Life as an Artificial Lifeform

Ever had a thought how multiple gigabyte of Visual Effects for the Lord of the Rings went from New Zealand, home of Weta Digital the company behind the effects, to the Pinewood Studios London half way around the world for the director to make approvals?

Media was transferred from Weta to Pinewood Studios in London. There, Jackson's 30-gig iPod was ready and waiting to upload Weta's daily fresh-baked shots and sequences. His iPod was then delivered via sneaker net to his home a few minutes away from Pinewood.

Sneaker net. and meanwhile the guy transporting the iPod was able to listen to some of his favorite tunes.

Some have asked me about the Pixlet compression. This is where it comes into play. For making dailies (that the screenings by the directors and decision makers who approve or disapprove visuals, edits etc.) half way around the world in 1k or 2k resolution still beeing able to transport it around the world on an iPod and not introducing any bad compression artefacts.

Full article at: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/

Posted by fALk at 14:02 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What a comment. and this comes from an FBI agent. This guy says that "if you want to make it hard for law enforcement officials go buy a mac". Mac is secure out of the box he say. Now how do you specify good or bad? Maybe he meant: "If you are a P2P user use a Mac", or "if you are a Filesharer use a Mac", or "if you "are security analyst use a mac." Its hard to get caught if you are on a mac - he says so.

Now who is using a mac? Ähmmm...... no I am a good guy for sure...... :)

Posted by fALk at 9:16 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I need to get something out of my head.
1 year ago I abondend TV. I have not read much newspapers before and look an any piece of "news" or "information" with a sceptical eye. I try to balance my view as much as I can by reading extreme right views extreme left views, center views, philosophical views and so on. The more independed I have grown from the One to Many communications the more I realized that there is a mass scale brainwashing going that robs the average citizen of their will. You know Brave New World kind of Soma Drug but the drug is the media. I know some people outright addicted by TV. They can not sit in my room for more then 30 minutes without demanding that I should get a satellite receiver. When I tell them that I do not want to watch TV anymore I get a blank stare of disbelieve. They are so addicted they can think of anything else then watching TV. I was addicted to it as well, in my younger years I was hanging out in front of it for 4 hours a day and couldn´t move on. When they shut off analog transmission it felt like they took away a drug. Now after one year I have no urge to watch TV anymore. Even the thought of it makes me shudder with all that wasted time. Yes there are "information" on TV that might be good but its soooo rare its not worth waiting for, and if you believe a 30 minute science broadcast is helping you understand the world I have to say: No. Its just one way the media is making even those who are smart and interested in the world also an addict. They reach out to everyone. Interestingly the media is controlling the public mind and TV is on its forefront. Of course the media will feature those politicians that will not do any regulations on them. Of course the media will invest big bugs in politicians that do not wake up the population. Ones the population woke up from the druggy dreams they would understand that there is another life out there. Something refreshing. Right now I would say that the One to Many traditional media (and I take the newspapers and magazin in this as well as with most of their coverage it aims at the same direction -> earning money, getting readers, brainwashing them making them addicts - left and right media the same in this regard) is in total control in the "western civilized world" what they believe is right will be going on. The politicians in charge are puppets of the media, because if something does not go according to their plan they will just unleash a hate campaign. Now who is really in charge of the media? Its a few people, a handfull that controls the big stations and newspapers and let me assure you they are talking on the phone at least ones a month on how to keep the addiction level of the mass population.
Now the only chance to get out of it is the net. Of course the media is starting to pollute it with their views and its disgusting to see that. The refreshing side of it is that blogs springing up everywhere who try to deal with their own view on the world. Indeed its something the big bosses will not understand fast enough. Human beings are about interacting. Human beings want to broadcast. They want to tell others what is going on around them. What their problems are what their dreams are what they see as a bright and positive future for them self. They do not want to be dictated what they ought to think.
The problem is that too many are already brainwashed. People watching TV for 50 years now. The young to old people ratio is tipping toward the older like my grandparents whos TV is on 12 hours a day. Or my parents whos TV is on 4 hours a day. I predict that there will be a big deep rip through society. The ones that woke up from the addiction and feel like the have slept their whole live and now want to change something and the others who will stay addicted until the end. The problem is that there is no chance that majority will wake up. The older people will likely not adapt to the nets many to many communication anymore. There are not enough young kids coming after that they would form a majority. This will be THE big issue of the next years and the rip will get deeper and deeper as further we will go down the timeline. The media will control the hords of druggies who will denounce everything the free minded people will say or do. It will be not long down the line until we are labelled "terrorists". And I have to say YES I AM A MEDIATERRORIST. DEATH TO TV.

