The not-so-wonderful thing about dump.fm is you can stumble into a convo where people are saying exactly what they think about you. Here I thought my blog was at least semi-entertaining but it turns out it's "sad," "bleak," and makes googlegracie want to "live her life to the fullest." Sorry if I'm hitting a depressing register for some people -- I'm usually chuckling as I post -- but if that's how you feel I strongly urge you to go look at some other blog. I guarantee I'm not looking at yours.
Art Hack Day event today at Bushwick's 319 Scholes comes heralded with utopian technocratic newspeak:
Art Hack Day is an internet-based nonprofit dedicated to hackers whose medium is art and artists whose medium is tech. We bridge the gap between art, technology and entrepreneurship with grassroots hackathons that demonstrate the expressive potential of new technology and the power of radical collaboration in art. We believe in non-utilitarian beauty through technology and its ability to affect social change for public good.
Fine, but let's also consider:
(i) art putting tech in its place
(ii) indifference to startups and their incredible journeys
(iii) skepticism about allegiance to vague notions of "public good."
screenshot of .svg animation at 499 x 438 pixels
Following up on a post here titled "After Animated GIFs, What?" (and see also). I got an email from pac-n-zoom which has been working on web-based animation using .svg files (vector-based, essentially an open-source version of Flash). I made a test animation and if (but only if) you are using Firefox you can see the results here.
Down-sides to this so far in comparison to GIFs: (i) not enough browsers support it, (ii) the larger the file size the bigger the CPU hit, (iii) lack of tools to make .svg files.
Up-side: (i) open source, no-plugin-required animation (although pac-n-zoom will charge to convert raster to vector once they're out of beta), (ii) animation stays crisp and detailed as scale is changed, unlike GIFs, which fuzz out on most modern browsers. (because of)
(Also, for what it's worth, the WordPress software wouldn't let me load an .svg as an image, due to "security concerns." Had to use FTP.)
Update/clarification: I posted the .svg on a separate page because I knew some browsers wouldn't read it and didn't want an ugly [X] or what have you in place of an image on the main blog page. Not being able to upload the .svg in WordPress was a separate issue. It's not that WordPress wouldn't let me post the .svg, it's that I couldn't use its built-in image uploader to put it up on the site -- I had to use FTP. Here is the .svg at 100 x 100 pixels. Am told this will work in Chrome as well as Firefox (thanks timb); I knew IE just shows the image un-animated. Not sure about Safari or other browsers.
Update 2: Viewable in Safari, per asdf (thanks)
This Tumblr collects smarmy announcements from recently-acquired startups to users about to get screwed. The collector, Phil Gyford, explains:
Usually these are "acqui-hires," acquisitions whose only purpose is to employ the start-up's staff...
Because the staff have been hired to be part of Google or Facebook or AOL, they are now part of that company's grander scheme, a scheme that rarely includes whatever website or service the start-up was originally developing.
and concludes:
...there is something fury-inducing and, I would say, morally wrong in start-ups persuading thousands of people to devote their time and energy to using a service that is summarily erased once the owners have been paid off. Yes, the owners may have worked hard, but without those users' efforts they would not have their payday. They may well have had an incredible journey but, time and again, ordinary people are being led up the garden path.
hat tip Jeff Sisson
The remixes and reinterpretations by Earcon (aka John Parker) of my Macintosh SE songs from the '80s and beyond will be featured on a UK internet radio series* during the month of March.
The series is Reuse Aloud, the site is basic.fm, and here is their page about our collaborations. Other artists include DJ Danger Mouse, DJ Food, the Polish Ambassador, Diplo, and many more.
*Will post an update with dates/times. Am not certain what is meant by basic.fm's statement that "on [March 1] 2013 we will take over the radio. For one month we will broadcast across the airwaves." That suggests open-air transmission but I'm not finding any call letters or AM or FM frequency for the station. I think the way it works is our music will be played at selected times on the monthly schedule of "Reuse Aloud" internet radio shows and then will be featured in a marathon performed in a gallery setting. More when I know.
Update: A weekly schedule is up and our tunes will be played:
Monday Mar 4, 2:32 - 2:57 PM (US East coast time)
Thursday Mar 7, 8:20 - 8:48 PM (US East coast time)
Update 2:
Mar 19 12:04 - 12:33 PM (US East coast time)
Mar 29-30 Broadcast Marathon - closing event for the exhibit will include GIFs and video made by John Parker and me collaboratively.
