays a template with his tag over a dirty wall, then sprays the template with solvent, leaving behind a clean patch bearing his message. It's inverse graffiti -- he's selectively cleaning up dirty walls.

He decided to commercialize the process and tagged Smirnoff ads in Leeds, and that's where he got into trouble: he's been ordered to "remove" the clean patch of wall and get rid of the ad.

Link

(via /.)

Torrent: http://66.90.75.92/suprnova//torrents/2038/Pink%20Floyd%20-%20The%20Wall.asf.torrent

Type: Movies - Other

Name: Pink Floyd - The Wall (ASF)

Size: 174 Mb

Quality: -

Justin Hall posted a good mixed review  

[finally the internet is good for something —AG]

An anonymous reader writes "Apparently, retro gaming is big business, according to a recent article in The Rocky Mountain News. The story talks to Nintendo, ...

[sorry cory, it's over =( —AG]

Thanks to the Electronic Book Review for its Espen Aarseth-authored article discussing what form academic analysis of videogames should take, part of a wider academic discussion on how games should be treated. Aarseth argues of the theme-ability of games: "The 'royal' theme of the traditional pieces is all but irrelevant to our understanding of chess. Likewise, the dimensions of Lara Croft�s body, already analyzed to death by film theorists, are irrelevant to me as a player, because a different-looking body would not make me play differently", before concluding: "The sheer number of students trained in film and literary studies will ensure that the slanted and crude misapplication of 'narrative' theory to games will continue and probably overwhelm game scholarship for a long time to come."

Parsons 2003 MFADT valedictorian, Jonnah Warren has a version of his stellar thesis project, Full Body Games, up at the GAGA in NYC on 137 Rivington (between Norfolk and Suffolk) through June 30th. This work is worth the trip from anywhere to see.

People who secretly videotape movies when they are shown in theaters could go to prison for up to three years under a bill approved unanimously by the U.S. Senate on Friday.

Hackers and industry insiders who distribute music, movies or other copyright works before their official release date would also face stiffened penalties under the bill…

A House subcommittee approved a similar bill in March.

[full article in Wired News]

3 - 10 YEARS! For copying a movie? Damn. You can kill somebody and get less time than that.

I guess this means that in the future, projects like Pirated Movie(more info, & more info, & even more) or the work of Jon Routson will go from commentary on our culture to acts of civil disobedience.

Britney Spears is engaged to marry Kevin Federline, a dancer, her representatives said on Friday.

[i love that this counts as arts reporting in the Times. —AG]

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A potentially dangerous attack on personal computers by a virus designed to steal financial data and passwords from Web users rippled across the Internet on Friday, computer security experts said.

Thanks to GameSpot for its initial impressions of squad-based Xbox/PC FPS Close Combat: First To Fight, as it's explained: "The United States Marine Corps is looking to get into the [game licensing/development] action with Close Combat: First to Fight, a project it is working on with Destineer, a company formed by several ex-Bungie employees [and who also own MacSoft]." Apparently, in this Gathering-published title, a reboot of the Close Combat strategy game series: "You'll command a four-man fireteam of marines engaged in intense urban combat in a yet-to-be-named city in the Middle East", and the article author muses: "It may sound a lot like Full Spectrum Warrior... [but] instead of commanding the fireteam from third person, you'll actually play in first person as the fireteam leader."

In an op-ed in today's The New York Times, Berkman Center Director William Fisher puts the latest round recording industry lawsuits in perspective. Fisher sketches a history of destabilization in the entertainment industry from the advent of radio in the 1920s to web-streaming. He argues that the current trend toward litigation and contrained use could "generate the worst of all possible results" for consumers and copyright holders. A better possible solution could be a "monthly licensing fee paid by Internet users." Read more in the op-ed, Don't Beat Them, Join Them, and about Fisher's upcoming book, Promises to Keep.

Newly discovered IE browser flaw; experts are telling people not to use Internet Explorer (Step 1: Google "firefox"...)

left and right to move, space to jump [via] 

The MeshCube is a new hardware platform dedicated to WirelessLAN mesh routing, developed by 4G Systems, Hamburg.

The future of wireless internet? If I understand this correctly, this allows anyone to create a wireless backbone.

