Happy 100th, Alan Turing!
Alan Turing, der wahrscheinlich wichtigste Kryptograph, Mathematiker und Informatiker, Erschaffer des Turing Tests zum Nachweis künstlicher Intelligenz und der nach ihm benannten Maschine, Knacker des Enigma-Codes, mit dem die Nazis im zweiten Weltkrieg ihre Botschaften verschlüsselten und nicht zuletzt vom Staat gemobbter und in den Selbstmord getriebener Homosexueller. Turing gilt als Vater der Informatik, der Robotik und der künstlichen Intelligenz. Tragische, historisch extrem wichtige Figur, nicht nur in Hinblick auf die Entwicklung des Computers.
Google.com hat heute ein Doodle in Form eines Turing-Machine-IQ-Tests, dieses Video hier erklärt, wie’s funktioniert:
Mehr:
The Atlantic: What Happens When We Turn the World’s Most Famous Robot Test on Ourselves?: „For years the Turing Test has been used to compare humans with computers. Now sociologists are using it to compare humans with each other.“
Wired: The Rich Legacy of Alan Turing: „Alan Turing achieved more in the space of a few decades than anyone could hope to achieve in a lifetime. His ability to imagine the unimaginable and put these lofty theories down on paper, and then into practice, show a highly disciplined character capable of becoming an expert in pretty much anything he had an interest in. Turing went from drawing up a basic model for all computers to breaking down the constructs of complex chemical reactions with enviable ease.“
Economist: The Science Museum’s Alan Turing exhibition – A beautiful mind: „This year marks the hundredth anniversary of his birth, and one of the many tributes is a new exhibition at Britain’s Science Museum. Unlike other Turing tributes, which have tended to focus on one aspect of his work, the Science Museum aims to give a flavour of Turing the individual, and thus the exhibition mixes illustrations of the importance of his academic achievements with exhibits from the personal life of the man himself.“
Die BBC hat eine siebenteilige Artikelserie: Alan Turing: why the tech world’s hero should be a household name, The codebreaker who saved ‘millions of lives’, Is he really the father of computing?, The experiment that shaped artificial intelligence, Gay codebreaker’s defiance keeps memory alive, Centenary of the birth of WWII code breaker Alan Turing
ZDNet: Alan Turing: The computing pioneer’s life and works, in photos
Hezbollah vs Journalists Paintball-Match
Spannende Story auf Vice über ein Paintball-Match zwischen Hisbollah und ein paar Journalisten:
We figured they’d cheat; they were Hezbollah, after all. But none of us—a team of four Western journalists—thought we’d be dodging military-grade flash bangs when we initiated this “friendly” paintball match.
The battle takes place underground in a grungy, bunker-like basement underneath a Beirut strip mall. When the grenades go off it’s like being caught out in a ferocious thunderstorm: blinding flashes of hot white light, blasts of sound that reverberate deep inside my ears.
As my eyesight returns and readjusts to the dim arena light, I poke out from my position behind a low cinder-block wall. Two large men in green jumpsuits are bearing down on me. I have them right in my sights, but they seem unfazed—even as I open fire from close range, peppering each with several clear, obvious hits. I expect them to freeze, maybe even acknowledge that this softie American journalist handily overcame their flash-bang trickery and knocked them out of the game. Perhaps they’ll even smile and pat me on the back as they walk off the playing field in a display of good sportsmanship (after cheating, of course).
Instead, they shoot me three times, point-blank, right in the groin.
PAINTBALLING WITH HEZBOLLAH IS THE PATH STRAIGHT TO THEIR HEARTS (via Jason Kottke)
Ray Bradbury Error Code for the Internet: 451 Censored Content
Ganz großartige Idee von Google Mitarbeiter Tim Bray, der einen neuen HTTP Status Code für zensierte Websites vorschlägt: 451 Censored Content basierend auf Ray Bradburys Zensur-SciFi-Klassiker Fahrenheit 451. Wenn ich irgendwo unterschreiben könnte, würde ich unterschreiben. Dreimal. Hier das offizielle Dokument, dass er bei der Internet Engineering Task Force einreichte, Snip vom Guardian:
Ray Bradbury’s fiction looks set to enter the structure of the internet, after a software developer has proposed a new HTTP status code inspired by Fahrenheit 451.
Tim Bray, a fan of Bradbury’s writing, is recommending to the Internet Engineering Task Force, which governs such choices, that when access to a website is denied for legal reasons the user is given the status code 451.
There are already a host of HTTP status codes, from the common 404 Page not found to 504 Gateway timeout. The 451 idea follows a blogpost from Terence Eden, who found that his ISP had been ordered to censor the Pirate Bay when he was given an HTTP 403 Forbidden message, meaning that “the server understood the request, but is refusing to fulfil it”. In fact, Eden writes on his blog, it was not Pirate Bay that was preventing access but the government, after Britain’s high court issued an order to ISPs to block access to the filesharing site in April, so the response was “factually incorrect”, and a new code is needed to indicate “censorship”.
