De week (25/9 t/m 1/10)

Gezien

Jackie Brown (Netflix) van Quentin Tarantino met Pam Grier en Samuel L. Jackson, en Robert De Niro in een totaal ondergeschikte weirde rol.

TEDx Haarlem. Beetje meer van verwacht, het optreden van André Heuvelman was een hoogtepunt.

De Scandinavische foto’s van Pascal Vossen in het Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar samen met de tentoonstelling over de door Scandinavië beïnvloede Allart van Everdingen.

Pascal Vossen Langesund

Lezend

Bit Rot van Douglas Coupland.

Gehoord

Mahler’s 5e, naar aanleiding van een klein stukje van de hierboven genoemde André Heuvelman.

Mijn Spotify playlist draait regelmatig een rondje.

Meer weken hier (nu een nieuwsbrief).

Analoog

Regelmatig als ik een book lees, merk ik dat ik de neiging heb om een passage met mijn wijsvinger te highlighten, zoals ik op de Kindle gewend ben te doen.

In Bit Rot lees ik dat Douglas Coupland op de bovenrand van zijn papieren Financial Times probeert de tijd af te lezen als op zijn iPad.

Als ik op papier teken, zoek ik soms naar het Undo icoontje.

Ik wil een search bar in mijn papieren boek. En een automatische index, als we dan toch bezig zijn.

The Cost of Bitcoin: More Energy Than the Netherlands?

In 2019, Bitcoin’s total electricity consumption was estimated at around 100 TWh. The total annual electricity consumption in the Netherlands is roughly the same.

Calculating a ‘Proof of Work,’ the basis for the Bitcoin currency is becoming increasingly complex, requires more computing power, and thus consumes more energy.

However, proponents of Bitcoin often point out that this ‘waste’ is not necessarily bad. According to BTCWiki, the energy-intensive nature of Bitcoin mining is a necessary feature that ensures the network’s security and decentralization. The high energy costs deter malicious actors from needing enormous computational power to disrupt the system.

I am not opposed to Bitcoin; there are good arguments for an independent currency, and the arguments on BTCWiki have merit, but the fact remains that the energy consumption of Bitcoin poses a significant environmental challenge. However, the waste of energy is an unmitigated problem.

Ancient and Modern – William Eggleston

WILLIAM EGGLESTON: ANCIENT AND MODERN By Mark Holborn

A friend notified me of a reasonable offer of this book at De Slegte. Ancient and Modern is offers an overview of Eggleston’s work up to the late 1980s. The book was produced as part of a retrospective exhibition of Eggleston’s work at the Barbican Art Gallery in London. The book includes photographs from Eggleston’s travels in Kenya and South Africa/Transvaal that were completely unknown to me. I was also largely unfamiliar with Kiss Me Kracow’s work, made in Germany.

So a nice discovery. Good introductory text by Mark Holborn.

picture in Ancient and Modern by William Eggleston
picture in Ancient and Modern by William Eggleston

De ideale wereld van een gecureerd Internet

To me, the Internet’s future is dominated not by Internet giants but by niche sites, niche tools, and niche apps. All Internet applications focus on a specific area and specialize in it. These tools are based on technologies that are not tied to a proprietary platform but are open and non-proprietary technologies.

We leave behind the violence of the roar of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Optionally, we use dedicated tools like Medium or Substack to produce and distribute our content, but we pay for that with a subscription, not with our time and attention.

To make our content available without the intervention of technology platforms, we use tools like WordPress for our websites, Vimeo for video, Mailchimp for newsletters, and Overcast for our podcasts.

We solve the finding problem that Google has now solved for us. Probably, a distributed solution is best. A solution by which we map the Internet in pieces. Everyone cures their own piece of the Internet and shares the links to the interesting parts. A distributed tool similar to a torrent network provides reliable indexing and searchability. A distributed tool is inherently stable and impervious to centralizers and monopolists.

Hierbij alvast een aantal van mijn Internet favorieten die zeker een plaats in de index waard zijn.

Austin Kleon – writer and artist.

Open topo – open topgraphical maps of the Netherlands.

Open Culture – free cultural and educational media.

Brain Pickings – Maria Popova’s great site.

Mr Motley – art, nice site.

Beeple-crap – artist famous from NFT’s.

Boing Boing – The Internet according to a.o. Mark Frauenfelder (pity about the indigestible amount of ads).

booooooom – art.

Swissmiss – design blog by Tina Roth Eisenberg.

https://www.dirtyharrry.com – the most interesting photographer in the world.

Seth Godin – Seth Godin.

De Correspondent – best newspaper in the Netherlands.

Derek Sivers– Slow thinker.

kk.org – Kevin Kelly’s site(s).

cool-tools.org – Cool Tools.

elsadorfman.com – Else Dorfman’s site. Love it.

B– Blake Andrews.

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