The Latest from Boing Boing

Trailer for Steve Gould's JUMPER Posted: 10 Oct 2007 03:53 AM CDT Steven C Gould's Jumper is being made into a Hollywood movie with Hayden Christiansen and Samuel L Jackson, and the trailer has just gone live. I'm an enormous fan of the book -- I must have read it a dozen times since its initial publication -- and I've been waiting with crossed fingers for this movie as it inched its way from the news of the option to today. I'm really impressed with the trailer -- it captures that feeling of giddy delight that made the book so fantastic. The book is about Davey Rice, a kid who discovers that he can teleport. Gould takes this hoary sf chestnut and really makes it work, taking one of the most likable characters in young adult genre fiction and getting him to scientifically test the limits of his powers, while resolving some really wrenching emotional dilemmas and going on an action-adventure that keeps me on the edge of my seat every time. The movie takes a lot of liberties with the plot, but it looks like there's a lot to love in the story that Hollywood shot, judging by the trailer and what Steve's said. There's a new Jumper book out, Jumper: Griffin's Story, which I plan on reading ASAP, since it tells the story of some of the characters in the film who aren't in the book. Link (via Eat Our Brains) See also: Hayden Christensen to star in film of Gould's "Jumper" Reflex: brilliant, page-turning sequel to Jumper

Baby-naming, in the geeky style of the xkcd webcomic Posted: 10 Oct 2007 03:28 AM CDT Proof that Randall from xkcd is wiretapping my brain in today's nose-sprayingly funny toon. I've always wanted to same a kid with a MySQL code-injection attack, or "+++ATH" or "^d^d^c^c^g^g^g^g". Anything to mess with database nation. Link See also: Xkcd webcomic on online sexism Cory Doctorow cosplayers at the XKCD picnic Geeky comic strip uses Cory as the punchline Geeky comic about chess and roller-coasters Xkcd fans bring chess-sets on roller-coasters Nerd humor about Katamari Damacy Bloggin' 'bout my generation Pi joke Funny map of online communities in the style of a D&D map Sarcastic comic about computational linguistics (and emo kids) Where LOLCats come from Ironic Internet malapropism grid

All the Beatles' UK albums sped up 800% into a 1 hour MP3 Posted: 09 Oct 2007 08:29 PM CDT Steve McLaughlin took all the UK Beatles LPs and compressed them into a single, 1-hour MP3 by increasing their tempo by 800 percent. The resulting file is a little hard to listen to, but it's an impressive accomplishment, nevertheless. I'm up to "Hard Day's Night," and it's starting to cause hallucinations. Link (Thanks, Hendrik!)

Band releases album on "obsolete" 3.5" floppy disc Posted: 09 Oct 2007 08:26 PM CDT A UK band called Batch Totem has released a 74-minute album compressed down to fit on a 1.4MB, 3.5" floppy disk. Who need vinyl nostalgia? "Trunkeret & Ikonisk" by Batch Totem (an alias for musician, Jonas Olesen) consists of 19 tracks, which are heavily compressed in the GSM 6.10 WAV format, at various bitrates. The album is on the Ristretto label, and can be bought online with PayPal. "The idea is essentially to release an album on an almost obsolete medium that fits very well with the music on an aesthetical level," says Olesen. "Secondly, the scope of the project is to use heavy compression as a feature that shapes the music, instead of a limitation that reduces sound quality." Link (Thanks, Matt!)

Radiohead's new downloadable album: DRM-Free! Posted: 09 Oct 2007 07:37 PM CDT An update on the new album from Radiohead, "In Rainbows," which will be available via download starting at midnight tonight: it's absolutely DRM-free, according to an announcement today on the band's website. Now, I know I wasn't the only one who had problems actually ordering and paying for the tracks, and there's been much griping around the web about problems with their online store... all is forgiveable, IMO, with this news. You gotta give these guys credit for making this move. They're not the only band selling DRM-free music online, direct to fans, but FSM knows they're the biggest. And this move matters. Link (Thanks, Camille, also spotted at sharealike and elsewhere.) Previously: Radiohead lets fans pick price for new album

Allah Save the Queen Posted: 09 Oct 2007 07:23 PM CDT Iconic punk t-shirts redone in Arabic, by 26-year-old graphic artist Brendan Donnelly. Remixed logos from Black Flag, Joy Division (shown here), Velvet Underground, the Ramones, and others, all translated into Arabic. Link to Style.com article (Thanks, Susannah Breslin).