451, Bray believes, would work nicely, as it would provide a tribute to Bradbury as well as reminding users of the dystopian future predicted by the science fiction author.
Call for Ray Bradbury to be honoured with internet error message – A new status code to reflect internet censorship could be named after Ray Bradbury’s most famous novel, Fahrenheit 451 (via @pourmecoffee)
Glitch GIFs
Bei Glitches werde ich immer und grundsätzlich schwach, im Tumblr Glitchgifs gibt’s ein paar animierte. (via MeFi)
Skateboarding, 1965
LIFE hat grade seine 1965er Bildstrecke mit Skatefotos von 1965 wiederveröffentlicht.
Thus did LIFE introduce to the magazine’s readers its own unique (if somewhat shrill) take on a toy that would evolve into the emblem of a singular subculture and, eventually, a lifestyle.
Skateboarding, LIFE opined in 1965, is “the most exhilarating and dangerous joyriding device this side of the hot rod. A two-foot piece of wood or plastic mounted on wheels, it yields to the skillful user the excitements of of skiing or surfing. To the unskilled it gives the effect of having stepped on a banana peel while dashing down the back stairs. It is also a menace to limb and even to life.”
In the previous month, the magazine noted, two children in different parts of the country were killed when they careened into traffic while skateboarding.
Ready for Action: Videogame-Characters waiting for the Bus
Vimeo Direktgta, via Superlevel
Niko Bellic wating for the Bus: „The protagonist from Grand Theft Auto IV, at the mercy of public transportation. Audio from the game has been blended with audio captured while waiting for public transportation in the real world.“ Gibt’s noch mit Max Payne in der U-Bahn und nochmal Niko.
How Reddit grew on Fake-Accounts
Youtube Direktreddit, via /.
Dass Reddit beim Start jede Menge Fake-Accounts eröffneten und so eine größere Userzahl vorgaukelten, wusste ich. Im Video oben erklärt Reddit-Gründer Steve Huffman im Detail, wie sie’s gemacht haben. Das Geheimnis war ein zusätzliches Submit-Feld für Admins, in dem man einen Usernamen eingeben konnte, der automatisch angelegt wurde.
Huffman said that using fake accounts driven by the founders was key to building the tone they wanted to the site. Basically, by populating the site with accounts whose strings they pulled, the Reddit crew could shape the discourse and sharing of the site in the direction they wanted, and as the real user base grew, those standards held, allowing the fake accounts to fade away.
It’s fascinating that such a massive user base could be seeded by a few guys with a whole bunch of avatars. It’s an incredible example of the Internet’s power to magnify one’s own voice.
Photography from Mexico Citys Telenovela-Factory
Stefan Ruiz hat eine tolle Fotoserie aus den Seifenopern-Studios in Mexico City am Start.
Called The Factory of Dreams, no one produces more telenovelas than Mexican’s Televisa studios. Telenovelas and its protagonists are a powerful vehicle to understand contemporary Latin American culture and its society. Stefan’s photographs of the factory of dreams and the people working in it disclose this secret world to us with humor and affection. All Images are shot in the Televisa Studios, Mexico City.
The Factory of Dreams (via Coudal)
Demo gegen GEMA-Tarifreform
Der Verein Electrocult (zur Förderung, Pflege und Darstellung der elektronischen Musik- und Clubkultur) ruft zu ‘ner Demo gegen die GEMA-Tarifreform auf. Hier die Facebook-Seite des Vereins, hier die Facebook-Seite der Veranstaltung, Snip aus der PM:
Anlässlich der Jahreshauptversammlung der GEMA, vom 25.06. bis 27.06.2012, ruft die Berliner Initiative „FAIRplay – Gemeinsam gegen GEMAinheiten“ zur Demonstration für den sofortigen Stopp der GEMA Tarifreform 2013 auf. Am Montag den 25. Juni 2012, von 18:00 bis 22:00 Uhr findet eine Kundgebung in der Schönhauser Allee, auf Höhe der Kulturbrauerei statt, bei der das Bündnis die Öffentlichkeit und die GEMA-Mitglieder über die Gefahren und Folgen der geplanten Tarifreform informieren möchte. Parallel dazu findet im „Frannz Club“ in der Kulturbrauerei das jährliche Mitgliederfest der GEMA statt.
Mit großer Sorge betrachten Club- und Kulturveranstalter in ganz Deutschland die neuen GEMA-Tarife für Clubs, Diskotheken, Musikkneipen und Straßenfeste, die ab dem 01. Januar 2013 in Kraft treten sollen. Entgegen der Behauptung der GEMA, sie wolle lediglich 10 % der Eintrittsgelder, stellte sich heraus, dass durch die vielen neuen Zuschläge, durchschnittlich 600 bis 800 Prozent Verteuerung und mehr auf die Veranstalter und Clubbetreiber zukommt. Der DEHOGA (Deutscher Hotel und Gaststätten Bundesverband) veröffentlichte Beispielrechnungen, in denen Tariferhöhungen von über 2000 Prozent vorgestellt wurden. Dies bedroht die Existenz aller Clubs und Veranstaltungsorte in Berlin und bundesweit!