(Darrel of The Thing just got a couple of these in the other week for a wireless project. Hoping he'll let the meshcubes come out and play in a bit. -kc.)

i just bought the Wild Divine game that comes with 3 biofeedback sensors as the only game controller, seemingly. stacking stones by just thinking about it sounds pretty fun. i could also use some stress therapy :-) can't wait til it comes in the mail. i will post a review then. here is a review of it by Steven Johnson.

if jesus wanted the world to be happy, he wouldn't inflict mushmouth on us

[translation: SUITE! mase is back!!! —AG]

How to win "SUPER MARIO BROS" by RSG

[this is a project from April 2003 that has recently been included on the artist tutorial site —AG]

Troody, a robotic troodon. It squeaks like a Terminator when it walks! MPEGs:

• Side view
• Close up montage
• Turning while walking

Dan Geer, an expert on risk and information security, visited the Berkman Center this week to share his perspective on data security. Geer generated controversy last year for his report, CyberInsecurity: The Cost of Monopoly which explains the national security threat posed by a culture in which all computers run the same operatings systems and share the same vulnerabilities. Geer spoke about the alarming possibilities for the spread of computer viruses and the potential damage they could cause. Solutions? Though Geer staunchly defends freedoms in computing, at the same time, he believes a Center for Disease Control for computing or a system for quarantining computer viruses could be essential to address the mounting risks for information security.

Thanks to 1UP/Ogamo for its feature discussing the early importance of the Apple Macintosh as a videogaming platform. The author argues: "The Mac definitely ...

it's inducing me to vomit  

Valve reacts to Doom III ship date [via] 

The man behind one of the most widely used conventions in computing has died.

afra242 writes "BBC News has an interesting article which discusses what Dr Paul Mockapetris, the creator of DNS, thinks about what the Internet will be in the near future. He states that currently, we are in the Bronze Age of the Internet and phones will be phased out completely, to be replaced by web addresses."

A paper by Felix Oberholzer of Harvard Business School and Koleman Strumpf of UNC Chapel Hill shows strong evidence that file-sharing has "statistically indistinguishable from zero" effect on CD sales and the RIAA decides to sue 482 more people for sharing copyright music on peer-to-peer networks. This brings the number of people sued by the RIAA for file-sharing to 3,429. I guess that if you can't convince everyone, you can always try to scare people into submission.

But it looks like the RIAA will have event MORE reasons to sue people. They're trying to "criminalize the act of inducing another to commit a copyright violation."

My record stands at 74 meters.

CAVEAT LECTOR: ET TU AD ROCK?|
To: BugTraq
Subject: Caveat Lector: Beastie Boys Evil
Date: Jun 16 2004 8:10AM
Author: Dragos Ruiu
Message-ID: <200406160110.23023.dr@kyx.net>


Well I truly regret actually purchasing a copy of the new Beastie Boys album to support them.

It seems that Capitol Records has some sort of new copy protection system, that automatically, silently, installs "helpful" copy protection software on MacOS and Windows as soon as you insert the CD into default systems.

I'm not sure exactly what it does yet, but I am sure regreting actually purchasing said media now... they don't deserve my money if they chooseto pull stupid stunts like this. Installing software without your permissionsounds like viral malware behaviour to me. I certainly hope the AV companiesput signatures into their products for this crap.

They include some sort of uninstaller buried on there for Windows, but I see no such thing for MacOS. If anyone has disassembled the
aforementioned malware already and can save us some time with
instructions on how to remove it... thanks in advance.

caveat emptor,
--dr

|Kottke|

Still thinking about assemblages and layered cities.

And, since I'm sure I can't be the only one fascinated with architectural models, check out the military research facilities and computer rooms modelled by America's Leading Scale Model Builder. Although my favourite project of theirs is the positively creepy-sounding Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home, the less conspiracy-minded may better appreciate their pretty model of Falling Water.

Recently I received an email from a very polite Danish student name Marie Omann who is doing research on contemporary artists’ weblogs. She asked me a few questions and I thought I’d post them with my replies. See below.

Marie Omann:
After having done research on the artblog phenomena for a couple of months now, I’m surprised to find that not many artists use this media. Personally I would find it an ideal space for artistic exhibition, exploration and exchange. Do you have an explanation to this?

T.Whid:

I agree with you (which is obvious as I’m a fairly avid blogger). I’m not sure why more artists don’t maintain blog-like web sites. Those artists who don’t use technology in their work I’ve found to be fairly computer-phobic. You find many more photographers and designers in the ‘blogosphere’ then your average fine artist. There is a huge design blog world, with some of the biggees being k10k.org, zeldman.com, www.mezzoblue.com, stopdesign.com, and whatdoiknow.org.