Al-Qaeda "Intranet" goes dark after US leak Posted: 09 Oct 2007 07:15 PM CDT Wired News defense technology blogger Noah Shachtman tells Boing Boing, For years, the private terror-hunters at the SITE Institute have been infiltrating jihadist chat rooms, and spying on the extremists congregating online.  Now, the group its digital cover has been blown -- and Al-Qaeda online communications channels have gone dark -- thanks to a ham-handed move by the Bush administration, it seems.  "Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," SITE's Rita Katz told the Washington Post. Link, and see this related post from Noah about apparent plans by the US Air force to initiate "offensive cyber strikes": Link.

Crashed drug plane owned by US Government? Posted: 09 Oct 2007 06:01 PM CDT Interesting story about the Gulfstream II jet filled with 3.7 tons of cocaine that crashed in the Yucatan a couple of weeks ago. According to the Austin American Statesman, this plane has previously flown to Guantanamo Bay, which has a highly restricted airspace: Some news reports have linked the plane to the transport of terrorist suspects to the U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but those reports cite logs that indicate only that the plane flew twice between Washington and Guantánamo and once between Oxford, Conn., and Guantánamo. No terrorist suspects are known to have been transferred to Guantánamo directly from the United States. The jet, with the tail number N987SA, changed hands twice in recent weeks. But how it ended up in the hands of suspected drug traffickers remains a mystery. The Mexican attorney general's office said the blue and white Gulfstream II crashed Monday in a remote jungle area on the Yucatán Peninsula. Authorities seized 132 bags of cocaine weighing four tons. Mad Cow Morning News visited the owners of the plane, "Donna Blue Aircraft Inc" of Coconut Beach FL., and discovered that it's an "empty office suite with a blank sign out front." There was no sign of Donna Blue Aircraft, Inc., at the address listed at the Florida Dept. of Corporations, 4811 Lyons Technology Parkway #8 in Coconut Beach FL. However, there were, oddly enough, a half-dozen unmarked police cars parked directly in front of the empty suite. Phone calls to Butters Development, the industrial park's leasing agent, went unreturned. Moreover the brief description of Donna Blue on its Internet page, apparently designed to "flesh out the ghost a little," is such a clumsy half-hearted effort that it defeats the purpose of helping aid the construction of a plausible "legend," or cover, and ends up doing more harm than good... For example, the website features a quote from a satisfied Donna Blue Aircraft customer. Unfortunately his name is "John Doe." And the listed phone number is right out of the movies: 415.555-5555. Link

Car repair chain sued for playing radio Posted: 09 Oct 2007 05:45 PM CDT James Glover says: Kwik-Fit, a British chain of car-repair garages, has been taken to court by the Performing Rights Society for "public performances" of music played on staff radios. The PRS claimed that Kwik-Fit mechanics routinely use personal radios while working at service centres across the UK and that music, protected by copyright, could be heard by colleagues and customers. It is not entirely clear is the term radio is used to refer to broadcast radio stations or to CDs/Tapes payed on audio equipment. Either way this seems a ridiculous abuse of public performance licenses. Link

