The War against the Machines has begun...

but not in a T3 sort of way. As Nico and I have set up a little office choc-full of wireless computer wizardry, we've come to realise a serious problem -- as the complexity of the system (software/hardware) increases, so does the likelyhood of problems with interoperability.

In other words -- nothing seems to work properly for long, and when it goes wrong, there is no causal link between what you've been doing and what went wrong.

For instance, just today, today my printer decided that it didn't want to print. Ok -- so I sent a massive illustrator file to it -- but that's a side point.

Nico has even worse problems as he spent over a month getting iTunes to work on Windows. His approach is to diligently hunt down the problem. Me -- I usually just shut everything down and turn it back on again.

I can never figure out what has gone wrong -- and I was a computer science major -- I've written an OS, for chrissake.

My point is this: the computer industry has been built on consumer acceptance of products that DON'T WORK PROPERLY! Let's call it what it is, and demand the same standard of quality and reliability that we would expect of any other consumer appliance.

 

Feverish Minds - we're fragmenting again...

I've updated my iwantanime.com site with yet another blog.

I'll post some anime related schtuff, in case your interested. Not much there now, just a rubbish design template.

 

Nico's People and Light

CIMG0542.JPG, originally uploaded by Nico ze french.

Nico has finally taken to Flickr, after my weeks and weeks of going on about it.

He's uploaded some of his series of 'People and Light' -- he likes to experiment with low-light exposure shots.

 

The Sony QRio

Sony is building the robotic future we've seen in all the Anime...

The QRio

Sony ... say the word and I'll drop everything and work for you.

 

Michele LaRocca

Michele LaRocca, originally uploaded by kaioshin.

Michele was one of my best friends in grade school -- but I haven't spoken to him in about 15 years.

I just happened to be flipping through Vice magazine at the local coffeeshop (no-one), when I came across this pic!

No, he's not an underwear model -- they were doing a special on teachers/educators in New York.

I take this as a sign that I should try to get back in touch. If anyone knows Michele, drop me an email.

 

Another visit to Lozworld...

I had strange dream last night... might have been on account of the pints I had with Lampen, followed by a Kebab (yeah, yeah, 'Falafel' doesn't sound right) and unconsciousness.

Anyhow, in my dream the world was full of clones. I was walking around Old Street and started to realise that every 4-5 people looked the same. Some were shorter, or fatter, different hairstyles, etc. -- but they were clearly clones of each other.

I grabbed a woman and started pointing out all the people that looked like her. Saying, "Don't you see... these are all clones like you..." But she just stared at me.

I soon began to realise that we were programmed (by genetics, big brother, who knows?) not to see our clones -- the mind fooled these people into thinking their clones looked nothing like them, and everyone else looked unique, rather than groups of the same person.

But I had changed somehow, and could now see the groups of clones. Then something really bizarre happened, and I saw guys that looked like me slowly looking more and more like me and realised they were my clones!

And I woke up.

 

Weapons of Mass Productions

Missle Balloons

(courtesy of Pete)

 

Ghost in the Banknote

I had this idea to help me with my personal budget. I'm going to print tokens representing £10 and £20 values, and then keep that in a card file.

Whenever I want to spend £20 on groceries, I'll move that token into the "spent" folder and I'll go get £20 from the ATM. (I think this was Jimmie's idea, actually)

So... I decided to make my tokens using greyscale versions of the actual £10 and £20 notes. My inkjet printer had other plans.

Apparently there is something encoded in currency that alarms printers, and they stop printing your images replacing them with the text URL -- www.rulesforuse.org

It's not like anyone would be fooled into thinking a greyscale inkjet note at 60% its original size was the actual currency... but hey -- that's big brother for you.

 

I know Kung Fu!

Being the trend-whore that I am, I had to get the latest in Geek Chic...

my very own Gmail account.

kaigani [at] gmail.com

...

To all the members of the Kaigani Haida tribe? Caught ya sleeping again! mouahahaha

 

US media - stealing British ideas since 1952

I'm amazed at how many movies and television programmes I'm familiar with -- and thought were original American creations -- are actually rip-offs of British programmes.

You don't learn this, of course, when you're living in the States.

Most recently: the show "Trading Spouses"... obviously the UK's "Wife Swap" is a little to un-PC for American audiences. And, like most conversions, the humour is lost in translation.

It's also interesting that the US-UK media exchange takes place at the low-brow end of the spectrum. You'll be lucky to catch a vaguely intellectual show on PBS, while it's commonplace on the BBC.

For instance, this radio programme (courtesy of Jones -- the link, not the BBC)

 

Helms v. Colbert

helms_v_colbert, originally uploaded by kaioshin.

