Tumblrdolt

Nice try Google Android. Siri’s still got a leg up on ya....

Thu, 23 May 2013 07:53:14 -0400

Nice try Google Android. Siri’s still got a leg up on ya. But I like your sense of humor!

In the past, I had been okay with the fact that when I asked my Android a question by voice, it didn’t speak back, however it understood me better than Siri seemed to understand my friends. It always presented an option of pages from a Google search.

There was an update 2 weeks ago. I haven’t used voice search in quite a while. This morning my daughter commented on an ad for ask.com. She said, “sure, if you search for an answer like ‘what’s the capitol of New York,’ it’ll give you the answer.” I offered I thought it was Syracuse. She countered with Buffalo. I decided I’d quickly use my voice search. I was surprised when my phone answered with it’s own, new voice, “The capitol of New York is Albany.”

So, I wondered if it would access my info, like Siri does, and if it would tell me my actual name, or “Big Daddy”. Instead, you offered help.

Rites of Spring

Sun, 19 May 2013 11:06:32 -0400

You know spring has arrived when the ants besiege your kitchen.

And you know the ants have besieged your kitchen when you look down into the bowl of cereal you’re eating and it looks like an ant Titanic must have sunk in there. Little carcasses floating around… Jaaaaack!!!

I wonder how many I ate?

Photo

Sun, 19 May 2013 11:02:29 -0400

ShortFormBlog: Thoughts on Tumblr and Yahoo (in rebloggable form, upon reader request)

Sun, 19 May 2013 10:33:05 -0400

ShortFormBlog: Thoughts on Tumblr and Yahoo (in rebloggable form, upon reader request):

ron-bailey:

People don’t go into business to share the commodities they created for free. They venture into businesses - and tumblr is a business - to make money. Nobody puts their life and heart and soul into a business venture without the idea that they are going to get something in return.

To bemoan the fact that they will be able to make money is on the same level as when people bitch at a band for “selling out” when they go to a big label or sell their music for an ad. “Oh, look at that terrible band, able to pay their bills now! How awful!” And yea, we all know Karp has made money already and man of us don’t even like him based on stories and interviews we’ve read, but keep in mind tumblr is a company with employees and if those employees can keep their jobs and keep getting paid a reasonable salary because tumblr is turning a profit more power to them.

And to expect a company to share those profits with the users of its product is ridiculous. Would anyone expect the same of twitter or Wordpress? Would you expect that of any program you use? Does Adobe share its revenue with you? Did the makers of the Avengers share any of their profits with you, the movie goer who made them all that money? Does your brand of toothpaste send you a check every month to thank you for keeping it in business? Then why expect the same of tumblr? Is it because of the community? There are whole communities out there who keep tv shows alive but you don’t see the creators of Arrested Development handing out profit sharing checks.

You have no idea if a sale to Yahoo and the eventual money making off that deal will take away anything from tumblr. Who knows, maybe we’ll get enhancements. Maybe not. But you can’t say for sure that the “specialness” of tumblr will be gone. If the community of tumblr is what you are here for, that community will remain. It’s already intact and no amount of profit-turning additions or subtractions to the platform will take that away from us.

Sit back and see what happens. You may not even notice a difference. You may notice a good difference. You may decide it’s not what you want and move on. But keep in mind three things: 1. David Karp created a platform that people have chosen on their own to use and he owes us nothing, at least monetarily, for our use of this free product. 2. It’s ok for people to make money off of their creative endeavors. 3. This platform is free. It’s been free since its inception. Even if it as some point ceases to be free, we’ve all certainly got great use out of something we had to pay nothing for.

Also, I take issue with your claim that money and goodness can not exist in the same room. There are a lot of companies out there doing well and doing good at the same time. People can make a profit and still be good human beings.

Point well-taken.

To clarify what I was trying to say, I think that for Tumblr to exist at the profit level that a behemoth like Yahoo would need will drive away the things what makes it special. Being profitable enough to support a couple dozen individuals is possibly sustainable; extracting the kind of money Wall Street expects means grabbing up everything in sight, and greed isn’t healthy for anything that is alive and breathing.

