• Brian Eno's Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization →

    Of the twenty I have only read parts of one, A Pattern Language. I guess I have some homework.

    Read more about Long Now’s Manual for Civilization and see Stewart Brand’s list.

  • My Favorite Albums of 2013

    2013 was a weird year in music for me. The last albums by My Bloody Valentine, The Knife, and Zomby are some of my all time favorites. I was super excited that they all released new work this year, but the followups were kind of meh, pretty much unlistenable, and just not very good, respectively.

    Luckily some really amazing records were released this year. I’m not a music critic, so I’m linking to the review that best summarizes each album for me as well as a representative (not necessarily my favorite) song.

    Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven

    Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven

    I’ve really liked everything Daniel Lopatin has released as Oneohtrix Point Never, but R Plus Seven is the first album I have loved. Absolutely incredible.

    Review: XLR8R
    Listen to: Boring Angel


    Jon Hopkins - Immunity

    Jon Hopkins - Immunity

    When I first heard Immunity I thought it sounded too “techno-y”. Then I listened again, and again, and again. Immunity is a beautiful, mesmerizing album.

    Review: XLR8R
    Listen to: Collider


    Zomby

    Burial - Rival Dealer

    A long term favorite of mine who snuck in an EP right at the end of the year. There are more of the dark, sparse cityscapes he is known for, but Rival Dealer adds a surprisingly heartfelt and deeply personal narrative this time.

    Review: Stereo Gum
    Listen to: Rival Dealer


    Autechre - Exai

    Autechre - Exai

    Autechre is my jam band. I can never get enough. I would pay a lot of money for high quality recordings of their shows. I love them. So when they released Exai, a double album, last February I was elated. It is incredible. I’ll be listening to this record for the next 30 years.

    Review: ResidentAdvisor
    Listen to: prac-f


    Time Hecker - Virgins

    Time Hecker - Virgins

    Tim Hecker turns in a more acoustic direction and the result is an album of incredible depth and space. He keeps getting better with age. I love this record.

    Review: Spin
    Listen to: Amps, Drugs, Harmonium


    Drake - Nothing Was The Same

    Drake - Nothing Was The Same

    There’s some garbage on this album, there’s some funny stuff on this album, and then there is “Hold On, We’re Going Home”. I’ve listened to it multiple times daily since I heard it this summer. It is absolutely brilliant. The best song of the year without question.

    Review: Time Yeah I just linked to a hip hop review on Time.
    Listen to: Hold On, We’re Going Home

    Warning: Whatever you do don’t watch the official video. It’s beyond horrible.

  • Anatomy Of An Engima - An Interview With Autechre

    Excellent interview with Autechre, including a track by track breakdown of their new EP L-event.

  • Buckminster Fuller Time Magazine 1964

    I bought this copy of Time from January 10, 1964 on eBay about ten years ago. I am finally going to clean it up and print a larger version for my office.

    Here is an excerpt of the article “The Dymaxion American”.

    This might be my all time favorite illustration.

  • What I Would Do With Nintendo

    The recent uproar about the 2DS and specifically John Gruber’s post that they should give in and start making iOS games has a lot of people speculating on what Nintendo needs to do to stay alive. While I read a lot of ideas, this post is mostly in response to John Gruber’s “Nintendo in Motion”, John Siracusa’s “Nintendo in Crisis”, and Marco Arment’s “Mutex Nintendo”.

    Up until Gruber revisited his admittedly terse blurb with a longer post, all the arguments I read suggested Nintendo become a software only company, or hunker down and continue along the same path. His suggestion that they do both was a revelation and really got me thinking.

    Many people want Nintendo to just dump hardware, but lumping both hardware platforms together is foolish. The Wii U is a miserable failure in a long series of disappointments, while the 3DS is a profitable and popular device in a growing sector. I see a very logical divide between the two. On the software side Nintendo has made a unique differentiation between old games (sold on the Virtual Console) and new games. In this article I’m proposing a way to take advantage of those divisions to develop a presence on iOS/Android and other consoles without totally “selling the farm” and quiting the hardware business.

    If I were to take over for Iwata tomorrow, this is what I would do:

    1. Kill the Wii U
    2. Make the Virtual Console available on iOS and other consoles
    3. Double down on the 3DS / future portable

    1. Kill the Wii U

    Blurry Vision

    Every single selling point of the Wii U has been a failure. It was initially pitched as a half generational step above the current Xbox and PS3. While opinions differ, the Wii U is at best of similar power to the current generation. The revolutionary GamePad and extra graphics power were going to make it the perfect home for Xbox and PS3 ports in addition to Nintendo’s always successful first party games. Thinking that gamers would pay a premium for old ports when the originals are in dollar bins was nuts. Third party developers are moving away from the platform fast. Oh, and the GamePad? You can only use one at a time and the batteries last three hours.

