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Blogs Kim Blog (English)

Hors jeu – The day we tried to kill the game

Down and out after the Euro 2008 qualifer against SwedenI used to love sports…

Boxing
– Muhamad Ali, George Forman, Kalule, Holyfield, Super Brian and even Iron Mike – one night ruined that – after sitting up all night – it was over before it started – Iron Mike had bit Holyfield.

Biking – in the 90ies Denmark finally had top-atheletes in a highly demanding sport – I woke up in 1998 – and it has never really been the same since then.

Association football – has always been my favourite sports – I remember the passion in 1984 – when Denmark finally qualified a major tournament, 1986 when the entire world admired the team that played the game so beautifully and 1992 when Denmark for the first, and most likely last, time won a major tournament.

During the entire period Denmark enjoyed a fairy-tale like status, and the fans – labelling themselves as roligans (a pun involving the Danish word “rolig” and “hooligan”, “rolig” literally means “quiet”.

All this has changed now – the only nice thing about it, is that we will now finally forget Jesper Olsen, because what happened yesterday is the most stupid singe act made on a soccer pitch by a Dane, and I’m not blaming Christian Poulsen – imagine the pressure the players are under – I’m talking about the idiot that charged the field.

The referee did the right thing, congratulations to Sweden for keeping it’s cool, and I’m feeling quite ashamed of being a Dane right now.

Until then, the “final” game had everything that I love in soccer, and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a Danish team fight like that, coming back from three goals down. We have to go back to Euro 1984 game against Belgium, that had some of the same intensity, and the similarities between yesterday’s match and the 1984 match are numerous, at one time the 1984 game was turning as hostile as it did yesterday.

Enki Bilal - Hors jeuSeeing the behaviour of the hooligans after the game, and I’m including the police here, made me feel like we’re not far from the dystopian visions of the future of the game by Enki Bilal in his excellent book Hors-Jeu. The cover show how the referees no longer are allowed on the field, for their own protection.

The winners yesterday were the hooligans, what used to be the greatest game on Earth – and the rest of us – lost.

Will the game survive? Most likely! – but something has to change.

#1 Ban the selling of alcohol on the stadium
#2 Perform a sobriety test before granting anyone access to the stadium

Until something changes, the game has lost a fan!

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'i dag' (Danish) Blogs Bookmarks Technology

Nabaztag kan nu tale dansk | Nabz!

Nabaztag ArseneLapin and a Danish flagNabaztag kan nu tale dansk | Nabz!

Det danske Nabaztag fællesskab (som jeg er med til at drive) skriver at Nabaztag nu kan “tale” dansk.

Hvis du stadig ikke ved hvad en Nabaztag er, så er det en 25 cm høj plastikkanin, der har “slugt” et wifi-kort, en højttaler, en mikrofon, en RFID læser og nogle lamper. Bland det med et online fællesskab, og du har verdens første (Nabaztag) og verdens første anden (Nabaztag/tag) wifi kanin

Læs evt. mere her.

Følgende vejledning i hvordan du kan få din Nabaztag til at tale dansk, er sakset fra Nabz.dk (gengivet med tilladelse fra “forfatteren” ;-)).

Sådan gør du:
1. Gå til my.nabaztag.com og log på
2. Vælg “Preferences”
3. Vælg fanebladet “My profile”
4. Klik “Dansk” i “I also speak”

Når du sender beskeder gennem my.nabaztag.com får du fremover muligheden for at vælge stemmen “Poul”, der er en af de mest udbredte danske talesynteser.

Jeg kan tilføje at det fungerer fint.

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Blogs Kim Blog (English)

reboot 9.0 – Day 1 got me pleasantly buzzed

Kim Bach - vi ses i...nåeh nej!reboot 9.0 – Kim Bach

Well, I had to attend reboot 9.0, but because of work, I didn’t really catch any of the (scheduled) talks/conversations/whatever, but who cares, it’s also about networking, renewing friendships etc.

What I did catch was great however, especially Human Lessons From Generative Art was really great, and the new technology that makes it possible to render in 3D, is awesome. I was a bit surprised that Marius Watz forgot to mention Mozart as a master of generative art, the myth – I believe confirmed – is that he used an algorithm to generate menuets, making it possible, still, to create original Mozart works.

I was also surprised that Marius, of Norwegian descend, hadn’t heard about the Norwegian digital artist Ann Lislegaard. Ann Lislegaard is currently (until august 7th 2007) displaying her great installation Crystal World at Statens Museum for Kunst – and it’s highly recommended.

The concept of generative art, made me imagine the next (several) level(s):
What if we could preserve the “sprit”, in the form of algorithms, of the creative geniuses for posterity.

Actually Marius also forgot to mention the “original” generative artist: Lady Ada Lovelace. I just love this quote, in reference to Babbage’s Analytical Engine:

“We may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves”.

Just beautiful, she’s my hero!

I left the venue at 30 past midnight, pleasantly buzzed, now looking forward to day 2.