Serrano photos vandalized Posted: 09 Oct 2007 05:47 PM CDT On Friday, vandals destroyed seven photographs by Andres Serrano hanging in a southern Sweden art gallery. Apparently, they brought along someone to videotape the attack. The video, annotated with commentary and set to a heavy metal soundtrack, is now on YouTube. Police suspect that the vandals are part of a neo-Nazi group in the area. The video describes them as "national socialists." Serrano is best known for Piss Christ (1989), a photograph of a plastic crucifix submerged in a jar of his urine. From the New York Times: Around 3:30, half an hour before closing, four vandals wearing black masks stormed into a space known as the Kulturen Gallery while shouting in Swedish, "We don't support this," plus an expletive. They pushed visitors aside, entered a darkened room where some of the photographs were displayed and began smashing the glass protecting the photographs and then hacking away at the prints... The show consists of photographs, made in 1995 and 1996, of various sex acts, including a depiction of a naked woman fondling a stallion. It was divided into two rooms. One had white walls, the other black. The vandals went to the black room, where (show curator Viveca) Ohlsson said the photographs were a bit racier. Link to NY Times article, Link to YouTube video (NSFW)

DIY ringlight photography Posted: 09 Oct 2007 05:43 PM CDT DIY Photography shows how to use a computer monitor and a piece of cardboard with holes cut in a circular pattern as a cheap ringlight. Here's a Flickr set of neat photos taken with the ringlight. Link

Vocal Joystick for accessibility Posted: 09 Oct 2007 05:12 PM CDT University of Washington researchers are developing a new "Vocal Joystic" interface to make software more accessible for people who don't have use of their hands or arms. The software converts simple vowel sounds and other intonations into cursor movement. The louder the sound, the faster the cursor moves. Saying "K-Ch" represents a mouse click and release. Follow the link for a video demonstration. From the University of Washington Office of News: "A lot of people ask: 'Why don't you just use speech recognition?'" (electrical engineering professor Jeffrey) Bilmes said. "It would be very slow to move a cursor using discrete commands like 'move right' or 'go faster.' The voice, however, is able to do continuous commands quickly and easily." Early tests suggest that an experienced user of Vocal Joystick would have as much control as someone using a handheld device... "While people use their voices to communicate with just words and phrases," Bilmes said, "the human voice is an incredibly flexible instrument, and can do so much more." Link

Sulu's asteroid Posted: 09 Oct 2007 05:00 PM CDT The International Astronomical Union has given asteroid 1994 GT9 the new name of 7307 Takei in honor of George Takei, the actor who played Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek. From the Associated Press (photo from Wikipedia): The celestial rock, discovered by two Japanese astronomers in 1994, joins the 4659 Roddenberry (named for the show's creator, Gene Roddenberry) and the 68410 Nichols (for co-star Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura). Other main-belt asteroids are already named for science fiction luminaries Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov... (Mount Holyoke College astronomy professor Tom) Burbine, who also has put a number of his astronomy colleagues up for consideration, said he suggested Takei's name in part out of appreciation for his work with the Japanese American Citizens League and with leading gay rights group Human Rights Campaign. Takei, a spokesman for HRC's Coming Out Project, was cultural affairs chairman of the JACL, and he was appointed to the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission by former President Clinton. Link

Highlights from Harper's Weekly Posted: 09 Oct 2007 05:40 PM CDT Good stuff, as usual, in the latest email newsletter, "Harper's Weekly." Here's a sample: The Middlebury Institute, a liberal advocacy group opposing the Iraq War, and the League of the South, which displays a Confederate battle flag on its banner, met in Tennessee to discuss their shared goal of secession from the Union. A white family in Florida found three burning crosses in its back yard. An autopsy could not reveal the identity of a baby found in a Big John's Pickled Sausage jar and left in a Florida cane field, and researcher Craig Venter announced that he has constructed a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals, creating the first artificial life form on Earth. Link

