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Next: September 2003
August 31, 2003
my rss weather attempt
Spent today coding up this:
http://www.undergroundlondon.com/weather/
RSS weather forecasts. Warning: extreme geekery.
Please try them out, and tell me what you think.
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August 30, 2003
giddy
A saturday afternoon ragbag of links. I'm feeling a little giddy, and it wasn't the double chorizo sandwich I had at Borough Market earlier. I went to the Pitfield Beer Shop earlier to pick up something interesting from Belgium: 10 bottles, most of which I haven't had before, but looked exciting. I got back and had a quick Google for them, which brought up the Oxford Bottled Beer Database. Looking around, I noticed a few people mention a shop called Bottles in Shadwell. They had the Belgian beer equivalent of crack, Westvleteren.
This is one of the six original trappist brewers, but only small quantities are produced, and they've made it extra hard to get hold of. It normally involves filling in a lot of forms and queuing at the abbey gate.
I've been looking for it, on and off, for a few years - if I'm serious about food, I'm deeply serious about drinks (never trust an experience designer who doesn't appreciate food). Yes, I could go to Belgium and try it in many of the good beer cafes, but that isn't a regular supply. And now I find out it's been available a few miles away from me. I don't mind. I'm holding the unlabelled bottles in my hands. I am excited. I have a wild look in my eyes. I am having to stop myself opening them and downing them in one.
(an aside: whilst the Internet is great at matching buyers to sellers (one of the hard parts of economics), finding out shops and services you might like near you is still really hard.)
Anyway, other news. There's a new Mute magazine out. There's a picture of me on page 94, standing laptop in hand between T enyen and Rain. Despite this, it's a pretty good read this issue, even if the paper smell is slightly distracting.
I'm going to be at Mobile HCI in a week's time - say hi if you're going. Also spending a few days in Venice. Etcon is in San Diego next year, and there's a call for presentations. I'm working up a few ideas, which I hope others will find interesting.
I've finally got an oystercard. Being delivered in an envelope from Belfast with a half-written address doesn't inspire confidence. If you're in London, watch out for the open-top bus: I caught it on route 23 from Bond Street to St. Pauls. It's a lot of fun! Also, on the South Bank on September 13th, there's Sticky. It's meant to be amazing, and I'm really annoyed I'm in Italy. Go along, and take lots of photos for me.
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August 25, 2003
location finding and street furniture
Sean McGrath has written about adding 4 character alphanumeric codes on speed signs for finding your location (via Jon Udell).
This is something the collaborative cartographers have been thinking a lot about - finding your location without GPS or centralised mobile phone networks. In London, we're not blessed with many helpful markings. This is partly because each council, and each utility, has their own systems for markings, and they can't believe anyone could find a use for their internal systems, let alone financing resources to make it public. They also feel threatened, both that they're losing a money-making opportunity, or that they can never change their marking systems (even though the Royal Mail does this with postcodes all the time).
We have one glimmer of hope - the one London-wide authority with power: Transport for London.
Recently, street furniture spotters have noticed little yellow signs appearing on bus stops.
These appear to be a four character alphanumeric encoding... of something. I'm tempted to write to both the street management and bus departments of TfL to see if we can get this database out in the open. It's not perfect - it's London only, and only bus stops (and therefore roads that buses travel on), but such markings could really help grassroots mapping.
Let me know if there aren't any round you in London, and if you have any theories on the encoding scheme. Maybe even sit on a double decker and note down all the codes along a bus route... I'll stop now :)
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August 19, 2003
play nice
I've just spent an hour getting all my recently subscribed-to RSS feeds working. My favourite way of subscribing is to simply hit Subscribe in the Mac Service menu, which pipes the URL to NetNewsWire. If there's a link in the page in the right format, it automagically pulls the RSS out of the ether and into my reader.
But for 25 (out of 58) it didn't.
So I waded through them. I never thought I'd be grateful to see the ugly orange XML brick (aside: why doesn't it say RSS, or is that too helpful?), but it did make the game of find-the-sausage a lot quicker.
