This was the Future, Vol.25

typed for your pleasure on 19 May 2006, at 3.16 pm

Sdtrk: ‘Tourist trap’ by NON

Here we have another installment wherein we set the controls further back than the usual Sixties subjects, and fling ourselves headlong into early Thirties Paris. Let’s GO!
*grinding TARDIS noises*
We’re here! Ahhh, Paris in the Spring! Smell those baguettes? No, I’m actually asking you if you can smell those baguettes — my sinuses are bollocked again and I can’t smell a damn thing. But look over there! What’s that fascinating steel-and-block-glass structure, in that courtyard off of rue Saint-Guillaume, you ask? Why, that would be the Maison de Verre (House of Glass), by interior designer Pierre Chareau and architect Bernard Bijvoët, naturellement.

Around 1927, a married couple with money and a good social position, Dr. and Mrs. Dalsace, were looking for a home in Paris. It had to be in the neighbourhood of the Saint Germain quarter which, as mentioned, was where Parisian high society of the time congregated. When they found the building at 31 rue Saint Guillaume, a big house on several stories between party walls in the central courtyard of the block, it was in such poor condition that both the future owners and the architect decided to demolish and rebuild it. However, an old lady who lived on the third floor refused to move, so they finally decided to demolish the two lower floors and keep what was above them. As well as being an unexpected setback, this meant that a technical feat was required to solve two simultaneous problems: on the one hand, constructing a new building underneath what remained without causing structural damage to the upper floors and on the other, bringing light to the interior of the new home, which suffered from a lack of natural light because of its narrowness and its position in the centre of the block.
quoted from this site

Maison de Verre (not to be confused with the equally fab, but not as glass-centric Maison de Verre in Brussels, Belgium) was also rather interesting in the fact that Dr Dalsace’s gynaecological office comprised the ground floor. How very Ballardian!

Innovations included ductwork that cleverly hid the electrical and phone wiring, sliding partitions that could be arranged for maximum use of space, a service lift and a private lift, and a series of hinged metal ventilation panels to allow breezes from outside to enter. It was a pretty unique building back then, and it’s still unique now. Vive la Maison de Verre! Liberté, égalité, fraternité! Cherchez la femme! I have no idea what the hell I’m saying!

Right, back into the TARDIS

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18 May 1980

typed for your pleasure on 18 May 2006, at 12.00 am


Existence – well, what does it matter
I exist on the best terms I can
The past is now part of my future
The present is well out of hand
Heart and soul, one will burn

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Compupers and techmology

typed for your pleasure on 16 May 2006, at 4.48 pm

Sdtrk: ‘Torture by roses’ by Death in June

Hrm. This is the Space Cube. It’s a personal computer.


Please do not ingest PC, unless you really want to

The Space Cube is the world’s smallest personal computer. The unbelievably minuscule cube (2 x 2 x 2.2 inch case) packs 300 MHz CPU and 64 MB of SDRAM. The Space Cube offers a healthy number of ports, including USB, Ethernet, flash memory, monitor port, Space wire, serial connection, and microphone. This micro PC runs on a Linux named Atom Linux.

And they said it couldn’t be done. In a decade or so, the Space Cube is going to be seen as being enormously outsized, but in the meantime, I’m thinking: this + RealDoll = Persocom. Mmmm. Or, at the very least, an improved version of Katsuya Matsumura’s custom PC cases..

Also, there’s this — the City Car concept, from Smart Cities, one of those utopian idea factories:


Rather like bowling balls in the ball return

One of the proposed designs for dense urban areas is a stackable car for two passengers. Vehicle Stacks are located throughout the city to create an urban transportation network that takes advantage of existing infrastructure such as subway and bus lines. By placing stacks in urban spaces and key points of convergence, the vehicle allows the citizens the flexibility to combine mass transit effectively with individualized mobility.

Don’t know how well this would do in the States *coughrampanttheftandvandalismcough* *coughnotbigenoughcough*, but it’s a really fab idea nevertheless.. When I first saw that pic, I was instantly reminded of the ‘elecar’ electric cars that people living in colonies in the UC Gundam universe use to get from place to place.
So does this mean that Mobile Suits are next in line for development??

thanx to Zip Gun for the City car link

Posted in Innovation | 1 comment »


May I remind you that I’m a Scorpio?

typed for your pleasure on 14 May 2006, at 1.56 am

Sdtrk: ‘Shopping’ by The Jam



How evil are you?