And about the music thing - I still say that conforming to Madison Avenue’s expectations is death for any kind of art or artist. Advertisers need easily-accessible, simple, non-controversial art. They can’t deal with messy things like anger or hurt or lust, or the things that make us get out of bed in the morning. They either have to edit out the humanity - edit out the bits and pieces where we sing about wanting to fuck our girlfriends or fight our rivals - or they risk pissing off potential customers. Conform to someone’s else’s strictures very long, as an artist, and sooner or later you’ll lose your own voice. Make a career out of it, and sooner or later you are writing commercials instead of songs.

(I’m not trying to say artists shouldn’t get paid, at all - I think they do more to keep our society healthy and happy than most any other group of people, and they deserve to be fed and sheltered for their efforts. It’s more that any artist that is getting rich probably needs to think long and hard about all of the things that are going to shape their next project. Are you writing for yourself, or are you writing to help GM sell trucks?)

(And signing with a record label or big publishing house is a similar vice - once again, it means working to fulfill a corporate expectation. It was a necessary vice, certainly, once upon a time - but maybe not so much anymore. If it is at all possible for you to eat and not sign a contract with a big company, I think both you and your art will be better off for it at the end of the day.)

Anyway, back to Tumblr - I don’t think you can really consider the people who are creating all this content to be analogous to people who are buying a product. I wouldn’t expect Adobe to share what money it makes selling Lightroom and Photoshop with me - but then again, I do expect them to share that money with the people who contributed to making the software. Just like I would argue - in a just world, at least - that a platform like Tumblr owes at least as much to the people who made the content that drew the eyeballs in the first place. David Karp wouldn’t have a penny were it not for his contributors. Tumblr is an empty shell without people like you. You deserve a bite of that apple. That is something I will argue for.

I agree more with Michele. That $13M wasn’t being spread amongst a few dozen employees. I’ve met one here in RVA, and she isn’t getting paid anywhere close to a cut of that. She’s doing well, mind you, but not “split the money across a few dozen employees” well.

Maybe being part of a behemoth like Yahoo! would mean that they would incorporate functions users want, instead of banning enhancements that users find their own way to make happen. Facebook bothers the crap out of me, but you and I, Maria, Michele, and so many others of us, know each other there. We still use it, regardless the pain in our ass it’s become. And, despite my moaning about Facebook’s constant changing, some of those changes have been welcome. Some. Regardless, it hasn’t lost its core uniqueness and attraction, despite its ever-growing commercialization.

We do not make Tumblr the platform it is. We customize it to be what we want by who we follow; something nearly identical in any platform. My daughter’s Tumblr dashboard is COMPLETELY different than mine, because she follows a completely different group of people (not to mention, she follows about 600 more people than I do). Last night we were discussing that she had read someone post that she was afraid of losing Tumblr’s innocence, in the sense that “we can be free to post whatever we want, anonymously,” however my daughter wondered what world that girl lived in, because constantly people are attacking others on Tumblr for any skew of non-inclusion. She ran down the tragedy of a woman who made an extremely well-written post about an important issue, and was then viciously attacked online, and her otherwise socially-important post was eviscerated, over her unfortunate use of the word retarded. Apparently people took it as far as discovering this woman’s email address and sending her hate mail. I’ve heard of these things happening, however I’ve curated my follow list carefully to only follow you assholes I love! My point is, my daughter’s Tumblr experience is vastly different than mine, as is her Facebook experience. Victoria and I even read magazines differently.

To say Wired owes me something for its not-huge staff, or that Conde-Nast owes me something for when they bought Wired, would have seemed silly. We certainly didn’t expect anything when Yahoo! bought Flickr.

As far as bands go: to what radio are you listening? Top 40 is RIFE with songs about fucking girlfriends (and boyfriends) and fighting! That’s just top 40. And they’re not hiding behind lines like “afternoon delight” any more. I think the difference is in how badly you want the deal, and what you’re willing to sign away. I have some friends who are signed with Epic. They escalated through 2 smaller labels to get there. They insisted on maintaining control of their music, and they have. They have been accused by fans of “selling out” every time a new album comes out, but that’s because they continue to hone their craft, and IMMENSE effort goes into writing each new album, so in turn each album sounds different. They’ve never written a single song for the label. They hope each time, that Epic will pick up the option for a new album (the contract they wanted, and got, was that they would not be stuck with “3 more albums in this contract”. It pays less up front, but about the same in the end.), and so far, Epic has. Through them, I’ve met lots of bands, happily making money, the way they want to, in fairly harmonious contracts with medium to big labels. When you’re young and naïve, it’s easy to let someone take advantage of you. Even if you’re old and desperate, it’s easy to be taken advantage of. Many bands fall into this trap. It’s sad how so many artists have allowed themselves to sign away their rights. John Mellencamp is perfect example. He was young and desperate, and signed away much of his profit to his first manager. To this day, that dude gets a significant cut of Mellencamp’s revenue. He even signed away his right to his own name, being forced to initially perform under the moniker John Cougar. At least he argued his way out of Johnny Cougar…