Where do you stand my friend?

Posted by fALk at 14:12 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The least adorable candidate has won yet another round in the selection process for a democratic party contender against president bush. That is no surprise for anyone watching the american news (or reading them on the internet) it seem so crystal clear that the media does not want a president that does not favour them or a president that can not be manipulated. Howard Dean came in second and at his speech after the election ask the viewer: "Do you want a new President or a new America?" This is such a core question that could be formulated otherwise "Do you want the current old politics to continue or do you want passion, little risk but brighter future?". Indeed I have to say to my american friends: If you nominate Kerry you will have another 4 years of Bush. Kerry is not able to win, he is to old for that, he can not excite anyone beyond his core veteran group but this is also a group that could likely go to Bush in a blink. Ones Dean drops out the race Kerry is loosing face very very fast. The surge for Kerry came only after Dean getting some attention, the record voter turnout of 200.000 in New Hampshire was because Dean was bringing passion to get the voters out on the street. And let me tell you from over here: a lot of Dean supporters would do anything but vote for Kerry. Some would go and vote for Nader who instantly would come to the game if Kerry would win. Kerry who has flip floped through elections in Congress where he is Senator is seen as a Bush-Lite with a Dean-Lite attitude, someone who talks about what is in fashion and does nothing on his own. Someone who just outright copies speeches from other candidates when he feels like they could help him win the nomination. This all sounds very very much like Bush to me, who won the nomination four years ago in similar fashion and then did nothing to fulfil his promises and turned against the people. Oh and did I mention that Kerry and Bush are in the same secret corporate society, maybe even friends.

Posted by fALk at 13:43 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Via Yahoo comes an interesting story that a Danish company has developed an genetic engineered flower that has a different coloured blossom where a Landmine is underneath. It will not develop seeds on its own and is not able to spread and contaminate not affected soil. The plant is "detecting" the nitrogen-dioxide (NO2) that dissipates from explosives underground. What a great way to use technology - what a positive way.

Posted by fALk at 13:21 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ok. Are you ready for the true conspiracy theory. You know 23 and Illuminati. Maybe after all its true. Maybe after all we find out about it. I doubt that we will ever get really proof unless the Secret society is grabbing for too much power and it all becomes visible. You know the whole story.
I get ahead of my self. The current poll leader in the democratic party presidential nominee election is John Kerry. Well other then he looks like he is already dead it has been found out that he belongs to the secret society of Yale University. That is a proven fact in fact. This society is called Skullz and Bones . A society that acts completly in secrecy since 170 years. 15 members are allowed per year for a livetime membership and for those who are members its all doors open. Now you say bully little university club with rituals and nothing to say? Ok there are 800 living members of the society. The most prominent? Hold your chair grab something because you my favorite conspiracy theorist will pass out soon: The male Bush family going back to Prescott ol W. grandfather and George Mr. presidents father and ol George W. Bush, current president, himself.
Let me repeat that: Mr. George W. Bush is in the Skullz and Bones and the current democratic front runner John Kerry as well.
Now you want to know who else is in there? Time magazin founder, Newsweek Magazin Founder, Fox Television owner CIA top ranking officials, vice presidents. All those 800 members can be said to run the USA right now from every side, military, intelligence, and press coverage. I am a conspiracy theorist but this is not a theory anymore its out and its public. And if all goes as it does right now the press is beating down on Howard Dean, NOT a member of that society and instead saying Mr. Kerry is the nicest person on earth. You got me wondering, anyone else wondering? There is a statement from some Skullz and Bones members that for them it does not matter if Bush Jr or Kerry will win because they will all win anyway. Man why is this not frontcover in every press there is all over the world, especially when you see the other names of that society? Oh wait the press is owned by the society...

Read the links. it will illuminate your day.... spread the word this has to get out.

PS: the most secret room in the secret building of the secret society on yales ground, the room where they give out the membership in a very strange babaric ceremony, is room called room 322....

PS2: another link in to get you informed. this is the most comprehensiv but also the one that is on a domain that doubts its credibility. I like the democracy inteview best. Is short and gives good overview and seem "balanced" as balanced as you can be when a secret society is overtaking the USA (world?) and a very good indepth dutch documentary here: skullandbonespart1.ram skullandbonespart2.ram

Posted by fALk at 20:57 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Why do I like to see Howard Dean as the next US president. He does have - besides a little bit to conservative style - a common sense and says things that at times amaze me, things that he gets in trouble for, things straight out of his head (this is what this Blog was called on its first day - straight out of my head, so I like this attitude).
Today at a rally in New Hampshire he answered a question on what he thinks about the statistik that 90% of all Americans get 100% of their news from the 3 biggest tv networks. His answer: "The public airwaves are the airwaves of the people who should be free to do with them what they think is best". WiMAX everywhere Internet in the air... many to many... this is the sounds of it.

