Long Yellow Things. Just look at them!

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Some funs stuff on Bruce Sterling's tumblr. I especially liked these two.
http://brucesterling.tumblr.com/post/41864373580/mrs-dante-gabriel-rossetti-as-ophelia
http://brucesterling.tumblr.com/post/42572563985/contemporary-italian-politics

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[from: Google+ Posts]

So farewell then, Kevin Ayers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/feb/20/kevin-ayers-dies-aged-68

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[from: Google+ Posts]

If 90% lurk, 9% comment/engage and 1% create, does that mean that only 1% of people need a full function PC with a full function keyboard and mouse, the 9% can get by with the cut down apps on tablets with an occasional keyboard or a chromebook, and the 90% only need a smart phone and an onscreen keyboard.

Except: http://gigaom.com/2012/05/06/bbc-1-percent-rule/
[from: Google+ Posts]

Because...

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[from: Google+ Posts]

First Martini of Sat night, delicious. Continuing to catch up on Internet news and still posting comments, priceless!

Guess I'm too old to be going to this all nighter then. http://www.planb-london.com/whats-on/february/16/02/2013-submit/ especially after working hard in the Pinetum, recovering from extended flu and being full of aches and pains. Shame, because I'd like to see both Indigo and DJRum some time soon. 

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Here's another one. Not cheep, mind.
http://www.carbonelectricbicycleebike.com/electric-bicycle-karma38

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[from: Google+ Posts]

I approve of this approach of taking a good bicycle and adding minimal e-assist. But I'd keep a 7 speed rear derailleur. And I'd probably prefer a rear geared hub to a front one.

We really need 36v-15AHr or 48v-10AHr and those bottle batteries don't quite manage this. Perhaps that could be packaged to fit in the bottom of the main frame triangle.

Obviously these guys are limiting power but the minimal geared hubs can be over-driven to about 750W. So 48v and 10-15A is both do-able and suitably peppy. Powered 25mph should be ok.

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Are the Flying Spaghetti Monster's meatballs created from beef or horse? I think we should be told.
[from: Google+ Posts]

Did you buy your bitches something pink for tomorrow? Because bitches like pink things.

At least that's what Tesco seems to be trying to tell me. 
[from: Google+ Posts]

Next time you go to buy something from Amazon, you might want to remember this article. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/ed6a985c-70bd-11e2-85d0-00144feab49a.html#slide0

What did the people of Rugeley make of all this? For many, it has been a culture shock. "The feedback we're getting is it's like being in a slave camp,"

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Well if that isn't a sign o' the times. Tescos now buy "unwanted" gold jewellery. And get Clubcard points too on the exchange! https://www.tescogoldexchange.com/

People who used this service also bought Tesco Everyday Value Spaghetti Bolognese (which definitely doesn't contain horse meat - this week).

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Playing Music from a NAS on various devices
Just spent an hour or two trying to work out how and if it's possible to play music that is sitting on a home NAS with Google play, Chromebook, Android and IOS (running on an iPod Touch ). It's surprisingly difficult. 

- Google Play Offline mode seems to assume no network, but of course you need wifi to access the NAS. Apart from this, there doesn't seem to be any way of playing local files.

- Chromium OS can mount the NAS as a directory if you fiddle around in Linux. You can then play the folder in Banshee, VLC, Clementine or such like. IMHO, all these music players are fairly unpleasant but they do more or less work. Whether you can do this on a Chromebook is unknown to me at the moment. You're not really supposed to be hacking about in the underlying Linux OS.

- I can't find any easy way to do this in Android (v4.0). It may require an SMB app for mounting the NAS drive along with a Music Player App that understands plain old folders.

- IOS seems to be the same as Android. There's no easy way to do this directly but it might be possible via 3rd party apps. Apple seems to want you to use various Apple technologies all playing nicely together.

This is all puzzling. Having a shared home NAS drive that is running 24/7 seems a sensible thing to do. What's not clear is if this should be a dumb drive with all the media handling happening in the connected device. Or if it should be a media server and the connected device should be fairly dumb.

Google's approach seems to be that bandwidth is free and huge, or at least it will be soon. And therefore you really should just let them run the servers. The catch is the need to upload all the media and the limit of 20k files. Now I've got all this content locally already, so why should I need to upload it?

