June 29, 2009
A twist on the espresso and books combo
Espresso machines can also access thousands of titles that are in the public domain and available on the Internet.
The quote is from D. C. Denison writing for The Boston Globe. Imagine if my espresso machine* could also provide me with literary classics. The espresso machine in question, however, is the Espresso Book Machine. And while that invention isn't news to me, this particular article made me consider how great an EBM at one of my local bookstores would be.
Because I love bookstores, and I love Amazon, and I don't want to have to choose. Being able to spend time, lots of time, staring at the shelves of a physical bookstore and then deciding that in addition to the stack of paperbacks I'm buying, I'd like to get some "out of print" titles too... ah, that would be something.
*It works now, btw. The problem turned out to be so simple that I was a bit embarrased when one of my espresso machine guys pointed it to me. But I did write "I will gladly humiliate myself online for good coffee," so I won't complain.
Oh, and by the way:
Posted by Julie at 9:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
June 25, 2009
We're all correspondents
Cartoon by Dan Wasserman in The Boston Globe
The Onion News Network has another funny way of putting this: "After examining the evidence from the 25 iPhones, 15 Blackberries, 10 video cameras and 40 digital cameras obtained from the students who attended the party, we were able to reconstruct every second of the event."
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Now I'm really living
"Do you know what it's like to fall on the floor and cry your guts out 'til you got no more? Hey man, now you're really living. Well, I just saw the sun rise over a hill. It never used to give me much of a thrill, but hey, man, now I'm really living."
Listen to The Eels' "Now You're Really Living" (via Elisabeth)
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June 24, 2009
Water color photography
Oslo by rain.
Photo taken from the top floor bar of the Oslo Plaza, where I retreated after an unsuccessful attempt to celebrate Moose Cap on the Opera House roof.
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June 22, 2009
Piratjakten eller Hvordan jeg har det i praksis
Et litt utfyllende svar til de som spør "Hvordan har du det i Teknisk Ukeblad, Julie"?
Skal vi tro Twitter er det en merkedag for rettsstaten i dag. Delvis pga. meg.
I praksistiden hos Teknisk Ukeblad har jeg blant annet fulgt en sak om etterforskning av fildeling. I Teknisk Ukeblad har vi kalt den "piratjakten", men noen andre har oppkalt saken etter Max Manus, og Twitter bruker #krevsvar.
Piratjakten er en komplisert sak fordi den omhandler jus, IT, politikk (eller manglende politikk, egentlig) og tilsvarende ingredienser som gir nyheter "tyngde" (og dermed gjør dem "tunge").
Den kan likevel bli en viktig prinsippsak, og den har engasjert mange. Ikke minst nettsjefen her i Teknisk Ukeblad, Anders Brenna.
Kort oppsummert dreier det seg om advokatfirmaet Simonsen som etterforsker nett-pirater. Simonsen driver privat etterforskning, og det betyr at de ikke er regulert av lover slik politiet eller vaktselskaper er hvis de etterforsker noen. De har frem til i dag blitt regulert av en midlertidig konsesjon fra Datatilsynet.
Simonsen har bedt om å få utlevert ip-adresser der de mener det er grunn til mistanke om piratvirksomhet. Post- og teletilsynet åpnet for privat utlevering ved rettslig kjennelse i et enkeltvedtak 19. april 2009.
Nettleverandøren Lyse Tele nektet å utlevere kundeinformasjon. Stavanger Tingrett kom med midlertidig kjennelse om hvorvidt ip-adressene skulle ut. Det skjedde 5. mai, men kjennelsen er fortsatt hemmelig.
I dag har Datatilsynet bestemt at konsesjonen ikke fornyes. Piratjakten stanses, med andre ord. Og begrunnelsen er at saken ikke har fått nok politisk oppmerksomhet.
Simonsen skal klage. Saken fortsetter.
Jeg har skrevet flere artikler om piratjakten og laget
en oversikt over hele saken her. Og en dag, etter at hele saken er avsluttet, kommer jeg til å legge ut en "bak kulissene"-bloggpost om denne prosessen.
Posted by Julie at 3:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
June 19, 2009
Happy Moose Cap Friday!
It's Friday... Don't forget your moose cap!
I probably won't be wearing one, because I will be celebrating here:
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Thoughts after a fashion show
Despite not feeling all that well, I couldn't miss the fashion show from the graduating class of Esmod Oslo on Wednesday. And I'm glad I was there, since my friend Eivind B. Hackett won three awards, including an internship, money and the opportunity to sell his collection at the Oslo department store Steen&Strøm.
Slideshow from backstage and the runway
After attending a catwalk show in ballerina flats, I understand why catwalk models need to be tall. And wear incredible platform heels. Because catwalks are not always easy to see, unless you arrive early or have some good reason for being in the front row.
Speaking of heels, people who walk in them should know how. I won't judge the models at this particular show, because I know some of them were friends of the designers, and had never walked a runway before. But if you're a Top Model contestant for example, meaning you want to be a model, shouldn't you know how to put one foot in front of the other, even if those feet are on platform heels? It's just a matter of practicing.
Anyway, judging from my very, very limited experience, fashion shows work the way "exclusive" clubs do: It seems the inconvenience of the whole experience is supposed to add to the feeling of luxury and exclusivity. It's so incredibly cool that there isn't anywhere to sit, or even stand comfortably, and that the music is too loud to allow for any form of communication. You feel lucky if you're actually able to see the show over taller peoples' heads and shoulders. And it's really hot - actually, maybe they really do that on purpose so people will wear less clothing.
