The Latest from Boing Boing

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• AES explained by stick figures
• Vietnamese junkbot builder
• R2D2 with 8 game-consoles in him
• ASCIIpOrtal: 2D ASCIImation game based on Portal
• Cities as battlesuits for surviving the future
• Suggest links with Twitter!
• 1882 deep-sea diving suit
• Gallery of old timey seed catalogs
• Two girls, one uke
• Subway yearbook photos from Improv Everywhere
• What if James Dean had lived?
• Tonight: HEEB Storytelling in Toronto
• Boing Boing Video: SYNESTHESIA, a film by Jonathan Fowler.
• Recently on Offworld: Elite turns 25, Left 4 Teletubbies, Indies Invade Austin
• PRX: huge, searchable library of public radio goodness
• The Boing Boing / Insane Clown Posse / Juggalo Singularity
• American health care UI: snapshot
• 500 Pound Planet: Chapter One
• France adopts law that lets entertainment goons take your family off the net if one member is accused (without evidence) of violating copyright
• Speaking in Canada (PEI, Waterloo, Ottawa) next week
• Bronx Princess Premieres Tonight on PBS
• China's homicidal net-addict bootcamps.
• Arse Electronika sex/tech conference, San Francisco Oct 1-4

AES explained by stick figures Posted: 23 Sep 2009 03:05 AM PDT If you've always wondered how AES -- the Advanced Encryption Standard, the gold-standard for crypto -- works, and if you enjoy explanations in stick-figure cartoon form, you are in luck, for Moserware's "A Stick Figure Guide to the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)" is funny, lucid and fascinating. Moserware: A Stick Figure Guide to the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) (via Links)

Vietnamese junkbot builder Posted: 23 Sep 2009 02:25 AM PDT 17 year old Phan Van Mam 19 year old Vu Van Thang is a prizewinning Vietnamese roboticist who builds beautiful working junkbots from household trash: - Vu Van Thang, 19, from Thai Binh province has won one of the five top prizes at the National Creativeness Competition for Children and Youth 2009 for his robot made entirely from items found in the trash. Recycled robot wins top honor (Thanks, Samiksha!)

R2D2 with 8 game-consoles in him Posted: 22 Sep 2009 10:13 PM PDT I know nothing about this R2D2 cooler-mod, except that it seems to consist of 8 retro game consoles shoehorned in glorious higgeldy-piggeldy into R2, with a projector. Incredible R2D2 Hack has 8 Consoles + Projector (Thanks, Dan!)

ASCIIpOrtal: 2D ASCIImation game based on Portal Posted: 22 Sep 2009 10:11 PM PDT Gabe sez, "ASCIIpOrtal uses portals (in the style of Valve software's game) in a 2D ASCII-character setting. An early video was featured on BB a few months ago. And now, it's been released. I've done a big 2 part interview with the creator, where he discusses bug-finding, "trumpet voiced" sarcastic computers, and the possibility of a user-voted system for finding cool homemade maps." What was the most difficult thing to get right? I've never made a game like this, so every step had its own challenges. I spent so long thinking about things before I even wrote 1 line of code.. that the "getting it right" was done before I started. I think the hardest part, was making a whole framework... so I could add a new thing to the game without having to rewrite everything. I had to rewrite the main movement algorithms twice and I still don't think I have it's right. ASCIIpOrtal Here it is: ASCIIpOrtal Launch-day interview - part 1