    To make matters worse Nintendo employed the kitchen sink approach to the Wii U controller options. There’s a GamePad that’s like a tablet only crappier, and you can use your WiiMote (but only the Wii plus versions!) and there is an Xbox style “pro controller” as well! No one knows what the hell is going on with this thing. Even people who own them have a difficult time explaining the system. Which games work with which control schemes? I don’t know, and your average soccer Mom sure as hell doesn’t either. Remember the halcyon days of seeing a woman bowling with a WiiMote in a TV commercial and completely understanding Nintendo’s vision? That’s over now.

    But worst of all is the name. Possibly knowing they had a turd on deck, Nintendo tried to piggyback off the Wii’s success and named it the Wii U (because it’s at college?). The problem is tons of people think the GamePad is an accessory for the original Wii. Iwata says the name has been disastrous for their marketing.

    Wii U Development Time is Killing Them

    Miyamoto admits Nintendo completely underestimated the switch from SD on the Wii to HD on the Wii U. That explains why it’s been out for nearly a year with no blockbuster software. No major Mario game, no new Zelda, no Smash Brothers, no Mario Cart - Nintendo has made these games dozens of times yet has failed to get a single one out in the first year.

    The broken development cycle means that going into this Fall’s new console market, Nintendo’s tent pole games are Pikmin 3 (3rd version of a cult hit RTS), and Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD (HD remake of a 10 year old Zelda game). That’s not going to cut it.

    Xbox One and PS4

    The video game news cycle has already passed Nintendo by. This Fall there will be two new consoles that will destroy the Wii U in technical ability, software library, non-game entertainment options, and online capabilities. If Nintendo hasn’t captured significant mind share by now, doing so will be much more difficult once the new Sony and Microsoft machines are out.

    With the exception of the Wii, Nintendo has been losing ground on consoles since the launch of the Nintendo 64 in 1996. As much as I hate to say it, I would stop throwing good money after bad and kill the Wii U immediately.

    2. PUT THE VIRTUAL CONSOLE ON IOS AND CONSOLES

    Virtual Console as Guinea Pig

    Microsoft and Sony also sell ports of their older games on modern systems. Their older games are sold alongside modern digital releases in the same e-shops. From the beginning Nintendo chose to sell older ports under the Virtual Console brand that has now spanned two generations and six years. Sites report “What’s out on the Virtual Console” instead of just listing virtual releases.

    If I were running Nintendo I would take advantage of the Virtual Console braaaaand, immediately release a Nintendo Virtual Console app for iOS, and start porting as many old NES, SNES, Game Boy, and GBA games as possible. The controls for the older games would be less difficult on touch screens. The cheap cost of porting (relative to new development) plus the the power of nostalgia should make Nintendo a TON of money even in the $3-7 price range.

    Gruber may be right that new iOS games could be released at a higher price point. iOS sales charts suggest otherwise, and other popular developers (namely Square Enix) have failed to sell well above $10. I would experiment with the Virtual Console first. Nintendo would certainly get an awful lot of data very quickly.

    I would also consider moving the console version of the Virtual Console to Xbox and PS3 in the exact same way. The Wii U Virtual Console games are already running in HD.

    Low Risk

    If for some reason this fails then let the Virtual Console brand take the fall. If it succeeds (I think it will) then Nintendo could use it to push people towards its hardware based flagship titles, and / or start developing new games from the ground up for these platforms like Gruber suggests.

    3. DOUBLE DOWN ON THE 3DS

    Advantage Nintendo

    Like Apple, developing hardware and software has always been integral to Nintendo’s culture. I agree with John Siracusa and Marco Arment that they should remain a hardware company. And there is no question that physical controls allow for much deeper game play. Not to mention the fact that Nintendo commonly makes 30+ hour mobile games that have to carry a $30-$40 price point.

    As the explosion of smartphones and tablets has shown, computing is moving toward mobile. This is a huge advantage to Nintendo over their gaming rivals Sony (strong console, mediocre handheld), Microsoft (Windows mobile isn’t working), and Valve (zero mobile).

    Unlike their consoles, Nintendo’s handhelds have always been popular, and are trending up rather than down. The original DS is the 2nd highest selling video game system of all time, second only to the Sony PlayStation 2. The original Game Boy sold more than the NES and SNES combined, and the Game Boy Advance (the weakest Game Boy ever) sold more than either the Xbox or PS3. These are very popular systems that move a ton of software.

    Nintendo needs to take advantage of their aptitude for crafting fun and unique mobile experiences and refocus their resources on improving mobile hardware.

