According to the BBC the computer company Dell will recall over 4 million laptops. Four million. 4 000 000. Thats a lot of laptops…
The reason for the recall is that the laptops run the risk of bursting into flames when they are overheated. This was photographed when it happened at a conference.
The Pirate Party today announced the launch of the “World’s First Commercial Darknet” through a Swedish company called Relakks. From the press release:
Today, the Swedish Pirate Party launched a new Internet service that lets anybody send and receive files and information over the Internet without fear of being monitored or logged. In technical terms, such a network is called a “darknet”. The service allows people to use an untraceable address in the darknet, where they cannot be personally identified.
But before anyone gets too excited it’s not the first and it’s not really that innovative. Read more on Relakks security page (in Swedish).
As the P2P blog points out this announcement has more to do with political spin than with technical or legal innovation. Besides sounding really cool there is nothing new here. This can only be interpreted as a sign that the Pirate Party are learning the political ropes really quickly. First rule of politics: It’s ok if you don’t do anything as long as it sounds like your are doing a lot.
From the movie: Wag the Dog
P2P blog also questions whether the users of the system are actually protected in reality. Or whether this is only an illusion. They support this question by pointing to weaknesses in the legal information at Relakks and also bring into question whether Relakks has the position, determination or will to defend file-sharers.
Yes I am grumpier than normal. My excuse is that I am sitting late into the night working on my thesis…again!
The Internet is a strange and wonderful place. This was additionally confirmed today when I was checking my stats and discovered that someone in China had visited my blog. This is not so uncommon. The unusual thing was the search-term used. The visitor had searched google with the phrase
what is a flakmoppe
This is the internet being used at its best for cross-cultural experiences. It is a brilliant question which touches the strange heartland of Swedish mystique and culture. The flakmoppe is a moped with a difference.
Most commonly used on small islands (but also in the countryside), this moped has been adapted to be able to transport material. The moped has three wheels (two in the front) and a small platform upon which the rider can transport small amounts of goods (or other people). The advantage of this is that on many small Swedish islands no cars could be transported there and no larger roads where built. So the islanders had to rely on something smaller for their daily lighter transport needs.
The flakmoppe used to be reasonably widespread but now remains an important mode of transportation on the islands of Sweden and in the hearts of the nostalgic and flakmoppe enthusiasts.
Some London street images…
Click here for a full view of some of the street art I came across in London.
On 5th of March 1960 Alberto “Korda” Gutierrez took two pictures of Che Guevara. In 1967 the Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli received two copies of the famous print at no cost.
Feltrinelli started making posters from the prints with the notice â??Copyright Feltrinelliâ?? down in the corner. The image was on itâ??s way to become an international icon â?? it has been transformed, transplanted, transmitted and transfigured all over the world.
Korda never received a penny. For one reason only – Cuba had not signed the Berne Convention. Fidel Castro described the protection of intellectual property as imperialistic “bullshit”. Does this mean that Korda’s work is in the public domain? Probably not – but it is in a serious grey area.
Today I saw a new chapter in the Korda print. Paul Frank have made their fame (at least in my opinion – but then again this is not a fashion blog) from their cartoon monkey
The Paul Frank monkey is a cultural icon. So is Korda’s Che image. Paul Frank have now playfully (?), respectfully (?), irreverently (?) created a mashup of these two icons into this inevitable (?) conclusion…
When Che t-shirts became popular again (after the fall of the Soviet Union) I remember hearing a few mumblings from people that “young people” were adopting the icons of the revolution without any knowledge about the content, struggle or ideologi – the past had in fact become a trademark belonging to no one. I tried then to argue for the role of the cultural icon – but some still stuck to their guns and argued that the young were adopting symbols without knowledge and the manufacturers were profiteering on the ideology of the revolution.
From Korda to Paul Frank…evolution?…regression? You decide…
It sounds like a fictional mystery â?? just look at the ingredients: a lost manuscript about an ancient mariner sailing the Mediterranean (and beyond), fighting naval battles and piratesâ?¦
At the age of 16, Michael of Rhodes signed onto a Venetian galley in 1401 as a common oarsman. Over the next four decades he sailed on dozens of voyages, either in the war galleys of the Venetian navy, or in the commercial galleys of the merchant fleet. He rose in the ranks, attaining a number of different offices, including the highest rank a non-noble could have in Venetian service. In 1434, Michael sat down to write out the manuscript for which he is remembered. The Michael of Rhodes manuscript was lost for 400 years until it resurfaced in 1966 and again in 2000.
Today selected pages of the beautiful work are available online along with maps and illustrations. It’s not all there and it’s not CC licensed (or similar) but it’s a great site.
(via BibliOdyssey)
Incredible! The world seems to be in the process of erupting into more and more violence. Afghanistan is ongoing but rarely reported, Gaza has fallen in the shadow of Lebanon. Iraq shows no sign of stabilising. Not to mention the hotspots in the rest of the world.
So when the world leaders meet in the G8 conference in St Petersburg one expects that the gravity of world affairs will ensure that the world leaders would act with an enhanced level of decorum that maybe could reflect the situation.
What does Bush do? Itâ??s unbelievable!!!
The actions of little George are totally unacceptable even if it was in the privacy of his own office and the victim was the office temp. But Angela Merkel is not the office temp but she is the German Chancellor. The unwelcome actions of George Bush go beyond ugly sexism and condescending male-female relations. The actions are an inexcusable insult on Germany. Actually it could be interpreted as the patronising US attitude towards the rest of the world.
More on this Unfogged, Bild.t, The News Blog, Talking Points Memo.
(via Bitch PhD)
Portrait of a Textile Worker makes one person among millions of unseen workers, visible. Her image was constructed with thirty thousand clothing labels stitched together over two years.
(via creativity/machine)
A Danish anti-war protest (the one in Iraq) involved knitting what looks like a cosy for a WWII vintage M24 Chaffee light tank. The cosy is made up of 3000 squares of pink yarn 15×15 cm each.
For more pictures and a description of the process and prostest go to the protest site. The project was organised by the danish artist Marianne Joergensen.
(via Wooster Collective)
It’s Sunday and it’s Amsterdam! This is a fantastic city with great architecture. Unfortunately today has been spent in an all day meeting. A strange aside is that the meeting room overlooks the same garden that Anne Frank‘s room overlooked. The courtyard still has the same chestnut tree which she looked at. Here is a quickime film of the chestnut tree. The tree is unfortunately dying and the city is spending time and money to keep the tree alive.
