Household Creatures perform Waiting for Godot from kanarinka - how did I miss this?

Love this - Free Fear from the USA (if you take it) | from The Institute for Infinitely Small Things

(source: http://www.ikatun.org/kanarinka/hello-world/)

"A reverse shoplifting experiment to bring American fear & insecurity to Canadian bookstores. The Institute for Infinitely Small Things deposited over 40 copies of their self-published “New American Dictionary: Security/Fear Edition” into Vancouver bookstores & educational institutions.

In October 2007, the Institute for Infinitely Small Things reverse-shoplifted over 40 copies of The New American Dictionary: Security/Fear Edition into bookstores and educational institutions in Vancouver, BC.

The dictionary catalogs over 60 terms related to fear and security which have entered American English since 9/11, including new terms (”freedom fries”, “islamofascist”) and old terms which have been redefined (”torture”). The books are for free in Vancouver or on amazon.com for $19.95."

Apple already knows where you are all the time — and is telling others | VentureBeat

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"Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced today that the social network’s geolocation tool is nearing release. But Apple already knows exactly where all of its iPhone users are in real-time, and is sharing this data with its “partners and licensees” for all users who agree to its just revised privacy policy.

This sounds reasonable, except that all iPhone users who want to download applications or media via the iTunes Store are forced to agree to the policy. Otherwise they are blocked from downloading anything, so it really isn’t an option.

Apple assures its users that all of this data — especially the data it is sharing — is completely anonymous. But as if enough information is provided, it might not be that difficult to pinpoint who people are based on where they go."

Why Mobile Innovation Is Blowing Away PCs

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(source:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/20/why-mobile-innovation-is-blowing-away-pcs/ )

"Editor’s note: Guest author Steve Cheney is an entrepreneur and formerly an engineer & programmer specializing in web and mobile technologies.

On the heels of the latest Android phone, the Sprint HTC EVO, and as we approach iPhone 4, it seems like mobile devices and platforms are innovating at about five times the pace of personal computers.

Rapid advancement in mobile is often attributed to the natural disruption by which emerging industries innovate quickly, while established markets like PCs follow a slower, more sustained trajectory.

But there are deeper fundamentals driving the breathtaking pace of smartphone advancement. Component vendors supplying to smartphone OEMs have evolved a much different DNA than those supplying to PC makers. Smartphones are an evolution of embedded systems, not PCs, and embedded markets have long favored vendors who don’t simply provide the most highly integrated chipsets, but who can also partner with OEMs to drive system-level integration and software at a rapid pace.

Hardware / Chipset Integration Differences in Smartphones vs PCs:

Intel’s monopoly in PC processors and peripheral chipsets has caused PC innovation to stagnate. “Chipsets” sit alongside a CPU and integrate auxiliary functions such as wireless and peripherals. By “bundling” chipsets with processors, Intel neutralizes competition on PC motherboards. Exceptions such as graphic chips exist, but Intel essentially “decides” 90% of what will (and won’t) be included on next generation PCs.

A great example of this is the notable lack of GPS chips in laptops. The fact that I have to type in my starting address on Google Maps on my $1,500 MacBook Air serves as a constant reminder that PC innovation has plateaued (even Mac hardware is controlled by Intel). It’s no surprise people reach for their iPhone when in front of a computer—the mobile experience is often better.

GPS is just one example of the ever-widening gap between PCs and smartphones. Sure, PC makers could add a separate GPS chip to the motherboard, but why hasn’t Intel pursued location as a core piece of IP in its chipsets to drive a better mobile experience for laptops?

It’s simple – they don’t need to. Intel loves high margins, and their market monopoly allows them to pursue margin at the expense of innovation.

In contrast, smartphone vendors have traditionally competed in a much more fragmented supply chain, integrating at a breakneck pace just to survive. Today’s 3G wireless chipsets integrate GPS, Bluetooth, and 802.11n on a single chip. And the competition between great companies like Qualcomm and Marvell not only spurs further innovation, but also drives vendors to differentiate in system integration and software.

System Level Integration and Support Differences in Smartphones vs PCs:

System integration is the term for how hardware and software combine to create a finished platform. In PCs, Intel dictates the pace of hardware releases– OEMs essentially wait for CPU updates, then differentiate through inventory control, channel / distribution and branding. Intel and Microsoft win no matter which PC makers excel – they literally don’t care if it’s Asus, Dell or HP.

In the smartphone world, it’s the opposite. Dozens of component vendors fight each other to the death to win designs at smartphone OEMs. This competitive dynamic forms an entirely different basis for how component vendors approach system integration and support."

cont...

New iPhone Software Arrives Today, Can You Run it? testing testing...

