Category: history

modern

history media

It probably is a sign of age that these days I can look at a site like arkinetia and like all I see, while pretty women are kind of a yawn lately.
Looking at these houses it seems that Modernism was not just a ‘phase’. It seems to come back, and it makes allot of sense. The iPod could have been done by Dieter Rahms. Kinda. The ideas behind modern design and architecture are still valid. For a while ‘mordern’ was also ‘hip’. People accepted it’s easthetics and repeting it’s symbols, whithout needing to get behind the underlying ideas. Of course this kind of ‘hollow reign’ never lasts.

When modernism comes back now, then I hope that it does for the reason that more people are ready for the underlying view of human life. Not because rectangular is the new black. Time will tell.

pearl harbor day

history politics

It’s Pearl Harbor Day. There should be a national 9/11 holiday. Instead of a pointless war against a country that had nothing to do with it. Bush, that man got stellar approval ratings when he promised cowboy like to ‘smoke them out’. Well, he failed, if you simplify the issue as the administration actually did for a while: OBL is still at large.

the hissing zeppelin

economy history misc

house prices

3.9 Million houses for sale. Average price at 221,000 US$. That makes for 0.861 Trillion dollars worth of real estate waiting to be moved.
Sizable, even if you compare it the US federal budget

wii break things

history media

the Wii controller is the thing that you move around like crazy. Good idea. And a bad idea. Ikea will be happy. Health insurances wont.

images

history politics

As expected Mr Hussein has been convicted for crimes he commited in 1982.
Unrelated the voices get louder that call for the resignation of Mr Rumsfeld.

A google image search for both will show an image of both men in 1984. Back then Iraq was a friend of the US, since they would wage war against Iran.

timely verdict

history politics

After being in captivity for 1059 days the verdict against Saddam Hussein is expected for tomorrow. Two days before elections in the USA.

in words we trust

history politics

amazing web application

vertRamp

history internet marketing media

Mark Cuban gives a name to the other end of the long tail: “Vert Ramp”

surprising alliance

history M$ technology

Two kings got together. No, not those. This times it is Novell and Microsoft. To do Linux.

Without having the time or intention to go into detail of the press release the headlines and sound bites read pretty hilarously. Let’s just pause for a second and look back: Microsoft did try everything they could to stop or surpress Linux. For years. They fucking failed. Language? Yes, it is justitified. Since this is a big deal. Not the announcement of Novell and Microsoft doing whatever they feel like doing. The big deal is that Microsoft was unable to win against Linux. They still dominate the desktop, and probably will for years to come. But they lost billions in server revenue. Not to somebody. They simply could not make the money. Nobody did, since Linux is essentially free. If the last sentense should prompt thoughts like “that’s communism” or “but there is total cost of ownership” in your mind, then let me tell you, since today I can, and it is oh so sweet: You merely parrot Microsoft prograganda of a past aera here. Not even the people that paid millions so that you would think these things claim that anymore. Yes, there is also corporate flip floping. No, Ballmer did not stay the course. He never did say that either.

Today it’s allot of fun to quote Sun Tzu:


According to my assessment, even if you have many more troops than others, how can that help you to victory?

vote

history politics technology

Democracy is based on people casting a vote. Making the act to vote more complicated than it needs to be is a simply a criminal act against the spirit of Democracy. In developed Democracies you vote by taking a thick pencil and making a cross inside of a circle. That’s it. Since decades. Works always and there is nothing wrong with that. It’s the best way of doing this. In 2000 there was a bit of a stir up in the USA around punch cards, butterfly ballots and hanging chads. The remedy was not to abandon complicated things. It was to add more layers of technology. Which defies logic and furhter dilutes the act of voting. This kind of story is to be expected. Actually the whole vote fraud idea deters people from voting, instead of motivating them. Which means that democracy looses it’s foundation.
If you have any doubts about mal intend around the voting process just look up “Gerrymandering”. But sure the US has all the rights to wage war on the other side of the planet to find WMD, retaliate 911 spread Democracy. I wonder if those painted index fingers were collored diebold. Probably not, since the color would dissapear within seconds in that case.