Year 2007

ΌΧΙ!

Parnitha in flames. June 2007
Πρώτα 'σκότωσαν' τη Πεντέλη το 1995 και μετά ξανά και ξανά μέχρι το τέλος της δεκαετίας. Μετά τον Υμηττό. Τώρα μας καίγεται η Πάρνηθα, το μοναδικό βουνό που είχε απομείνει στην Αττική και που είχε να επιδείξει κάποια ουσιαστική βλάστηση. Έστω ότι είναι εμπρησμός και όχι φυσική φωτιά ή αποτέλεσμα κάποιου σπινθήρα πυλώνα της ΔΕΗ (όπως ακούστηκε). Έστω πως κάποιοι θέλησαν να αποκτήσουν κάποια οικόπεδα. Πραγματικά δε μπορώ να ησυχάσω σκεπτόμενος ποιά θα έπρεπε να είναι η τιμωρία αυτών που καταστρέφουν ό,τι πολυτιμότερο έχει η Αττική, που δίνουν τη χαριστική βολή στην Αθήνα (μόλις μια ημέρα μετά την αφόρητη ζέστη των 45-46°), που σκοτώνουν το δάσος και μαζί με αυτό κι εμάς. Όπως και να έχει το πλήγμα για όλους μας, ασχέτως του εαν αγαπούσαμε και επισκεφτόμασταν την Πάρνηθα ή όχι, θα είναι μεγάλο. Αντίο Πάρνηθα. Υ.Γ.: Καίγεται και η υπόλοιπη χώρα, το γνωρίζω. Τη Πάρνηθα όμως τη ζώ, τη βλέπω, με αγγίζει και με θλίβει αφάνταστα.

Λίγο πριν την iΜέρα

Βρισκόμαστε μερικές ημέρες προ της επίσημης πρώτης του iPhone, ίσως του πιο εντυπωσιακού και με βεβαιότητα πιο hyped gadget που έχει κάνει την εμφάνιση του τα τελευταία 10-15 χρόνια. Σε αυτό το άρθρο θα προσπαθήσω να περιγράψω τις δικές μου αναμνήσεις από τη πορεία της Apple και να τις συνδέσω με την νέα αυτή συσκευή […]

San Francisco is also one of the fastest-shrinking cities in California

San Francisco Skyline
Huh? I had no idea. SF is expensive, but not as much as London for example --- recently crowned the second most expensive city in the world after Moscow --- yet there's still an ever increasing number of people moving to London, despite the stupid house prices and the low quality of life for millions of people that this entails. (SF is not even in the Top-50). Of course SF is just one of many urban areas that make up the greater metropolitan Bay Area, nevertheless it's quite surprising to read this. It must be the earthquakes, I guess... :) Image by user Franco Folini on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons.

Animusic 2: Resonant Chamber

Animusic Resonant Chamber
Since Apple announced their support for the H.264 codec back in early 2005 I never bothered revisiting their HD gallery. Until today that is. To many outside the world of computer graphics, Animusic became known from the real-time version of its 'Pipe Dream' piece, used for ATi's Radeon 9700 some years ago. The company has released two collections of tracks on DVD all featuring imagined animated (computer graphics) 'robotic' instruments accurately performing the tracks. Needless to say they are quite interesting to watch and very well done. The HD 'Resonant Chamber' sample presents a more 'acoustic' piece than 'Pipe Dream' and one that transcends several musical genres performed by an impossibly complex stringed instrument (a construction that combines guitar, lute, bass and harp) that might invoke images of Pat Metheny's Pikasso I 42-string guitar. Worth watching. [Update: Also available on the site is Starship Groove]

No matter what you believe…

45°C
That's a pretty inconvenient temperature.

Παραδειγματική ανευθυνότης.

Δε παρακολουθώ τον ελληνικό τύπο (έντυπο ή ηλεκτρονικό). Ό,τι μαθαίνω για την Ελλάδα το μαθαίνω από τον διεθνή τύπο και τα λιγοστά ελληνόφωνα sites που διαβάζω συχνά και εκτιμώ· αποφεύγω έτσι τη λαϊκίστικη, προσβλητική κάλυψη των καναλιών, τις ατελείωτες συζητήσεις με ανεγκέφαλους καλεσμένους και δημοσιογράφους, τις πολωμένες, γεμάτες σκοπιμότητα απόψεις διατυπωμένες σε άρθρα εφημερίδων. Κυρίως […]

Stub it out.

England bans smoking in public places. Hip hip! Hurray! Excellent news for the many non-addicts among us that still possess tar-free lungs, a sense of smell and brains. Sadly, I live in the Banana Tobacco Republic and can only dream of the day the 'smoking fascism' will end here. If it ever becomes reality, I guess it'll probably end up being another case of "EU law saving the monkeys from self-annihilation" given the incompetence of politicians, legislators and voters alike in this country. Let's hope they do it before the death rate explodes.

Like many successful revolutions, this one might come from the bottom.

John Gruber writes about the iPhone's support for Open standards and the reality of enterprise email that's still predominantly based on proprietary solutions by a handful of companies. 'Revolution' is a strong term for what's at stake here, but It will --- nevertheless --- be interesting to see if this will another case of the people forcing corporations to embrace/promote/develop superior, Open technology. Given the iPhone's appeal to the relevant demographics, I guess it might be easier than previously thought.

Apple may be forced to go retail-only in Europe [iPhone]

While Apple has found a willing partner in AT&T (Monopoly MkII in the making) in the States, the much healthier (and far more advanced) European market finds many of the company's demands unacceptable. A retail-only iPhone in Europe seems like a possibility for Apple, if no operator concedes. This will increase the device's price, but it'll probably mean an unlocked phone too; the fact that the iPhone is the archetypal 'form over function' Apple product and the fact that the competition in high-end phones is much more intense in Europe than it is in the U.S. is possibly going to limit how expensive the iPhone can get. And that, it seems to me, is A Good Thing.

The death of SimCity

I still remember clearly the first time I saw SimCity run on a friend’s computer, back in 1990. It is hard to describe the feeling, but it was more or less one of the most impressive pieces of software I’d seen, not for what it was as a game, but for what it represented: a […]