Check out this website I found at networkedblogs.com

(source: http://networkedblogs.com/530UK)

Ahead of Thursday's release of the new and improved iPhone 4, Apple is today launching a series of software improvements collectively known as iOS 4 to owners of older generation iPhones and iPod Touch devices. iOS 4, the updated form of the iPhone operating system, brings over 100 new features, some big - like folders for apps and unified inboxes, some small - like home screen wallpapers and threaded email, and some - like multi-tasking - which your old iPhone may not be able to run at all.

Multi-tasking, iPhone's Newest Trick, Doesn't Run on Older Devices
Announced in April during a presentation on Apple's Cupertino campus, iOS 4 delivers several long-awaited features for many iPhone users, the most important of which may be "multi-tasking," the ability for apps to run in the background while you launch and use additional applications in the foreground. Developers must first update their iPhone apps to take advantage of this new feature but after doing so, those applications become accessible via a "task menu" that appears at the bottom of the iPhone's screen, launched by double-tapping the iPhone's "Home" button.

Although multi-tasking is arguably the standout feature of the iOS 4 software, users of older iPhones won't be able to take advantage of the new functionality. Multi-tasking won't work on the iPhone 3G or second generation iPhone Touch devices. And those who still have the original iPhone can't run the new software at all.

Other Top Features
Along with multi-tasking, iPhone OS 4 apps can also be configured to run in the background, a helpful feature for music applications like Pandora which, before, would stop music playback when you exited the app. Now, you can continue streaming tunes while checking email, browsing the Web, texting, playing games or doing anything else you want. Even better, location services such as those used by turn-by-turn applications like Tom Tom will also be able to run in the background, meaning you won't get lost just because someone calls you while you're navigating via GPS.

cont....

Kickstarter Summer Projects by Marina Zurkow, Joe Winter, Thom Kubli by Marian Spore - very interesting!

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

WHAT IS MARIAN SPORE? Marian Spore is an accumulative museum of contemporary art in Industry City, Brooklyn founded by Michael Connor in September 2009. New artworks are regularly added to a steadily-growing exhibition housed in a 16,000 square foot space.

IS MARIAN SPORE A COLLECTION? We think of Marian Spore as an art collection, although the works have not been purchased. Instead, they are all on loan from the artists until the space closes in December 2010. At that point, we aim to sell the collection as a whole into the care of a larger institution.

PROJECT 1: FLOAT! BY THOM KUBLI One at a time, members of the audience float in a custom-designed isolation tank, listening to an audio composition about politics and zero gravity. The tank was originally commissioned by RPI in Troy, New York. We need $2200 to bring this unique project to Marian Spore. This will go towards tank transport, installation, salt and equipment.

PROJECT 2: PARADOXICAL SLEEP BY MARINA ZURKOW Zurkow will 'submerge' Marian Spore by digitally compositing floodwaters into video footage of the space. The resulting videos, which may be taken as haunting visions of the future, are played on monitors that hang on specially fabricated steel armatures in the space. We need $1000 to pay for a professional videographer and camera rental as well as the modification of the steel armatures.

PROJECT 3: MODELS FOR A HISTORY OF LIGHT BY JOE WINTER Artist Joe Winter makes beautiful abstract photograms (cameraless photographs) by exposing ordinary construction paper to household lights over long periods of time. The work has been on view since December at Marian Spore; we need $800 to pay for installation materials (wood, display cases, framing, further light fixtures).

OUR NAMESAKE The space is named after the wife of Industry City's founder, Irving T. Bush. Spore (1878-1946) was a visionary artist who claimed to commune with the spirits of dead artists. Working from their instructions, she made surrealist-tinged paintings that offered stark visions of the future. She is our 'patron saint', but there is no direct connection between the space and her estate.

where is my teleporter!!! fascinating exhibition: Sketches Of Space Luxembourg - great pics

SKETCHES

(source:
http://www.mudam.lu/en/expositions/details/exposition/sketches-of-space/)

"For the exhibition Sketches of Space, Mudam has invited eight artists to occupy the museum with projects specifically conceived for the occasion. Presented in all the rooms devoted to temporary shows, the installations enhance different approaches to the notion of space through their diversity.

Physical intervention to the architecture of Ieoh Ming Pei, game of construction and deconstruction, relating the interior to the exterior of the building, immersive environment, installation disorientating the viewer, response to the institutional context... Each of these propositions sketches another perception of the museum by redrawing its contours.
Faithful to her usual approach which consists of taking the context of her intervention as a starting point, Luxembourg artist Simone Decker has come up with a large-scale installation for the Grand Hall that echoes the previous exhibition, Brave New World (from the perspective of Mudam Collection). A tower, mostly composed of storage cases for artworks from the museum’s collection, allows visitors to climb to the heights of the Grand Hall and reach the summit of the atrium. From here, they may discover a new point of view on the building and the exterior, as well as on the collection and, generally, the museum as an institution."