cosmix.org

Guitar Rig 4

cosmix — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:00:49 +0000

Two years after Guitar Rig 3 was released in autumn 2007, the fourth iteration of the software modelling application for guitarists was released by Native Instruments. This time around a combination of an ever increasing workload, little free time and the fact that Guitar Rig 3 was ‘good enough’ for my needs meant it took [...]

Microsoft Courier.

cosmix — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:27:39 +0000

If its anything like the demo video Microsoft’s Courier is the closest device I’ve seen to Apple’s — now classic — demonstration entitled the Knowledge Navigator. See the resemblance? From the few images and videos around, the device seems beautiful, but that’s not the point; as the Mac and then the iPhone have demonstrated, it’s all [...]

The fad stage [of blogging] is over

cosmix — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:13:13 +0000

That seems to be generally true; while the number of posts has most definitely gone down in most of the blogs I’m following, what remains is a relatively new and open medium that gives a podium to so many capable, willing and knowledgeable people. Not in a 140 character haiku, but in an unrestricted form. [...]

Nexus One. A Message to the World from Mountain View.

cosmix — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:15:03 +0000

It must have been sometime near mid-December when I first actually saw and used — albeit briefly — a Nexus One. A Googler, the owner, graciously let me use it for a bit after receiving it as part of the Google corporate gift that the device got — more a publicity stunt rather than [...]

Ceci n’est pas un trottoir

cosmix — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 14:54:18 +0000

Έάν μπορούσε κανείς να κατατάξει σε έναν κατάλογο τους λόγους για τους οποίους η Αθήνα πάσχει ως πόλη, είμαι βέβαιος πως τα πεζοδρόμια (ή μάλλον η έλλειψη αυτών), παρ’ότι φαινομενικά ελάσσων και κοσμητικός λόγος, είναι ίσως βασική έλλειψη της πόλης που συμπαρασύρει σειρά προβλημάτων, όπως το κυκλοφοριακό, η έλλειψη πρασίνου κλπ. Είναι δύσκολο σε κάποιον [...]

Mag+. The Digital Magazine

cosmix — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:28:50 +0000

Just a few weeks (?) before the rumoured availability of the Apple tablet (whatever its name is), here’s a recent demonstration of what the display, miniature electronics and battery technology may lead to in the near future in the context of magazines. If everything that we’ve heard about the impending release of the Apple tablet [...]

The Books

cosmix — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:07:48 +0000

Amazon.com Widgets One of the most impressive and original groups that I’ve listened to in the past few years, I’ve been meaning to write something more substantial about this for ages, but never got around to doing it. Difficult, but warm, exceptionally rich in sounds and meaning and at the same time simple, even [...]

Fast ID3 tagging

cosmix — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:05:03 +0000

This is solely for my friend saper who was recently telling me how much he loves it when people post snippets of code that they come up with during their everyday lives, even if they are relatively pointless in the grander scheme of things. Well, today I was listening to a few old mp3 files [...]

The real choice is liberty versus control

cosmix — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:46:29 +0000

Tyranny, whether it arises under threat of foreign physical attack or under constant domestic authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny. Liberty requires security without intrusion, security plus privacy. Widespread police surveillance is the very definition of a police state. And that’s why we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide.

The App Store is an ongoing karma leak.

cosmix — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:59:37 +0000

From Paul Graham’s excellent article on the iPhone AppStore: The dictator in the 1984 ad isn’t Microsoft, incidentally; it’s IBM. IBM seemed a lot more frightening in those days, but they were friendlier to developers than Apple is now. But the most worrying part, in my view, is that people (and especially developers) are keener on accepting [...]