Best Buy v. Blogger bruhaha
This post is just to echo the support from Xeni at BoingBoing for their defense of Scott Beale’s post at Laughing Squid. It looks like Beale has been served with a cease and desist letter for commenting (just commenting mind you) on an alleged trademark infringement by the group Improv Everywhere. They are apparently selling t-shirts that resemble Best Buy uniform shirts but have cleverly substituted their own group name in place of the Best Buy logo (pictured below). I love it when the internet community mobilizes against this sort of silly protectionist garbage. Power to the people!
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
WikiYou: great idea, bad execution
WikiYou is the self-proclaimed “unauthorized biography of every person on earth.” An admirable idea since Wikipedia editors can be real assholes about peoples’ “noteworthiness.” Still, go to the front page of WikiYou and you immediately run into usability problems. The only option is a search bar—very zen/Google but altogether unhelpful. Also WikiYou is an excellent demonstration of what happens to wiki-pages that aren’t properly policed. Check out Sandra Bullock to see what I mean. Random symbols, bad grammar, no citations, it’s a big mess. I suppose there are worse things out there to complain about it, but I hate it when a good idea gets screwed over by crappy execution.
Perhaps they should take some notes from yesterday’s article about NASA’s killer homepage.
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
Open-source travelling
One of the biggest drags about traveling is the sense of being something separate from the place you are visiting. Hotels, restaurants, tourist offices, it’s almost as if the whole experience is conspiring to keep you from getting to know the real thing. That’s why I think that this open-source traveling movement is so cool. Brokered by the internet, people all over the world are offering their spare rooms, couches and kitchens to travelers through sites like Globalfreeloaders.com and Couchsurfing.com.
Now I haven’t had much experience with either site yet, but I’m going to be doing a bit of traveling over the next couple of weeks and plan on using the services extensively. I’ll keep you posted. This could be the greatest revelation since the homemade Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang.
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
¿Quieres Música Latina?
I recently returned a mi casa de México and was introduced to a bunch of songs that I wanted to listen to. Unfortunately, the local P2P network for Lime Wire doesn’t work all that well if nobody nearby is sharing these songs on their computer. So if you’re cravin’ for latino (or other international) music, try either E-mule or Ares. Both programs are fairly straightforward and completely gringo if downloaded on English speaking soil. ¿No te gusta música latina? Try the Spanish reggae song Mis Ojos Lloran Por Ti by Big Boys. It may start out slow, but it’s popular for a reason.
comment [1] | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
An epic open-source journey
A Brooklyn-based technologist/activist/blogger by the name of Noel Hidalgo will be embarking on an epic voyage he is calling: “On the Luck of Seven; an open-source journey around the world documenting free culture, social innovators & global change.” The journey will last 7 months, span 7 continents, cover the 7 seas, and visit the 7 wonders of the world, all while researching 7 topics of freedom. The trip will start (duh) on 7/7/07, but only if 700 people pledge to give him $11.11. Follow the journey at LuckofSeven.com.
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
Get all of Wikipedia on your iPod
Wikipedia is amazing and iPods are convenient. Putting Wikipedia on your iPod will make you the ultimate dinner companion/neighborhood smarty-pants. The whole of Wikipedia only take up 750 mb of disk space which is far smaller than any flavor of iPod. I myself don’t have an iPod so didn’t try this, but iPodders from every operating system will love the functionality of Wikipodia, an an application that puts all the world’s knowledge in the palm of your hand.
Previously on duenos: – What Wikipedians Search For, charts and statistics on Wikipedia use.
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
“Barely Used” Info on Dumpster Diving
Well my world just got weirder after learning about dumpster diving. For starters, at this blog, alley surfers share tips and brag about their bounties of “slightly crushed” produce, “mostly nice” clothing, and “perfectly useable” appliances. One of my favorite quotes has got to be “I’ve been told that Zanotto’s is a good place (however, there’s probably a lot of competition from the hobos at the downtown location)…” Not only are they frugal, they’re cut throat. But there’s more, view this movie trailer of a diver’s personal struggle in a tosser’s world. Or better yet, here’s some passionately written instructions to get you started, which begins “There’s something about going through a dumpster that gets your blood pumping.” I don’t know about you, but my blood pumps perfectly fine without shopping at D(umpster)*Mart.
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
Furnished by FedEx
AMAZING!! This guy is living in a house with no furniture but what he’s made himself from FedEx boxes. The bed, the dining table and chairs, the desk, the shelves, and the couch (pictures available), all are made of FedEx boxes held together with FedEx packing tape. Amazingly enough, FedEx isn’t happy about the extra press and has been legally harassing the site, fedexfurniture.com, for copyright infringement. That’s right, the same company that payed for the privilege of starring opposite Tom Hanks in Cast Away is giving this guy crap for using their products.