What made you start blogging?

At first I wanted to separate MTAA’s art site (mteww.com) from documentation of the art (resume, texts etc) so I set-up what we call the MTAA Reference Resource (mteww.com/mtaaRR) which eventually morphed into a blog-like web site. I added the blog so we could easily post updated news to the site. At first I thought it would just be upcoming shows, events and etc. I was sick of maintaining a mailing list so I thought it would be easier.

What keeps you blogging?

Since it’s very easy to update the site I just post things there all the time that I might email to either my collaborator M.River or post to a discussion list like Rhizome. I was very active on the Rhizome list for many years but I like the blog better. Discussions started on the blog are less likely to devolve into flame wars and it’s less aggressive. If people want to read my opinions and thoughts the site is passively waiting for them to visit, my ideas don’t wind up in people’s in-boxes. Plus, after Rhizome switched to a fee-based membership I decided that any extended writings of mine needed to be freely accessible via the Internet.

Do you perceive your blog primarily as a personal or as a professional project?

Hmmm. Good question. I have two professions, designer and artist. The blog is about the art aspect of my career. I treat it very personally: I use slang, curse, swear, and don’t check my spelling. But it has all of MTAA’s professional artist info as well (resume, documentation, etc) so it is a professional site. I guess I assume that folks will cut me some slack on the sometimes highly opinionated and bawdy posts that find their way to the blog section.

Does your blog affect your work process as an artist?

Sometimes I’ll post thoughts and ideas regarding current projects and will get feedback via the comments. Sometimes I use it as a way to communicate with M.River without having to use email if I think some folks might find that communication interesting.

Do you know of other artists blogging (besides M. River)?

Not in anyway an exhaustive list: Joy Garnett, Tom Moody, Jonah Peretti set-up reBlog, Jonah Brucker-Cohen. jimpunk keeps one that is art!

Do you know of artists reading your blog?

I’m not sure. We don’t get tons of comments. But folks who read it tend to be personal friends, and MTAA know lots of artists.

Do you feel part of the blogosphere? I mean do you feel part of a community of (art)bloggers?

Yes and no. There isn’t a huge community of art bloggers. And I don’t really feel part of the larger blog community as I don’t include typically ‘bloggy’ things like link lists and trackbacks. The mtaaRR blog is really specialized. And it’s supposed to be about the art collaboration, MTAA, many times I’ll twist a post back to why it relates to MTAA. I think people find this narcissistic. Which it is I suppose.

Have you met any problems being a blogger?

Being so outspoken on the blog could lead to problems professionally. But I’m not aware of any specific issue to date; the fear lurks in the back of my mind sometimes, but I don’t worry about it much.

+++++++++++++++

I CC’d a bunch of other ‘art’ webloggers and they had some really great replies (better than mine). It would be grand if any of them are lurking out there would be so kind as to post their thoughts via the comments function. (You can use HTML tags now :-)

Street Memes is a new Eyebeam R&D project designed to track the spread of street art. All submissions are licensed under the Noncommercial-ShareAlike licence.

Read more about it, or just grab a camera!

rand()% (yeah, that's a real name) is an Internet radio station that streams nothing but computer generative music. Down Kraftwerk fans down! It means music generated from computer algorithms. Everything you hear here is composed in real-time, therefore in a sense this is an avant-garde jazz station only that the cats are software bots.

Torrent: http://66.90.75.92/suprnova//torrents/2012/Fire%20Walk%20With%20me.torrent

Type: Movies - Other

Name: Twin Peaks - Fire walk with me

Size: 1401 Mb

Quality: DVD-rip


Info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105665/

One of the cooler bits of network tech is RSS ("really simple syndication" is probably the most common defintion), which is a way of distributing updated site content to subscribers. For people who read a lot of websites over the course of the day, RSS is a life-saver. Most blogs (including WorldChanging) have RSS feeds, and an increasing number of news outlets do, too. But any website that publishes regularly updated information can provide an RSS feed. RSS in Government is a site dedicated to collecting and promoting the use of RSS feeds by government agencies, whether local, state, federal, or international. The main site page mixes general RSS and blogging news with specific updates on government-related RSS feeds.

