I was intrigued for some time already about the possibilities rising from taking some photos and giving them a rather radical digital treatment. Here is an excellent use of this technique (thanks to Joshi Daniel for the link).
I love animation. And I was really spoiled in the latest years with the great realizations of artists and great advances of technology. But I think "The fantastic flying books of Mr. Lessmore" is my favorite now. An artistically and visually beautiful metaphor of books and reading (another passion of mine).
If your internet usage is not limited at e-mail and ping (and even the...) you most assuredly heard of law projects pushed to USA Congres (so called SOPA and PIPA).
When reading about those, I was forced to think to the future of this site and its related services.
Would I be better with a .ca (or even a .ro) domain name and out-of-US geographically located server? Granted, it might cost me 3-5 times more, not to speak of all the trouble with changing base public domain names, but it is probably worth it.
What do you think/do about all this?
I had a steady liking for Terry O'Reilly's radio shows on CBC for a long time now. He started a new show recently: Under the Influence (a worthy companion of his older show, Age of Persuasion). This week's episode is absolutely great! If you're enraged by sexism (or even only concerned by it) and you'd like a week-end's worth of infuriating soundbite memories, you definitely shouldn't miss this: Men are from Sears, Women are from Bloomingdale. I love the careful data research, the comical yet subtle presentation and the profound socio-psychological suggestions and findings. Well worth 30 minutes of auditory and brain candy.
I was intrigued for some time already about the possibilities rising from taking some photos and giving them a rather radical digital treatment. Here is an excellent use of this technique (thanks to Joshi Daniel for the link).
(yeah, I risk to become the target of irony of my french speaking friends, for my lack of "cultural experience" ;-)
Yepp, the difference between mere mortals and genius talents might well be a puny semitone. But if you ever hoped to once prove that your're a musical genius, try Tim Minchin's test for a humbling experience!
Wow! Just wow!
Catchy name, huh? Trombone Shorty is the artist name of Troy Michael Andrews, an excellent jazz instrumentist. His latest album, For True, catched my ear while idly browsing on a (too) big online music store. I bought it and, boy, am I delighted! Try for yourself:
Christopher Hitchens died today at the age of 62, from esophageal cancer. May his memory and his explosive literary and journalistic creations continue to make us better forever.
Let's see what gives: libre.tibirna.org is up. A few projects I decided to adopt or that I was pursuing for some time but never made public are already there. My interest for qgit comes from the almost complete switch to this tool in all projects I was with (last to be converted, hopefully next year, being my daily job). I used eqonomize for a 3 or 4 years already (after having used cbb for 10); mighty little app; needs some love. The others are not even born.
Ben Goldacre about battling Bad Science (yes, with capitals). All things we know and get outraged about, but not outraged enough to do something. Ben does things (and he finds it amusing to be answered with bullying and threats for his efforts) and I very much like his enthousiasm. Pay particular attention to the depressing humor of finding bias in litterature that studies bias in scientific litterature.
(New) Scientific American published recently its digitized archive of years before 1900 online. It will only temporarily be available for free. The power of the internet is such that fundamental disciplines like history or sociology get rejuvenated after millenia of establishment. I find this fascinating. Just citing from the first number of the first year (August 28, 1845):
Lowell As It Was And It Is by ref. Henry A. Miles is a neat 18mo. 234 pages just issued by Powers & Bagley, Lowell. It is full of facts of general interest. We learn from it that the Merrimac Company (whose dividends are so often quoted) employs 1250 women, whose average earnings considerably exceed 2$ each per week above the cost of their board. The laboring men average 85 cents per day above their board; fifty-six overseers receive 2$-each per day with occasional premiums...
The storm of puzzling and reflections that this brings to one's mind is boggling. And it is just a very small piece. A real treasure.
Semi-pedagogic, semi-historic and fully funny 
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf("My homage\n");
}
I tasted this Rhone Valley wine tonight and I was quite pleasantly surprised. I bought one bottle of Chateau Pesquié 2007 at one of Québec govt's monopoly wine stores (saq) almost two years ago. I kept it in the best conditions I could afford, but decided to finally taste it now (it has a 10 years aging rating). It is a really strong wine (14.8% alcohol) but with an excellent aroma and an exquisite taste. Goes nicely with strong taste meat but also, surprise, with chocolaty dessert (the high alcohol, I believe). Nice discovery. I'll try to get some more in my next wine rally.
How to live before you die (via ted.com from standford.edu)
Well, finally, everybody makes mirrorless cameras. Still, I can't understand what the hype is all about.
It is rare that I give weight to form over content (altough I never neglect form). Yet now I'm going to recommend this video of a TED presentation on algorithms by Kevin Slavin not for its contents but for the form.
The contents is interesting too (if a bit defeatistic) but the form is really masterful. A multitude of good ideas overall.
Yes, yours too! I am fascinated by research on human brain functioning and neurophysiological psychology, like the one reported here. It is worrying to know how fallible our brain can be, and dangerous to itself. A very interesting read.
A nice inside joke about C++ and its clearer and clearer resemblance with the Mordor legend. Seen on an Andrei Alexandrescu conference.
Here's a radiation dose chart created by Randall Munroe (of XKCD fame). It goes viral right now on the web. Handy and useful information! And, as usual from Randall, entertaining too. (via Slashdot)
I only recently discovered that Git plays really nicely with SVN (much nicer than with CVS from what I know up to now). I work with a few small projects that are stored in SVN stashes (mostly sourceforge.net) so I find this functionality useful.
It is as simple as:
git svn clone https://account@some.repo.net
git co -b newbranch -t master
Then, when needed, just
git commit
git svn dcommit
Swell...
The "La voix du libre" radio show, airing on CKIA 88.3 in Québec City invited me for the edition of tomorrow, 2011-02-02. The two hours show will air at 20h00. I'll mainly speak about the KDE community. I'll post the link to the recording when it will get online.
Update (2011-02-05): The recording of the show mentioned above is now online.
The world is made of more than "west and the rest". Paying attention means learning. Here is Mechai Viravaidya at TED(xChange), with lessons of social wisdom.
Listen to Hans Rosling (quite originally) explaining how he thinks we can rein in the human population growth and thus fix all the deathly problems that come with it. He also mentions nuclear war as a harrowing alternative. Yes, one of these two futures might very possibly occur...