computers-R-stupid

my raspberry pi

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my_raspberry_pi

The back side of the Qu-Bit Nebulae module, showing the Raspberry Pi it uses for an operating system (for cv-controlled granular sample manipulation).
Although still functioning perfectly, this is a five year old relic, like the bone of a saint ensconced in an ornamental cabinet. Qu-Bit is no longer making the Nebulae because Raspberry Pi changed its design and/or specs. So I have a dedicated general purpose computer humming away inside an obsolete musical instrument. There is something kind of poignant about that. Or perhaps not.

faith based attribution and the DNC "hack"

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The Clintons' "Russians hacked the DNC" meme hardened into conventional wisdom faster even than "Saddam has WMDs." In case you find it laughable but get pepper-sprayed with links from a Hillbot, purporting to prove the connection, here are some counterlinks (1 / 2 / 3) to spray back with. OK, one of them is the National Review but just because they're hard shell conservatives doesn't make them wrong about everything. Mrs. Clinton herself doth protest a bit much when she claims that "17 intelligence agencies" verified her campaign talking point. I mean, c'mon.

more geert lovink on social media dominance

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Sena Partal: What do you think about the social media companies that are applying filters and recommendations to people’s information? What are the established interests behind it?

Geert Lovink: The mechanisms at work here have been known for years. The turning point is arbitrary but I would put it somewhere after 2008, when the founding frenzy of Web 2.0 had come to an end and the scaled-up platforms were getting serious about making money, in short, when the internet entered its monopoly stage. It wasn’t anymore about sheer possibilities.

The focus shifted to locking in customers...

[snip]

SP: Do you think social media users in general are interested in having control over their news feed?

GL: I doubt it. Once a tool or service is new, we like to find out their affordances and play around with settings, we discuss them with peers. Facebook and many other social media services have become so powerful precisely because they became part our daily lives [speak for yourself --tm], they are now deeply routed into our routines. At first, me, and many others, were confident that the stubborn and independent internet generation would get bored soon, and would, almost intuitively, started looking for the Next Thing (as happened in the past with MySpace, Blogger etc.). This didn’t happen. Most users I speak to start to get uncomfortable when I raise the issue why they are still on Facebook. They got lured into it and do not know how this happened, and how to quit. There is no reason to quit. Slavoj Žižek is right with his bad [conscience] (we know it is bad for us but still use it etc.) [speak for yourself --tm]. Yet, he doesn’t offer an alternative either, and this is where the social media story gets stuck. Spreading critical information how news feeds work is good and feeds the uncomfortable feeling -- but doesn’t change much. It merely raises the paradoxes we have to live under. [or that people choose to live under --tm]

Draw 4.5 (1979)

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Ken Shirriff has been restoring a vintage Xerox Alto computer (the PC Steve Jobs "borrowed" his ideas from). On Day 10 Shirriff got the Draw 4.5 program up and running. He can't draw with it yet because the mouse that came with the Alto isn't compatible (the donor bought a substitute off eBay, it turns out). But here's what the interface looks like (jpeg cropped into two parts to fit here):

draw4-5_1979_gui_shirriff_top_crop

Some of these functions are familiar and some are obscure but it's intriguing to see a 37 year old toolbar. Eventually, maybe, we'll have our Roland Barthes who can explain how present-day visual language was warped, I mean, shaped, by this configuration.

draw4-5_1979_gui_shirriff_bottom_crop

ken shirriff: Restoring a vintage Xerox Alto day 8: it boots!

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Have been following this saga via RSS (the "days" stretch out over weeks) and getting the device to boot up is a major step.
The Alto is the computer Steve Jobs "borrowed" many of his ideas from back in the '70s. The degree of work to restore a 40-year old machine should give anyone pause about the longevity of current data.