"This new law allows for testing of autonomous vehicles, or self-driving cars, by designees of an..."

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““This new law allows for testing of autonomous vehicles, or self-driving cars, by designees of an autonomous technology manufacturer, provided certain requirements are met. Prior to the public operating autonomous vehicles, a manufacturer is required to submit an application to DMV, and certify that specified insurance, vehicle safety, and testing standards have been met. The legislation authorizes regulations to specify any additional requirements deemed necessary by DMV, such as limitations on the number of autonomous vehicles deployed on the states highways, special vehicle registration and driver licensing requirements, and rules for the suspension, revocation, or denial of any license or approval issued by DMV pertaining to autonomous vehicles. (SB 1298/Padilla)””

- Why do I blog this? Being in California for the new year’s break, we had to check the new driving-related laws at the rental car office. This paragraph was quite interesting, although our rental wasn’t autonomous.

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"[Design can be …] The stable platform on which to entertain unusual bedfellows. The glue for things..."

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““[Design can be …] The stable platform on which to entertain unusual bedfellows. The glue for things that may not be naturally sticky. The lubricant that allows movement between ideas that don’t quite run together. The medium through which we can make otherwise awkward connections and comparisons. The language for tricky conversations and translations.”

- Dr Ken Arnold, Head of Public Programs, The Wellcome Trust, London.

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"*They’re not dead yet, but they serve no technical function, other than the skeuomorphic legal and..."

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*They’re not dead yet, but they serve no technical function, other than the skeuomorphic legal and financial pretense that e-books are “books,” and therefore somehow different from all other digital files.

*It’s sorta like the “Wall Street Journal” still pretending that the Wall Street Journal is whatever it thinks it is this week.

*I hope all those dedicated e-reader “books” are somehow able to squirm out of the sarcophagus of their formatting and copy protection, because otherwise we will presently see the largest “book” holocaust of all time, at least in terms of the numbers of individual copies.

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- Bruce Sterling on ebooks

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An interesting book by Marc Vallée about...

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Why do I blog this? An interesting book by Marc Vallée about defensive space, covering anti-skateboard devices. Interestingly, this is the topic that led to the largest number of comments on my blog. I find it relevant to see the type of “solutions” presented here. It would be funny to document how skaters ingeniously manage to get rid of them.

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"Media archaeology can be understood as a heterogeneous set of theories and methods that investigate..."

“Media archaeology can be understood as a heterogeneous set of theories and methods that investigate media history through its alternative roots, forgotten paths, neglected ideas and machines. It explicitly challenges the supposed newness of digital culture. Media archaeology gives new ideas to understand media cultural temporality. The definitions have ranged from emphasising the recurring nature of media cultural discourses (Huhtamo) to media archaeology as an-archaeology, or variantology (Zielinski) which in its excavation of the deep time layers of our means of seeing tries to find an alternative route to dismantle the fallacy of linear development.”

- What is “media archaeology”, by Jussi Parrika

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"“Farewell To The Feminine Hand” “It was the day before my daughter’s high school graduation and I..."

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“Farewell To The Feminine Hand”

“It was the day before my daughter’s high school graduation and I thought I’d treat her to a manicure at ___’s so she could pick up her summa cum laude diploma with pride. Imagine her mortification when the manicurist commented on her OUTSIZE THUMBS, and declared that painting such monster digits would cost double. Whysoever could this be? I had to investigate. It turned out that my daughter – the most popular girl in her class – had been sending up to 300 text messages – short notices on the mobile phone – per day. While glad she was so very socially-engaged and supportive of her friends, this one-handed work-out had quite destroyed the elegance of her former elegant pianist’s hand…”

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Jay @hautepop 2:51 pm on December 8, 2012.

Intriguing irony here.

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