Hybrid Life

Interactive robot art, featured on RobotGossip. "The human head is mounted on a motorized base which moves along a track. As a viewer walks by, the head follows on the track, while plying him or her with a cornucopia of compliments such as "I really like your hair" and "You look really hot!"

The same article seems to feature an unrelated, gruesome reminder of the ongoing robot insurgency. If it is indeed true new dimensions have been reached: "Robobaby - Combining the best of natural genetics and robotic technology."

Working Life

I recently uploaded a couple of fotos of recent works of fine art by myself onto 23hq.

Netart - a selection of shots of some of the works. Some Netart was shown at Update (Künstlerhaus Wien, 2005).

And Popelismus ("Bogeyism") - a continuation of the work, an example of which i exhibited 2003 at Galerie am Park, with the first Popelismus measuring > 1x1m. Recent works are smaller due to the long time it took to finish that large piece.

Robot vs. Human Life: Continued

Human Resistance Headquarters (formerly known as boingboing) issues new report: Earth-children vs. Space Robots: things get ugly.

Oh, and that tee expressing kid's horrors is available here.

Previous posts: Five, Four, Three, Two, One.

Loughing Out Life

Xeni of boinboing not only is brushing up on her german ("BB's "Roboticization of Earth-children": das ist geFarken"), but she has the latest from the cardboard front: photoshopped assimilated from this boinboing-update on the matter, on Fark.

A Life Ended

Farewell, Stanislaw Lem!
As Lem is most well known for his science fiction works, i take this opportunity to point out his brilliant 1961 Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, which is about a man hopelessly trapped in a bureaucratic building. Yay, his irony was among the things i really appreciated.

Donkey's Life

[eSeL(*), your nom de plum saved this post's title!]

eSeL tought me a dutch game, yesterday - if anyone out there happens to know the original name, please post it!


(*)Esel (german) = donkey (engl.)

Apocalyptic Life

News from the frontline: Human reinforcement arrives ...
Fresh children arrive from space to replace roboticized Earthlings

Posts on Robot Invasion: One ,Two, Three

Pissing Life

Yes: Piss-controlled urinal-based video games! (via)
link

Life is Blaming

Heehee - i like this one: " ... sculpture titled Blame, which senses the presence of gallery visitors and then swings an arm with an accusing finger towards one hapless person, and in a loud voice proceeds to blame the viewer for some horrible crime against society. ... " (via)
link

Ordinary Life

Spent a quiet weekend at home, with the plan of doing the accounting of last years ROBOEXOTICA - got to send it in soon ...
Stefan Nussbaumer's visit yesterday evening was helpful, he brought his bills ...
Stefan also demonstrated the usefulness of del.icio.us to me by showing me his bookmarked explanatory links for RSS (i still don't really know what makes it different from, say, atom?) - which led to me registering today and adding a few bookmarks.
Today i was struck with a terrible backache, when i cleaned the shower ...
so i better sign off noaaahhhhhhhhhw!

Caffeine-based Life

Of course, the arrival of the first Starbucks in Vienna, a couple years ago, was a shock for everybody ... by now it can be said they helped make take-away coffee a more commonplace thing here in Vienna.
This might make no difference to some traditionalist coffehouse-goers, but in places like the General Hospital, where the crappiness of the vending-machine-coffee depends on the station you're at, Starbucks makes just so much sense!
And it wasn't permitted to smoke in the Hospital in the first place ;)

Life is Eat or ..

.. be eaten! Time to strike back for human earthlings and munch a piece of robot ... [happy birthday, engadget!]
(via)

Cardboard Life

At first sight they are less frightening than belowmentioned man-eating robot-invaders ... but they're involved in pretty grim action!
Or are the Kami-Robos, as they're called, the cannibals' young?

Life on Earth

alarming news of the ongoing man(kid)-eating robot invasion come via BoingBoing:

".. more compelling evidence that mechanical invaders want to devour the children of Planet Earth .. another fireman assimilated into robot consciousness. The struggle was mighty, the force just too strong."

... previous post on invasion.