He also believes globalizations is a good thing, BUT ONLY if you create a middle class all over the world and you should get the worker unions to make sure the working conditions for employees oversee are the same as inside the US and the salary is the same as well. Oha what a statement from a US presidential candidate. This could have almost come from ATTAC.

Did I say I like him somehow? So not as far left as a Revolutionary would like to but further left and more honest then the rest of the democratic pack (Kucinich has put himself out for me (yes I can not vote but raise my opinion that is what the blog is for) when he kind of endorsed that slimy Trial lawyer Edwards in Iowa). Yeaah.

So I must say that his run for nomination will falter when he looses in New Hampshire. And then the world will get a Bush light (thats how I would describe Mr. poll leading Kerry) or maybe even Bush can win the general election, because if the Republicans have an enemy that voted for the war (Kerry) the whole issue with the Iraq war is not an issue anymore that would work against Bushney. Also Kerry is weak and easily attacked and will falter under media pressure like card of vegas playing cards.

Sidemark: God I wish german politics would be so interesting. We here have the choice between Schröder with the SPD and Stoiber/ugly Merkel CDU. There is NO difference between them. They all get a shitload of money for not showing up to debates. Making deals in between so that laws in their own favor get passed. Paying less at the doctor. Having big Mercedes (all of the delegates at federal and state level!) with chauffeurs and most have police escort (why a state official has police escord escapes me totally what a waste of money). And the Revoluzer from the 70s are all bought up with money and love to go to war and love to cut spending on social services and arts.

Posted by fALk at 19:24 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What is my take in the art of making live video? What do I want to do different then the tons of advertisment agencies producing music videos. What is it that drives me forward even so there is no money involved and I am slowly starving (well not yet but I am getting there). Its my way to make clear a message, even subtle in clubs at parties. Its moving images that might change peoples thinking. Its clips that might sprinkle hope. Its things that might wake up brainwashed chemojunkies. Peter Rubin, one of the still performing video artists that has been in this territory from the beginning throughout the 60s,70s and 1980s has put his energy into a project to get some of this activism back that ones was present in this scene and was the hallmark of the peace revolution that took place in the 70s. Back then this all was new and adventurous back then and the haluzinogen szene was active, but the message was clear, put a counterweight to masscommunication, find artistic was to challenge tv consumption. Here we are in the year 2004 and the scene is ones again flourishing. We are not in the need anymore to build our own hardware, most is cheap and easily available, the revival goes far beyond anything that was here in the last 400 years (when Loius Bertrant Castel build his first ColorCembalo). We are numerours and we have electronics that are geared toward us - as seen in our own Pioneer videoturntable. Well all is fine but there is something missing that was there all throughout. The message and the search for it. In the early times the audiovisual artists tried to search for the perfect connection of color and sound then form and sound. When they found out that there might be a deep psychological connection but no scientific one they experimented and tried to find a message, with there hardware (first portable video synthesizer 1969), with their pictures (halizunogen to free the mind late 60s). Then came commercialisation and this is where I leave it to Peter Rubin with his and our videomix project to explain what goes wrong and where we – the Visual Artist Rebells – will need to go instead.

In short, it’s time for the people to take back their vision! What are needed now are not clever new formulas designed to divide the mass into more efficient units of predictable behavior, but initiatives which can replace the present commercial manipulation of global identities; What is needed now is a new awareness, a new courage and belief, a new breed of truly independent young visionaries who will forsake the slave-like dependence on commercial financing and compromised production; What are needed now are initiatives that will not only satisfy a small, radical club of underground egoists, but will develop a self-financing work structure supported by and serving the global community; What is needed now is a visual renaissance born from the heart of the underground spirit, which is global and technological, and independent and free, in order to freshly inspire music and culture and bring the vision of the people back to the global family.