Cities as battlesuits for surviving the future Posted: 22 Sep 2009 10:04 PM PDT Matt Jones, creator of many useful ideas including warchalking, has a wonderfully titled and fascinating essay up on IO9: "The City Is A Battlesuit For Surviving The Future," that examines the futures of cities that respond in realtime to their inhabitants. Which leads me back to science-fiction. Warren Ellis created a character called Jack Hawksmoor in his superhero comic series The Authority. The surname is a nice nod toward psychogeography and city-fans: Hawksmoor was an architect and progeny of Sir Christopher Wren, fictionalised into a murderous semi-mystical figure who shaped the city into a giant magical apparatus by Peter Ackroyd in an eponymous novel. Ellis' Hawksmoor, however, was abducted multiple times, seemingly by aliens, and surgically adapted to be ultimately suited to live in cities - they speak to him and he gains nourishment from them. If you'll excuse the spoiler, the zenith of Hawksmoor's adventures with cities come when he finds the purpose behind the modifications - he was not altered by aliens but by future humans in order to defend the early 21st century against a time-travelling 73rd century Cleveland gone berserk. Hawksmoor defeats the giant, monstrous sentient city by wrapping himself in Tokyo to form a massive concrete battlesuit. The City Is A Battlesuit For Surviving The Future

Suggest links with Twitter! Posted: 22 Sep 2009 06:07 PM PDT Do you use Twitter? Now you can use it to suggest links! All you need to do is follow BBSuggest and start tweeting @ it. For example, if you're an amateur astronomer and spot a report concerning Earth's impending destruction at the hands of a planet-destroying robot the size of the moon, tweet "Unicorn chaser! [link here] @bbsuggest" -- easy! Your contributions will head into our bloggin' brains -- and then into the collective superconscioussness of the Boing Boing trend tracker, an info-dense visualization of the topics and trends hit up by BB readers. Many thanks to Palm, which is sponsoring the tracker, as you'll doubtless notice when you visit it.

1882 deep-sea diving suit Posted: 22 Sep 2009 04:34 PM PDT Calling Cory Doctorow! Calling Cory Doctorow! Mister Doctorow, please proceed to a brass courtesy bathysphere. 19th Century Deep-Sea Diving Suit

Gallery of old timey seed catalogs Posted: 22 Sep 2009 04:09 PM PDT The Smithsonian Institution has an online collection of seed catalog art. If King Corn ever runs for president, I'll vote for him, because his crown is cool. (Via City Farmer)

Two girls, one uke Posted: 22 Sep 2009 03:35 PM PDT Two girls, one uke: Jonathan Coulton's fantasy realized. (Thanks, Michael!) Previously: Ukulele version of "Walk, Don't Run" - Boing Boing Sarahsukulele plays "Object of the Game" on ukulele - Boing Boing Sophie Madeleine plays "The Beard Song" on ukulele - Boing Boing Sophie Madeleine's "Love. Life. Ukulele." album - Boing Boing Ukuleleaya plays "Crazy G" on customized cake ukulele - Boing Boing Hawaii82 plays "In Your Hawaiian Way" on ukulele - Boing Boing Optional Accessory ukulele video By Zoe - Boing Boing Charley sings a song and plays her ukulele. - Boing Boing Dream a Little Dream of Me on ukulele - Boing Boing Ukulele covers of Jonathan Coulton's "Still Alive" from Portal ... Ukulele Blitzkrieg Bop - Boing Boing Karinne Keithley plays "Sweet Child of Mine" on ukulele - Boing Boing Tickler brand ukulele T-shirt - Boing Boing Julia Nunes: "God Only Knows" on the Uke - Boing Boing Ukulele Headstock Art by Amy Crehore - Boing Boing BBtv: Clara Belle performs "Summer Face" on Ukulele - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Ukulele Girl print

Subway yearbook photos from Improv Everywhere Posted: 22 Sep 2009 03:16 PM PDT The Subway Yearbook project is the latest bit of fun from the joy-sharing pranksters at Improv Everywhere: [W]e installed a photography studio on a random subway car. We claimed that the MTA had hired us to take photos of every single person who rides the subway and that we'd be producing a yearbook at the end of the year. Most people were happy to pose for us, and the resulting photos show just how diverse New York subway riders can be. Previously: Improv Everywhere: No Pants! Subway Ride - Boing Boing Improv Everywhere: mass twins on subway - Boing Boing Food Court Musical, by Improv Everywhere - Boing Boing CW-11 news claims clip of them airing YouTube prank infringes ... Best Buy threatens blogger over someone else's parody - Boing Boing

What if James Dean had lived? Posted: 22 Sep 2009 02:57 PM PDT Richard Metzger at Dangerous Minds writes: "This South African commercial from Allan Gray Investment, with creative by the King James agency, is really a showstopper. What if James Dean had lived?