I've been watching the Daily Show (US) for over a year, and I've just realised that these are two different guys.
I could tell you how I manage to watch the Daily Show from the UK, but I'd have to kill you.
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Relationship space: I like your pictures

I like the way Flickr lets you add anyone as a contact, with or without their consent.

'Add a friend', on other services, often limits you to the people you already know. If they have to accept you as a friend in return, then you wouldn't immediately add someone you never met. You would expect them to see your "I would like to add you to my friends list" request with "do i know you?"

Because Flickr has softened this interaction to the equivalent of paying someone a compliment, it has allowed me to 'meet' people from around the world through their photos (which are amazing windows into their worlds) -- AND to stay in contact with them.

Nice touch.

 

My New Niece!

Welcome to this world: Aaliyah Amae Turner Davis

TurnerDavis

 

Nico's Dark Horse is Horny

http://www.mydarkhorseishorny.com/

 

Lost in the Flickr photostream

If I haven't been blogging as much, it's because I am lost in the Flickr photostream.

For instance, I love the pictures by Tamaki ... and his way with words.

For example:

On sculpture: "Our working clothes are white, because we fight with marble."

It's like a little oasis of Zen in a busy city world.

 

DMC Technics DJ World Championship

DMC Technics DJ World Championship, originally uploaded by kaioshin.

Pictures from the Technics DJ World Championship
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Parsnip, Leek & Ginger soup

Parsnip, Leek & Ginger soup, originally uploaded by kaioshin.

More food pics... this was my lunch. The ingredients are on Flickr.
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Lazyweb idea: Photoshop history aggregator

I'm starting to understand why people call upon the lazyweb... there aren't enough hours in the day.

Unless you have a personal Durden-esque Army. Or a company of geniuses (genii?) like Ludicorp

Anyhow -- here's my idea...

An app collects the history of actions in Photoshop, and cross-references them by the final file created. I think this would be great, because how many times have you thought to yourself -- "how the hell did I do that?"

But taking this one step further, you could upload Photoshop histories into a library, and create tools that would generate Photoshop actions from them.

The idea being, that at a certain point in the future, the actions will evolve into fairly complex things... like the effect I used to make Anime look like Manga pulp comics.

Any takers?

 

FRIENDS: if you don't AIM you don't exist.

I know this sounds harsh... and it comes down to laziness on my part, I suppose ... but the fact of the matter is, I hardly communicate with anyone I don't see on AOL Instant Messenger these days.

So please... get in touch ... I'm 'kaiganism'

 

Why server-side isn't good enough

I really hate depending on server-side technology... del.icio.us went down yesterday and I felt helpless.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- why don't these guys believe in application development? I think a product model would be more profitable than a subscription/advertising model anyhow.

I'd buy a del.icio.us app to run on my computer, and I'm sure they could charge £500 and up for a server license. Or even better, sell to the ISPs.

Hear my call!!

 

Another reason I need to learn Japanese

RPG Maker XP


Also... I'm a hair-trigger away from jumping on a plane to Tokyo just to see the Naruto movie!!

 

Google nazis...

come on people... is it really someone's job to disapprove of my URL??

---- recent email ----

Hello Kai,
Thank you for your email concerning the fact that your ad doesn't appear when you search for the keyword "Saul Bass".
I have looked into your account and have explained below that your ad is currently disapproved and why this is so.
When I checked your campaign, I found that your ad is currently marked 'disapproved' and therefore is not running.
AdWords Specialists review all of the ads in the Google AdWords program to ensure that they comply with our advertising guidelines. When ads do not meet our standards, we temporarily disable them.
You should have received a message sent on 26/08/04 detailing why we disapproved your ad. If you have not received this email, I can forward you a copy of the message. Please let me know if you would like me to do so.
I would like to clarify why your ad was disapproved:
We don't allow excessive capitalisation to appear in the ad text and in this case your use of capitalisation for www.DESIGNonDVD.com was deemed excessive. An acceptable variation of this would be www.DesignOnDVD.com. You can review our guidelines at: http://adwords.google.co.uk/select/guidelines.html
After making the necessary changes, save your ad. This automatically resubmits your ad back to us for review. We appreciate your effort in refining your ad.
If you have any further questions regarding the disapproval, please reply to this email. If you received a disapproval message, include a copy of it with your reply. I will then be able to address your questions.
Please feel free to email us at adwords-uk@google.com if you have additional questions or concerns.
Thanks again for your message. We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.
To access your AdWords account, please log in at: https://adwords.google.co.uk
Sincerely,
Niamh
Google AdWords
UK and Ireland Team

 

Design is heartfelt

I just wanted to take a second and mention the website that my bro-in-law, Jimmie, made for his pictures of my sister and their (our) family:

www.turnerdavis.com

I think it is well designed, even though Jimmie has no background in design (he has a PhD in Electrical Engineering)

It goes to show that if you care about something, and it is precious to you, and you spend time being thoughtful about it and observing other examples -- the result is Good Design.

