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Anamorphic Cube Design 1.0
Proof of (weird and pointless) concept.
(c) 2008 OFREKE GLOBO-CORP INDUSTRIES

Moany Baloney

In case anyone was wondering, these are my 10* least favourite phrases on US tech blogs/newsites

(*seasonally adjusted to 9)

When you’re as addicted to reading tech blogs and tech news sites as I am, you notice the same phrases and word memes come up over and over again. Often, they’re amusing the first couple of times, but they can quickly become wearying to read again and again. Here are the ones that are currently annoying me the most:

Called out
“The IDC called out this new category for special mention”.
It just sounds wrong and ugly, like a kind of unfortunate singling out in a military parade for ‘special attention’. It sounds lumpy to UK ears, in the same way that ‘I promise I’ll write you in the fall’ does. I concede that this is pure British linguistic snobbery, but there it is.

B’okay?
“Y’all stop beating on Apple, b’okay?”.
I reckon South Park and their Mr Mackey is responsible for this one, reverse enginered from ‘Mmm’kay?’

Beating on
“Y’all stop beating on Apple, b’okay?”
This is as bad as Australian news reporting ‘a bashing’ in the mall. Mall is bad too.

Kool Aid
“You’re clearly drinking the Microsoft/Apple Kool Aid” .
Swallowing marketing hype as if it were the truthiness. As I’m based in the UK, I have absolutely no idea what Kool Aid is, or how the consumption of it suspends one’s critical faculties.

Truthiness
Probably Simpsons. It’s the sort of thing Homer would say, like ‘saxamaphone’ and ‘Rageahol’

Much
“Pedant, much?” or “improved camera on new iPhone? Not so much.”
Much nice discussion of the new muchness here: http://www.azcentral.com/ent/pop/articles/1031catchphrases1031.html

ipod/iPhone killer
Ha ha ha.
The ipod was launched, when, 2001? It was killed in the same way that the G’Gugvuntts in the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy killed the Earth (they were, in fact, eaten by a small dog due to an unfortunate miscalculation of scale.) But the idea that something should be ‘killed’ because some talented industrial designers actually thought about user experience, and made something as well as they could, seems to smack of reverse snobbery or jealousy or hypocrisy, or maybe snobbery. Or Jealousy. Or reverse hypocrisy.

Frigtard
“I hear Robert Scoble may or may not be a frigtard”
Used exclusively by Dan Lyons, the Forbes journalist blogging as Fake Steve Jobs. I’m not sure this update of the charming American insult ‘retard’ has caught on in the wider world, along with it’s variants twittertards, freetards and tardtards.

Micro$oft
Of course, it’s all good sport to be terribly annoyed with Microsoft and Vista, but it seems a rather pointless insult to imply that Microsoft, a commercial company, is…in it for the money! Shock, horror, eyes popping out on stalks, etc. In fact, as an insult it’s fails somewhat as it looks kinda cool with a dollar sign in there, very bling.

Teh
Just stop it now, please. We get it. It’s easy to misspell ‘the’. Great. Now just spell it properly.

Myspace: worst coded site of all time?

“Sorry an unexpected error has occurred. This error has been forwarded to MySpace technical group”

This should actually read:

“Screw you,  we wrote a rubbish website that somehow lucked out and took over the world. This error is entirely expected as it happens 2 out of every 3 times you press ‘submit’ to update your site. This error has been forwarded to the technical group who will completely ignore the misery of their 15 quintillion users, and despite raking in the millions can’t be arsed to spend any of it improving the service”

Big breath.

Despite that, I’ve just finished a major overhaul of our myspace page, and think it’s looking much cleaner and fresher as a result . We hope you agree – check it here: myspace.com/cassetteelectrik

 

bicyflourocle

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Can’t. Express. How. Much. I. Want. One. Of. These.

EQ1 @ Barcode

Right – I see Neiltron’s account of last night’s entertainments at Electroqueer, and I raise his static photo of the ceiling by one animated gif of the ceiling:

 

I win!

I concur with his assessment of the evening; great atmosphere, great crowd and great start to a new electro night. I’d love to bring my band Cassette Electrik there, but not sure how well equipped they are for actual live music. PA’s are one thing, but live instruments (even laptops!) are quite another. Still, if there’s a will – there’s a way.

Do check out the Electroqueer website if you want the latest electro news and releases with the emphasis on the pop:
www.electroqueer.com

An Art.

Seen next to a door:

How droll.

As you can see, I’ve purchased the work due to loving it’s post-literal metaphor of inter-room traversal and implied boundary/containment rupture.

Quick note to Coldplay’s Chris Martin

Chris – if you’re going to agree to appear on Radio 4’s Front Row to discuss your ‘brilliant’ new album, how about not answering in sulky one word answers when the interviewer asks you about the meaning of ‘Viva la Vida’, and don’t pretentiously flounce out of the studio when he asks your opinion of the Russian Revolution.

You complete knob.

Connecting up the telly.

Well, what with Apple doing video thru iTunes finally and various other ways of getting video stuff off the internet (hello iPlayer! hello bittorrent!), I thought it was about time I sorted out how to connect up my MacBook to the telly.

Not as easy as you’d think actually. It’s taken one wrong cable sent to me by Apple and another 20 minute call to them trying to figure it out. You’d think they’d just have a page on their site that said ‘if you have X computer you need Y cable’. But they don’t, so it’s takens weeks of prevarication and ordering the wrong thing to be able to reveal that:

If you have: an Intel MacBook and slightly older, albeit widescreen, telly with only Scart and s-video inputs
You need: a mini-DVI to s-video cable

Seems so simple doesn’t it? Maybe I’m just dim!

Yes, this was a very boring post. So sue me.

Exquisite kinetic sculpture

This sort of thing is so up my street I can barely contain myself.

click here to watch as stupid wordpress doesn’t allow an embed

The chair! The walking wishbone! The gear embedded in concrete (I love that one, so funny)
Everything this guy does is genius. You can be sure that I have immediately ordered the 70min DVD of his creations for $20. I shall probably not leave the house for weeks once it arrives.