November 22, 2004
coral and sheep
A week ago I tweeked Electric Sheep
to use the Coral Content
Distribution Network. Sheep clients are now pointed at Coral's network
of about 100 servers. These servers are in machine rooms all over the world.
They fetch the sheep mpg files from ethereal.net, our original server, and then share them among
themselves with a P2P network. Coral makes clever use of DNS to connect clients to
nearby servers. Despite some glitches users report much improved
download speeds. And the graph shows how the bandwidth used by
ethereal dropped off from 15mbps where it was capped, to about 3.
There is a downside too: coral uses port 8090 which means Electric
Sheep no longer runs in many firewalled corporate networks. Thanks
to Mike and Tristan!
David Heskin
David Heskin's New Skin Studio and amazing oil paintings. Another participant in Synergenesis.
November 21, 2004
Norwegian Wood
Get this. Recently a couple was arrested in norway for
having sex on stage during a rock festival. Turns out
they are founders of a radical group "fuck for forest"
that sells porno of themselves and other "youth reclaiming
nature" to raise money to save the rainforest. And is
dedicated to having sex in public to promote their cause.
links: the ananova story about the court case, a story with an uncensored pic, and finally, their site. Further research turned up this article in Grist Magazine (from which I cribbed the title).
November 15, 2004
100 mutant children
A test run of the mutation operator consisting of 100 mutant children of a single sheep.
November 13, 2004
Dia de los Muertos and Synergenesis Photos
Two new galleries from recent events.
November 12, 2004
word for the day
Cicisbeo \Cì·cis*·bëo\, n. (pl. cicisbei) from the Italian: 1. a knot of silk or ribbon attached to a fan, walking stick, etc. 2. a married woman's lover or escort. 3. a kept man.November 11, 2004
new dvd goes to replication
I am happy to report that Michael Lazar and I have finished remastering the SPOTWORKS DVD and sent it to the factory for replication. Expect a release party announcement soon!November 10, 2004
triple power this saturday
I'm playing at Triple Power this saturday at The Sublounge.
November 08, 2004
e-sheep and google ego-ranks
Patrick Farley's fanastic Electric
Sheep comix has a splash for a upcoming issue on
the election and inauguration titled Mother of all Bombs.
I'm really looking forward to it. A while ago I bragged that my screen-saver had finally become the #1 google hit for "electric sheep". Today I noticed that Patrick is back on top :)
More good news: I am now the 55th "spot".
Bathseba
Bathseba Grossman makes beautiful mathematical and scientific designs out of
metal and glass using computer design and laser scanners that "print" in 3D.
Includes a use of the word excrescence which reminds me of two other words: apophysis (this) and of course concrescence (this).
thanks cas. related work: George Hart, and Carlo Séquin, who was in the Siggraph art gallery with me this year.
November 01, 2004
Imbolc and Lughnasadh
For some time I've known that Halloween has
roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain,
which marks the entrance of darkness
halfway between autumn equinox and
winter solstice. Similarly,
May Day goes back to Beltane, halfway
between spring equinox and summer
solstice.I realized that I didn't know anything about the other two symmetric points in the Celtic calendar. What ritual marks halfway between winter and spring, likewise halfway between summer and autumn?
The answers: Imbolc and Lughnasadh. I wonder if these are not so popular because they are so hard to spell.