- be prepared!

update: it's pandemic!



and they aren't content with consuming kids anymore, either:

quote:" This ain't a costume I'm wearing. Robot's own the streets at night. See that little bag I'm carrying with me? I stole it from a toddler. I pushed him over and ran away. Easy as that."

update2: BoingBoing readers have collected more footage of the robot insurgency!

Life's a Conspiracy

What a nicely made film "proving" the US government's behind 911 - Loose Change 2nd Edition!

"IT IS EVERYONE'S duty TO VIEW THIS FILM!" (loosechange911.com)

(thx Chris)

Tagged Life

I found this gallery of cartoon robots via this collection of robot-tagged images of graffitied cartoon bots on 23hq.

Humanoid Life

It's always anew fascinating what a little cardboard and tape will do:
Cute robot invasion found on 23hq.

more cardboard robots:
Robot Wars,
Krach the rocking robot,
Free Robot Sex

update: i just knew, someone at BoingBoing wouldn't be able to resist the cuteness ;)


update2: quoting boingboing: "More evidence robots are devouring our kids
Cute? What's so cute about this? Robot invaders from outer space gulp an innocent child whole, he stares back at you, helpless, trapped -- and you call it cute? Oh, it's cute until they come for you, my friend."

Virtual Life

"Viennese computer scientist Daniel Wagner has figured out a way to show a virtual character on an i-mate SP5 cellphone, and when you move around with the cellphone, it appears that you’re floating around this virtual character in 3D. Other people with cellphones can also see this character from their points of view. Augmented reality, indeed. ..." (more ...)
In the comments on the gizmodo post there's also one or two interesting links apropos augmented reality.

Dear Life ("dear" like in "expensive")

In russia, mobile phone users pay for incoming calls!
Their czar Putin just signed a law, that will change this for most domestic incoming calls, but russians will still have to pay for foreign calls they answer on their mobile, also for calls from some specific russian regions, starting 1st of july.

I could have been aware, if i had spent some thoughts on sergey teterin's strange question, how much incoming calls on the cell, that he was being equipped with during his stay in vienna, would cost! but i guess this was just too shocking an idea for me to ponder: paying for incoming calls?!?!

Amazing Life

On MAKE:blog I found this post on Information Unlimited, an online retailer for things "experimental and dangerous".
They sell stuff like ion-ray or microwave guns, lasers, high energy pulsers, mindmachines, robot kits, Tesla coils, "anti-gravity" tools, you get the picture ... link

Naked Life

yesterday i added Kurt von Finck's "David" to the sidebar ...
so now today i created this version of a boycott pic with Botticelli's "Birth of Venus".
next i shall animate a gif with both images ...
(triggered by smartfilter blocking boingboing for occuring "nudity")

update: finally succeeded in finding a free gif-animator that wouldn't put a logo in
... so i replaced sidebar-david with the outcome ...
feel free to copy and use!

update #2: made a version using Gustav Klimt's "Judith 1" ...
... and one using a male rear from Egon Schiele's "Der Akt" to re-establish gender-harmony.

.. animated male-, female- and austro-version gifs.
and of course, the all in one:
- which has had it's two months in the sidebar by may 1st. (haven't heard much of the censoring issue lately)

Hipster Life

"...'with the starting NYPD rookie pay I’m getting, just give me a reason to go off on these loud, dirty hipsters!' This post inspires several others to point out that Critical Mass is made up of hippies. Hipsters, they explain, don’t exercise. ..."

now, since when do we hippies exercise ;)

link to wonkster of gotham gazette on the N.Y. monthly Critical Mass bike ride.

Dog Life Ended

"... Add this to your list of urban anxieties: During the snowy months of late winter, when salt mixes with slush, electric current escaping through uninsulated wires can be conducted up to the street through manholes, streetlights, service boxes, grates or cracks in the sidewalk. ... New Yorkers were reminded of the phenomenon last week, when a chow-collie mix named Barkis was electrocuted near Prospect Park in Brooklyn." (L.A.Times)

A Dog's Life

... this photo of a GPS enabled doggy accompanies a post on MAKE: blog about San Francisco starting "a pilot program under which it will use biodegradable bags and dog-waste carts to pick up droppings at a popular dog park. The droppings will be tossed into a contraption called a methane digester, which is basically a tank in which bacteria feed on feces for weeks to create methane gas."