PeteR Rubin Amsterdam, June 1995

Andy Warhol, The Middle Class, MTV and You at vmix.org

Posted by fALk at 17:32 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Every one is trumpeting the great advance the internet will bring to the 2004 US presidential election (yes you will see lots of commentary on this little world changing subject in the coming month from me). I am a strong advocate of many to many communication and I simply HATE TV and massmedia. Massmedia and people in charge of it have more power then any politicians, had no real enemy for almost two centuries and therefor flourished beyond control. There is no census for them, but instead of using it advocating peace and justice they are victims of corporate bribery (advertisements) and powerhungry moguls that teamed up with the worlds worst in politics and smear over the world with a tasteless dark view, full of hate and fear. I blame the massmedia for much that has happened over the last two centuries.
Anyway, along comes the internet and all go uhyeah on it. It will give the freedom of speech the liberty, it will give the people a voice to be heard. Presidential faithful Governor Howard Dean (who I still like best out of the 8 slimy smeary democratic contenders for presidency this year) tapped on it heavy, opened a blog and multiple tools to team up and go public. Everyone saw that move as smart, clever and the mass media was shivering because this could have been read as the true many to many revolution. Witnessing a slight decline in TV watchers, heavy decline in Newspaper readers those media moguls are seeing their fait going down where the red martian wind blows. So they are hammering on this candidate as much as they can.
But is his campaign really so devasistating to one to many communication. Is it really a many to many communication platform - even so all circles around a Blog. Lauren Gelman is given a good commentary on this subject. and I can not agree more with her. Even so the blog has a commentary function it has grown so big and serves now as a centralized portal for all things Howard Dean (supporting wise). But things are not free for everyone. Not all can post. The guest bloggers are handpicked and the critique is mostly hidden somewhere down in the threats of sometimes up to a thousand posts. I mean that they are leaving the threats open for everyone to post is a good thing (so they have required registration now because there have been several dos and troll attacks on it in the past day) something that hadn´t been done before, but to really have this blog as a true many to maby medium it should stay on paar with the thausonds of blogs of other supporters perhaps even the millions of blogs of everyone. No censored stories, critique allowed. Maybe it should just serve as a portal to the other blogs who want to have there links there and then have a polling mechanism which puts the most popular blogs on top. Maybe do a feature from now and then on some extraordinary commentary.
This would be truly untested pure democratic water to be entered. This might not work at all at present times for a Presidential campaign but its worth a look at if the mass media is really what you want to get rid off (regulate) Mr. Dean - as you state so often in your speeches.
Th bloggers are on their right way to make many to many communication possible large scale. With them the friends of the wiki, where I am still amazed how well this goes with even unexperienced web users.

Posted by fALk at 16:30 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Did I miss something? I didn´t get out much lately but this really knocks my stinking socks of my rotten feet. The New York Times is reporting that there are talks that the US might collaborate with China - yes this communist red state that kills internet users, surpresses the lovely Tibet Nation and wants to takeover Taiwan and then the rest of the world - on Bushs plans to get to the moon and then onto mars?!?!! I was reading some comment a while back that the government of the US is transforming into a communist state with all the governautical regulations and indeed when you look at Patriot act and co one could come to the conclusion that the US might be the next in a row of semi kommunism that hides under the umbrella of capitalism. That Bush even considers working together with the Chinese is something where I really have nothing to say about. Is Bush afraid that the 1.5 Billion Chinese will get over the water and just run over the US of A like the dead armee in Lord of the Rings? Is it a tactic to get spies in the Chinese space agency and see how far they are and if there is a real risk.
I would never trust the Chinese government and anyone familiar with chinese customs will know that are very great in hiding what they really want by maskerading and playing the good guy. Yes they want the Tibetans to have there own culture, because that attracks paying tourist, at the same time the inject millions of han chinese into tibet to eradicate the population over the long term. Seeing the Bush administration making failure after failure in predicting things especially with tough counter parts (*cough* sistani *cough*) they are heading into another one. but what do I know... maybe there is some secret plan for a new chinese-american alliance against the rest of the world.... 23

Posted by fALk at 19:45 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Something that seems almost unreal. Television, that ancient concept of one to many communication, in America is in a state of heavy decline. According to a Yahoo article the 2 percent drop in viewership is accelerating and among those watching less or NO TV are at most the younger viewer between 18 and 49. 7% of those to be precice. As the Video Art pioneer Eric Siegel put it in 1975:

"The American Dream no longer is evolving. It's in a state of decay. Television must be liberated."

Great that the internet is coming to help here. I personally have no TV anymore, since the capitalistic bastards forced everyone to buy a 200 euro settop box for suprior digital tv. They promised me to get 25 more channels of constant brain frying junk - I passed and in return I have much more time at hand to educate myself, which seem so much more rewarding. I have to admit that I miss the beauty of 25fps high rez (well tv highres at least) news feeds from time to time but I am in high hope that the internet will catch up to this very soon. Multikast could help us get there soon - where is my IPv6......

