I just saw a commercial for the French army on TV here. They are so much cooler than the US army! It’s exactly like a video game, but with a techno/hip-hop soundtrack! Plus, they don’t really fight, like, actual wars.
I think this is the commercial I saw:
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I’ve posted an interview I did with one of the Swedish hackers in Malmö a few weeks ago. I was surprised at how demanding transcription is—trying to type quickly enough to keep up with the recording, while still inserting the correct punctuation to make it readable. The word count balloons quickly, too. The formal interview part of my talk with Olle was only about 20 minutes, but it wound up being close to 2,000 words.
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I’ve been pretty busy running around Paris, so I haven’t been writing as much as maybe I should. Tomorrow I’m flying to Madrid, so I can probably write some on the plane, but I would like throw in a quick plug here for the Musée National Gustave-Moreau. A friend suggested I check this out. It’s a little museum in a relatively hard-to access (it took me like 3 metro transfers) part of town that frequently gets overlooked in favor of the enormous Louvre and Musée de l’Orsay.
Jupiter and Semele by Gustave Moreau
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I’m in Madrid right now. I’m surprised by how much I like the city. The weather is nice, and there’s a fantastic variety of outdoor cafes and bars. It’s also way less overrun by tourists than Barcelona. Yesterday, I met with some cool Spanish hackers at Hamlab.
Later, I’ll try to write more about that (and the dozen other things I haven’t really properly written up), but in the meantime, here’s a video the Hamlab guys put together of a protest they organized outside the ruling political party’s headquarters. Based on what they told me, it sounds like under current Spanish law, downloading copyrighted material is not actually illegal, only uploading. I believe Canada has a similar legal situation. Anyway, there’s a proposal to change that, and they showed up to protest against it. When the camera pans around, you can really see how large the crowd is. I was surprised how many people they got out for their protest.
Thanks/blame for the subtitles goes to the Hamlab guys, not me.
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I’ve arrived in Buenos Aires without incident. The flight was lengthy, but I was able to sleep. However, I did witness one of the most frightening sights I’ve ever seen at an airport:
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is a Microsoft logo on the side of a JET ENGINE. The jokes practically write themselves:
“Microsoft Flight: Giving new meaning to the term ‘Blue Screen of Death‘”
“The reliability of Microsoft software, now available in jet engines.”
“Well, you can take off fine, but without Genuine Advantage Validation, I’m afraid we can’t let you land.”
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