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
Build your own skis
“Building snow skis (or snowboards) is a straightforward process.” That’s the first sentence from the how-to section at SkiBuilders.com and while the process looks anything but simple, I do fancy the idea of building my own skis. I’d actually rather build my own snowboard, and as it turns out there’s a site dedicated to that as well. The concept for the two processes seems basically the same, although there are obvious differences in where snowboards need strength and flex vs. skis, but I really would like to give it a try.
If you happen to live nearer to the beach than the slopes, you can always use this how-to guide on building your first surf board out of polystyrene.
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
Finding the Linux equivalent
Are you a recovering Windows user? Need to find just the right replacement for Dreamweaver or Photoshop? Well look no further than the Linux Equivalent page, an easy cross-referenced site that lists, well, the Linux equivalent to major Windows programs. The coolest thing? They’re all FREE!!
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
Street art debate
The Top Ten Pictures blog has posted a discussion on the merits of street art (graffiti). Among some of the breath-taking art shown as examples, they also chose to use one of my pictures as an example of the movement. I encourage you to check out the Top Ten Pictures post and weigh in on one of the more interesting debates going on in the art world today.
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
What Wikipedians Search For
Curious about what Wikipedians are up to? This tool continually calculates the most viewed pages on each of all the Wikipedian projects offered. The above link is preset to view the top 100 articles viewed during April 2007 for English Wikipedia. In case you were wondering, 11% of the top viewed articles involved some sexual content and the number one searched definition in English Wiktionary was MILF. Aren’t you glad to know that one of the most visited sites in the world is being put to good use.
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
The how-to video repository
SuTree is an online collection of free tutorial videos. The videos are usually hosted elsewhere and the links contributed by users, but SuTree adds an element of ranking and community discussion, in addition to putting all of the videos in one search-able database. The subject of the videos is widely varied but with a little looking around you can learn such useful things as how to grow your own potatoes, perform a perfect breast stroke, draw a horse, or fold a t-shirt (super cool and embedded below).
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
Free, Personalized Ring Tones
Why should the ring tone business be a $4.4 billion dollar a global year industry when you can get ring tones for free? All Mobile17.com requires from you is an e-mail address (don’t worry, they detest spam) and your phone model information (which they keep safe and don’t sell). With their easy-to-use site, you simply locate a song file you have on your computer, choose the start time of your ring tone, the duration of your ring tone, and you’re set. For their free service, you’ll wait awhile before you’re sent a text message with straightforward instructions to get your ring tone. It’s quick, simple, and free.
Caution: If you don’t have an internet phone plan, you’ll pay charges to your phone provider based on the size of your file.
Check out this discussion and these tips for proper cell phone etiquette.
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
Guerrilla Benches in London
The Space Hijackers, self-described as “Trouble with an anti-capital ‘T’, have been part of a sustained Guerrilla Benching campaign in the borough of Camden in London. Apparently the Borough Council has been removing benches and the people, at least according to this lot, are not going to take that sitting down.
Photo credit to the Space Hijackers and story via Time Out
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
Songbird, a hatchling open-source iTunes killer
Brought to you by the Pioneers of the Inevitable, the brain trust behind Winamp and the Yahoo! music engine, Songbird is a new open-source ‘web player’ capable of iTunes-like music and video support AND firefox-like web-browsing. Why put the two together? I’m not exactly sure, but even though it’s still in its infancy, Songbird can already do some things better than iTunes. For starters, Songbird can support extensions that, among other things, fully integrate posting to Last.fm or shopping at any number of online music stores. It also natively supports global hotkeys adding the functionality of SizzlingKeys for iTunes without installing another program. What’s more is that like iTunes and Firefox, Songbird is cross-platform compatible and free. Download the beta at Songbirdnest and explore the extensions being made for it at Windjay.
Previously on Duenos: Last.fm and SizzlingKeys.
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
Thousands mob Victoria station in silent rave
A flash mob of 4,000 dancers clogged London’s Victoria Station yesterday evening. Silently listening to the club soundtrack on their mp3 players, the mob was finally dispersed by vans of police. Here are links to Gridskipper, where I found about the party underground and to this is London and their original article.
Apparently there are some pretty cool pictures out there.
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
Analog peer-to-peer
A few months ago I read about a service called BookMooch on BoingBoing that offers users a community full of people wanting to exchange their old books for free. I’ve used the site extensively and have loved it. I was finally able to get rid of those old Tom Clancy novels and ‘trade up’ to the classier writings of Henry James. My conclusion: there aren’t enough phrases like “class 2 tactical op” in Henry James. Luckily I can always trade down again with BookMooch.
