Bruce Sterling's Blog, page 632

Realizing the Virtual Utah Teapot

*The narrative tension here is almost unbearable.

Utanalog, the movie from Unfold on Vimeo.

*They don't tell you how to get one. Or how to brew real tea in it. But they can make 'em. Our of real clay. With a fab.

http://www.shapeways.com/blog/archives/473-Shapeways-interviews-unfold.html

Peruvian futuristic architecture fiction, 1843 AD.

*Couldn't make up a thing like that. This oughta be a big thrill for any Peruvian steampunks in the audience.

http://mundopaulet.blogspot.com/2010/06/lima-from-now-to-100-years.html

(…)

"However, in recent years, it has been revealed that a Peruvian was ahead them, publishing between the years 1843 and 1844 a science fiction novel called Lima from now to 100 years (Lima de aquí a cien años).

"In 1943, Artur and his friend Carlos del A. come back to reality, from where a genie, who paralyzed...

Preity Zinta is having some kinda morning

@realpreityzinta, Bollywood actress and cricket-team owner.

Good morning ! Woke up to read news on me selling Kxip ! Untrue as usual ! HT, for god sake ! Get some correct news for once !

Top cops molesting women in Haryana, Mumbai cops refuse 2 register FIR, Goa politician is a murderer ! Wow ! Is This my country ?

25 years later Bhopal victims still suffer while Anderson relaxes in the US ! Where are the real leaders in this country ? Counting money ?

Does any one know an honest cop or a...

Envisioning Interactions in the Home of the Future

*If I were teaching a science fiction creative writing class, I'd make the students write a story set in every one of these environments.

http://depts.washington.edu/ixd/blog/2009/12/20/intel-envisioning-interactions-in-the-home-of-the-future/

Intel: Envisioning Interactions in the Home of the Future

ART383 - Fundamentals of Interaction Design, Autumn Quarter 2009

Prof. Axel Roesler

In collaboration with Intel Labs Seattle

During an intensive five week project, five student teams conducted an...

Future Mobility 2030

*Got some prime car-financed architecture-fiction here. I like the way that the critic is complaining that some of the architects just riff on the subject, and don't create any fully thought-out fictional multimedia presentations.

*Yeah, man. Pull up your fiction socks there, Diller Scofidio. It's like you guys are too busy building actual inhabitable structures, or something.

http://www.domusweb.it/architecture/article.cfm?id=253806&lingua=_eng

Programmers Should Stop Being Such Smart-Alecks

*I kinda pity this guy's adult grumbling. No 20-year-old would ever think this way — and I thank God for 20-year-olds. Nevertheless, I respect his moral testament here very much. So much so, that I really feel I must blatantly steal and repost the entire thing.

*It's not just him that's "grown up," it's programming. He's right to say that there are aspects of this huge collaborative endeavor where quirky artisanship gets in the way. And he's also right to say that the passage of time...

LIFT France, Marseilles, July 5-7 2010

http://liftconference.com/lift-france-10

Lift France, with Fing, July 5-7 2010 in Marseille

For the last 20 years, networked technologies have redistributed the power of imagining, evaluating, and acting. No frontier has remained fixed. Consumers have also become producers. The divisions between various industries and disciplines are being redefined. This shift extends far beyond the digital. It transforms manufacturing, learning, cities, public policy, perhaps even our own minds…

The Web...

Design Fiction: 6th Swiss Design Network Conference, Basel

http://www.sdn2010.ch/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1

Negotiating Futures - Design Fiction

Designers see the world not simply as it is, but rather as it could be. In this perspective, the world is a laboratory to explore the contingency of the existing and the thinking in options. Imaginations of the contra factual are a key source for the creation of alternative political, technological, social, or economic constellations of artefacts, interfaces, signs, actors, and...

Spime Watch: Microsoft Tag

*It's a press release — but it's kinda dumb not to watch out for the doings of the Big Blue Monster. "Change the world or go home," boys.

Good morning Bruce, (((Yo!)))

Today, Microsoft announced that Tag is officially coming out of its 'beta' phase of product development. Since Tag launched in January 2009, more than one billion Tags have been created by people and businesses all over the world. (((That's kind of a lot, considering that I've never interacted with one.)))

In the month of...

Eaton Conference on Global Science Fiction, call for papers

*Deadline June 15 2010, better get crackin'

http://eatonconference.ucr.edu/2011/call.php

Call for Papers:

This three-day conference–sponsored by the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Utopian Literature at the University of California, Riverside–proposes to examine the ways in which science fiction (SF) is a truly global phenomenon, crossing territorial, linguistic, and ideological boundaries in its imaginative engagement with the possibilities of the future.

We are...