Posted by fALk at 12:24 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

ROTFL . This is super funny. I think bush might have been one of those girls that always wanted to be a boy because his dad wanted to have a boy to be put into office. So he had surgery when s/he was younger (before the cameras where pointing at him). Now see some exclusive private photos where his womanhood gets through with him:

http://www.superlaugh.com/1/bushgirl.htm

Posted by fALk at 16:03 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ok get this: Matrix looking brain implants that lets you control your computer are set for trials THIS YEAR. Did I say future is near? Future IS NOW. Wired is reporting on a company called cyberkinetics inc. that has trials with monkeys who can already control a mouse on a computer screen just with their brain. They want to test this system with five quadriplegic in a couple of month and plan for a release to the general public if the tests are going right and the implants are easy to employ in human. Yes they plan a release for the general public you read that right, to help people with high demand on brain bandwidth - uh me me plzz. And it gets better. I always knew that the Matrix was falling apart when wireless technology was moving into the picture here so fast after the first Matrix was released. All of the sudden the wires to put into your head looked old and outdated and everyone wished the people connecting to the matrix would do that wireless. It looks we are moving beyong science fiction fast:

BrainGate's final version will be wireless and unobtrusive....

did I say that I want one. I want to dump all my thoughts to the computer and furthermore what is more important to me: I want to record everything I see in HighDefinition and billions of colors. Ah that can´t be far away then.

Posted by fALk at 13:32 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Heise reports that britisch scientist puplished a report in Nature Magazine that they are using a robotic system to make DNA analysis of the special mushroom breed "Saccharomyces cerevisiae". While the tests go on the robot learns from results and mixes other DNA to test the mushroom. This is almost completely autonomous. Right now the scientist check if the system is working as expected with tests they have already done themself. They say that the thinking machine is up to tens times faster with right conclusion then the human counterparts. The next step will be tests the humans have not done. The mushroom is used in antibiotic research and drug development. This is in fact the first story that I heard of where an intelligent computer is applied in real work outside a testing lab. They are getting brighter, they learn and all this is a fast process. 2004 will be the year of the first intelligent machines this is just an early sign of it. They are not spiritual yet but intelligence is not so far off.

Posted by fALk at 20:17 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

German newspapers this morning report that Mr. O´Neill - yes the guy who claimed that the Bush administration had plan before 9/11 to invade Iraq - is coming under pressure from the administration. The administration says he made secret documents public. Well well Mr. President let me tell you that you are pretty stupid because doing this you just ACKNOWLEDGED that Mr. O`Neill is totally right with what he says. Didn´t this US administration just yesterday say that he lying? Who was lying? It gets weirder and weirder every day.

Posted by fALk at 10:54 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The guardian is reporting on a story that was just briefly coming up during the incident. One of last helicopter shut downs in Falluja, Iraq was also the scene of some wild shooting of a camera team that fled with their car from the bulltets. Even a day after that incident some conservative media in the US claimed insurgents (partisans) have opened fire to the investigating soldiers. Reuters said it was a camera team of them and that was made clear today when Reuters filed a complain to the Pentagon and the US Armee for harrassing their reporters and treating them shamefull. They put a shoe in the mouth of one after he had to strip down naked. His crime? Trying a balanced coverage of the incident for one of the largest independent press centers: Reuters. The Armee is defending this by saying "the soldiers are mostly always right in their judgement". Great to feel that we have a free press in a free world that can cover whatever they want.

Posted by fALk at 10:47 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

ou know I tend to use the term VJ to describe my art as many others in my field do. Its because we all are too lazy to explain to every person who walks up to us in a club what we do and VJ has been picked up by the media. If you are not following the "VJ scene" all along there was very heated debate about the term to give us about 2-3 years ago (yes that short). In the end we kinda settled with that and it has stick (with little debates in between from now and then). The problem with the term is that most of us are not like DJs playing prerecorded Records and trying to pitch adjust them to beat. Most of us are more like a live act musician - carefully crafting out our visuals over the course of the night (loops based software based etc just like different breeds of live act musicians). Its really like playing an instrument having control over almost all different aspects of our visuals, its not just pitch adjusting but recutting grouping colorizing generating etc etc.
That has two origins, first there is this long history of the synesthic art field (first mentioned by early philosopher like plato) with a boom in the 70s and 90s. Its has always been about generating the visuals to the music live. And then there is a simple fact: there was no such thing as a record player for video (yes there was one experimental one but it never really went into mass production).
The second reason has just vanished. Pioneer is brining out a pitch adjustable DVD player the DJV X1 Master. The first reason is the cause of a split in the Live Video Performance scene - which is ultimately not bad.

