2007 October

enon | none

is symmmetrical,
somehow.

October 31, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized
What do you think of this?

A possible future without Net Neutrality

It sounds pessimistic, i know – but facing reality is sometimes good to draw a better future:

The internet as we know it is about to die.

To make it short and simple: net neutrality is the fact that any information transiting on the network is equal to any other. This simple principle ensure people that no information would be considered pre-eminent by any of the internet gatekeeper. You can read a better definition of the Net Neutrality on Wikipedia

This simple principle is at risk.

There has been some warning since the early 2000’s – some said it was not relevant, some said it was… but let’s face it: big organisation want to be the gate keeper of the internet – what could possibly stop them from doing discrimination? People reaction, of course. But we can see day after day that such political action is far from reaching its own set goals.

And what if net neutrality was not going to be the decisive topic of the next us elections (there is a very few chances that this notion of neutrality grab the mind of the average american) – is there really a front here in Europe which could politically oppose such move (and understand it)?
What would be left to normal people?
More important: how would we be able to rebuild what would have been destroyed?

The only alternative I can see today has been suggested last night; there was a meeting of Node London at Gasworks and someone was speaking of the implementation of a wireless alternative to the wired internet as we know it.
No tips on by who or how this global wireless network would be run – but the suggestion just caught my attention and my imagination for the rest of the meeting and a part of the night.

Here is the picture as I imagine it – this is simply a very basic scenario and is intently thought provoking:
Wireless technology let us set-up had-hoc network for a very cheap price. More and more machines comes with descent software allowing their user to share documents on a local network – simply put: running an Apache server is a few click away on an OS X machine, for example, and most Windows are coming their IIS server.
From that point we could perfectly imagine super local network, with content you would provide to your immediate neighbours, and little by little to their neighbours, and theirs, and theirs, and theirs…
Cities could be connected just by the good will of people – actually not sharing something they are paying for, but sharing a connection to someone else. And also the content could be very handpicked in the sense that it is addressed in a more tangible manner to people they know.

Of course it sounds quite irrealistic technically at the moment, but…
How would IP addresses be assigned? Also there would be geographic gaps; it’s easy in a big urban area to imagine such a high density of nodes that it could cover a whole city and why not its suburbs – of course in rural parts it would be harder to connect the dot and make a descent grid.Nonetheless I can remember some experiments in Lausanne, Switzerland were creating network bridge over hills (up and down could be the second name of Lausanne) on quite big distance… I guess there’s not only in Lausanne that people are crossing geographical gaps with wireless network.

Let’s also consider the experience gained by P2P developer’s in the fields of had-hoc networking; if a few people could get their hands on such a project – it could be a nice alternative to the internet.

Future is bright and it finally doesn’t have to be Orange.

The concept is not new and has many echoes in the network history; lots of people have thought on this for quite a long time and Pierre kindly suggested a few links:

Wireless Mesh Network which examines more precisely the feasibility of such had-hoc network on a large scale.

Net Equality is an organisation in the US which aim is to provide ‘free internet access for low-income communities. We provide planning, deployment resources and internet mesh products worldwide and install free network hardware in qualified communities in the Pacific Northwest.’

It’s also the topic of a novel by C. Doctorow, “Someone Comes to Town, Someone leaves Town” -you can download it from: http://craphound.com/someone/download.php

October 31, 2007
Categories: medias, network, politic, project, thinking loud
Comments (2) - what do you think of this?

There’s something coming on (soon) which is printed and related to the use of database

… but I can’t say what.

Here are just a few screenshots:
the current cover – that might change slightly in the near future:

This bit is using the ‘LaPolice’ – a garalde font edited by B&P Foundry and designed by François Rappo – you can see it in deeper details on their website: B&P Foundry. I do really like it – I was planning to use a ‘standard’ Didot Italic but I can’t refrain me… design and the sense it conveys, the name, the document which served to digitalise it, the story (I’ve been assisting Francois Rappo at écal a few years ago) and the History (… well, The King of France!). I do like when there are hidden blocks of sens and alternative stories inside a design, a main story, when there’s other paths to follow. I love this small cap ‘l’ with its serif – I can’t figure out the english name of this very specific serif. As far as I can remember it was the kind of ‘trademark’ of the Imprimerie Nationale foundry, however: I might be wrong.