If your weblog doesn't have a feed, it doesn't exist. If you don't tell anyone you have a feed, either visually or programatically, it doesn't exist.
Weblogs are more than just a set of webpages. They work best together, in aggregate. Soon, you won't have time to read the 10,000 pages a day we'll soon be consuming - there has to be a way to pull the information out of the pages. It's not about the pages at all. RSS is currently the best way to convey information from journals.
Without an RSS feed, it's like the school bully flashing the baseball card you've always wanted, and not giving you a proper look (just before giving you a wedgie and flushing you down the toilet). Play nice, children. We need everyone to pull together - readers, aggregators, and content creators.
I don't want to play the class snitch, but there are some sites that stick out like sore thumbs:
those that should know better
bloggerheads-he's working on it
doorsofperception - not exactly future-facing.
joeclark - thinking about it
the lazy
evhead - you started Blogger ffs (and are running Blogger Pro).
BBJ - he hid it, it's here
coudal - Another MT user. Running blogging workshops. Generally clueful. Not here.
thingsmagazine - fixed! You're stars!
the, errr, physically challenged
Those using blogger or blogspot. I'm sorry. Whilst I don't normally point at people who are "different" to me, I'll highlight scaryduck, just cos it's won awards.
Now, for every class bully there's a school slut. They're overgenerous with their love - pushing out info on all the feeds they can. Argh! *unsubscribe* *unsubscribe*! Thanks, but I don't want to get to third base on a first date.*
And there are those that overexpose themselves. Put away that miniskirt, cover yourself up, and get rid of all that orange blogjunk. Do I want the one on the left? The one on the right? The coffee cup? The cactus? The fish? The pill?
I won't even mention those that only have part of their entries in their feeds. Not this time. But it's like talking to people who never quite finish their...
*This may not actually be true. Heh.
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August 17, 2003
london art aggregator
Annuncin': the London art aggregator - an RSS feed containing exhibitions on at the moment.
It's in beta, let me know what you think, especially anything wrong!
One point about RSS I want to highlight:
RSS as it stands is useless for its main use: providing information on What's New on a site. It has no context of the user, no idea of what is actually new for you. Other similar protocols use unique ids, timestamps or some way of providing context to the server, so it only returns what is relevent to you. RSS can't cope with this.
Returning a completely arbitrary 15 entries is pointless if none, or fifty, would be more useful to you.
My feed makes an assumption to provide relevant information - that you want information about today. i.e. the context is a time period. It's also taking a fixed locational context of London. Just these two pieces of information means that the information provided is designed to be useful to you.
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August 12, 2003
music
I used to be heavily into music. Each week would see several albums (very occasionally into spending three figures), and 5-10 CD singles. Each night would see the radio on for 4 or 5 hours. Radio 1: Mark Goodier's Evening Session, John Peel. Mixing It on Radio 3. Headphones on. Walkman. Discman. Everywhere. Reading: Select, NME, Mixmag, The Wire, Jockey Slut, Future Music, Sound on Sound, DJ.
Music still holds an incredible viseral appeal. Good music makes me shake (I have never been able to listen to music under the influence of anything, it's just too much). Music listening has curtailed: music buying has decreased.
Time to listen has decreased. The easy thrills of the telly, of the Internet, and of alcohol, have replaced. I still love music, there just isn't that much that appeals any more. What does exist is hard to get hold of. Dance music has fallen through the floor - trance, the extraction of base metal beats, expanded, enveloped, and destroyed an industry, harvested by the carrion of traditional rock and roll. Techno, at least, refused to play the pop game, and has emerged stronger.
To be honest, I now have a fairly comprehensive back catalogue to keep me entertained.
iTunes has helped to reverse this. It's making me listen to old stuff through new ears, and given me time. It's always available, as is BBC Radio through DTT (my DAB experience was very short-lived).