Tonight: HEEB Storytelling in Toronto Posted: 22 Sep 2009 11:35 AM PDT Jesse Brown, a BoingBoing guest blogger, is the host of TVO's Search Engine podcast. I'm on the bill tonight (along with wino Kathryn Borel Jr. and others) at HEEB Magazine's Toronto installment of their popular Storytelling event. It's at the Drake- come check it out! Details here (link).

Boing Boing Video: SYNESTHESIA, a film by Jonathan Fowler. Posted: 22 Sep 2009 11:11 AM PDT (Flash video above. Alternate viewing options: Download MP4 or watch on YouTube) Boing Boing Video presents a remix of "Synesthesia," a documentary directed by Jonathan Fowler, about people whose senses blend, or mix. For instance: a synesthete might see colors when listening to music, or taste flavors when hearing a spoken word. Synesthesia was once thought of as a disease or disorder, but many who experience this alternate form of perception think of their anomaly as an advantage -- or, for them, simply what is normal. In this piece, Dr. David Eagleman of the Baylor College of Medicine explains this condition, and four synesthetes explain how they perceive the world. The full-length version of this film was produced with support from The Research Channel, and is available for viewing on their website. CREDITS: Directed & Produced by Jonathan Fowler. Cinematography by Rex Jones & Jonathan Fowler. Music by Moby & Olis. SPEAKERS: * David Eagleman, Ph.D., neuroscientist, Baylor College of Medicine * Marilynn Masten, synesthete * Julia Cochran, synesthete * Tiffany Gill, synesthete * Sean Day, synesthete Previously on Boing Boing: Digital Synesthesia: programming your senses Hearing-motion synesthesia These words taste blue: Synesthesia in SciAm Boing Boing: Technological synaesthesia

Recently on Offworld: Elite turns 25, Left 4 Teletubbies, Indies Invade Austin Posted: 22 Sep 2009 10:52 AM PDT With the launch of Retro Remakes on Offworld, we started a straw poll to ask: what's the one remake you'd most like to see appear on consoles or handhelds, with the results to be tabulated and published at the end of the week. We also read the latest official response on the disappearance of an Xbox Live Arcade version of N64 classic Goldeneye 007, and celebrated the 25th anniversary of UK space-exploration legend Elite (above) with developer Frontier. Elsewhere we put together a high-res gallery documenting Indies Invading Austin -- the two days of the inaugural Indie Games Summit at GDC Austin -- and began rounding up the reasons why you should be attending LA's Oct. 1-4 Indiecade conference/exhibition, with appearances by Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi, former MIT games head Henry Jenkins, and flOw/Flower creator Jenova Chen. Finally, we saw the horrific visage of the Teletubbies invading Left 4 Dead, watched an epic fan-made video of game characters invading Earth, Cloverfield-style, and our 'one shot's: Spacesick's awesomely designed Game Buddy, and the cranio-facial reconstruction of what your head looks like after too much Tetris.

PRX: huge, searchable library of public radio goodness Posted: 22 Sep 2009 10:34 AM PDT Jesse Brown, a BoingBoing guest blogger, is the host of TVO's Search Engine podcast. PRX, the Public Radio Exchange, is an online marketplace connecting radio producers with radio programmers. But it's also a massive library of searchable content- some of it very good- that you can get lost in for hours. You'll need an account to listen, but sign-up is free. Go nuts! (link)

The Boing Boing / Insane Clown Posse / Juggalo Singularity Posted: 22 Sep 2009 10:08 AM PDT John Mathot says, "Insane Clown Posse has a track on their new album called, 'Boing Boing.' It is not a reference to the site, but a brag rap track about copulation, done in their inimitably foul style. Here's a listen (NSFW)." MP3: Boing Boing, by Insane Clown Posse (Amazon). Previously: 2009 Gathering Of The Juggalos Infomercial @BBVBOX: Gathering of the Juggalos Survival Guide Dark Carnival of the Soul: Gathering of the Juggalos 2009

American health care UI: snapshot Posted: 22 Sep 2009 09:47 AM PDT BB reader Taylor says, Some friends of mine who were working at a call center at the Minnesota Dept. of Human Services told me they were working on a "throwback" system that hasn't really been overhauled for a few years. Here's how "throwback" it looks. But you know what? I bet it works perfectly.