Mz6 writes "Microsoft has been awarded a patent for using
human skin as a power conduit and data bus. Patent No.
6,754,472, which was published Tuesday, describes a method for transmitting power and data to devices worn on the body and for communication of data between those devices. In its filing, Microsoft cites the proliferation of wearable electronic devices, such as wristwatches, pagers, PDAs (worn on people's belts) and small displays that can now be mounted on headgear. "As a result of carrying multiple portable electronic devices, there is often a significant amount of redundancy in terms of input/output devices included in the portable devices used by a single person," says the filing. "For example, a watch, pager, PDA and radio may all include a speaker." To reduce the redundancy of input/output devices, Microsoft's patent proposes a personal area network that allows a single data input or output device to be used by multiple portable devices." (What about DoCoMo's research in this area?)

laser turntables, album scanning, human groove recognition, and DIY album pressing  

NEC's Fundamental and Environmental Research Laboratories developed a new vegetable-based (flame resistant) plastic, dubbed bio-plastic, that can "remember" and change shape. this is not to be confused with NiTinol, which is a *metal* that can remember and change shape when heated. plastics naturally have a tendency to return to it's original shape when you heat it. i do that with my tupperware all the time. however, 93% of the bioplastic is made from veggie resin and highly biodegradable so that is something to look forward to. "The company is developing the new plastic for use in computers and hopes to include it in devices that can change shape in accordance with users' wishes, such as computers shaped like rings or even eyeglasses." how fun. [via]

they're doing smart things around those parts these days

Yesterday, the mother of all pop music fests -- Lollapalooza -- was canceled. Today, the mother of all tech trade shows -- Comdex. Wow. Fans of Sonic Youth and Morrrissey who have a penchant for middleware schwag are double-bummed. Link (Thanks, Michael Slavitch)

gameboy_ultraF_uk source code by Corby and Baily

Thanks to F13.net for its article attempting a re-appraisal of the original 'laws of online gaming' document, as first posted by Raph Koster and others starting on October 9, 1998. The curmudgeonly analysis includes rebuttals of original laws such as "No matter what you do, someone is going to automate the process of playing your world" ("There�s a very simple fix for this. Dump the treadmill, dump the numbers, and make gameplay fun"), and there's an equally tetchy rebuttal of the rebuttal at F13, suggesting: "Any amount of development time spent making the game more realistic or lifelike is wasted development time, stolen from useful tasks like making the game fun."

[remember, Nader is the only candidate who opposes the war, the only candidate who opposes the Patriot Act, the only candidate who supports the Kyoto protocol, the only candidate who supports equal rights for gays, the only candidate who supports universal health care... and on and on. if yer for all those things and you still support the dems, then yer a freakazoid... (send hate mail here) —AG]

The Supreme Court says people must give their names to cops when they ask for it, and cops have the right to arrest people who refuse. One privacy advocate says the government just turned silence into a crime.

death of another classic game company  

[skip the Chronicles of Rediculous and watch this instead... Don't know what a "torrent" is? FGI —AG]

JimCricket writes "What happens when a bio-cracker unleashes a plant virus on all the wheat in North America, and the genetic code to 'Wheat 2.0' is closed-source, patented code owned by a corporation? Should life be Open Source? Download Aborted takes a look at this issue."

the M2A Capsule Endoscopy camera pill is now wireless. if only this existed when Stelarc swallow his robotic stomache sculpture, he wouldn't have had to stick a 60cm video probe into his mouth. [via]

This photoessay, called "Commute," is a captivating collection of images from the morning commute in NYC.
Link
(via Kottke)

[my NYC commute: stumble down stairs, trip over weirdos on stoop, avoid clubers coming coming down off k/e/etc, run gauntlet of raging adolescents at PS11, pass seedy hotel and "drug pay phone" on corner, buy bagel at Murray's (everything, with cc and tomato), squeeze into sweaty E/C train, squeeze out of sweaty E/C train, walk past west 4th courts, walk past wash sq drug dealers, walk past Kimmel Center surveillance cameras, buy nasty coffee at nasty campus eatery, and up elevator to werk =( —AG]

this is my current favorite processing site: Robert Hodgin's generative works. they are all good but i really liked attraction, web growth, lava flow, pixel space, ribbon fish, hair storm, and perlin flow fields. check out the videos and applets.

GIF's first statement out of jail: I'm coming to get PNG. PNG asks for a restraining order.