There are great benefits to connectedness, but we haven't wrapped our minds around the costs.
Sound of Traffic
Topic: Technology
10:23 pm EST, Feb 15, 2007
Sound of Traffic is a Java "application" which converts TCP/IP header information into midi notes via the Java Synthesizer. The purpose is to listen in on network traffic in ordered time, via a tempo, rather than realtime, which could be more chaotic. In this sense it becomes closer to music then noise.
Play back of traffic is sorted by source and destination addresses and ports. Ports are assigned individual midi instruments and played on odd or even ticks depending upon whether it is a source or destination packet. The note played by the port is based upon the number of hits (amount of traffic) occurring on the port.
Development is on hold while I develop a new package for converting numeric data from any data stream into audio (MIDI, Sampled, FM Modulation.)
YouTube - Video explains the world's most important 6-sec drum loop
Topic: Arts
10:23 pm EST, Feb 15, 2007
This fascinating, brilliant 20-minute video narrates the history of the "Amen Break," a six-second drum sample from the b-side of a chart-topping single from 1969. This sample was used extensively in early hiphop and sample-based music, and became the basis for drum-and-bass and jungle music -- a six-second clip that spawned several entire subcultures. Nate Harrison's 2004 video is a meditation on the ownership of culture, the nature of art and creativity, and the history of a remarkable music clip.
So, I watched the No News clip and went exploring. I found this:
Time Trumpet was a six-episode television comedy series which aired on BBC Two during Summer 2006. The satirical series "looked back" on events of the first 30 years of the 21st century from the perspective of a nostalgia show in the year 2031 ...
Other sketches included were a look back on the program "RapeanApe", the time Charlotte Church vomited herself inside out, and ...
The controversial third episode, which featured a mock look-back at a jumbo jet crashing into the British Houses of Parliament and an assassinated Tony Blair, was due to be screened on 17 August 2006, but was canceled in the wake of security threats in London airports and substituted by another episode. The canceled episode was subsequently shown a week later, without the footage of an assassinated Blair.
Clips are linked here, but I recommend viewing them through the Flash application.
For the time being here’s a compilation of a few bits along the theme of ‘No News’ that I did for Time Trumpet last year. People tend to think that it’s all footage I’ve got from the BBC of newsreaders before they go on air (which I did have access to), but I made these from transmitted footage, which I tinkered with to make it look as if they weren’t saying anything. It’s not funny as such but it’s pleasingly odd I think. Enjoy!
RE: Center for American Progress | The Terrorism Index
Topic: War on Terrorism
9:28 pm EST, Feb 15, 2007
These results strike me as unsurprising. The effort here seems worthwhile, but analysis of the survey results leaves something to be desired.
First, about the overall question: "Thinking about the present situation, would you say that the world is becoming safer or more dangerous for the United States and the American people?"
There's nothing directly in the question about terrorism. Degrading relations and increasing tensions with North Korea and Iran are not primarily related to "terrorism."
A question about "winning the war on terror" presupposes that: 1) there is a war, beyond its declaration; 2) that "terror" is something against which you can wage war, as distinct from simply raging against it; 3) that "winning" such a war is necessary and important. To my view, none of these are obviously true.
The questions about public diplomacy are valid but not especially helpful. Failure at public diplomacy is not about declining to hire the right ad men. A successful public diplomacy is not even really about leadership; to be sure, a poor leader can screw up big time, but so can a buck private with a digital camera. Rather, achieving success in public diplomacy is the responsibility of the Public. That means You. Why is this seemingly so hard to understand?
I would propose for discussion the hypothesis that no major nation is doing a particularly good job at public diplomacy. Surely our public diplomacy is more effective than that of North Korea, or of Iran. When was the last time you met a North Korean at an industry conference? Have you ever talked with a North Korean about what it's like to live in the countryside? Iran is in somewhat better shape, but the contemporary popular understanding of Iran is dominated by the actions of its President -- to a much greater extent than for the United States, I'd argue.
This video makes fun of modern newbie computer users. It's from a show called Oystein & Meg (Oystein & I) produced by the Norwegian Broadcasting television channel (NRK) in 2001. The spoken language is Norwegian
Kiefer Sutherland on the Charlie Rose Show - Jan 12, 2007
Topic: TV
7:27 pm EST, Feb 14, 2007
I've posted this not because it's a must-see, but because it was mentioned in a recent article in The New Yorker.
Segment 1: Actor Kiefer Sutherland talks about the new season of "24".
Skip to 4:00 to get things underway; the comments referenced below start around 22:00. The segment ends around 36:40.
From the magazine article:
Sutherland declined to answer questions for this article, but, in a recent television interview with Charlie Rose, his ambivalence about his character’s methods was palpable. He condemned the abuse of U.S.-held detainees at Abu Ghraib prison, in Iraq, as “absolutely criminal,” particularly for a country that tells others that “democracy and freedom” are the “way to go.” He also said, “You can torture someone and they’ll basically tell you exactly what you want to hear. . . . Torture is not a way of procuring information.” But things operate differently, he said, on television: “24,” he said, is “a fantastical show. . . . Torture is a dramatic device.”
Guilty Parties: Anthony Lane on 'The Lives of Others' | The New Yorker
Topic: Movies
12:13 pm EST, Feb 10, 2007
If there is any justice, this year’s Academy Award for best foreign-language film will go to “The Lives of Others,” a movie about a world in which there is no justice.
Again, I fear Lane gives away too much in this review; read it afterward, instead of beforehand. But this is a nice conclusion:
You might think that “The Lives of Others” is aimed solely at modern Germans. A movie this strong, however, is never parochial, nor is it period drama. Es ist für uns. It’s for us.
