346 entries from "Brasilia"

Foam: Software as Curation

[With a modular enough system, people can simply curate components or plugins into a kind of software experience, requiring less effort or technical skill than programming.]

Why don’t the Democrats adopt the obvious winning strategies?

[Since the Clinton era, US Democrats want to lose because it enables them to continue campaign funding as a lucrative income, as the Republicans started to do decades earlier.]

Jess Martin on devtools.fm

Do you have ten years of experience? or ten of the same year?

Tech doesn’t make our lives easier. It makes them faster

[Instead of saving an hour from not having to walk an hour to work, speed and distance increases so that we spend a comparable amount of time occupied with new trajectories.]

The Linking of Opposites

[It's fine to stop a video to talk about one frame, but we cannot separate it from the moving picture of life: we're always in motion.]

How Close Is That Photo to the Truth? What to Know in the Age of AI

[The camera's photon sensor converts light into pixel data and makes guesses about how much red, green, and blue to represent in each one.]

[Breaking up the image into multiple frames helps better represent shadows and skies while reducing noise.]

[Cameras make choices about how to make photos more vivid or different skin colors better represented, and decide how to store them for maximum compression.]

More Money For Better Open-Source Software

I am going to emphasize, in the docs, the license file, and the communication surrounding the project, that free-loading is not socially acceptable. Along with this, I will provide convenient mechanisms to donate. The code of financial conduct would be something like this:

• If you are a non-commercial user, don't worry about it.
• If I fix a bug you reported or add a feature you wanted and you have the financial means, a one-time tip is much appreciated. Even if this is unlikely to add up to serious money, it takes the one-sidedness out of the process of responding to user requests.
• If you are extracting value from your use of my software, set up a proportional monthly donation.

The monthly part is the important thing here. Having to periodically beg a user base to please contribute to a donation drive again is a drag, and not very effective. Convincing users to donate as long as they get value from the software gives a maintainer a more or less predictable, low-maintenance source of compensations for their work.

Astral Flowers: Força da Cura

From New Paradigm (2018). Salutation to healing forces, introduced by the sound of breath, life, and spirit.

Chris Potter: Follow The Red Line (live, 2007)

Going through a reflective moment in the last few weeks, I found myself listening back to one of my favourite modern jazz albums. After dozens of listens, I continue to be inspired by the improvisational capacity of these musicians. It’s inspiring, comforting, centering.

Nihiloxica: Kaloli (2020)

Shiny little gem mixing traditional Ugandan drumming with elements of electronic music and techno. Supuki’s dark beats and groove drumming, combines the electronic with an earthy sound—intense; Tewali Sukali’s body-shaking rhythms are accompanied by grungy noise; Gunjula has fast-driving multi-layered polyrhythms; Busoga’s the lead synths are dripping light all over the percussion; Kaloli surprised me with its thrashing metal.

[With a mature parent, the child simply goes to the parent for affectionate connection. If the parent is afraid of deep connection, the child might feel uneasy or shameful.]

[Emotional intimacy exists when the other person seeks to know you moreso than to judge you.]

Building real bonds amongst diverse groups of strangers

[Get everyone to send a fun fact about themselves. Give everyone someone else's fact. Ask them to find their person.]

Adumbrations Of Aducanumab

This is Yagmuk. He lives in Ipmulaakiituk with his wife and children and eighteen moose. Since 2004, every single bill in the American health care system has gone to Yagmuk. He cannot read English, so he tears them into little shreds and burns them in the winter to keep warm. One day providers will realize he’s not paying, and the whole medical system will collapse.

[Q&A #02] Bombs vs. Bugs

[Banning code exploits itself can hurt efforts to counter DRM for autonomy.]

[Software exploits can be more dangerous than bombs because they are more likely to be used.]

[When exploits are used, we don't find out immediately; sometimes only years later, wheras bombs will be reported on the evening news.]

[Like viruses, exploits can be spread: using it is a risk of losing it.]

Infinite Loops

[Create a world that people want to come into and explore without you being there.]

[Worlds provide challenges for people and communicate what the next step is.]

[Challenges that you embrace and overcome can help create an identity.]

Joyce Moreno & Toninho Horta: Sem Você (2007)

Two of my favourite artists in Brazil (or perhaps the world) on the same disc. Two masters playing samba, bossa nova, jazz, sublime guitar.

Azymuth: Light As A Feather (2012)

Complex yet danceable mix of jazz, fusion, and disco. Makes me feel like digging into Azymuth’s entire collection. Partido Alto has a funky offbeat rhythm that’s actually in 4; Avenida Das Mangueiras stomps along—driving pulse with funk sixteenth note solos; the second section of Light As A Feather mixes jazz and bossa nova brazil with an uber-tight drum foundation; Fly Over The Horizon reminds me of Weather Report; Jazz Carnival goes full on disco; Young Embrace is a bouncy, swaying electronic biological thing, obviously from Brazil.

The drummer from their band joined with Madlib to form “Jackson Conti” and release Sujinho (2008): jazz/hip-hop instrumentals mixed with pandeiro and all sorts of Brazilian instruments and rhythms, Coltrane-era sax solos, synth riffs, flute melodies—I’ve never heard anything like this.

Lil Jon, LMFAO: Drink

From The World’s End soundtrack (2013). Body-shaker, head-banger, wall-breaker—100% energy using cues from techno song forms. I have some nostalgia for Lil Jon’s general screaming and expletives. Moving!