I’ve been excited for bands like The Crystal Method, Spoon, and Alex Clare when I’ve heard their music in advertisements. Especially since they were songs already published. That’s not selling out. If so, all graphic artists need to quit jobs for the Martin Agency, and other advertising companies, and photographers need to step the fuck away from magazines and any for-profit online companies. Someone in this thread made a decision to separate from an outlet for her art, because she decided it wasn’t fulfilling her artistic need, and turning something fun into a chore. I hope she finds a way to still make that art profitable, because she deserves to get paid for it!

If Tumblr’s going to accept a deal from someone, and believe me, they will, because David Karp created a fantastic platform, however he is not the money-making machine that Zuckerberg is, I would rather it be Yahoo! than Google or Apple. I like what I’ve read of Marissa Meyer, despite her love of the younger crowd, and dismissal of us old farts!

ATTN RVA: No BS! Brass is playing Balliceaux tonight at 10 PM....

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:00:22 -0400

ATTN RVA: No BS! Brass is playing Balliceaux tonight at 10 PM. $5! 8 horns and a drummer. Their originals are sublime, and they cover “Take On Me”, and have a tuba solo during “Thriller”!

Get some!

Holy tear ducts, Batman!

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:00:21 -0400

Pro tip: DO NOT rub your itchy eyes immediately after using hand sanitizer. Sweet Jesus on a unicycle, Satan is dancing on my eyeballs!!!

supacrispy: this is a fantastic idea. no real homeless people...

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:21:23 -0400

supacrispy:

this is a fantastic idea. no real homeless people in my area, but i think everyone needs to know that A&F’s CEO is a giant vinegar based vaginal cleansing product

breakingnews: Bulldozer destroys Mayan pyramid in Belize AP:...

Wed, 15 May 2013 06:02:14 -0400

breakingnews:

Bulldozer destroys Mayan pyramid in Belize

AP:

A construction company has essentially destroyed one of Belize’s largest Mayan pyramids with backhoes and bulldozers to extract crushed rock for a road-building project, authorities announced on Monday.

The head of the Belize Institute of Archaeology, Jaime Awe, said the destruction at the Nohmul complex in northern Belize was detected late last week. The ceremonial center dates back at least 2,300 years and is the most important site in northern Belize, near the border with Mexico.

modernizing: The Brain by Olson Kundig Architects The Brain is...

Wed, 15 May 2013 05:56:49 -0400

modernizing:

The Brain by Olson Kundig Architects

The Brain is a 14,280 cubic-foot cinematic laboratory where the client, a filmmaker, can work out ideas. Physically, that neighborhood birthplace of invention, the garage, provides the conceptual model. The form is essentially a cast-in-place concrete box, intended to be a strong yet neutral background that provides complete flexibility to adapt the space at will. Inserted into the box along the north wall is a steel mezzanine. All interior structures are made using raw, hot-rolled steel sheets.

Photo

Tue, 14 May 2013 18:43:06 -0400

ron-bailey: atsween: colchrishadfield: With deference to the...

Sun, 12 May 2013 21:07:39 -0400

ron-bailey:

atsween:

colchrishadfield:

With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here’s Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World.

Huge thanks in the making of the video to the talented trio of Emm Gryner, Joe Corcoran and Andrew Tidby, plus Evan Hadfield and all at the CSA.

Goddamn it. I don’t know what to say. This is absolutely incredible.

I think we can shut her down now. It’s all gotta be downhill from here.

Fuck it. Canada wins. Buzz Aldrin USED to be the best astronaut, ever.

"The question why I would LET Willow cut her hair. First the LET must be challenged. This is a world..."

