Manitou's Neo Robot Rigging reel

I am recovering from my bout with illness, but something else has infected me. The desire to watch things like this. That's what I get for trading my "fine arts" badge in for a "technical arts" permit.

James' boat

James is carrying on down the river apace.
pic pic pic pic pic

update:

Mission accomplished!

Iron Man and the Finch, Locked in an Eternal Struggle

Google Chrome Speed Tests

Google conducts some unscientific but fun demonstrations of the speed of the latest beta of their browser, Chrome. More theater than benchmark, but pretty nonetheless.

James' next trip

James is going down the Thames in a boat he made from wood he found in dumpsters next to the river. He's leaving somewhere upstream on Friday morning and coming back to Westminster or thereabouts on Sunday night.

... don't you think it might be a good thing if you began at once to keep a boat at the Temple stairs, and were in the habit of rowing up and down the river?
-- Great Expectations

UPDATE: James is on his way. He's really good at twittering.

The Fastest LEGO Star Wars Story Ever Told (via @darthvader)

May the Fourth be with you! (via @darthvader)

Ruby in Honolulu

Happy May Day! This is from the other day. Nice to meet everyone.

Apple, Google, & the future of the internets

I thought this might be an interesting summary of a few things floating around the internet of late. I know we have both Apple fanboys and Windows jocks alike on this blong. We've been surprisingly respectful on issues of technology so far, so lets see how long we can last before we all take a collective dump on civility and TEAR THIS PLACE APART! Actually, I'm just curious if you guys think Apple and/or Google are heading in the right direction. BEGIN!

Charlie Stross: The real reason why Steve Jobs hates Flash.
I don't get the title. The piece seems less about Flash than it is an excellent forecast on the future collapse and rebirth of the computer industry...

Apple are trying desperately to force the growth of a new ecosystem — one that rivals the 26-year-old Macintosh environment — to maturity in five years flat. That's the time scale in which they expect the cloud computing revolution to flatten the existing PC industry. Unless they can turn themselves into an entirely different kind of corporation by 2015 Apple is doomed to the same irrelevance as the rest of the PC industry — interchangable suppliers of commodity equipment assembled on a shoestring budget with negligable profit.

Christina Warren: Apple versus Flash versus HTML5

A solid analysis of why Flash will be a non-entity in the future, and why it has little to do with Apple. With a cool graph, here. In fact, Windows seems to agree. (bummer for vector-based animators, of course)

Bobbie Johnson: Apple iPad will choke innovation, say open internet advocates

Wade Roush: The Apple Paradox: How a company that's so closed foster so much open innovation

Kyle Conroy: What if I had bought Apple stock instead?
Ugh.

It is also worth noting where Windows seems to stand on this front: Here, and here.

Lastly, Jon Stewart: On Apple's response to the stolen iPhone prototype. Granted, who knows if Apple forced the police to burn Gizmodo's headquarters to the ground, Either way, Mr. Stewart sums it up perfectly with "Appholes".

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Appholes
www.thedailyshow.com
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