The idea of a non-monetary economy in which people share their goods and/or services sounds like wackiness, I know, but I just read an article from Wired Online about more ‘analog peer-to-peer’ sites that promise just such a cashless utopia. Each one caters to a different type of media, but here’s a short summary taken from the article:
“
PEERFLIX
MEDIA: DVD
INVENTORY: 40,000 titles
PER-TRADE FEE: $1.50
LA LA
MEDIA: CD
INVENTORY: 1.8 million titles
PER-TRADE FEE: $1.75
PAPERBACKSWAP
MEDIA: Take a guess …
INVENTORY: 30,000 titles
PER-TRADE FEE: $1.59
GAMESWAP
MEDIA: Videogame
INVENTORY: 1,102 games
PER-TRADE FEE: $1.99 “
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
Open-source Europe
The next time the French parliament opens its doors, they will be serving Linux. According to this Business Week article , 1,154 computers will be switching to Ubuntu Linux from Windows XP, including all of the MPs staff and personal PCs. France has had a long history of embracing open-source software like Open Office and Firefox, but this will be the first mass switch of operating systems.
In similar news, this Free Republic article reports the Shadow chancellor George Osbourne’s statement that Britain should support more open-source software in order to save the people 600 million pounds/year. That article features some other good examples of governments going open-source.
| permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
Mark Day Comedy
I’ve found my new favorite comedian on YouTube. His comedy is sophisticated, well-timed with the news cycle, and his delivery is perfect. The style reminds me of ZeFrank but not nearly as manic. You really should check him out, here’s a link to his video list on YouTube.
An excerpt from his self-description on his profile:
Mark Day is a grumpy, bald Scotsman who lives near San Francisco.He claims to enjoy stand-up comedy, suburban living and smoked pork. Also the music of Judas Priest and John Coltrane (not at the same time). His dislikes include almost everything else. Mark recently became and American citizen, and is looking forward to his next trip to Europe, where he will pretend to be Canadian. He has a funny accent. But so do you, in the right context. Find him on myspace.com/markday
| permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
Find out if your website is banned in China
The Great Firewall of China is a website that tests to see if any given URL is banned under the censorship regime of the Chinese Communists Party. Neither this blog, nor my personal website elliott-herder.com are banned but one of my favorite blogs Architectures of Control by Dan Lockton somehow got on the Chinese black list. Or it a red list?
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
Linux phone line-up
Mobile phones sold by US providers are routinely handicapped and DRM-ed up to their retractable antennae. Whether it’s only playing Verizon songs on Verizon phones or the ridiculous per-MB data rates they charge, we in the States are way behind the technology curve. That’s all about to change. The world of cellular communication is about to be revolutionized by the increasing capacity of WiFi enabled phones and VOIP applications. At the forefront of this movement are these phones reviewed by Wired Magazine. All of them are open source and therefore user-modifiable. I can hear the sirens’ song of ‘free calling’ already. I can’t wait to see how corporate America kills this golden-egg laying goose.
The Gupp Phreedom
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
Free music: Harvey Danger
It’s not often that you’ll hear me endorse straight up rock and roll. Generally I take my rock with a twist of Swedish pop, folk, or political anger but this latest album by Harvey Danger is good. Not only is Little by Little good, it’s also free. The band decided to release the album as a free torrent , direct download , and as a traditional CD . As to why a young rock group might on purpose expose themselves to the perils of pirating? Here’s their explanation .
The new album is bouncy enough to dance to but not too pop-ish, with smooth male vocals and thoughtful but still-accessible lyrics. By no means pedestrian, Little by Little is what rock has been waiting for. The sound is reminds me of Ben Folds, but without the pretension that makes him almost unlistenable. Luckily you don’t have to take my word for it, try it yourself . Let me know what you think.
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
"Pirate schools" given healthy tongue-lashings
Faced with very little fear of punishment on the part of its enemies, conglomerated music is doing what it does best, complaining. Filing more than 150,000 complaints to universities this year alone, it’s not a surprise that some of their complaints have fallen on deaf ears. The biggest culprits in ignoring the RIAA’s rants are the universities: Ohio, Purdue, Nebraska-Lincoln, U of Tennessee and the University of South Carolina. Good job pirate schools!
I saw this article via the Inquirer and then read the full article in the Indianapolis Star. The interesting thing is that I then read the discussion forum on the Star’s website and noticed that almost without exception the commenters were pro-piracy. If readers in Indiana can be anti-establishment, what hope do the powers-that-be really have?
the AP article printed in the Indy Star, and the forum page
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit
More good music: Macadamia
Reminiscent of the Postal Service but more experimental, Macadamia is two British guys from England who ‘get together to make experimental music.’ They’ve released two albums so far and both are available for free download at their website.
For more great free music, see my previous post. And about the site I found both bands, Last.fm
comment | permalink | +del.icio.us | +digg | +reddit