Lighting the Way
The greatest thing to have is a light to guide you in the dark, given to you by your beloved.
2008-07-23
links for 2008-07-23
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There is a slight creepiness in the pictures by James Jean.
2008-07-19
links for 2008-07-19
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Alberto Seveso has a very unique way to treat photographs.
2008-07-18
2008-07-16
2008-07-15
links for 2008-07-15
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Creepy.
2008-07-14
links for 2008-07-14
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Swiss concept artists – featuring works done for Lord of the Rings, Final Fantasy, Matrix, The Golden Compass, Fifth Element, Spore (yes, the videogame!) and many more. Wow.
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Oh wow. What a trainwreck.
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Uh, something like ffffound!, but for all the fashionistas out there. (Yes, I still would love an invite for fffound)
2008-07-13
The Mysterious Appearance of a White Box
I should take more care what I wish for. For sometimes, it comes true … most notably, if you have a really playful friend (which, in all honesty, is exactly what I (secretly) wished for, clearly without considering the consequences, notably the fact that I have to be prepared for surprises).
So. This evening, around 9 o’clock, the doorbell rings. I use the buzzer to open the door, but no one comes in. “Stupid kids” I think and return to my Mac. A few minutes later my flatmate returns. I tell him about the incident. He looks at me strangely and then suddenly suggests that someone might have left something in the letterbox.
“Come on!” I go, but he still goes to check. Some moments later I hear a shriek, and he returns, carrying a white box …
A white box, usually used to carry around money. With a lock (of course). But there’s no key (figures). And, stylishly enough, a message on top, with burned edges and all, exactly how you’d imagine a treasure hunt.
The message says:
Keep it secret, keep it safe.
More Information is to come.
What can we learn from that? Let’s see …
- The first line is a direct quote from Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. So it’s someone who knows those films pretty well – or someone who suspects that I know those films.
- The second line has a slight error – “Information” is capitalised. Since the rest of the text is not (title-)capitalised, this slip suggests a person having German as their native language (in which “Information” would be capitalised as a noun).
- The text is set in Zapfino, a font that comes pre-installed on Mac OS X, but not Windows. So the person is likely to be a Mac user.
- Hardly visible on the picture is the fact that the letters shine. So it is obviously not printed out using an ink-jet printer, but with a laser printer, probably even a colour laser printer. The person must have access to such a device.
I’d say that’s already a nice basis to track that certain person down.
Okay, I think I pretty much know who it is, anyway ^_^
Let’s see what happens next …
Update!
Woah! I completely overlooked the biggest clue of them all: The message is written in English!1 Now, quite a lot people know that I have no problems with English, but there are (apart from the people from the English Department) only a few German speakers that in certain contexts switch to English to talk (or rather:) IM/twitter/mail with me.2
That narrows the suspects down to three people that use English instead of German with me. Two of them use Windows, respectively Linux. Which leaves only one using a Mac …
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Which obviously tells you a lot about my relationship with English: it is just no longer a foreign language anymore, it is simply another code into which I learned to switch so effortlessly that I don’t even realise the switch anymore. In fact, after reading something, I probably couldn’t tell you a few days later whether the information was in German or English – it just became information. ↩
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Wouldn’t that be an interesting topic for a linguistic paper about code switching? ↩
Subventionen für Games?
Eigentlich sollte ich über Sennhausers [Achtung, Deppenleerzeichen!] Film Blog ja bloss meine Facharbeit machen und nicht noch drauf rumsurfen, aber dann ist mir plötzlich ein kleiner Nachsatz ins Auge gefallen:
[…] und schliesslich Pro Helvetia-Direktor Pius Knüsel, der die Zeit für gekommen hält, Kultursubventionen für die Erschaffung digitaler Welten bereit zu stellen.
Pardon me. Come again?! Soll das etwa heissen, dass die Pro Helvetia in Zukunft etwa auch Computer-Game-Entwicklung fördern will? Natürlich bin ich absolut dafür, bloss könnte ich mir denken, dass sich die Pro Helvetia zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt damit etwas in die Nesseln setzt angesichts der polemischen Anti-Game-Kampagne, die nun über Roland Näf von Deutschland auch in die Schweiz geschwappt ist …
2008-07-12
Internationalisation 2: The Arrival of the German iPhone Guy
After the very first, wildly successful part of Internationalisation, we are proud to present you the next part:
The Arrival of the German iPhone Guy
Impressive, right? Still, I prefer the canadian guy, sorry. Any chance that Apple introduces Push-iPhone-Guy on me.com anytime soon? Which, incidentally, makes me wonder why they never show a woman in those Guided Tours … I smell a hint of sexism here.
Oh, and by the way: It’s http://www.apple.com/chde, but the store can only be reached under http://store.apple.com/ch-de. The other combinations lead to a 404. Come on … you can do better, Apple.
links for 2008-07-12
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“This site is dedicated to research and unveil the perils, imminence and probabilities of a hostile takeover of the world through AI. I will stay on the lookout for you and post articles, research papers and break-throughs of everything.”
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This is relevant to my interests. (Curiously, it will be PC games, but the artwork is clearly Mac-inspired …)
2008-07-11
2008-07-10
links for 2008-07-10
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Ah, lovely. And oh so interesting.
2008-07-09
Internationalisation
Or: This is how the Bob translates.
Are you up for some italian scorching eyes?
Or do you rather prefer japanese geekness?
Or that spanish alternative indie-post-rocker look?
So much choice, so little time … [found via fscklog].