So what is my personal take in short? VJ´s become VJ´s or maybe even AVJ´s replacing the DJ in the long time frame by playing AVJ singles that have a beatsynced visual set on top of the prerecorded music that can be mixed just like a record. That is easy to do and to learn and the Pioneer unit will lead the way to this (dvd sound finally replacing the vinyl, as it has more audio information then a vinyl and cd combined, so it really does sound better?!), and then there will be those of us (like me) who would still like to do it all live and rather look like a dork behind a lappy in front of da big crowd but retaining the qualities of a true live set by really beeing able to change something. I would even suggest that the latter form is grouping up with the audio live acts and not even playing anymore at normal record spinning events as those can be fully suited by the AVJs.
The best thing of all is that those with the skillz and the knowledge now can finally produce for this strong market ones it is in place, you know produce AVJ singles (coupled with the audio guys).

And finally let me make one thing clear. It is harder to do a good visual mix then to do a good audio mix even so some things might look good there is a quality in it and that is not learned overnight.

Posted by fALk at 12:56 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What all of us conspiracy theorist knew forever: The bush administration planned the war on Iraq even before the 9/11 happened. Its hardly news, it was natural for the son to go after the fathers failure and the rivals score a big point against him (again, someone should do a points against bush tracker).
What indeed is newsworthy is that the info and comes a former high ranking intern of the administration. Of course former Treasury Secretar O`Neill will be discredited by the bush media in all ways possible and his comment style does much to discredit him on its own, the new thing is that it was picked up throughout the world as absolutely noteworthy the google links are overflowing and most of the stories I skimmed through leave a very sour taste for Mr. Bush. I have to put down some quotes by O`Neill from his CBS-TV appearance presenting his book "The Price of Loyalty."

As a conspiracy theorist, still thinking the current US administration had a lot of reasons for 9/11 to happen (I did not say they ordered it to happen, I would say they didn´t want to prevent it) the following quote is a dream:

O`Neill commenting on a discussion in the white house about a possible Iraq war before 9/11: "It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it.The president saying 'Go find me a way to do this."'

I repeat: The president saying 'Go find me a way to do this."

or he refers to the president in a cabinet meeting as: a blind man in a roomful of deaf people

The good thing is that Mr. a little to eccentric O`Neill has a well know publisher Mr. Suskind who saw it forthecoming that the administration will backfire right away and has put tons of amunition into the book. It seems the claims of O`Neill are well founded with memos, briefing materials and plans, good ol journalism getting back? Lovely. One of the memos has the title ‘Plan for post-Saddam Iraq’ dated well before 9/11. Ah yes you still no conspiracy theorist yet?

Posted by fALk at 0:18 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Tim send me an email yesterday with a link to a product that expanses your G5 with two more additional internal HDs. Well I need to state that I always thought that the dual G5 under my table is a perfect machine EXCEPT for the two lonely drive bays and NO other way to install more harddrives. The problem is – as a poweruser – you want a dedicated startup drive with your apps on it (at least that is what I want). It does not need to be the fastes drive in the world but should be large enough to hold your system, apps and day to day stuff. Now there is a "professional" solution to this problem from wiebetech. And let me say is that an "ugly" solution. It lets you expand your G5 with two more drives, serial ATA. So that far its great, but it does so by gluing some stupid looking drive bay on the door (that you are supposed to just take away when something goes awkward during a production). Then you have the hds hanging on their cables attached to the computers on one side and to the door on the other. Very ugly to repeat that. But this would all not be so bad, you know solution like this tend to be messy. But you know what they charge for thing? $1.499 for the 640 GB solution and - hold your breath - $2.499,95 for the 1 Terrabyte solution. I hope they have looked at apples website lately because add hundert grand to that and you get a whole new G5, bright and shiny inside out – as it should look like.
Now for the headline. There is a cheap solution for those brave out there. Some time ago, shortly after the introduction of the G5 the mac news rumor now not rumor anymore site MacBidouille posted a very short article about an G5 owner that has managed to squeeze HD on top of his optical drive and then use a new IDE cable with two ends in replacement for the one that connects to the DVD-R drive and a powercable split. The site promised to do a follow up on the story but never did. Me a little nervous about the heat problem this might have and stability and all set out to find the guy that was mentioned on the site. And I found Mr. Jefftrep from Quebec Canada and had a little email exchange with him. After two month in operation all is fine with his G5 that now sports 2x 250GB Serial ATA Raid and a bootable 160 GB Maxtor normal IDE/ATA drive, no heat problems and no failures, very stable and very fast.

he wrote:

Well... Yes it's me, and NO there is no problems at all. Nothing, no glitch, no heathing, no nothing! And I can say I use my machine full time. I edit on it everyday using FCP4 or making DVD with DVDSP2 (and yes they are legits software). The DVDburner don't even know there's someone else on the ATA chain. ---- The ATA boot drive is a 160 GB Maxtor ATA/133 with 8MB Buffer 7200RPM, so even if the bus speed is higher - i'm stuck with ATA133. My 2 SATA drive are both 250GB Maxtor 7200RPM that Apple installed when I order my G5. They are in RAID0 via Apple diskutility ... ... I'm not sure about the ATA speed, but I can tell you that it boot really faster (like 15 -20 sec) than a G4/Dual1.4Gig with the same kind of configuration ...