500 Pound Planet: Chapter One Posted: 22 Sep 2009 09:33 AM PDT Jesse Brown, a BoingBoing guest bloggger, is the host of TVO's Search Engine podcast. Yesterday I posted the prelude to 500 Pound Planet, the cartoon I spent a few years making with my buddy Josh Dolgin when I was younger. Here's chapter one, wherein we meet our "heroes", Spencer and Blue, voiced by me and Josh. Josh and I were your typical college film geeks at the time; we had just been exposed to Italian Neo-Realist cinema, Film Noir, Cassavetes- all that stuff. But we were also comic book/animation geeks. We were curious about how much of these styles and techniques could be applied to animation. We came up with rigid "naturalist" rules for 500 Pound Planet: all music had to come from actual sources in the scene. Characters would talk like normal people talk- stepping over each other, mumbling... The camera would be a fly on the wall, intruding as little as possible. We played with Orson Welles' "deep focus" technique. In our minds we were visionaries, auteurs, pioneers! In reality, we were pretentious nerds. Previously: 500 Pound Planet: prelude (link).

France adopts law that lets entertainment goons take your family off the net if one member is accused (without evidence) of violating copyright Posted: 22 Sep 2009 09:06 AM PDT Jérémie Zimmermann from the French digital liberties org La Quadrature du Net sez, The French Parliament has adopted HADOPI 2, a law aimed at establishing a so-called "three-strikes" policy in order to fight file-sharing. The Constitutional Council made groundbreaking decision on June 10th 2009 that recognized access to the Internet as essential to the full exercise of free speech, and invalidated the sanctioning power of HADOPI 1. The law HADOPI 2, despite the internet cutoff now being handled in an expedient form of judicial justice, it is as flawed and dangerous as its predecessor, for it was only designed to circumvent the Constitutional Council's decision. The war on sharing continues its way as HADOPI 2 will go through the constitutional test again. *** After an expedient democratic debate, in which valid alternatives to the war on sharing and possible futures for the cultural economy were systematically ignored by the bill's proponents, the "three strikes" policy might become law. It has already been a long process, after the Members of the European Parliament expressed on three occasions their strong criticisms of the French government's plan. After a first rejection of the law and a second vote in France, the Constitutional Council eventually followed the European Parliament in stating that Internet has become a vital component of the freedom of expression and communication, thus invalidating punitive provisions of the HADOPI 1 law. Yet, this new law is still as dangerous and flawed as the previous one. First of all, HADOPI 2 fails to guarantee the right to a due process. Instead of giving sanction powers to an executive agency, as HADOPI 1 did, it makes possible to judge copyright infringements and order Internet cutoff through a "simplified judicial procedure". This procedure does not include any contradictory debate or public hearing, and all kind of prior judicial investigation will be left out. Moreover, the Internet cutoff can be ordered as a complement for a standard fine for "negligence" in securing one's Internet access. Second, alleged infringers would still be convicted on the sole basis of IP addresses that cannot be considered as valid evidence, and which are collected by private actors. And since one has no material way of opposing the validity of these "evidences", this new version of the graduated response still clearly violates the presumption of innocence. It is now up to the Constitutional Council to examine the law, and draw the necessary conclusions. Yet another adoption of liberty killer "three strikes" law in France. (Thanks, Jérémie!) Previously: French hackers unveil the HADOPI router: cracks nearby WiFi and ... France's three-strikes copyright rule is unconstitutional and ... French "three-strikes" copyright law passes -- but may be dead ... French film-makers and science fiction writers protest new anti ... UK govt proposes idiotic two-strikes-and-you're-out Internet ... French government nukes crazy Internet law in open revolt against ... For sale: One French Internet, slightly sarkoed - Boing Boing Entertainment industry's greedy lobbying is their undoing - Boing ...