    Weak Points

    Siracusa is right that Nintendo absolutely needs to improve the usability of its e-commerce experience. It is terrible. They also need to either find a way to make their version of social gaming work better (even though as a father I applaud their dedication to security) or give up on playing cop and open it up.

    And Gruber is right that the current screen resolution on the 3DS is horrible. Even free mobile phones have Retina screens now. That has to change fast.

    Get back into the living room?

    Without a TV based console Nintendo should develop a cheap piece of TV connected hardware that will enable the future DS to push games to the TV and use the handheld as a WII U style GamePad. Airplay has been out for years. The Wii U does this today in reverse. This capability should be well within Nintendo’s skill set.

    But…

    I highly doubt Nintendo will kill the Wii U anytime soon. Even though the 3DS is doing quite well today it launched (with a lousy lineup) to extremely bad sales. A price drop and loyalty program gave it the jolt it needed to become competitive. Maybe the Wii U price cut announced last week with be the catalyst Nintendo needs to get moving.

    But with the Xbox One and PS4 crushing them on the high end, and iOS and Android absolutely dominating mobile gaming, Nintendo’s famously patient approach may end up serving them very, very poorly. I really worry that by spreading themselves too thin they will lose on all fronts. I certainly hope they figure out how to stay relevant.

  • The Neem Karoli Baba Ashram Chai Recipe

    Chai Recipe

    In the late summer of 2000 I moved to Taos, New Mexico to build Earthships for a couple of months.

    When I got there I found an awesome little apartment in a converted barn on the north end of town. I didn’t know anyone in NM going into it, and once there all the people I met lived in the Earthship community about 20 minutes away. So on the weekends I would wander around town and often ended up hanging out at the ashram there. The Neem Karoli Baba Ashram.

    I didn’t know much about ashrams or Hinduism, but the people were friendly and interesting, and the food was delicious. I knew so little that I was really surprised when the place went nuts one day when a guy in a wheelchair rolled in. Turns out it was Ram Daas.

    There was always an enormous kettle of chai on the stove filling the air with with most delicious spicy smell. I can’t remember who gave me the recipe, but I wrote it down on half an index card and then lost it for nearly 10 years. A few months ago I took an old suitcase to Salvation Army and luckily checked the front pocket before dropping it off. I was elated to find my stained and now yellowed recipe.

    While I would rather lose a finger than give up my iPhone it’s kind of sad that I’m not creating notes like this to lose and then joyously find anymore.

    If you like chai, or are chai curious, make this recipe. It’s awesome.

    Neem Karoli Baba Ashram Chai

    Ingredients:

    • 1 cinnamon stick
    • 1/2 teaspoon whole peppercorns
    • 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
    • 1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
    • 1/2 teaspoon whole ginger
    • 10 ounces milk
    • 1/2 teaspoon loose black tea

    Directions:

    Put in pan, heat to boil. Let simmer 20 minutes.

  • From Media Temple to Digital Ocean

    I just moved this site (exact same WordPress install) from Media Temple’s $20/month GRID hosting to Digital Ocean’s smallest $5/mo VPS. The speed difference in insane.

    Media Temple - 10.2 sec avg load time
    Digital Ocean - ~300ms avg load time

    That’s roughly 30 times faster.

  • Daniel Dennett on Evolution

    Evolution is one of the central themes of this book, as of all my books, for the simple reason that it is the central, enabling process not only of life but also of knowledge and learning and understanding. If you attempt to make sense of the world of ideas and meanings, free will and morality, art and science and even philosophy itself without a sound and quite detailed knowledge of evolution, you have one hand tied behind your back.

  • A Dead Simple Website Controlled Light

    An interesting project to control a light with a webserer by Rodrigo Neri popped up on Hacker News recently. While I liked his solution I did basically the same thing in under an hour for $50 three weeks ago. I thought I should share.

    The Goal
    I work at an e-commerce company where we fulfill the orders ourselves. The guys who pick orders generally do so in large batches, then work on other projects during the day. The warehouse manager requested a light that would turn on when the order queue hit a certain threshold to let the guys know it was worth stopping other jobs to pick orders. The manager wouldn’t have to bark orders at them, and they wouldn’t have to keep checking the status screen of our picking station.

    The Magic
    I was behind the idea and started thinking about using some type of Arduino controlled device. Then I remembered IFTTT.

    I first heard about IFTTT (If This Then That) from Merlin Mann a while ago and signed up for an account. I remembered that they had a hook for the newish Belkin WeMo home control devices. I picked up one of the basic switches at my local Best Buy on the way home for $50.

    The Steps
    This is literally it.

    1. I plugged in the switch and set it up via my iPhone.
    2. I registered the switch with IFTTT (took about 30 seconds).
    3. I added my own if statement to the top of my order status code.
    4. I added a function to send an email with subject “on” to my IFTTT address when the threshold is hit and #off when the queue hits zero.
    5. I created two recipes, one for on, and one for off on IFTTT.
    6. I pushed it to production.
    7. Done.