So this will be my way around the problem and wiebetech and keep their $2.500 junk piece and put it on the moon.

Posted by fALk at 23:38 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A couple of month the honda robot asimo shaked hands with Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla on his world tour. It made him (her? it?) the first ambassador from technology land. Today he gets a mate. Sony just unvieled their own robot ambassasor at the Computer Electronics Show called Qrio – Quest for curiosity. There own stating is: Its to expensive to build yet to be a home appliance, but yes it can shake hands and entertain. Just like our politicians. After my last blog entry I am quite happy that the robots are pursuing a diplomatic route for a peacefull understanding between this breed and human kind so early on.
An evolution chart for robots can be found on the honda site, worth looking at.

PC magazin has contributed to this story.

Posted by fALk at 23:01 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

WE shape the future with our imagination. What could be from a SciFi movie, or as a matter of fact was a theme in lots of the sci-fi movie, now comes true. Terminator, RoboCop, StarWar all had them, animal looking robots that were much tougher bigger faster and smarter then their natural counterparts. Now Wired reports that a company called Boston Dynamics is supposed to build a ROBODOG or what they call "Big Dog" for the US Armee. If you look at the pictures you would think that they are an artist drawing for a upcoming sci fi movie. Yes its reality yes its happining now. I wonder where all the philosophical thinking about those robots went? What happens when they run loose, against humankind? Don´t get me wrong I love technologic advancments just not in the hands of the armee.
Also if you look really close you migh come to think about a scene of the first series of the Animatrix "The Second Renaissance". The scene where the machines attack the humans. Somehow they look very much like this RoboDog especially when you considering the size of this thing. Good thing is that the first version will be highly stupid, or at least not very intelligent.
story contribution: wired.com:news

Posted by fALk at 20:21 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well I have been downloading and reading into the documentation of Xgrid for a bit now. And this application environment is really awesome. I can not thank Apple enough for providing this. If you need high performance computing and have more then one Apple in your house you definately want this and then hope that every application developer jumps on it as fast as they can. Xgrid is featuring fulltime and part time cluster agents - means that it can be run as a screensaver module. The client is sending out a computational request to the server (which can be on the same machine as the client) and this then splits and sends out the jobs to the agents (which can be on the same computer as the client or the server as well, so you do not loose a computer that can crunch when you only have few of em). It has a neat very easy interface and sports a tachometer that shows how fast you are going ;) Now please if any application developer of Shake, Electric Image, Maya, AfterEffects is out there: YOU NEED THIS IN YOUR APPS!

Posted by fALk at 11:23 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The guardian reports today that Anti-Terrorism experts from six countries are searching for a group of left anarchos that are responsible for the letter bombings of the Paliament of the European Union. No aint that funny that just yesterday multiple other newspaper reported that noone knows who is responsible and that only a letter had been found? Do I see a pattern here that after the war on terrrorism is done with islam (killed em all or what?) it is now moving to those who have an extreme leftist view? Didn´t we have this before? Isn´t it funny that this happens in a country where an extreme right government under the media mogul Berlousconi is in charge? Are we seeing another witch hunt after 30 or after 70 years? Is it wrong to think left? I would not wonder when they dispatch a group of 500 or so punkish looking (read not wearing a tie and a suit) people that happen to be against the WTO and speak outin puplic. Man how fast does this world forget? It gets scary now.

Posted by fALk at 10:24 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well when I was watching the 1984 ad again and arguing over quality with Tim who showed me an (worse looking but better resultion) Cinepack version I noticed a difference. Its so small and you almost not see it. The version that is featured on apples website is a different version then the original one.
Look at the attached picture and try to find out what the difference of the "2004 might be 1984" version is compared to the "1984 is not like 1984" version... :)

2004 might be like 1984 <-------> 1984 is not like 1984

just one note: the integration is well done wether you like that they mugged around with the original or not

Posted by fALk at 21:30 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

Every time Stevie does a keynote there is a little press release that slips under the radar of the announcments. This time: XGrid. The highly rumored with message list sainted but then ripped apart XGrid. It allows you to have multiple of those lovely XServes (and I suspect any decent Mac running OSX(Server?)) to Grid together to a cluster using Rendevouz. Yes that instant on networking standard pioneered by apple. The one that lets you share ya tunes over iTunes or discovers an Printer on da fly. "Of course" as Tim Pritlove noted "you have to rewrite apps for it". Oh well there is hoping that maya gets it first :) imagine an XGrid cluster with these.

