Bruce Sterling's Blog, page 751

Dead Media Beat: Olympia Manual Typewriter

*I owned one of these devices, so reading Rick Poynor waxing so eloquent about it is really a pang.

http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=3467

"It has been so long since I saw my old typewriter that I had given it up for lost. I lent it to my brother in the early 1990s so he could type up his archaeology thesis. I assumed it had gone missing during his various house moves and I just forgot about it. Then he revealed that it was stored in his garage. It has taken months to extricat

Steam Opera

*Nice coinage there, "steam opera."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/aug/22/manual-of-detection-jedediah-berry

*Now that I think of it, DIFFERENCE ENGINE does have a couple of detectives in it. Other than that, I don't write about detectives or mysteries. Cops, yes. Got lots of cops in my work.

*Maybe it's a question of political attitude, like the difference between "something weird happened and it is hidden away in the noir underground" to "something blatantly weird has happened in public

Actual no-kidding space scientist wants to dress up for STAR TREK

*Man, this is becoming a red-letter day for the freakily ironic. I say put Kevin Mitnick in STAR TREK and turn Carolyn Porco into a computer-security consultant.

*You can do that "in Augmented Reality," right? Not a problem!

Hello from two CICLOPS Alliance members and fellow fans of Cassini!

For those of you who may have missed the big news, CICLOPS imaging director Carolyn Porco recently served as a science consultant on this year's blockbuster feature-length film, Star Trek. In subsequent posts

Kevin Mitnick, Prominent Hacker Victim

*Gosh, what a shame that anklebiters should violate the famous guy's security.

*Via SANS.

–Webhost and Mobile Carrier Drop Mitnick Due to Attacks on His Accounts

(August 19, 2009)

AT&T has informed Kevin Mitnick that it no longer wants him as a
customer; it seems that his status as a "celebrity hacker" makes his
account an inviting target for script kiddies and the cellular provider
no longer wants to direct its resources toward protecting his account
from attacks. AT&T made the decision to boot Mitni

White-Fi

*Want a real "cloud"? Kill your television.

http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/23271/page1/

*In the US, clearing the mitts of the installed base off this valuable spectrum is about as likely as reforming health care. That doesn't mean it's not gonna get done, though. Imagine the fun of dropping by Seoul, Shanghai or Singapore and discovering that the wifi stretches for miles.

Ars Electronica: Human Nature

*Here it comes, wish I was going, maybe next time:

Human Nature

Ars Electronica 2009

Linz, September 3rd – 8th

The Reinvention of Nature

We are entering a new age here on Earth: the Anthropocene. An age definitively characterized by humankind's massive and irreversible influences on our home planet. Population explosion, climate change, the poisoning of the environment and our venturing into outer space have been the most striking symbols of this development so far.

But to a much more enormous exte

Augmented Reality: ISMAR 2009

*Unless I miss my guess, this usually-somnolent and academic enterprise is gonna look pretty lively this year. Bring on the bubble-gum cards, 24-hour condom locators and the all-talking, all-dancing purse chihuahuas.

http://www.ismar09.org/

Augmented Reality: Ogmento

*Ogmento's into mobile gaming.

*A lot of tech nitty-gritty here. I love the part where they just can't help themselves, and start breaking into some brand-new Augmented Reality trade jargon. Listen to this:

"Tish: It seems at the moment the two main forms of AR are mainly tethered or marker experiences or kind of stepping stone apps like Wikitude and Layar that are markerless but mainly pull info from web to world rather than truly aligning graphics in a tight relationship to the "real" world.

(

Long Player

http://blog.longnow.org/2009/08/21/long-player-live-in-london/

*Imagine what a drag that'll be if they get up to, say, 887 years and then lose track.

At the Dawn of the Augmented Reality Industry

*Or, "the sermon on the flatlands." Hope those busy guys in Kuala Lumpur are watching.

Video: Bruce Sterling's Keynote - At the Dawn of the Augmented Reality Industry from Maarten Lens-FitzGerald on Vimeo.