    I couldn’t believe how simple it was. Less than and hour start to finish. The system has been running for a three weeks with zero problems.

    Email?
    My original plan was to have an rss feed of the order count for IFTTT to read but their feed widget only updates every 15 minutes whereas the email widget is immediate.

    The downside is I’m emailing IFTTT quite often during the day. They don’t seem to mind.

    Hue?
    The guys like the light so much there have been requests for additional colors or lights to convey additional info. I was tempted to mess around with the Phillips Hue which has an official API. Instead I have decided to use Panic’s new awesome Status Board app to display the order light as well as a lot of other stuff.

  • Luna Moth ♂

    Luna Moth ♂

  • Introducing - Luisa Kelly Swimm

    Introducing: Luisa Kelly Swimm

  • Stalled Out on Tesla's Electric Highway →

    John M. Broder for The New York Times:

    Tesla’s chief technology officer, J B Straubel, acknowledged that the two East Coast charging stations were at the mileage limit of the Model S’s real-world range. Making matters worse, cold weather inflicts about a 10 percent range penalty, he said, and running the heater draws yet more energy. He added that some range-related software problems still needed to be sorted out.

    I think that 10% figure is extremely low. Tesla uses lithium ion batteries similar to those found in the Volt. I’ve found that I lose nearly 25% of my range (~43 mpc to ~32 mpc) when the temperature is in the 30s. That seems more in line with what John Broder experienced in the test.

  • mbv

    By now everyone has heard that late last night My Bloody Valentine released ‘mbv’, the follow up to their 1991 masterpiece Loveless.

    Loveless has been my favorite album from the moment I heard it 21 years ago. After refreshing the site for a couple hours while it was down from traffic I purchased and downloaded ‘mbv’.

    While I have a ton of ideas and opinions on it, I am going to give it some time. I’ve been thinking about what this record would sound like for my entire teenage and adult life. It doesn’t make sense to give an opinion after 18 hours and two listens.

    If you haven’t heard it, you can stream the new album on Youtube.

  • mbv Reviews

    Initial reviews of “mbv” are starting to show up. I would hate to have to write a review of this mythical record in less than 24 hours.

    I’ll keep updating the list as I find them.

  • Darkstar's News From Nowhere Now Streaming

    From Warp:

    “Take your time, immerse yourself. For this reason, skipping tracks is disabled. We are proud to share this record with you.”

    The album is still alive on the internet, and this one sounds great.

  • Timeaway by Darkstar →

    Darkstar (whose 2010 release North was my favorite album that year) have signed with Warp and released their first single as a free download. I absolutely cannot wait for this record!

    While I do, I’ve been watching their ‘Nowhere’ video series which documents moments during the recording process.

    Nowhere #1
    Nowhere #2
    Nowhere #3
    Nowhere #4

  • Adrian Utley Studio Tour →

    Arturia visited Portishead’s Adrian Utley in his studio so he could check out their new MiniBrute synth. The result was two great videos. In the first he spends 25 minutes messing around with the impressive sounding MiniBrute. And in the second he shows off his collection of (mostly) vintage synths.

    If you’re a fan of Portishead you will love watching him coax huge sounds out of this tiny synth.

  • Brian Eno Releases Scape, a "new form of album" →

    Brian Eno and his musician/programmer collaborator Peter Chilvers have released a new piece of software called Scape.

    Scape is a new form of album which offers users deep access to its musical elements. These can be endlessly recombined to behave intelligently: reacting to each other, changing mood together, making new sonic spaces.

    Scape builds on what the duo have done with past software projects but adds depth via rules and tools. It’s more like a simpler, user friendly Noatikl. It also supports AirPlay so you can bliss out your whole joint. Very cool.

  • How To Create A Mind →

    How To Create A Mind

    Ray Kurzweil, the bold futurist and author of The New York Times bestseller The Singularity Is Near, is arguably today’s most influential technological visionary. A pioneering inventor and theorist, he has explored for decades how artificial intelligence can enrich and expand human capabilities. Now, in his much-anticipated How to Create a Mind, he takes this exploration to the next step: reverse-engineering the brain to understand precisely how it works, then applying that knowledge to create vastly intelligent machines.

    Of all Kurzweil’s main topics brain engineering is probably the most contentious. I’m as excited to read the book as I am to watch the inevitable scientific fallout.

    How to Create a Mind is out on November 13th, 2012.

  • Moonbeams by Family Band

    Not since I heard “Know Where” by Holy Other last summer have I been stunned by a song like this. Then I watched the video. Incredible.