Rolling Life

The Swirling Brain, a robot tinkerer from texas, has put this wonderful 'Copper Rolling Ball Sculpture Kinetic Art' up on ebay ...
the item description contains video footage and 3D images!
if the transport costs wouldn't threaten to be too much i might be tempted.

Letter Life

Anagram U-Bahn map for Vienna

(via boingboing)

Legal Life

some time has passed since i spent days laughing, reading scambaiters' correspondences with "lawers" and the like, on pages like 419eater.com or scam-o-rama or Artists Against 419 ...
now this dialog between cory doctorow and a "lawer" goes a bit in that direction ...

Life with a wicked tooth

today is the first day in four, that i don't feel like showing up at dental walk-in as an emergency at noon - i left an account of this week's ordeal on 23hq.
i will have to make several trips to the dentist to clean out the hole/root canal before this is over, though.

Alco Life

this quote from the history section of a page that showed up as an adsense-ad on the shifz blog points out aspects of american alcohol prohibition, we euros never knew of:
"1920 marked the beginning of Prohibition, during which Fee Brothers continued the business by making altar wine. This was sold throughout the Eastern United States. Also, it was legal for homeowners to make a limited amount of wine for their own consumption. The Fees would send a representative to a client’s home. There he would set up a barrel with concentrated grape juice, sugar, water, and yeast to make a good batch of wine. He would return several months later to monitor its progress. The homeowner would pay for this service. There was also a non-alcoholic malt extract beer put out by Fee Brothers. It was labeled with the picture of a bear and called “Bruno.” The label also said, “It’s a bear” (meaning beer) and said, “Do not add yeast to this product as it is likely to ferment.” We read this today with a smile. John Jr., it seems, was very creative. During Prohibition, saloons survived by obtaining and serving illicit alcohol. This type of liquid refreshment (having been made by amateurs) was not very tasty. Fee Brothers producted flavorings such as Benedictine, Chartreuse, Brandy, Rum and dozens more including cordial syrups during Prohibition. These could be added to homemade alcohol to flavor it."
link to Fee Brothers

Game Life

in the US another group complains about sex & violence in the video game Grand Theft Auto ... the Sex Worker's Outreach Project -
quote from their page:
"Although SWOP-USA will always be adamantly opposed to any and all forms of censorship, as concerned parents ourselves, we wish to inform other parents of the potential danger extremely violent video games pose to children. And in the interest of furthering sex worker’s human and civil rights to life and personal safety, we object to any media which represents sex workers as legitimate targets of violence, rape and murder. Censorship is a blight on the freedoms we hold dear but we wholeheartedly encourage citizens to vote with their dollars by refusing to purchase products which encourage the denigration and destruction of prostitutes. Since the video game Grand Theft Auto accrues points to players for the depiction of the rape and murder of prostitutes, SWOP-USA calls on all parents and all gamers to boycott Grand Theft Auto."
link to SWOP

Life Cycles

Hm, so this foto of a guy in cardboardboxes holding a sign "free robot sex" (which sergey teterin pointed out to me already back in october) finally turned up on boingboing ...
like in the video mentioned below the boxes could have used a silver paint job.

p.s. i just found sergey's own blogpost from oct. showing it, unfortunately i cannot read any russian ;(

update: the free robot sex robot keeps haunting the net ..

Life in Pain

chronic pain is bad. acute tooth ache is not good either!
after a day of 8/10 (*) toothache it just now went down a bit after i decided to throw in a bit metamizol - extra intake of my regular pain med tramadol proved effectless. having surfed netdoktor a bit i also decided to down a few drops of my codein containing throat drops.
this started in the night already, when the pain would wake me up ...
today being saturday, showing up at the walk-in clinic where i usually am being dentistered upon, would have been futile.
and i just couldn't make my mind up yet to go to "barmherzige brüder" (merciful brethren) to get the tooth removed yet (it doesn't get more sophisticated there, i know from experience, alas).