Speaking in Canada (PEI, Waterloo, Ottawa) next week Posted: 22 Sep 2009 08:55 AM PDT I'm headed to Canada for some speaking gigs in the coming week, in PEI, Ottawa, and Waterloo: Waterloo: Sat, Sept 26, 2:30-4PM, University of Waterloo, Arts Lecture Hall. Free, open to the public. Sponsored by the Independent Studies Programme, where I'm a Scholar in Virtual Residence. Ottawa: Mon, Sept 28, 7PM, Ottawa Writer's Festival, Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts and Humanities, 314 Saint Patrick Street (at the corner of Cumberland). $15/$10 Student or Senior (Free for Festival Members and Carleton Students) Charlottetown, PEI: Tues, 30 Sept, Hackfest, $30 for conference registration. Charlottetown, PEI: Wed, 1 Oct, 8:30-9:30AM, Access 2009, "Copyright vs Universal Access to All Human Knowledge and Groups Without Cost: The State of Play in the Global Copyfight" I love coming home to Canada, and it's a delight to be getting out of the usual Toronto/Montreal/Vancouver rut. I'm looking forward to seeing you!

Bronx Princess Premieres Tonight on PBS Posted: 22 Sep 2009 09:04 AM PDT Bassam Tariq resides in New York City. He is the co-author of the blog 30 Mosques which celebrated the NYC mosques during the blessed Islamic month of Ramadan. Bronx Princess follows a young girl from the Bronx, Rocky Otoo, as she leaves her mother to reunite with her chief father in Ghana. I saw the documentary last December at a small viewing and loved it! Musa Syeed and Yoni Brook, the co-directors of the film, have crafted a powerful and intimate story a young girl transitioning from high school to college all with the pressures of an immigrant family. The generational gap issues raised in this film are ones that many immigrant kids, like myself, can relate to. There is a trailer on their site, but it doesn't give justice to how good the movie really is. It's hot off the international film festival circuits and is having its nationwide premiere tonight on PBS at 10PM EST. Please catch it if you can.

China's homicidal net-addict bootcamps. Posted: 22 Sep 2009 07:53 AM PDT Jesse Brown, a BoingBoing guest blogger, is the host of TVO's Search Engine podcast This week on my podcast, Beijing journalist Jennifer Pak delivers a chilling report on China's Internet addiction "rehab" centers, where one youth was recently beaten to death. I also look at last week's 9/11 hoax in Germany and compare it to a media/web hoax I pulled 11 years ago, in which I convinced the local news that I had 6-month old babies around the world surfing the web. The question: is the press actually dumber about the Internet today then than it was back then? MP3 link Subscribe to Search Engine: via XML (link) on iTunes (link)

Arse Electronika sex/tech conference, San Francisco Oct 1-4 Posted: 22 Sep 2009 05:25 AM PDT Johannes writes in with the news of this year's sex/tech Arse Electronika conference in San Francisco: We may not forget that mankind is a sexual and tool-using species. And that's why our annual conference Arse Elektronika deals with sex, technology and the future. As bio-hacking, sexually enhanced bodies, genetic utopias and plethora of gender have long been the focus of literature, science fiction and, increasingly, pornography, this year will see us explore the possibilities that fictional and authentic bodies have to offer. Our world is already way more bizarre than our ancestors could have ever imagined. But it may not be bizarre enough. "Bizarre enough for what?" -- you might ask. Bizarre enough to subvert the heterosexist matrix that is underlying our world and that we should hack and overcome for some quite pressing reasons within the next century. Don't you think, replicants? Arse Elektronika 2009 (Thanks, Johannes!)

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