this is a test post, please ignore.

Bobby Fischer, Chess Master, Dies at 64 - New York Times:

When I was 12, Fischer was responsible for my wanting to play chess. Of course, he had not yet become a raving lunatic.

Technorati Tags: chess, obits

Paul Greenleaf - Photographer:

An interesting exhibition where the photographer photographed scenes from old postcards in the present day:

I aim to highlight how the land has changed physically, by neglect, ‘development’ or sometimes coastal erosion, and the way the landscape has changed culturally, illustrating changing trends. The work exposes clichés within these rose-tinted tourist towns and offers a modern day alternative to the picturesque.

The written notes from the cards, with all their inherent idiosyncrasies are integral to the work, providing a narrative to the photograph and a unique insight into people’s lives.

With the original postcards exhibited alongside the photographs, I invite a direct comparison between the past and present, both being subjective viewpoints. The 21st century ‘reality’ of the locations offers a stark contrast to the often vibrantly coloured dream-like postcard images, revealing a personal view of contemporary Britain.’

Technorati Tags: art, photography

From Paul Ford, writing in Harper’s e-mail weekly:

“A broken heart,” explained a brain imaging research scientist, “looks different in somebody old.”

Technorati Tags: harpers, qotd

Color me entirely underwhelmed by Amazon’s Kindle. For one thing, the thing is fugly. Wickit fugly, as we say in New England. The thing looks like it was designed by the people who did my thermostat. A tricorder looks more modern. So for four hundred dollars, I get a basically single purpose machine. I can pay more money to get DRM’d content onto this machine (It’ll hold 2 grand worth of ebooks!,) or I can jump through hoops to get my own content onto it, including paying yet more money (”conversion fees”) to get the most widely available eBook format (PDF) onto it. Plus did I mention it’s really ugly? I happened to run across my old Sony Magic Link yesterday while doing some cleaning, and it’s much more attractive than the Kindle.

But wait! you say. It’s got an always-on network connection, via EVDO. Yes, an always-on connection to Amazon.com. But, you say, it will vastly expand the act of reading. It will finally provide the rich information contexts that that poor old slob the printed codex book has lacked on its dance card for centuries. So even better - I can take one of the few activities - book reading - where I can hear myself think without having to incorporate the contributions of the Teeming Millions, and now i can see what other people thought of the book? I want to see what I think of the book.

So, this is sort of like an always-on iPod with no iTunes that only connects to Apple with really tight DRM on the content you buy for it.

Hey - it’s the Zune for books!

Sorry, but I remain skeptical. You can spend the same amount on the OLPC Give One Get One program, get a much more versatile machine that’d make a terrific eBook reader, and do some good in the world.

Technorati Tags: amazon, kindle, ebooks

OrganAmbitions, originally uploaded by BKWellcome.

If only it were that easy. Great pic by BKWellcome on Flickr.

Well, it appears to be widget day here - I am just loading up the right side of this page with all manner of badges and doohickeys. Today I added:

• the excellent new LibraryThing random books widget
• a badge for Tu Diabetes, the online diabetes social network I recently joined
• and - well, that’s it, actually. OK, maybe it’s not widget day after all.

Of course, in an RSS reader, none of this stuff appears on the right, and I’m just crazy. Go figure.

Technorati Tags: blogging, geek, web2.0

Via gl, I took the Which ancient language are you? quiz (who the hell thinks this stuff up) and got:

Your Score: Akkadian

You scored

You are Akkadian, a blend of the incomprehensible symbols of the Sumerians with the unwritable sounds of the early Semitic peoples. However, the writing just doesn’t suit the words and doesn’t represent everything needed, so you end up a schizoid mess. Invented in Babylon, you’re probably to blame for that tower story. However, crazy as you are, you’re much loved and appreciated, and remain actively in use by records keepers long after schools have switched to other languages.

Normally I skip the “Which Dr Who Plushie Are You if Dr Who Plushies Were Star Trek Characters Climbing Mount Doom”-type quizzes, but this was quirky.

Technorati Tags: blogging, quizzes

Linux Tip: Smooth out your fonts in Ubuntu - Lifehacker:

Ubuntu Feisty users: Improve the look of your fonts in 2 minutes flat by installing a few packages.

Ah, that’s what the futzmonkey always says. Three hours later you’re sitting in a pile of config files with a headache and no job or family. But you have extremely smooth subpixels.

Technorati Tags: futzmonkey, geek, linux, ubuntu

The talk went well and was well received, though I am not nearly as good a speaker as Martin or Robert; I need to read from the script. I was actually sad I couldn’t spend more time at ALA. I had wanted to go to the bloggers’ salon on Sunday night, but my train was stuck outside Washington for over an hour. Quite frustrating. The engine overheated; we eventually had to cram ourselves onto the next train to DC. By the time I finally made it to my hotel I was exhausted and just wanted a beer and sleep. Next year. I’m thinking of going to LITA Forum in October, though. Now back to packing books to be shipped out for scanning…

Links to the Powerpoint and Word doc.