Kitten Fluff

High-definition radio seems to be an interesting but maybe little talked about technology. Probably because everyone talks about satellite radio instead. But it essentially means excellent quality radio can be sent through the same analogue signal as radio now. Except many more channels can fit through. The killer app is “multicasting” in this way, apparently. A real potentially great broadcasting medium for podcasts.

The main market of course is car radio systems. With the amount of processing power and connectivity in cars nowadays, you can imagine the possibilities of turning your car into a studio within which you can record and upload your podcast while on the move, and receive and listen to others on the move, or through high def radio. Or something.

I can’t wait to get my hands on The Sims and SimCity legend Will Wright’s latest game, Spores. In it, you get to create your whole worlds and the species that inhabit it. Watch the subsequent carnage or creativity.

We have always wanted a robot at home. Aibo is great, but he requires a heck of a lot of attention. He also runs out of power quite quickly. Not like children. Anyway, here, according to Engadget, Toyota has promised home helper humanoid robots that can serve tea or take care of the elderly available within the next five years. Imagine the Flickr streams!

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Fat lady,
originally uploaded by The Kitten’s Toe.

A week since my last post – a record. We went to the seaside this weekend over the Bank Holiday. Weston-super-mare to be precise. Went for a walk along the beach and took the kids* down the pier to the amusements. And very amusing they were too.

Lots of sand, wind, donkeys, ice cream, fish ‘n chips, frisbee, rides, and some cats. Good time. Check out the photos here.

Back to work tomorrow. Oh how I look forward to the London Tube with people sitting on you and leaning on you, and smelling, and knocking against your knees with their Selfidges bags.

*Not our kids.

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This is NOT my cat and it’s NOT my picture…,
originally uploaded by Katie Bug.

This cracked me up this one. Me, me, me!! Hug me now!

RFID Via Engadget

Now that’s what I call social networking! Stick a RFID (radio frequency ID) tag in your trousers, stick ‘em in a charity shop and let people access the history of those trousers, stored in the tag, online. The rationale is that people who have similar tastes in clothing probably have similar tastes. Full stop. Now if you could then link that in somehow to Flickr and Google maps, you’d be sorted!

There are some quite impressive sketches on the Blograffiti Wall if you look through all the actual graffiti and the penises.

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catty lovies,
originally uploaded by cakie.

That is pure love for you.

Me. Yes I am a naughty thing. It has been 4 days since my last post. It has been a bonkers week. Mind meltdown. Busy at work. Late nights. Lack of sleep. I am even at work now – it is Saturday. But I am just about to leave.

So I shall no doubt find some kitty therapy later tonight to blog.

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! She chortled in her joy.
I just found out that the channel in the UK which carries 24 hour coverage of Big Brother, E4, is to be aired for free on the digital TV platform, Freeview. Which we have.

We have always had E4 and were in a dilemma when we moved here and only had freeview. This is Good News, since by all accounts this years contestants are a bunch of weirdos.

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Barbecue range face,
originally uploaded by chidorian.

This Lifeless Face made me feel a bit sad! He has been burnt and it looks like he may be shedding some BBQ tears. Aww.

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Everybody Yell,
originally uploaded by What What.

This is what happens when you get bored.

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The next day…,
originally uploaded by fofurasfelinas.

This is a most sophisticated feline in a pose which oozes total laidbackness. Typical.

DSC_4619,
originally uploaded by junku.

I absolutely love this photo by Junku on Flickr. It captures everything that a cat is about in such amazing detail and pure focus – in more ways than one. Simply brilliant. Click on it to appreciate it in its full Cat Glory.

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DSCN1233,
originally uploaded by GriXx.

You decide.

Google Learns How to Play Dodgeball – Yahoo! News

An example of the online and the offline becoming interconnected. Google has bought a US social networking site Dodgeball.com.

Here’s what they say:

New York-based Dodgeball.com formally launched last year as an expansion of a grad-school project started at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. The service lets users “check in” their location at a bar, club, restaurant, or other local gathering spot, then transmits that information as a text message to the mobile phones of selected other Dodgeball.com users in the area.

We are going to be so connected soon that life will become like the visions of cyberspace and earthspace combining seamlessly in some scifi I have read. I can’t wait. But it will profoundly change us and the way we think. I hope we can get our heads around it. Maybe we will have grown another one anyway by then, a la Zaphod Beeblebrox.

Microsoft, Massachusetts Shut Down Spam Ring – Yahoo! News I actually think that companies like Microsoft actively “helping the authorities” to close down large spam gang rings is a good thing. If it also means that they will help authorities more in a similar way to catch malicious virus writers – like phishers – then that would be even better. Net security firms doing that is all very well. But one could argue that those firms have a reason not to eradicate viruses altogether. It is what they are mostly about.

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Stare,
originally uploaded by 18mm.

If looks could kill.

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Washing,
originally uploaded by The Kitten’s Toe.

This is Sibsi. She is the fluffiest and prettiest cat I ever saw. She belongs to my friend’s mum. She sent me this picture and I asked if I could put it online. It has now had about 35 views in the space of about 8 hours plus 4 comments. Pulling power!

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ilestmignon,
originally uploaded by The Kitten’s Toe.

This robot head is in S/U station Warschauer Str in Berlin, says We Make Money Not Art. The building obviously looks like the head and shoulders of a giangantic robot.

Cool. The coolest bit is that people can look through a special box inside the building and their eyes are projected out of the robot! Heh.

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Summer Fairy,
originally uploaded by elfintech.

And lo and behold there is a Flickr Fairie group.

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Mushrooms,
originally uploaded by The Kitten’s Toe.

I found these in our garden the other day. They pop up every so often. Nice to have a bit of Nature around the place. Especially in London. I waited for fairies.*

*I wonder if there is a fairies group on Flickr.

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emperorbenedict,
originally uploaded by aglets.

Interesting. I thought he reminded me of someone. By the way that is not an unreligious thing to say in my mind. And if you have never watched Star Wars you won’t know what I am talking about anyway.

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cosy, warm and uh..smelly.,
originally uploaded by |_in|\|ek{ }.

Heh. Perfect for pussies.

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I swear I was just washing my hands!,
originally uploaded by Paris the Heiress.

Paris Hilton is just getting every darned where online. First her sidekick penchant*, then podcasting, now she has a Flickr account. No really.

*Actually, her sex video was her first entry online I guess. But I refuse to link to that.

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buddies,
originally uploaded by liberalmind1012.

Cats are unbelievable posers. Far more so than dogs I would argue.

These are fun. Diagramatic Dictionary. Pictures really do say 1,000 words.

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Harold + Marion Skinner,
originally uploaded by snapscot.

I was flicking through Everyone’s photos on Flickr* when I came across some nice black and white shots. I realised they are in fact old family pictures that have been scanned. But what a Great Idea.

We have tonnes of old albums, like everyone else, full of amazing photos from Life Abroad. What seems like a First Lifetime for me.

I bet loads of people still have not got around to digitising their entire back catalogue. If they have, Flickr is a great tool to share them. I know that there of course are loads of sites doing online album space etc. But the beauty of Flickr is that someone like me can stumble upon them and imagine an entire family history based on the photos.

*Everyone’s photos is a constantly changing photostream because it is essentially all the photos that have been uploaded by the community recently.

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DSC_4641,
originally uploaded by junku.

Junku’s cats are at it again with their incredible Catcrobatics. The camera action is very good too. Check out Junku’s photostream.

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Lysander the Alien,
originally uploaded by Lorraine Marie.

Proof – is any more was needed – that Cats Are Aliens. That, or maybe too much catnip in this case.