Posted by fALk at 21:20 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today there was one of these things. A popconcert... no... a prayer session... ah no... it was a keynote. You know one of these things when a head of a company talks to some press guys about how their company is doing and what great new stuff they have. The one today is one of two a year that is different from the rest. It is held in front of thousands virtual and embodied macheads and the speaker is the mighty Steve J. This years "start of(f) the year" keynote in the Moscone Center in Silicon Valley was something special. No I am not talking about the overpriced iPodmini. No I am not talking about the band in a garage that fits on your harddrive. No also not about the – yummi – XserverG5s (ok I maybe I get a little offtrack here because they are soooo cool if I could just afford a cabinet of those with 40 G5s in them – ah well)... no the real thing is that the Macintosh is celebrating its 20th anniversary and to kick off the keynote mighty Steve showed the ad. You know THE ad. The one that aired only one time ever during the superbowl in 1984 and then never again and still had the world talking and got about every award an advertisement could get. The ad that sold the Macintosh.
Now the uniqueness off the 1984 ad is that it joins politiks and computer in front of the normal joe. It has so much power. I like the fact that Mr. elected but defeated be President and have been Vice President Al Gore is on the Apple Board in the election year that is posed to defeat Bush and that Mr. mighty Steve is showing the 1984 ad in front of his followers. Right at the beginning of this year. Perfekt computerpolitik mismatch at the right timing.

Posted by fALk at 20:59 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

After some suspicion that the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) of various sorts (chemical, biological and atomic(yes this was claimed by Mr. President Bush)) have been burried in the Syrian dessert there is now more talk about this over at highly suspicious Debkafiles who claim they have recieved a letter from a Syrian Journalist that claims he has is da shit and tracked the movement of the weapons from Iraq to Syria through an Import Export Company to some highly guarded compounds in syria - saving the great Saint Armee of the true God to dig around the dessert. Three sides have been identified by said "journalist": a Korean build (Korea had to be in the picture here I knew it) tunnel system underneath a village that was originally made for getting syria some scuds, a airfield (didn´t Israel just bomb that?) and inside a city near the border to Lebanon. Oh happy Bush now you have to start a war with Syria before the election (there is "credible intelligence that the weapons must be there") ain´t life great. For the tunnel system I suspect that you use your new "mini"-atomic bunker buster - yes the village will be depleted but who cares its just Syrians - it would make great marketing for the new weapons, this is what your money givers care about right? - and for the city why don´t you just drop the bomb in case they are hiding some yellow cake over there - you know to prevent fallout toward Israel. No the Iraniens are no problem they are just launching a spy satelity that can not fire at the moment and they still ain´t got the bomb yet to nuke Israel - so its all totally safe to do to your likeing.

Posted by fALk at 13:12 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A long look at the forbidden words by paul graham put inside a lovely essay about the heresay. He not only gives an overlook on how you can identify things some groups want you not to think or talk about but also on how to avoid or stay above those long tiresome discussions that lead to nowhere and suck up you energy.

Posted by fALk at 13:42 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A very cool site that deals with architecture in our culture on a philosophical level we have found. It deals with an architectural view on society, covers all things build. Examples are Law and Room: US Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, German-Japanese Village, Utah 1943 and many more.

Posted by fALk at 0:11 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well we all want to make our own nano electronic robots. The problem all of us face with this is how we gonna see the nanowirebucketballies. The University of Muenster has a detailed explanation on its website on how to build a microscope that can show us the supersmall stuff the future will likely be made off. The instruction is published under an open source like license. Great stuff for the nanoquantum heads out there.

Posted by fALk at 12:48 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have just stumbled across two great links for the people who want to stay politically informed and are sick of the mainstream media outlets. By no means are those links meant to replace all media but form another viewpoint to see things. One is an intelligence insider report. I am amazed how many of those surface from time to time. This one seems to be linked to the Israeli Intelligence Unit and has great many classified information that sounds believable (indepth coverage of stories that others only scratch the surface). It even seems quite balanced without much point of view and has a history of having stories that later turn out to be true. The other is a side that collects information regarding Globalization. This site is not balanced and very far out to the left but has very well researched articles that make up a good read for the conspiracy theorists - someone tell them that they need a better layout its horrible.
As always – taking all information with a grain of salt is advisable.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism Security
Centre for Research on Globalization

Posted by fALk at 18:06 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)