Last night I spent three hours playing lots of old and new records. The reason: a pair of new Sony headphones - MDR-EX71. Whilst those on head-fi would dissaprove, these have made me giggle stupidly about music again. I am hearing stuff in music that I have not heard before - on all sorts of headphones and speaker systems. Music I thought I knew inside out. These really spread out the stereo sound stage, and if there's anything wrong with them is that stuff in the middle (for example, vocals) tend to get a bit lost. I also appreciate that they're a bit bass and treble heavy - but for 25 pounds I don't think I can really complain. I want to try the Shures, the Etymotics. But they'll have to fight hard for bang-for-buck against these Sonys.
I am not buying am iPod. I am not. I am not. Maybe an MP3 CD player. But the nice ones are 200 quid. Bah.
Not particularly representative, or cutting edge, last 5 purchases:
Underworld: Back to Mine
The Flaming Lips - Yoshime battles the pink robots
Sigur Ros - ( )
FC Kahuna: Another Fine Mess
Hexstatic - Listen & Learn
R.I.P. Musik magazine. You did pretty well at intelligent writing about dance music, but you took the Ibeefa bullet that eventually killed you and commercial dance music.
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August 05, 2003
picturing a metropolis
The National Film Theatre has a season of early (1893-1941) American avant-garde film... but before you close your browser, it's really good, especially the collection I saw last night, Picturing a Metropolis: NYC Unveiled.
This saw 12 shorts, produced between 1902 and 1940, showing the growth, expansion, and decadence of New York in the early 20th century. Silent films were accompanied on piano, which is a great experience.
My favourites were the earlier pieces, showing the deconstruction of the Star Theatre, Coney Island at Night (others by the same director), and the NY Subway from 14th St to 42nd St.
There is something really special about this time: the present must have felt like the future, invention and innovation at the speed of electricity, Art Deco, the bravura of airships and skyscrapers. And everyone in top hats or bowlers.
All films had something of value: maps of New Amsterdam in 1606 (a similar one from 1672), a brief glimpse of workers high up on a skyscraper (if I'd lugged a movie camera up that far, I'd want to use more than a few seconds), a short documentary on Fort Lee; the original Hollywood, and a lighter ending: Lullaby of Broadway [warning: spoiler] from Gold Diggers of 1935, a Busby Berkeley classic.
To note - the links to the first pieces take you to American Memory, historical collections for the National Digital Library.
This is a stunning resource, featuring many of Edison's original films, a huge map collection, Coca Cola ads from the 50s... it goes on and on. It puts the UK to shame. We lock up resources in dusty archives, or, at best, pay-per-play sites. Neither the BFI or the NMPFT have something similar. It's not even worth asking if the Government has organised something. *sigh*.
[edit: the film programme credits Cineric Inc.. Finally found a link to the Unseen Cinema site - it's touring Europe, Australasia and America.]
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August 04, 2003
blockhead
... or blockdead, or deadhead, or (de-)flate modern. If I were a tabloid hack.
Blockhead, everyone's favourite large art inflatable, is deflated at the moment - so's the pink one, so I guess there's a power cut.
(more photos here)
[Edit: more photos added, overheard someone say that they would be re-inflated tomorrow.]
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August 03, 2003
i live by the river
Last night I went to the South Bank Centre for Escapade, an all-dancin' free performance of dance, film and light. It was based around the idea that, until recently, kissing was never shown on screen in Bollywood.
It was great - lots to see, friendly milling, and a spectacular finish. In particular, you got to go in areas you'd never normally venture into (the skateboard area under the Queen Elizabeth Hall in particular), and it was timed perfectly, starting and finishing round dusk.
It could have been bad - after all it:
- was multi-cultural
- featured local community groups
- was free (and crowded)
- in England
but it managed to trancend that by not trying too hard, having a sense of humour, and London wit, to produce a really memorable, great night. Anything that finishes with an encore of London Calling has to be good.
The South Bank Centre should be commended for really bring dance out of the theatre to new audiences. Akram Kahn, choreographer-in-residence, had a free piece in the ballroom in July, and his regular performances are spellbinding. I know dance, and in particular modern dance, isn't particularly popular - I've only started going to such things in the last year, and I don't know much about it, other than what I like. Events like these really give a taster, and hopefully a few people will take the jump and buy a ticket to something more formal.
All photos here.