Sun, 12 May 2013 01:58:38 -0400

“The question why I would LET Willow cut her hair. First the LET must be challenged. This is a world where women, girls are constantly reminded that they don’t belong to themselves; that their bodies are not their own, nor their power or self determination. I made a promise to endow my little girl with the power to always know that her body, spirit and her mind are HER domain. Willow cut her hair because her beauty, her value, her worth is not measured by the length of her hair. It’s also a statement that claims that even little girls have the RIGHT to own themselves and should not be a slave to even their mother’s deepest insecurities, hopes and desires. Even little girls should not be a slave to the preconceived ideas of what a culture believes a little girl should be.”

- Jada Pinkett Smith (via spinals)

sblaufuss: outofcharactersuburb: thedailywhat: News FAIL of...

Sat, 11 May 2013 20:52:27 -0400

sblaufuss:

outofcharactersuburb:

thedailywhat:

News FAIL of the Day: Two CNN Anchors Talk via Satellite in the Same Parking Lot

Do you see what’s going on in this GIF? Yesterday morning, CNN Newsroom anchor Ashleigh Banfield and CNN Headline News anchor Nancy Grace were discussing the Cleveland kidnapping case “via satellite,” which is a great way to communicate for those who aren’t standing in the same parking lot, and of course, they were. The setup was discovered after a viewer noticed same exact cars passing through both sides of the split-screen in the background and The Atlantic Wire also followed up with a shot-by-shot breakdown of the scene.

Added to the long list of reasons I abhor the 24-hour news cycle.

I wish the FCC would step in and smack the shit out of them.

It’s the same set of steps, and pedestrian, too.

Puppy pile!

Sat, 11 May 2013 20:49:40 -0400

Puppy pile!

really-shit: Terrifying Time Lapse These time lapses document...

Sat, 11 May 2013 11:07:18 -0400

really-shit:

Terrifying Time Lapse

These time lapses document the change in the world over the past 30 years. Islands have popped up; forests have declined; ice has melted.

Such a terrifying, beautiful thing.

hillbillyplease: thepeoplesrecord: Real, complete, fire-able...

Fri, 10 May 2013 15:47:22 -0400

hillbillyplease:

thepeoplesrecord:

Real, complete, fire-able 3D printed ‘liberator’ gun downloaded tens of thousands of times
May 9, 2013

If gun control advocates hoped to prevent blueprints for the world’s first fully 3D-printable gun from spreading online, that horse has now left the barn about a hundred thousand times.

That’s the number of downloads of the 3D-printable file for the so-called “Liberator” gun that the high-tech gunsmithing group Defense Distributed has seen in just the last two days, a member of the group tells me. The gun’s CAD files have been ten times more popular than any component the group has previously made available, parts that have included the body of an AR-15 and the magazine for an AK-47.”This has definitely been our most well-received download,” says Haroon Khalid, a developer working with Defense Distributed. “I don’t think any of us predicted it would be this much.”

The controversial gun-printing group is hosting those files, which include everything from the gun’s trigger to its body to its barrel, on a service that has attracted some controversy of its own: Kim Dotcom’s Mega storage site. Although the blueprint is only publicly visible on Defense Distributed’s own website Defcad.org, users who click on it are prompted to download the collection of CAD files from Mega.co.nz, which advertises that it encrypts all users’ information and has a reputation for resisting government surveillance.

Cody Wilson, Defense Distributed’s 25-year-old founder, says that the group chose to use Mega mostly because it was fast and free. But he also says he feels a degree of common cause with Kim Dotcom, the ex-hacker chief executive of Mega who has become a vocal critic of the U.S. government after being indicted for copyright infringement and racketeering in early 2012. “We’re sympathetic to Kim Dotcom,” says Wilson. “There are plenty of services we could have used, but we chose this one. He’s down for the struggle.”

The most downloads of Defense Distributed’s “Liberator,” surprisingly, haven’t come from the U.S., but from Spain, according to Khalid’s count. The U.S. is second, ahead of Brazil, Germany, and the U.K., he says, although he wasn’t able to provide absolute download numbers for each country.

Update: Although Spain was initially outpacing the U.S. in downloads, it seems more Americans have now downloaded the file.