Laura Levine fine art print, just $20! Posted: 09 Oct 2007 12:09 PM CDT New York City's Jen Bekman Gallery has a new online component called 20 x 200 where each week they issue two artist prints--one photo and one work on paper--and sell them online for $20 in editions of 200 (hence the name). Bigger prints in smaller editions are also available. This week's work-on-paper edition is "Birds of the Rockies" by Laura Levine. Laura tells me that this is the first fine art print made of her work and she's thrilled with the way it turned out. From Laura's artist statement: This is a piece from my most recent series of paintings,Tweet Suite: Birds of North America. Lately I've found myself focusing more on nature in my work – in this case, common regional birds of America. It just so happens that soon after I completed the series, the Audubon Society reported that twenty of our most common birds - the ones we most often take for granted – have lost more than half their populations in the past forty years. The painting's background is made of vintage trading stamps. I love how randomly the stamps are pasted onto the individual pages. I usually find them in completed books, which means that some housewife (generally) saved up all her stamps from grocery shopping and then pasted them into the books, and depending on her personality, she was either really neat and obsessive about it or made a mess, and that can be seen in the grids. And then you have to take a moment to mourn the fact that these particular stamps were never cashed in for the toaster or whatever. And now they have found a new life, forty years later. Link Previously on BB: • Laura Levine bird paintings Link • Laura Levine: Music Photos Link

Wednesday: Dorkbot-San Francisco Todd Blair benefit Posted: 09 Oct 2007 11:24 AM CDT As BB readers know, machine artist Todd Blair suffered a catastrophic brain injury after the recent Survival Research Laboratories performance in Amsterdam. Todd has not awoken since the accident and remains in an Amsterdam hospital surrounded by family and friends. To help with his medical expenses and the recovery, our friend Karen Marcelo has organized a special Dorkbot-San Francisco session this Wednesday night, October 10, at Kyle Minor Design Studio. The evening's activities will also include an auction of various items, including a banner ad on Boing Boing, with all proceeds going to the Todd Blair support fund. A stellar line-up of Todd's friends have signed on to give presentations and help out: • Ken Goldberg - Robots As Environmentalists • Eric Paulos - Citizen Science • Mark Pauline - Survival Research Labs • Joe Grand - Fifteen Art Projects in Fifteen Minutes • Steven Lassovszky - Airplane GPS/Telemetry Video • Monochrom • Marc Powell, food hacker, will be catering the event Here are just some of the items that will be up for auction: • Banner ad on Boing Boing • Haters CD • Vintage SRL posters • RE/Search books • Neon repair by John Law • Welding classes by SRL's Liisa Pine • Autographed DEFCON 15 badge • Slides from WarGames movie • Flame thrower igniters • Hello Kitty electric guitar • Private sewing coaching • Radiation monitor • Make Yer Own Homemade Pie workshop Link Previously on BB: • SRL crew member injured in post-show accident Link

Boing Boing tv: Online Knitting/Burma Internet Crackdown Posted: 09 Oct 2007 10:51 AM CDT In today's episode of Boing Boing tv, social networks for "new wave knitters" (the opening segment) and a socially active sysadmin on the internet shutdown in Burma (starts at 2:28). Link. [Screengrab: A lovably loathsome knitted teratoma tumor, by by Zabet Stewart, Jane Roth, Heather Hard, and Sarabeth Brownrobie.]

Nobel Prize to physicists behind hard drive science Posted: 09 Oct 2007 10:00 AM CDT The Nobel Prize in Physics 2007 went to two scientists who discovered the nanoscale physics phenomena that enables data to be so densely packed onto hard disks, enabling, for example, iPods to have increasingly larger storage capacities. In 1988, Albert Fert of the Université Paris-Sud and Peter Grünberg, of Forschungszentrum Jülich, independently discovered giant magnetoresistance (GMR), how weak changes to a magnetic field can be detected as major fluctuations in the system's electrical field. From the Nobel Prize Web site: A hard disk stores information, such as music, in the form of microscopically small areas magnetized in different directions. The information is retrieved by a read-out head that scans the disk and registers the magnetic changes. The smaller and more compact the hard disk, the smaller and weaker the individual magnetic areas. More sensitive read-out heads are therefore required if information has to be packed more densely on a hard disk. A read-out head based on the GMR effect can convert very small magnetic changes into differences in electrical resistance and there-fore into changes in the current emitted by the read-out head. The current is the signal from the read-out head and its different strengths represent ones and zeros. Link to Fert and Grünberg's Nobel Laureate page, Link to Associated Press article

