Bruce Sterling's Blog, page 689

Cellphone that costs less than fifteen bucks

*Well, if you thought the Favela was wired already…

*I could do with one of these, especially if it functions and can stay away from the creeping featuritis. At a price-point like that you can leave them lying around.

*In other exciting mobile news, "Let's all gang up and rip-off Apple at once!"

http://www.mobilebusinessbriefing.com...-

"Mobile operators unite on global apps platform

Published: Monday 15 February 2010
Region: Global
"The world's ...

Historically unrecognized countries

*What if *all* countries were "unrecognized"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_historical_unrecognized_countries

Dead Media Beat: Forging the Future Mesh

*I don't know exactly how one "forges" a "mesh," but you probably ought to go to this cool site and click around on stuff.

http://thoughtmesh.net/meshes.php?group=26

We are not Ireland, we will resist

*One wonders why there hasn't been more civil unrest during the economic unpleasantries. Maybe because the populace no longer reads newspapers, no longer attends trade union meetings, and spends their unemployed weeks and months at home websurfing.

*It might also be that urban riot cops are so well equipped these days that nothing short of roadside bombs can dent them.

*I don't think Greeks with spraycans and molotovs can do much, but hey, if things stay bad long enough huge numbers of...

Slitscan dancing on the timeline

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmWljC...

"testing an avisynth script for what you might call a "slitscan filter". slitscan techniques have been used for example by the incredible zbig rybczynski. it's about making movement visible in the image at once, or using the width of the frame as time axis, or something like that… - and this seems to be quite irresistible if you think about what words like "timebased media", "digital video" and things alike could mean…."

Twitter Code Swarm

*Nice infoviz.

*Anyhow, it's lots cuter than live video of grumpy geeks punching keys and slamming Red Bulls as they labor on Twitter's notoriously unstable code.

Twitter Code Swarm from Ben Sandofsky on Vimeo.

*To their credit, I must admit I haven't seen the Fail Whale in quite a while.

Augmented Reality: Sky Siege

*Another shoot 'em up, on the iPhone this time. Kinda liking the "amazing aug-cam" made of fiberboard and Phillips-head screws.

In case you're buried in snow

Heatwave roasts Rio, kills 32 in southern Brazil

(AFP) – 10 hours ago

RIO DE JANEIRO — The worst heatwave to hit Rio de Janeiro in 50 years turned the city into a pre-Carnival furnace Wednesday, and killed 32 elderly people further south, officials said.

According to the Inmet national weather service, recorded temperatures in Rio were well above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees) — and felt more like above 50 degrees.

"The heatwave in Rio is seen as historic. February right now is the hottest...

Adbusters goes altermodern

*Well, this means we're in a new era fer sure.

*I wonder if Adbusters will offer charity packages to unemployed ad executives.

THE BIRTH OF ALTERMODERN

Hundreds of years of historical continuity are now culminating in what may be humanity's final rapture moment: peak oil, peak water, peak food, peak everything … even peak sanity and peak TIME! (((Not to mention peak print magazines run by anticapitalist Canadians.)))

Also in Adbusters' Post-Postmodernism issue, which hits newsstands worldwide...

Extremist Goons Reap Cheap Publicity by Attacking Top Bollywood Flick

*Normally I don't feed Shiv Sena's obviously desperate hunger for farangi attention, but actually monkey-wrenching the movie theaters is a bit much.

*If Shiv Sena wanted a fight, they could take a train over Uttar Pradesh and take on some Maoist dacoits, but those Naxalite guys play for keeps and they'd leave the likes of Shiv Sena in ribbons.

http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/2010/02/10/13760/index.html

Mumbai theatres attacked; warned not to screen MNIK

By Satish Sundaresan, February 10...