(*) pain patients will be familiar with the scale of felt pain: 0 for no pain, 10 for screamin out loud pain

Life is Linking

the 'unavoidable daily link' to boingboing leads to the article on videobomb - a Participatory Culture Foundation project.
there i found this 'robot wars' video ...
great idea, unfortunately they could have spent more time on the costumes ...

Geek Life

today i downloaded and enjoyed episode 3 of the british TV-show 'The IT Crowd' ...
recommended on boingboing (cory actually did some 'small consulting')

Better Life

i just came up with a wonderful idea how to make life on this planet better for all of us.
since not only "america is addicted to oil" as mr. bush nicely put it, but generally world economy, but more importantly also ordinary folks depend on oil products to fuel their vehicles and heating their homes - i think prohibiting commercial trade of this substance would make a great first step!
ressources so vital to all of us should not be handled by private companies. nor nation states. a new UN-subdivision can easily be financed replacing the structures which momentarily are in charge of produce and sale.
of course end users still have to pay for their use of a limited energy source, but the revenues that now pay for the fancies of a few, would be put to way better use.
by the way, of course users will have to register as addicts. america, having been the first to out itself, should be rewarded getting some kind of premium prescription, no generics and stuff.

rereading this post, i notice some of it might really make sense!

Robot Life

'I think it's important to always carry enough technology to restart civilization, should it be necessary.' ... quote from interview with mark tilden (RoboSapien creator) - http://www.you-review.net/features/interviews/mark-tilden/
(found on robots.net)

Queer Bird Life

gay flamingos in british zoo steal eggs and foster chicks!
'The pair have reared three generations of adopted flamingos, by making off with the freshly laid eggs of their heterosexual neighbours. ... They have been known to fight the heterosexual birds and steal their eggs. There is usually a 'handbags-at-10 yards' moment where they scrap with the couple before stealing the egg.' (news.telegraph)
while straight flamingos usually find a new partner every year, carlos and fernando have been together more than five years.

High Life

Hotel Sacher, home of the world-famous sacher tart, after the recent upgrading modification of the building, offer chocolate baths in their spa ...
cocoa beans contain antioxidative polyphenole, theobromin and coffeine. cocoabutter is rich in proteins, fat, oleic and linoleic acid, which protect from loss of moisture.
110 minutes cost €179,-, 50 min "only" 96,-, so i won't try it soon.
(source: derstandard)

yesterday i spent the whole day and as far into the night as i could manage, reading the 'Things I Learn From My Patients' thread on student doctor network's emergency medicine forum. in the midst of it the pharmacists decide to start the same thread on their forum, so now i am also reading that. will take me a couple more days. it's just hilarious.
(source: boingboing)

Bird Life

local newspaper Der Standard just posted on their online edition, that 40 birds, who's death raised brief bird-flu suspicions, died because they were under the influence, when crashing into windows of U-Bahn stations. actually they had enlarged livers, which indicates they were hardcore alcoholics.
the "european waxwing" only rarely visits vienna on his winter holidays from north, it is believed the intoxication was a result of fermenting berries the birdies ate.

City Life

Cafe Tuchlauben has a new owner ... the long-established cafe in downtown vienna is furnished fifties style, the new owner bought all the sweet dish recipes too, like the gugelhupf.
so the only radical change for the regular patrons is the removal of the curtains, which shielded them (and the cafe) from public notice.
not only do i like the oldfashioned look of the place, i also dig the fact that the waiter-owner went through the place several times refilling water glasses, which is everything but the norm in vienna!

Update: forgot to mention, new owner Markus Muliar renamed the cafe to "Markusplatz Cafe Tuchlauben" (without replacing the vintage signs with the old name) ... by now there'a also an article in Falter (in german).

Update 2: Cafe Markusplatz has a webpage

Life is Learning

it's always nice to learn more about cocktails ...
this article on Bloody Marys in the l.a. times even mentions an austrian vodka, i never heard of!