But despite all that, I loved it! Especially the fact that Eivind won a bunch of awards, which I've already blogged about in Norwegian.
Shoes from Prada, top photos from Fashionising, where you can also see catwalk models fall.
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Hurra for Eivind!
Eivind B. Hackett vant Gullnålen-prisen, VOICE-prisen og Steen & Strøms Magasinpris på Esmods Diplomvisning på onsdag.
Det betyr at han nå er ferdig med moteskole og har vunnet jobb. Han fikk praktikantplass i ett år av Voice, og 10 000 kr av Steen & Strøm. I tillegg skal hans kolleksjon, "Villainwear", selges på Steen & Strøm.
Se bildeserie fra motevisningen og artikkel skrevet av min klassevenninne og Oslostudenten-kollega Linn Husby.
P.S. En liten gratulasjon til modell Melina også, siden hun er min tidligere kollega på LaDanse og siden hun var over gjennomsnittet flink til å gå med høye hæler.
Posted by Julie at 9:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
June 14, 2009
The year the media died
"I was a lonely Mad Ave creative type, with some good ideas and a lot of hype, but I knew the picking was ripe the year the media died."
Digital media from the point of view of a mad man.
"As I watched users generate without ad support to carry the freight, no content like MTV could break consumers' love of free."
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June 13, 2009
Rant on technology and manners – the sequel
Flashback:
Part one of this rant was written way back in November 2007, when I was a college student, part-time receptionist and student government representative. I combined these duties with "a combination of secretary, therapist, event planner, student guidance counselor, tutor, mediator and research assistant to everyone I know", and to say that I checked my e-mail "like it was my job" would be an understatement. After ranting, I set up some ground rules for communicating with me, and they actually seemed to work. Or - more likely - writing a rant relieved my stress, and I was able to handle all the e-mails.
"Communication technology can be stressful because it forces us to be perpetually available to anyone who has our contact information. This idea makes people turn their phones off, only check their e-mail during weekdays, and relish the lack of internet connection in their vacation homes. This can be extremely stressful to the people who need to get in touch with them, but sometimes people just need a break, right? As usual, the problem is not e-mail or text messaging in itself, but the fact that our habits and our rules of decent behavior haven't caught up with the changes in technology."
- Julie Andersen (yeah, I'm quoting myself)
The actual rant
Continue reading "Rant on technology and manners – the sequel"
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June 2, 2009
Girls aren't stupid, we're just not as lazy as the boys
LiveScience reports that a new review of recent studies finds that girls are not more stupid than boys - even when it comes to math.
I didn't take the time to comment last time, when The Boston Globe presented the idea that women just aren't into math.
Like I've said before: I don't know how mentally different men and women really are. I just know about my own experiences here.
So let's talk about me for a bit. And the fact that guys are lazy.
Continue reading "Girls aren't stupid, we're just not as lazy as the boys"
Posted by Julie at 11:40 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
May 30, 2009
This week
Links for the weekend - Things I've been thinking about while writing for work.
This week I recommend Think again: Child soldiers from Foreign Policy, a very thought-provoking article.
Also thought-provoking is The New Socialism from Wired, where Kevin Kelly writes that social media is the new socialism. I'm not entirely sure what to make of this. While both my inner politics geek and my inner web-media geek are very pleased, I'm not sure the arguments in this article are all that original or even true. At any rate, thoughts on the behavioral economics of blogging, twittering and youtubing are interesting. Specifically, it's hard to think that I'm blogging with a strictly rational-choice what's-in-it-for-me attitude. The idea of blogging to contribute to a community makes more sense. With me, I tend to blog what's in my head anyway; it's really not work that I selflessly do for your benefit. In Norway, there's a twist to this web socialism, as our Labor Party prime minister twitters. When he announced this on radio, he claimed he would follow everyone who followed him, because that's the Labor Party way ("Alle skal med!"). I don't know if he kept his promise though - is he following me?
Speaking of social media, AudioBoo is the new thing, according to various sources, but I'm linking to The Guardian.
Going back to paper media, Dan Sabbagh at Times Online explains why the very snobby Monocle magazine is making money.
So it's not all doom and gloom: Global newspaper sales went UP in 2008.
But I still think paper is for art, not news. Examples to the left and above.
For Norwegian-speakers: B-mennesker er de nye A-mennesker fordi vi holder ut lenger.
This week I looked forward to Stuart Murdoch from Belle & Sebastian starting a girl group, God Help the Girl:
Although the dark-haired singer is clearly wearing my coat in this picture, I'm optimistic about this. I didn't love the first single (video), but I might in the near future. Individual Belle & Sebastian songs usually start out feeling anonymous, but then they grow on me.
This week I read The Enchantment of Lily Dahl by Siri Hustvedt.
I recently renewed my subscription to Morgenbladet, but they keep calling me and sending me multiple postcards urging me to renew my subscription. They need to get their act together. Despite subscribing, I can't link to them, which is beyond annoying.
I added a new personal blog to my Bloglines: Thoughts and All
Also: I HAVE TICKETS TO SEE TORI!
Posted by Julie at 2:54 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