Trust me, I’m lying – Book about New School Media-Manipulation
Youtube Direktlyer, via BoingBoing
Superinteressantes Buch von Ryan Holiday: Trust me, I’m lying. Der Mann arbeitet derzeit als „Media Manipulator“ und sein Job ist es, Storys seiner Kundschaft auf Seiten wie Gawker oder Buzzfeed unterzubringen.
I am a media manipulator for billion dollar brands to #1 New York Times bestselling authors. For the first time, I expose all the secrets of my profession, analyze why it exists and ultimately, what it means for the world in which we live. It’s a book deeply rooted in history and research, along with my first-person experiences. I didn’t want this to be some toothless, condescending book of media criticism. I name names in it, and I show where the bodies are buried—because I put many of them there. Ultimately, it’s not just a book about marketing but about strategy, culture and media. […]
In a world where blogs control and distort the news, my job is to control blogs—as much as any one person can.
In today’s culture…
1) Blogs like Gawker, Buzzfeed and the Huffington Post drive the media agenda.
2) Bloggers are slaves to money, technology, and deadlines.
3) Manipulators wield these levers to shape everything you read, see and watch—online and off.Why am I giving away these secrets? Because I’m tired of a world where blogs take indirect bribes, marketers help write the news, reckless journalists spread lies, and no one is accountable for any of it. I’m pulling back the curtain because I don’t want anyone else to get blindsided.
Ich war selbst mal an so ‘ner Medienmanipulations-Geschichte beteiligt, damals haben wir einen Terroranschlag in Kalifornien gefaked, um Promo für ‘nen Film zu machen, ich hab dabei Online-Fakery übernommen und für ‘ne halbe Stunde hatten wir die DPA im Sack. Nicht zuletzt deshalb werde ich das Buch oben wohl verschlingen.
Amazon-Partnerlink: Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator
Musicvideos: Twin Shadow, Black Sabbath, Slow Club, Opossom
Oben erstmal das neue Video von Twin Shadow, das vor ein paar Tagen auf dem Times Square Premiere hatte. Weitere Clips nach dem Klick.
Cosmetic Surgery Photography
Cara Phillips fotografiert seit ein paar Jahren die Operationssäle und Büros von Schöneheitschirurgen und bringt nun einen Fotoband namens „Singular Beauty“ dazu raus. Wired hat ein Preview und das „Botox Mood Chart“ als Gesichtsausdrucksersatz für Leute, die sich grade das Gesicht dickspritzen ließen, ist der Abschuß: I’m ecstatic in Comic Sans!
While not a new issue, her oddly beautiful photos of the industry’s infrastructure are nuanced and insightful, partly because they come from Phillips’ own personal issues with ideas of beauty. From ages 8 to 15 she was a child model and for much of her 20s she worked as a makeup artist where her job was to try and identify a cosmetic problem that each customer had and then suggest the makeup that she could sell to fix it. “I loved the art part of it,” she says. “But I struggled with immorality of it and it became emotionally difficult.”
During that time Phillips herself was also struggling with an eating disorder — a by-product, she says, of her time as a child model. “Beauty was the only value from a young age that I had placed on me.”
When she delved into photography, the beauty industry quickly became Phillips’ area of focus. After several years of exploring how she might capture her ideas, she landed on cosmetic surgery. “It became this amazing metaphor for just how much we wanted to be beautiful,” she says.
Photo Book Paints Cosmetic Surgery Offices as Beauty Factories
First Spiderman-Fanfilm online
Youtube Direktspidey, via MeFi
Youtube-User Fudgebudger hat den ersten Spiderman-Fanfilm von 1969 bei Youtube hochgeladen. Gespielt und produziert wurde er von Don Glut, der danach Drehbuchautor für Transformers, Duck Tales, Tarzan und G.I.Joe und erfand ein paar Charaktere für die Masters of the Universe-Actionfiguren.
The first ever documented Spider-Man fan film, and the first (unofficial) live action appearance of Spider-Man from 1969! This was produced by Donald F. Glut and was his last amateur film (he had produced many other Marvel fan films before this) before moving on to write for classic cartoons like Transformers and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.
I love the costume (Don Glut is wearing the red and blues himself), it looks heavily inspired by Steve Ditko’s work. And notice the use of the Captain Action Spider-Man figure for web swinging and wall crawling; that goes for huge bucks now. The villain in this fan film, Dr. Lightning, is not a real Marvel character and was just created by the guy’s making the film.
Cat playing a Guitar during an Earthquake
Youtube Direktcat, via Arbroath
„Goddam’, I’m trying to jam here!“ Scheiß Erdbeben.
Breaking Bad Methlab in Lego
Ein Kumpel von Redditor garyisyoudotcom hat das Los Pollos Hermanos-Methlab aus Breaking Bad in Lego nachgebaut (und stellenweise die Fly-Folge nachgespielt): My friend made the Breaking Bad Lab out of Legos. (via io9)
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Heisenbergs Meth-Van in Lego