BabyGadget: the pre-school quadrant of gizmospace Posted: 09 Oct 2007 08:58 AM CDT I've just added BabyGadget to my RSS reader -- it's a site full of incredibly cool baby stuff, intelligently described and well-presented. This is an area of gizmospace that has been previously off my radar; it's like discovering an entire box of forgotten, delicious truffles at the back of the pile of Christmas wrapping paper. Link (via Wonderland)

Cat-Clock made from recycled computer parts Posted: 09 Oct 2007 08:51 AM CDT GeekGear, an Etsy crafter/seller, has created this remake of the classic googly-eyed cat-clock, using hard-drive platters, floppies, sticks of RAM and a bit of wire. Link (via Neatorama)

Tonka-esque truck-cutlery Posted: 09 Oct 2007 08:55 AM CDT Tonka Constructive Eating makes a set of toddler cutlery for your little steam-shovel obsessive -- really, who wouldn't want to eat with these? Link (Thanks, Alice!)

Yahoo Music to record execs: No more DRM, ever Posted: 09 Oct 2007 05:56 AM CDT Yahoo! Music's Ian Rogers gave an inspirational talk to some music execs with two messages: one, I won't build DRM anymore for you, because Yahoo customers hate it; and two, let's focus on all the ways that free-as-in-speech music can kick enormous amounts of ass. I'm here to tell you today that I for one am no longer going to fall into this trap. If the licensing labels offer their content to Yahoo! put more barriers in front of the users, I'm not interested. Do what you feel you need to do for your business, I'll be polite, say thank you, and decline to sign. I won't let Yahoo! invest any more money in consumer inconvenience. I will tell Yahoo! to give the money they were going to give me to build awesome media applications to Yahoo! Mail or Answers or some other deserving endeavor. I personally don't have any more time to give and can't bear to see any more money spent on pathetic attempts for control instead of building consumer value. Life's too short. I want to delight consumers, not bum them out. If, on the other hand, you've seen the light too, there's a very fun road ahead for us all. Lets get beyond talking about how you get the music and into building context: reasons and ways to experience the music. The opportunity is in the chasm between the way we experience the content and the incredible user-created context of the Web. By way of illustration (and via exaggeration), in a manner of speaking iTunes is a spreadsheet that plays music. It's context-free. You just paid $10 for that album -- who plays drums? I dunno, WHY DON'T YOU GO TO THE WEB TO FIND OUT, BECAUSE THAT'S WHERE THE CONTEXT IS. Link (via O'Reilly Radar)

Cult tv, fan relations gabfest in Cambridge Mass next month Posted: 09 Oct 2007 05:52 AM CDT MIT's Futures of Entertainment conference next month in Cambridge, Mass looks like a ton of fun. I mean, a show devoted to "developments in advertising, cult media, audience measurement, cultural labor, fan relations, and mobile platform development?" Link

Hauntrod Funnycar for your short-range travel needs Posted: 09 Oct 2007 05:49 AM CDT A mere $8,500 gets you this short-range haunted funnycar, called the "HauntRod." The manufacturer is targeting this to people who run Hallowe'en spook-houses, but I think this would be better served as a Segway replacement. Fill the streets with them, I say! Custom built from the ground up, the difference is in the details, every inch of this vehicle has been tricked out. Custom paint, hand cut engraved tombstone brake, clutch, gas, and side entry step pedals. Skull mirrors, hand laid webbing on the windscreen and wing supports. Radical knifed off side mounted exhaust pipes. Coachlamp LED Headlights & Taillights that illuminate candles mounted below. Tombstone Radiator, with upper torso of skeleton riding behind. Skull suicide shifter takes you through the standard 4-speed transmission. Ultra Dependable 120cc ThumpStar Engine with chain drive train is standard equipment. Link (Thanks, Pooja!)

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