Exceive

My son plays bass. As in so many other things, I’m very proud of his music.

He had somebody else do his site - far more Flash than what I would probably do, but this is a band site, so it makes perfect sense. Loads slowly, but you get to hear his music.
Decade Series . Official Website
Jay Huber. Remember that name so you can say “I knew him when…”

Serious technology is not all that interesting lately. It gets the job done, same job as yesterday, maybe a little faster, maybe a little more reliable, maybe cheaper. More ways to tie yourself to work.

But some people are still exploring. Still having fun with it. Still making it interesting.

ArtBots: The Robot Talent Show

There is something wild and raw about illegal art produced under totalitarian rule. It is art somebody took risks for, not the hothouse-flower risks of exploring private emotions, real risks of fines, prison, torture or death.

This is not nice art that was encouraged, this is the art that happens no matter what those in power want. Power attacks this kind of art and fails and sometimes is defeated outright, sometimes only in spirit. It is like a flower that grows in a crack in a slab of concrete. Sometimes power can hold it back for a while or crush it for a while, but power always fails in the end. The art that can’t be stopped is the human spirit, and it always wins on some level. Always.

This was produced under Ceacescu.

SITO Artchive: ‘No dictotor can shut up the Moon…’ by Dan Iordache

The Internet is important because it provides new ways for people to communicate. Some, like email, fit pretty will into the linear model. But there are other communications that become possible.

This, for example. It simulates a big refridgerator with magnet letters on it that a whole bunch of people move around trying to make words. Unfortunately, the people playing on it tend to be crude and artless, but the possibility is there.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a booth at Western Days - a western-themed event at the fairgrounds. I was taking old-time photos - people would dress up in a selection of costumes from Kim’s Costumes, stand in front of a backdrop for a few shots, and then buy a print.

Over the course of the weekend, I heard some complaints that were interesting mostly because of who was complaining.

The Snake-Oil Salesman
There was a snake-oil salesman near me. Sold a salve that is supposed to cure any kind of pain. Warned me, repeatedly, that the guy in the booth next to him is a hustler, a sleaze, pushing a disreputable product. Sadly, the snake-oil salesman was right - even by snake-oil salesmen standards, a guy selling real estate timeshares via a free Carribean vacation giveaway is a sleaze.

The Assistant District Attorney
Kim’s Costumes provided the costume that a model wore for a magazine article about prostitution in 19th Century Milwaukee. So we had a copy of the magazine - it was the cover story - on the table. A couple was getting ready for a picture. Since the men’s costumes are simpler, the man was standing around waiting for his wife. Looked at the magazine article, and mentioned that there was a certain elegance back then that has been lost. Said that he’s an Assistant DA, and the prostitutes he has to prosecute are mostly drug addicts, and their services are entirely lacking in style. So here is this man of the law, complaining about the lack of style and elegance among modern whores. His wife, at this moment, was dressing up as a whore. She did it with style and elegance.

The picture turned out very well.

This is a rule I’ve learned as a tech writer. And it applies almost everywhere except in puzzles.

Think about the conclusion that you want the other person to reach, and state it directly. Don’t give them the information and make them draw the obvious conclusion. Sounds obvious, but so often people expect the listener to make a tiny jump of logic. And the listener often doesn’t do it.

Wrong: “Pressing the red button stops the machine.”
Right: “Press the red button to stop the machine.”
Even better: “To stop the machine, press the red button.”

I’ve written things both ways and when I used the wrong version, taken tech support calls along the lines of “how do I stop the machine?” Yes, there are people who don’t make the jump. No, they aren’t stupid, not all of them. They have other things on their minds. They have a job to do, and reading the manual isn’t the job. If I were writing a novel or an essay, I might include a thought-provoking item, a kind of puzzle, in order to bring the reader to a deeper understanding or just amuse the reader. In a manual, if I make my reader think I have screwed up. Writing without expecting the reader to think is harder than it sounds. Much harder.

Wrong: “I’d like the salt, please.”
Right: “Please pass the salt.”

In the first one, I’m informing you of my state of mind - desire for salt - and expecting you to make the tiny logical jump - I want you to pass the salt. In the second, I’m not expecting you to think. This example is no big deal - except that I’ve seen families get into fights that could have been prevented just that easily.

There are bigger examples. During the 2004 Presidential campaign, reversing tax cuts was a big issue for the Democrats. They expected the voters to understand that tax cuts for one group must be made up by tax increases on another, cuts in spending, or deficits. So the tax cuts are bad. Wrong. Tax cuts feel good. Tax cuts ARE good - the consequences may not be worth it but the cut itself is good. A tax cut is always a good thing. The tax cuts under discussion are part of a disasterous fiscal policy, and there is no way to include huge tax cuts in a responsible budget at this time. If I go home tonight and find a Ferrari in my driveway, a gift from my wife, the Ferrari is a fabulous wonderful thing - but I will not be happy, because of the financial consequences. Do I hate the Ferrari? Hell no. I hate the payments, the insurance, the maintainance. Love the car. What the Democrats were really against wasn’t the tax cuts, but the consequences of the tax cuts. They expected voters to think and make the tiny logical jump. They said they were against the tax cuts - are you against tax cuts? Do you like taxes? You think about it and you understand it’s a little more complicated than that, but some percentage isn’t going to think about it. Some percentage of the voters was entirely in agreement with the Democratic position and voted against them because the Democrats expected them to think and they didn’t. The exact same policy, described in terms of debt, of middle-class tax hikes (yep, those are in the works, in the form of reduced and eliminated deductions) of cut programs, might have made a difference.

Nothing here but title.

I think I’ll drop a bit of an advertizement:
You can get greeting cards and postcards featuring this inspiring Mike Huber artwork at the Moonwaves Studio CafePress shop. What it is likely to inspire I’m not at all sure…

This is a strange Polish art project, involving stencils of components of city images. The stencils are used in a number of art projects, including painting city scenes on cities.

And you get to play with it. There is a constructor, where you can drag and drop the stencils. The software isn’t complete. You can’t save the image, but in Windows you can hold the Alt key and press the PrtScrn key to copy whatever is on the screen to the clipboard, and then you can paste it into just about anything.

That’s what I did here…

m-city

Evil clown generator. Exactly what you need on a day like today.

Yes, I am in the kind of mood where I’d categorize this as art.

Thanks to Susan

This is a very nice series of comic strip panels.

Very thoughtful, very gentle.

The Augustine referred to is a character in the strip, not the theologian and saint of the same name. The theology here is a bit less abstract.