Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

Blog and RSS search, discovery, and sharing services: one comparison begins

Mary Hodder has blogged the first of a projected series of articles analyzing blog and RSS search and aggregation services.  This is a needed thing, especially if we're looking at the emergence of Web 2.0*. 
Hodder starts by comparing five tools: "Technorati, Bloglines (as an information search tool, not a news reader tool), Feedster, Blogpulse and Pubsub."  The comparisons (.pdf) are fascinating, and the methological discussion very useful.
One key observation:

All five of these services are very valuable, as they each show us different things, and frankly, for my information needs, I want and use all of them each day to track myself, my projects, companies I consult for, and all of my areas of interest, which are numerous. Often, the combination is the only way to get an accurate picture of what is happening online across blogs and RSS feeds.

Steve Kaye points us to this.  He's been blogging about it thoughtfully, and can be read here, here, and here.

Once the current frenzy of program slows down next week, I'll return to this topic.

*Note that the Wikipedia entry on Web 2.0 is in NPOV dispute.

Murder solved by blog?

A blogger considers the possibility that an anonymous comment to a post solved a murder.

Social software's new milestone?

Steven Johnson on culture and video game control

Steven Johnson writes in response to her call for action against the Grand Theft Auto release:

I'm writing to commend you for calling for a $90-million study on the effects of video games on children, and in particular the courageous stand you have taken in recent weeks against the notorious "Grand Theft Auto" series.

I'd like to draw your attention to another game whose nonstop violence and hostility has captured the attention of millions of kids — a game that instills aggressive thoughts in the minds of its players, some of whom have gone on to commit real-world acts of violence and sexual assault after playing.

I'm talking, of course, about high school football.

(via BoingBoing)

The self-closing automatic arm box

Today's entry in the eerie robotics field: the box with a hand that closes when you open it.

The materials description offers a lovely bit of surrealism:

Trunk, prosthesis, compressor, pneumatic cylinder 13,4 x 35,4 x 35,2 in.

(thanks to Jesse)

Treasure box and Samrost: new URLs

Treasure Box, which we blogged about some time ago, has a new URL: http://219.101.39.52/~nanahiro/main.html .  It's an off-beat browser game, clever and creative in a hauntingly late nineteenth-century way.

Speaking of new URLs for fine web games, Samrost has a new one: http://www.amanitadesign.com/samorost/ .  Check out our earlier comments.

Film noir podcasting

Podcasting about film noir: Out of the Past. (thanks, Jason)

GTA gets revised: adult and multiple drafts

The GTA/Hot Coffee story continues.  The game is now rated for adults.  The company has adjusted its story - yes, they made those scenes, but as an earlier draft, somehow buried in the final release:

"An artist makes a painting, then doesn't like the first version and paints over the canvas with a new painting, right?" said Rodney Walker, a spokesman for Rockstar Games. "That's what happened here. Hackers on the Internet made a program that scratches the canvas to reveal an earlier draft of the game."

(thanks, Louise!)

Mario opera update

The Mario Brothers Flash opera: here's an even better link. I mentioned this last week/ (thanks, Jason)

Alberta dadaism

Alberta offers mysterious, surreal features, which could be fodder for nightmares -
(thanks, Jesse, and good luck with the big event!)

Codex Seraphinianus

More literature of information: MeFi reminds us of the great Codex Seraphinianus, a splendid hoax of a book.  The grand thing is like a refugee from a lost Borges story, an encyclopedia (sort of) of a world which doesn't exist, although it's composed of stuff from our own.  It's written in a language that stirs the souls of cryptographers, and illustrated in the mode of inspired surrealism. 

The Codex should remind us of the Voynich Ms.