The funny thing is, I honestly wasn’t even trying..
Stolen (further proof of evil) from Penda’s LJ

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*shaking fist at Internets*

typed for your pleasure on 11 May 2006, at 9.50 pm

Sdtrk: ‘Choking on air’ by The ladybug transistor

YouTube and the current trend of using Shockwave-based video is both a boon and a curse. On the one hand, when you want to display a video, you don’t have to go through as much malarkey to do so — just upload the bastard to YouTube/Google video or wherever, pop a link on your site, and Bob’s your uncle. On the other hand, a lot of sites are doing away with providing downloadable video entirely, in favour of… well, uploading the bastard to YouTube/Google video or wherever. What about those of us who’d rather download the actual .avi or .mpg or what have you? Hm?
So this is my current problem: I’ve found a video of EveR-1 on Akihabara News, but of course, it’s in that damnable Shockwave format. I’ve got the link to the homepage of KITECH, EveR-1’s manufacturers, but everything’s in Korean. Crucial note: I know zero Korean. Do you see my problem? Do you?

[03.15.18 PM] safetinspector: Which would win in a fight? EveR-1 or Actroid-chan?
[03.16.28 PM] Leahtype23: Hrrm.. I’d have to go with EveR-1.. her arms are a little stiff. She probably has a good karate chop.
Unless we’re talking tickle fight, in which case, my money’s on Actroid-chan.

Next week: thrill to me bitching about sites that have Flash video image galleries, instead of proper downloadable .jpgs. 4woods, I’m looking in your direction

Technorati tags: EveR-1, Gynoid

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Was this really worth writing down?

typed for your pleasure on 11 May 2006, at 9.32 pm

Sdtrk: ‘Ground zero: Infinity dose’ by SPK

So I dreamt the other night that my friend Mike and his dad were living over an auto repair shop, and that he was working with some Brazilian/Mexican bloke on a project for a new pseudo-Kamen rider series, with the motif based on apes. The Mexican bloke had ICQed me, but he was using Mike’s computer, so I saw this message from aneamo (Mike’s online alias) asking if I liked Noise & Power-electronics and I was like ‘huh?? Mike knows I like Noise, he’s known me for years!’ He’d first sent a message asking if this was Davecat — I guess he was actually online at the time — but I didn’t respond initially, as I was busy at the time. Then a couple of minutes later, he typed, ‘i am *name*, i am 17 years old, and i like merzbow, whitehouse, masonna, mb, etc etc..’ I suppose I sussed that he was of Latin descent, as all of his sentences began with an upside-down exclamation mark.

Later, I somehow managed to get hold of the Latino fella’s sketchbook, and I was sitting in the coffeeshop section of a Borders, looking over a couple of the coloured pencil sketches he did for their KR project. Despite the idiotic-sounding motif (apes??), the drawings were rather good.. Then this pleasant-looking Asian lass that looked about 17 or 18 came over and sat next to me. When she didn’t get my immediate attention, she pulled out a coloured pencil of her own, and began doodling in the margins of the sketchbook. ‘Heh — that’s not mine, you know,’ I told her. She stopped.

Naturally, I’ve no idea what to make of that. The Kamen rider idea was undoubtedly fueled by the fact that I’ve been watching a lot of downloaded tokusatsu shows recently, such as GARO and Kamen rider Kabuto, but the rest of it? No clue. I don’t think I’ve ever known a Spanish bloke in my entire life! I don’t think I’ve ever lived over an auto repair place my entire life! Who comes up with this stuff?? Don’t answer that.

And if you think that’s bad, a couple of nights before that, I dreamt that Captain Jack Harkness, the dashing bisexual 51st Century rogue from Doctor Who, had a pet bear cub that spoke English. I was initially impressed, like anyone else would be, but it seems that the only word this cub could speak was ‘ham’, and that’s all it would repeat. ‘Ham,’ it would say, in a voice you would expect from a winsome four year old. ‘Ham ham ham ham.’

What the fuck?

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Problem solved!?

typed for your pleasure on 9 May 2006, at 5.25 pm

Sdtrk: ‘Defenestration’ by NON

Now, if you’ll all have a glance at the lefthand sidebar, down below the ‘Previous blab’ and above the ‘This was the Future’ archive drop-down menu, you’ll note a stunning new menu. The ‘Doll / Synthetik / iDollator news’ drop-down menu allows swift and unfettered access to all* of the posts I’ve made concerning RealDolls, A.I.Dolls, Actroid-chan, etc etc. This would be another one for the ‘Why the hell did it take me so long to do this??’ file, obviously.
Truth be told, it’s a short-term solution. When I get round to making The Big Jump To WordPress, that sort of post categorisation will be a snap, but for now, I kinda wanted a quicker way to get to those sorts of posts. So my OCD tendencies are your gain! Or, ah, something


‘My, he sure does go on and on about that Actroid girl’

*’all’, meaning ‘most’. I’m sure there’s a post or two that I’ve overlooked. I’ll get round to a more intensive search eventually

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