| sneedle flipsock |
5 May 2004: letterbox |
flipsockgrrl @ gmail .com |
This week:
LetterboxToday, a selection of recent contributions and comments from people who subscribe to the (free) e-mail version of this weblog. You, too, can subscribe, contribute or comment by e-mailing flipsockgrrl at yahoo.com.au Engineer TOBY was alert to the rather confusingly numbered items (on business and music) in last week's Sneedle Flipsock e-mail edition, and commented:
PAUL discovered agoraXchange, an online community for discussing and designing a massive multi-player global politics game challenging violence and inequality of current political system/s. Commissioned by Tate Online, part of the Tate Museum. Also from PAUL, a 2001 Word document outlining the US Army's Well-Being System designed to provide "guidance to The Army for integrating Army Well-Being programs into a unifying, holistic program that will improve and sustain the institutional strength of The Army." Vice-Chief of Staff John Keane notes in his covering memo that "we must not lose sight of the need to take care of our people and their families". Bear this document in mind as you read Lieutenant Colonel MR Strobl's account of escorting the body of Lance Corporal Chance Phelps home from Iraq to his family in Wyoming. PAUL points to an essay by Ryan Griffis on the social construction of 'blogspace'. Griffis observes that "What seems to come through in the rhetoric and aesthetic of blogs is the power given to the local, the specific, the individual... [But] when one looks at the conversations both within and about blogs, the pragmatics of consensus break down into 'mere opinions' as fast as ever." "Mother Jones" magazine's commentary suggests that political blogs are just another form of pamphleteering. PAUL has created an animated video for Andrew Garton's "Space Radio" music: adventure, dreaming, amusement and a dash of disturbance. Press the green button to start. (Requires Shockwave, sound and 2.6 Mb of bandwidth) STEPHEN comments that "When you find yourself reading a document describing Einstein's theory of relativity in works of four letters or less I think it's a sign that you're not going to be very productive that day..." CLAIRE has been learning about web accessibility and recommends UsableNet, particularly the free demos of Dreamweaver accessibility plugins. TERESA says the Subservient Chicken is "cheesy, corny, a little sad, and yet, sickly funny. Yup. It's all those and more." Give him an instruction and this man dressed as a chicken will do it in front of his webcam, just for you. MICHAEL recommends Platinum Grit, "this great Australian comic I've been following since it was in print. All the existing issues are finally on the web now- big downloads in Flash". The Jesus Action Figures (cross not included) are definitely on ANDREW's wish-list. Also available: the Holy Grail, Sword of Justice and Ark of the Covenant. KATHERINE WITH A K was touched by the story in Sneedle Flipsock (23 April) about finding happiness after you turn 42. Comments Katherine:
This next link came from ENZA with the comment: "Animation done in real time using sand against against a lit up panel. He sprinkles sand and draws picture after picture using just his hands. A must-see... if you have 9 min to spare. You can turn your speakers on but it doesn't matter if you don't have sound as there's only music, no dialogue." A broadband Internet connection will help, too, 'cos it's a huge Windows video file. FRASER offers fun for all the family with this web version of the time-honored pastime of bubble-wrap bursting. (Requires Shockwave, and is much more satisfying if you turn the speakers up a bit.) For the Nintendo gamers amongst us, WARREN found a collection of Galaga cheats to help you vanquish those swarms of bees that are invading Earth from space. Warren observes: "The cheat that causes enemy units to stop firing would've been really helpful twenty years ago (and on Sunday at the Royal Derby)." 5 April 2004 | top of page Listmania: worst song lyrics of the 20th centuryA group of Sneedle Flipsock contributors were inspired by the news that Starship's "We Built This City" was nominated as having the worst song lyrics of the 20th century. (OK, yer editor also harangued them a bit until they provided some nominations.) Further nominations for the top 10 worst lyrics of the 20th century came from Katherine with a K, Bec, Danielle, Claire and one or two others:
One contributor concluded:
Got a nomination? Read the Sydney Morning Herald article for the rules, then send your list of dud lyrics to flipsockgrrl at yahoo.com.au 5 April 2004 | top of page ShamelessWe have no shame here at Sneedle Flipsock: as evidence, here's a link to a random kitten generator. Cuteness alert. 4 May 2004 | top of page Learning to get alongTen thousand years before Voltaire and Hume, people were learning how to live and trade with strangers:
4 May 2004 | top of page AutographIt used to be dust jackets; now book collectors want authors' signatures. Lawrence Block observes that "a book signed by its author is a second-degree relic, not as precious as a [saint's] finger bone, but on a par with a pair of cast-off sandals. I like the explanation, but how long before the bastards start wanting the damned books signed in blood?" The answer: 1988. nods to Arts and Letters Daily, Arts Journal and Neil Gaiman's journal 4 May 2004 | top of page To market, to marketFord didn't invent the motor car, Morse didn't invent the telegraph and Marconi didn't invent the radio. Their talent was in making new inventions into goods and services that could be sold for money--a skill that modern entrepreneurs try to emulate. 4 May 2004 | top of page Musicology: prototype instrumentsFun with Photoshop: how musical instruments looked in prototype. My favorite is the notewriter, a piano-like typewriter that produces notation instead of notes. 4 May 2004 | top of page How to innovateSays Dave Pollard, "just as business will be driven once again to invest in innovation in the search to sustain profitability, it is likely that private citizens and public institutions will ultimately be driven to invest together in innovation in the search for a liveable, sustainable world." They'll probably use the eight-stage process he describes: listen, understand, organise, create, experiment, listen again, design and implement. via Fast Company Now 3 May 2004 | top of page Living the eBay wayA tractor or tractor part sells every hour. A video game sells every eight seconds. An IBM laptop is sold every 3.5 minutes. A digital camera sells every minute. Trading cards sell every six seconds. Four hundred thousand people make their living buying and selling on eBay. The company recognises it cannot provide a 'user experience' in the normal sense of the phrase, ensuring that every buyer and seller has a positive experience of the site. Instead, eBay provides a framework for people to conduct transactions among themselves, and the buyers and sellers take care of the rest. How very Cluetrain. PLUS: You too can have adventures on eBay. Just like this guy in Seattle: 50,000 visitors and five marriage proposals later, he's telling the story of what happened when he tried to sell his ex-wife's wedding dress. thanks to Fraser and Fast Company Now 3 May 2004 | top of page PacmanhattanIn New York, people dress up as Pacman characters and play the classic video game IRL. A wacky way to get some exercise :-) thanks, Fraser 3 May 2004 | top of page SFnal language lessonsWhen I was 12, I learned two new words from an SF book: gargantuan and mellifluous. More recently the Oxford English Dictionary asked for contributions from science fiction literature. Two volunteers used open source software to record the suggestions, follow up when more information was needed, collate the citations and forward the edited results to the OED. (via BoingBoing.net) 3 May 2004 | top of page How to thinkCan you guess which side of the US-Iraq war this paragraph is talking about?
It's all about perspective, really. (via boingboing.net) 3 May 2004 | top of page |
2004 flipsocks:17 Dec: the
sock has flipped
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journal (Chris)
Without whom (also):Ramona P Lovechild
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