Now if we're talking about a Netbook running Windows (XP, 7, whatever), this game is obviously trivial. Just assign the NAS a drive letter and then use your favourite media player too play the files. Job done. I imagine doing this on OSX on a Macbook is equally trivial. IMHO tablets and Chromebooks ought to be equally trivial. Low powered phones and iPods, I'm not so sure about.
[from: Google+ Posts]

Volunteers Keep Watch on Protests in Chile. In Blue Helmets that detourne the uniform of UN observers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/world/americas/helmeted-volunteers-monitor-student-protests-in-chile.html

vs 

Black Bloc in Egypt defend street protesters -- by force if necessary. To a soundtrack of heavy metal.
http://incunabula.org/2013/02/black-bloc-revolutionaries-baffle-egyptians/

vs

Musings on Political failure modes and the beige dictatorship in Western democracies.
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/02/political-failure-modes-and-th.html

That last one is Charles Stross bemoaning the failure mode that the "end of history" has left us with in the West. There's a hidden failure mode, we've landed in it, and we probably won't be able to vote ourselves out of it. and it involves:- global-scale quasi-police state, with drone strikes and extraordinary rendition and unquestioned but insane austerity policies being rammed down our throats, government services being outsourced, peaceful protesters being pepper-sprayed, tased, or even killed, police spying on political dissidents becoming normal, and so on. He has a point if we're talking about the N America-UK- Europe axis. But this makes me as the same question as Furudi. What about the other 7/8 of the world? Is there really no alternative political system that more or less works and is already being tried elsewhere?

Both responses to institutional repression of protest seem valid to me although as a confirmed pacifist I obviously prefer the first one. If the authorities are determined to use force to control protest then at the very least they should be filmed doing it and their methods exposed to the wider populace. If (as in Egypt) the force is out of control then perhaps it has to be met with force but to protect the protesters not to intentionally escalate the violence.

And of course that's easy for me to say from behind my desk in a sleepy UK market town.

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Today's excitement was a riderless horse galloping down Ermine St. It had a saddle and full harness but no rider and was clearly upset. There was no chance of catching it, and though we walked back up the track over the road and a short way down the other side, no sign of the rider. Shortly after there was a police/ambulance clearly hovering, landing and then later taking off. The helicopter was maybe 1/2 mile away. When we left for the pub there was an ambulance, rapid response ambulance car and a police car but next to a track that is really quite a long way from where we saw the horse.

I tell you, horses are dangerous!

Meanwhile the white pony and white foal from the field next door has apparently been on the roam again. And there are lots of hoof prints round the stream on my land. According to the locals, the owners do now know that they can find there way out. Not a huge problem if it wasn't for essex hatch and white van men who drive the back roads way too fast.
[from: Google+ Posts]

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (2011), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 352 pages
[from: Librarything]

Viking Adult (2012), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 448 pages
[from: Librarything]

Atlantic Books (2012), Hardcover
[from: Librarything]

McSweeney's (2012), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 352 pages
[from: Librarything]

http://www.thestoolpigeon.co.uk/features/news-j-pop-scandal-minami-minegishi-shaves-head.html

Quoting:

A 20-YEAR-OLD singer from Japan sparked controversy over J-Pop sexual politics when she shaved her head for a YouTube video this weekend.

Minami Minegishi -- a star of the multi-million-selling J-Pop girl group AKB48 -- appeared teary in a video in which she apologised for breaking the group's 'bushido' code whereby members are sworn to celibacy.

AKB48 is, in fact, an 88-strong collective numbering girls as young as 13 in its ranks, 

The band's creator, Yasushi Akomoto, was quick to fend off accusations of hypocrisy. Because in spite of the fact his franchise grossed an estimated $212 million in 2011 alone, Akomoto, it turns out, is simply a social realist interested in reflecting the lives and moral dilemmas of Japan's horny young populace: "For example, there's a song called 'Despised Love'. This song is asking why junior high school kids kill themselves... unless I take up the issues these girls are facing as a songwriter the issues won't get addressed.

It's an endless source of fodder to fill magazines and now they have one that went all Britney,

end-quoting:

Pure Bruce Sterling - Zeitgeist and it's protagonist, Leggy Starlitz http://www.amazon.com/Zeitgeist-Bruce-Sterling/dp/0553576410 but with more Japanese craziness and classic Japanese "schoolgirl" teenage paedophilia. But then is it paedophilia if both the stars and the audience are under 16. While the management are taking advantage of them with everyone's consent.

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[from: Google+ Posts]