The gun’s blueprint, of course, may have also already spread far wider than Defense Distributed can measure. It’s also been uploaded to the filesharing site the Pirate Bay, where it’s quickly become one of the most popular files in the site’s 3D-printing category. “This is the first in what will become an avalanche of undetectable, untraceable, easy-to-manufacture weapons that will turn the tables on evil-doers the world over,” writes one user with the name DakotaSmith on the site. “Share and enjoy.”

It’s worth noting that only a fraction of those who download the printable gun file will ever try to actually create one. Defense Distributed used an $8,000 second-hand Stratasys Dimension SST to print their prototype, a 3D printer that the vast majority of its fans won’t have access to.

Nonetheless the “Liberator,” which I first revealed last Friday and then witnessed being test-fired over the weekend, has caused an enormous stir online. Defense Distributed says that it received 540,000 users to its website in the two days since its printable gun was released, and its video revealing the gun has attracted 2.8 million views on YouTube.

The project has also already immediately inspired a legal backlash. New York congressmen Steve Israel and Chuck Schumer have both called for the renewal of the Undetectable Firearms Act to ban any gun that can’t be spotted with a metal detector.

But Defense Distributed’s real goal hasn’t been to create an undetectable gun so much as an uncensorable, digital one. As the group’s founder radical libertarian founder Cody Wilson sees it, firearms can be made into a printable file that blurs the line between gun control and information censorship, blending the First Amendent and the Second and demonstrating how technology can render the government irrelevant.

“Call me crazy, but I see a world where contraband will pass underground through the data cables to be printed in our homes as the drones move overhead,” Wilson said when we first spoke in August of last year. “I see a kind of poetry there…I dream of this very weird future and I’d like to be a part of it.”

Source (Forbes)

Scary. We reported this about a year ago when they only had a few parts of the gun available to print. It got reblogs with comments like ‘yah but they won’t develop the technology in our lifetime to print the whole gun.’ Welp, as I said then and I say now, this is not some distant-future technology. It is here now, available to people who have an expensive 3D Printer, but in the next few years, 3D printers will become cheaper and cheaper and eventually, way cheaper. So I think this is important & I think we should be paying attention to this.

This is a straight-up nightmare. It makes me panicky.

Um… fuck.

geardrops: chisagi: Argentina JUST PASSED a groundbreaking...

Fri, 10 May 2013 15:42:06 -0400

geardrops:

chisagi:

Argentina JUST PASSED a groundbreaking gender identity bill!!!

From now on, people will be able to change the name and gender on their ID without needing psychiatric permission or any body modifications. Furthermore, anyone who does want hormones or surgery will be able to access them for free through the public and private health system.

It was passed unanimously today by the Senate

UNANIMOUSLY

Argentina is just getting more awesome by the year. Countries that aren’t Argentina need to take note.

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat that’s awesome

!!!

smartasshat: The psychological result of being...

Wed, 08 May 2013 17:29:58 -0400

smartasshat:

The psychological result of being second-in-command is the instinctive desire to mark your territory.

Now you know why he’s called “Number One”.

Attn RVA: I wanted to make sure you had plenty of notice. No BS!...

Mon, 06 May 2013 17:55:32 -0400

Attn RVA: I wanted to make sure you had plenty of notice. No BS! Brass will be rockin it out for their RVA ALL DAY CD release party on the 17th & 18th.

Get some!

toseethis: nickdouglas: shanecyr: incorrigiblerobot: potjie: ...

Sat, 04 May 2013 17:52:57 -0400

toseethis:

nickdouglas:

shanecyr:

incorrigiblerobot:

potjie:

redcloud:

tbridge:

popgeek:

May the 4th be with you! So say we all.

So say we all.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Live long and prosper.

“Gilligan!”

“SKIP-PER!”

Can I confess something? I tell you this as an artist, I think you’ll understand. Sometimes when I’m driving… on the road at night… I see two headlights coming toward me. Fast. I have this sudden impulse to turn the wheel quickly, head-on into the oncoming car. I can anticipate the explosion. The sound of shattering glass. The… flames rising out of the flowing gasoline.

That rug really tied the room together, did it not!?

“Shazbot!”

Oh Starbuck, I’m so glad we stayed in Rhode Island. We could have gone to Maryland, or California, or some other state, but now we can get married at home!