Here’s the description from the B&P website:

LaPolice is the first revival of an exceptional font produced in exceptional circumstances. Forget copyrights, trademarks: LaPolice is he first hacking of importance in the history of typography! It is the immediate copy of one of the largest typography innovations of the celebrated Romain du Roi created in 1705, which was used as the typeface for the court of Louis the XIV. What did the police do? Nothing.

The creator of this type, Mathieu Malherbe Des Portes, the sole hallmark punch cutter of all of Paris proper, himself had trained Phillippe Granjean, the engraver of the font Romain du Roi. His version carries all of the unique characteristics of the Romain du Roi, such as the new horizontal serifs, sometimes doubled and the secant L. LaPolice is rounder and more dynamic than its original model – it is also more modern and ‘organic’. LaPolice is named after a document named “Traité de la Police”.

François Rappo has designed the revival of LaPolice minutely basing it on the original specimens of the Claude Lamelse’s Foundry in Paris (1742). LaPolice is a contemporary font, dynamic in it’s balance, with a touch of irony in its references of historic details.

Lovely isnt’it? Well written – neat, simple.
To be honest it could cost twice its current price (50€), i wouldn’t mind. I would love to use the LaPolice italic as well, and why not: get the whole family just for the sake of having it… if only there was more than one style.

BUT! The only thing that refrain me from pressing the BUY button is their EULA (End User Licence Agreement) – I am a bit scared of paragraph which could be summed up by “No Derivative Work”. Considering the History of Typography and the typeface LaPolice being a derivative work by itself, Maxime, it’s a joke – no?

Or maybe the police won’t do anything yet again…

October 30, 2007
Categories: designing, project, typography
Comments (3) - what do you think of this?

There’s something coming on (soon) which is printed and related to the use of database

… but I can’t say what.

Here are just a few screenshots:
the current cover – that might change slightly in the near future:

This bit is using the ‘LaPolice’ – a garalde font edited by B&P Foundry and designed by François Rappo – you can see it in deeper details on their website: B&P Foundry. I do really like it – I was planning to use a ‘standard’ Didot Italic but I can’t refrain me… design and the sense it conveys, the name, the document which served to digitalise it, the story (I’ve been assisting Francois Rappo at écal a few years ago) and the History (… well, The King of France!). I do like when there are hidden blocks of sens and alternative stories inside a design, a main story, when there’s other paths to follow. I love this small cap ‘l’ with its serif – I can’t figure out the english name of this very specific serif. As far as I can remember it was the kind of ‘trademark’ of the Imprimerie Nationale foundry, however: I might be wrong.

Here’s the description from the B&P website:

LaPolice is the first revival of an exceptional font produced in exceptional circumstances. Forget copyrights, trademarks: LaPolice is he first hacking of importance in the history of typography! It is the immediate copy of one of the largest typography innovations of the celebrated Romain du Roi created in 1705, which was used as the typeface for the court of Louis the XIV. What did the police do? Nothing.

The creator of this type, Mathieu Malherbe Des Portes, the sole hallmark punch cutter of all of Paris proper, himself had trained Phillippe Granjean, the engraver of the font Romain du Roi. His version carries all of the unique characteristics of the Romain du Roi, such as the new horizontal serifs, sometimes doubled and the secant L. LaPolice is rounder and more dynamic than its original model – it is also more modern and ‘organic’. LaPolice is named after a document named “Traité de la Police”.

François Rappo has designed the revival of LaPolice minutely basing it on the original specimens of the Claude Lamelse’s Foundry in Paris (1742). LaPolice is a contemporary font, dynamic in it’s balance, with a touch of irony in its references of historic details.

Lovely isnt’it? Well written – neat, simple.
To be honest it could cost twice its current price (50€), i wouldn’t mind. I would love to use the LaPolice italic as well, and why not: get the whole family just for the sake of having it… if only there was more than one style.

BUT! The only thing that refrain me from pressing the BUY button is their EULA (End User Licence Agreement) – I am a bit scared of paragraph which could be summed up by “No Derivative Work”. Considering the History of Typography and the typeface LaPolice being a derivative work by itself, Maxime, it’s a joke – no?

Or maybe the police won’t do anything yet again…

October 30, 2007
Categories: designing, project, typography
Comments (3) - what do you think of this?

Aggregation, re-syndication & electronic presence

I have just finished a nice addition to my personnal hub:

It is actually republishing automatically content from twitter, flickr and myspace; it’s the continuation of ongoing experimentations around the notion of aggregation (read for example about what an aggregator is, on wikipedia).

October 27, 2007
Categories: newly released
What do you think of this?