 

Sapient Wars - Episode 1

From an IM discussion with Jones...

kaiganism (11:39:45): i've been talking to Loz about doing a Star Wars style history of Sapient. We decided that you are Qui-Gon Jinn -- the guy full of wisdom, that does something stupid and gets killed :-)... i'm Obi-Wan, Luke is Luke of course, and Loz is Anakin ... currently tempting the Dark Side as he ponders whether to return to Sapient.

bbj01 (11:40:05): i have the best hair
kaiganism (11:40:09): hahaha

bbj01 (11:40:24): dude, i'm so Han.

bbj01 (11:40:39): gibb = c3p0
kaiganism (11:40:43): hmmm.. maybe you are reborn then.
kaiganism (11:40:46): as Han

bbj01 (11:41:00): guess it's whether you go for the orginal trilogy

bbj01 (11:41:02): or not..
kaiganism (11:41:16): Qui-Gon didn't ascend after all, we see his body.
kaiganism (11:41:41): yes -- Gibb is c3p0 of course!
kaiganism (11:42:09): ok -- this is the kind of low-brow stuff worthy of my blog :-)

 

The NeverNude Chef - 3-Day Beans and Rice

I've been asked by Fiona for the recipe to my beans, rice and tofu dish. I've never written a recipe, so the measurements are inexact. Really, I just mix stuff up. For this recipe, I was thinking -- I don't want it to taste like bland beans, so if I find a really strong sauce (Peri-Peri sauce) and let it sit overnight it should make the beans taste nice. I also tend to add sauteed onions and pepper to anything as a rule of thumb...

anyhow, he's my first attempt at a recipe:

Ingredients

Day 1 -

1 bag of black-eyed peas

Day 2 -

Extra Hot Peri-Peri Sauce I think any strong, hot sauce will do
Sea salt, Black pepper to taste
Extra virgin olive oil
2 shallots, diced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced

Day 3 -

1 cup long grain rice
2 cups water
1 block of semi-dry tofu

Instructions

Day 1 -

- Wash black-eyed peas and soak in a bowl of water overnight

Day 2 -

- Drain beans
- Bring a pot of water to boil
- Add salt, and a little olive oil
- Add beans and reduce heat
- Add peri-peri sauce
- Bring to a slow simmer until beans are tender (about 20-30 mins)
- There shouldn't be much liquid left at this point

- Slice red and green bell peppers, simmer in olive oil over a medium flame.
They are done when they 'wilt' for lack of the proper term. Don't over-brown them, if the olive oil has been absorbed, add a little bit of water so they start to steam instead of fry.

- Add peppers to the pot of beans
- Sautee chopped shallots in olive oil until slightly brown, and add to pot of beans
- Stir pot of beans, simmer for about 5 minutes
- Empty pot of beans into a bowl, let cool and refrigerate overnight.

Day 3 -

- Bring 2 cups of water to a boil, add salt, rice and olive oil - reduce heat to simmer, cook until water is absorbed and rice is tender.

- Cut tofu into cubes and fry in olive oil
(I chose to not season the tofu, because of the salt content in the beans and rice. The unseasoned tofu absorbed the salt nicely and gave a subtle flavour.)

- Add a portion of beans to the frying pan, and re-warm the beans with the tofu.

- Serve over rice.


Yummy!

 

rice, beans and tofu

PICT0001, originally uploaded by kaioshin.

I posted a picture of black eye peas I made on Tuesday.

Today, Jones posts this sad picture (no offense to Fiona, I'm sure it tasted lovely).

Coincidence? I think not.

However, since BBJ has become one with the interweb -- my dish may get lost in the background noise of blogspace, while his picture will join his legacy. (I'm sure my grandkids will tell me that Matt Jones invented the internet -- just as he 'designed the BBC websites')

So i will have to post lots of pictures of my food in the future.

Then perhaps I will be remembered as "That 73 guy who made pretty good food."

 

War against negative entropy

If you asked me, the governments of the world have got it wrong. Forget the 'T-word' ... the really challenge of this century is information-overload. (Remember Johnny Mnemonic ... re-elect Bush, and that might be closer to reality.. hahaha)

I can barely manage my address book, and keep up with my friends current activities.. and it's not like I have that many friends.

I can hardly fathom the amount of information the next generation will have to come to terms with. (Again, poor Johnny could only fit 160GB in his brain... you can buy double that for about 100 GBP these days).

Again -- I put out a call for an Information Architects Manhattan Project ... with hopefully more favourable results.

(Hmmm... the IAM Project... Tower of Babel 2.0 anyone?)