{ Wednesday, February 15, 2006 }
- As we may think, an essay by Vannevar Bush, published in The Atlantic in 1945, has the kernel of a thousand great ideas in it, anticipating the internet
There is a growing mountain of research. But there is increased evidence that we are being bogged down today as specialization extends. The investigator is staggered by the findings and conclusions of thousands of other workers -- conclusions which he cannot find time to grasp, much less to remember, as they appear. Yet specialization becomes increasingly necessary for progress, and the effort to bridge between disciplines is correspondingly superficial.
- I've long been a fan of Squid Labs (who led me to the Vannevar Bush article), but failed to notice that iFabricate has turned into Instructables, a great site where people can upload instructions of how to make all kinds of things, including this awesome Pinball coffee table.
- Stevie Wonder sings "For once in my life", circa 1968.
- Yahoo Music Unlimited has changed everything about the way I listen to music. It's basically a music subscription service in which you can listen to anything in their gargantuan library for $4.99/month. For someone like me, who will be really into The Philadelphia Sound one week, and orchestral metal the next, this is good. The only downside is it doesn't work with iPods. Stewart even went out and got a Zen Micro to use with it, but it was such a piece of crap we were sorry we'd even heard of it. Apple claims it will never offer a subscription service, they're doing too well with their pay-per-song model, but they always say that just before they release something.
- This week on YMU, I can't get enough of The Greatest
by Cat Power.
LINK | 6:04 PM | TB
Yahoo music might indeed be great, but when is it going to be available to people outside U.S. and with a different OS than Windoze?
Johanka | February 16, 2006 3:04 AMI've learned a lot about porting it to Mac, being friends with a guy on the team (also the progenitor of the Yahoo! that Bitchcampaign). He even has a NeXT tattoo on his leg, so you know it's a priority. :-) According to Ian, Apple has built a closed system, hostile to outside developers, to protect their iTunes franchise. Unlike Windows, which has Windows Media Player, Windows Media DRM and Device manager SDKs, Apple's deliberately prevented developers from building on their system. So the best Mac users are likely to see is a web-based system, a la Rhapsody, but even in that case, the DRM issues won't go away. Ugly.
Caterina | February 16, 2006 2:16 PMWith Apple being finally challenged by someone (Yahoo) I guess that the winner will be the final consumer. I'm just hopping that Yahoo will be able to see the huge market it has available in the European Union soon.
Carlos | February 17, 2006 5:57 AMI *love* Cat Power. Moon Pix is a great album, and I ran out and bought it after I heard Cross Bones Style playing on WFMU in New York. Later that year I saw Chan somewhere in San Francisco, and it was as painful as they said it would be... she was painfully shy and introverted, but a great show nonetheless. Matador has a great video of Cross Bones Style.
Bradley | February 17, 2006 10:49 AMThey make a lot of us first year library students read that Bush essay. It's apparently something of a classic in "information science". It certainly sparked a lot of discussion and musing in my class. For me, it had me dreaming of a hybrid pdf-reader/browser, that would incorporate horizontal as well as vertical scrolling (making use of new wider screens), so that you would always have a "blank page" to your right to compose on, and a visual recall of where you have been available by reaching towards the left. Judging from the other ideas floating in the air, it's still an inspiring article.
jannon | February 17, 2006 8:58 PMI, um, had an unfortunate fling with Cat Power as well:
http://flickr.com/photos/mjs/99809610/
Links to the Living Proof video:
http://videos.antville.org/stories/1318248/
(Directed by Harmony Korine!)
Michael S. | February 21, 2006 1:54 AMMichael, that's a spree!
Caterina | February 23, 2006 12:13 AMCaterina,
If you have a chance, check out http://www.pandora.com. Both my geeky husband and I are in love with it! It basically lets you set up a personal radio station based on the kind of music you like.
cheers,
Alex
The Stevie Wonder movie is so funny just for the bad girl totally unco-ordinated and unrehearsed female dancers.
glad | March 2, 2006 7:11 AMThe Stevie Wonder movie is so funny just for the very bad totally unco-ordinated and unrehearsed female dancers at the side and back of Stevie.
glad | March 2, 2006 7:12 AM{ Post a comment }
apparently this is the year everyone is supposed to discover Cat Power. So look forward to people telling you they were fans from 8 years ago
ellipse | February 15, 2006 9:46 PM