Archives for February 2013
this place? а coffee shop?
28 February 2013 | Cinematograph | No Comments
Vanity Fair опубликовали прекрасные воспоминания о том, как снимали “Pulp Fiction” — а после “Reservoir Dogs” это суть второй и последний фильм Тарантино, что я люблю.
on the catwalk
27 February 2013 | Culturology, Fashion | 2 Comments
оказывается, Dolce & Gabbana представили в Милане действительно чудесную женскую коллекцию. и Moschino тоже (остальное здесь).
жаль, что не получилось увидеть лично.
о караванах
27 February 2013 | Apple, Economics, Google, Hardware | No Comments
Джон Грубер в ответ на бесконечные стоны журналистов, nails it:
So <...> [Google Glass] that currently exists only as a pre-announced demo and somewhat-imminent $1500 developer preview — from the company that brought us the Nexus Q and Google TV — shows that Apple has lost its edge? OK, got it.
Google TV — это вообще мой старая любовь. вернее, даже не само творение, а пульт дистанционного управления для него.
the new definition of open
26 February 2013 | Economics, Google, Hardware | No Comments
умножают печали:
Google executives worry that Samsung has become so big—the South Korean company sells about 40% of the gadgets that use Google’s Android software—that it could flex its muscle to renegotiate their arrangement and eat into Google’s lucrative mobile-ad business, people familiar with the matter said.
<...>
Mr. Rubin also said Samsung could become a threat if it gains more ground among mobile-device makers that use Android, the person said. Mr. Rubin said Google’s recent acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which makes Android-based smartphones and tablets, served as a kind of insurance policy against a manufacturer such as Samsung gaining too much power.
ну да, ну да.
добавлено: поэтому его и уволили. и, видимо, это правильное решение: за деревьями, операционной системой Android, есть еще и лес, все другие сервисы Google.
застилая горизонт
26 February 2013 | Google, Hardware, Technology | 1 Comment
про Google Glass:
The difference is, of course, I can put the phone in my pocket the second you start talking to me. It is not part of our conversation and there is no screen alerting me to a new message or enticing me with some video. Putting the phone in my pocket is a way to say, “Okay it’s just you and me talking now.” But wearing that computer on your face is a reminder that, well, you have a damn computer on your face.
Now, don’t get me wrong: I would love to play with a Google Glass! I would love to put it on and walk around the city. I would LOVE to write software for it. I just think it’s claiming to be a replacement for something it is not.
останки
26 February 2013 | History, Literature | No Comments
Джон Р. Р. Толкин[1] в том числе и о двадцатом веке:
К 1918 году почти все мои близкие друзья были уже мертвы.
натурально, вторит Оруэллу.
-
увы, я никогда не воспринимал пафосные истории. или детские. или романтичные. или восторженно приключенческие. или даже просто слишком благие.
поэтому и не прочитал толком ни одну из его книг. ↩
личные мифы
26 February 2013 | Literature | No Comments
perfect conspiratorial territory
26 February 2013 | History, Literature | 1 Comment
A new Thomas Pynchon novel is always an occasion to celebrate. And that’s just what Pynchon fans will be doing come September 17, when the literary madhatter releases “The Bleeding Edge,” his first novel since 2009′s acid noir “Inherent Vice”.
The novel is said to take place in New York City’s Silicon Alley in 2001 between the burst of the Dot-Com bubble and 9/11.
к слову вспомнить, хороших романов о 9/11 я знаю ровно ни одного. Уильям Гибсон в какой-то мере пытался исследовать отголоски случившейся безысходности, растерянности и неопределенности в “Pattern Recognition”, но этого — как там ни было — чрезвычайно мало.
…в крови
25 February 2013 | Biology, Lifeform, Literature, Science | No Comments
и с другой стороны:
Synthetic biologists have developed DNA modules that perform logic operations in living cells. These ‘genetic circuits’ could be used to track key moments in a cell’s life or, at the flick of a chemical switch, change a cell’s fate, the researchers say.
Synthetic biology seeks to bring concepts from electronic engineering to cell biology, treating gene functions as components in a circuit. To that end, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge have devised a set of simple genetic modules that respond to inputs much like the Boolean logic gates used in computers.
если вы еще не читали короткую повесть Грега Бира, то отчего бы не сделать это сейчас?
hidden from history
24 February 2013 | History, Literature | No Comments
а вот, пожалуйста, чудесное исследование BBC в память об Элизабете Стюарт, Зимней королеве:
More than 2,000 of her letters survive, revealing her to have been a key cultural, political and religious figure, her views taken seriously from London to Prague.
Lobbying, bargaining, negotiating and cajoling, she was a major player during a particularly unsettled period of European history.