After almost 2 whole years I figured it was time Quoperative got a facelift.  Technically I figured it was about time for a facelift a year ago and I spent what seemed like months (most likely because it was months) trying to get the blog posts on the home page to lay out like perfectly-formatted newspaper columns.  After fucking around and trying to get it to work about a hundred different ways I gave up and set my sights a bit lower.  The way I see it, why shoot for the stars when you don’t have to?  That’s become my new mantra.

So just so you know… the homepage (cleverly labeled ‘fresh’ in the menu) now includes my blog posts, flickr photos, artwork and tweets — all intertwined chronologically into a continuous river of Steve… wow!

I also updated my work and posted a couple of paintings I did in the summer (photographed horribly by yours truly).

Hi stevepalmer,

Your free trial to Last.fm Radio is about to end. If you’re enjoying it, why not subscribe for only $3.00/month and continue listening to non-stop personalised radio.

http://www.last.fm/subscribe

I guess last.fm figured out a revenue model for their awesome and (until very recently) free service.  I guess it’s worth $3/mo but geez… this is the first I’ve heard of a trial or that it would not be free someday.  Thanks for the heads up guys.

Rupert Murdoch, eat your heart out!

Ok, so Chris doesn’t NEEEEEED an iPhone but he really dropped the ball on his latest smartphone purchase, opting for the poster child for why it’s important to test products before releasing them: the Blackberry Storm.  Yes, and it’s been downhill ever since he got it.  And yes, he really regrets buying the iPhone “wannabe” instead of an actual iPhone.

So I took pity on the guy and we hatched a micro-site to help him raise the money to a) get out of his current contract with Bell and b) purchase a new iPhone.  Sounds suspicious, you think to yourself.  Why give some wanker money for buying a shit phone?  Good point.

Here’s the deal: you give Chris a little money towards getting the iPhone and he’ll give you something in return — he’ll smash the hell out of his Storm in whatever ridiculous way his supporters (i.e. you) suggest and videotape for all of the interweb to enjoy. I think it’s worth a small contribution.

Check out this screencast posted last week to see Stephen Wolfram take Wolfram Alpha for a little test drive and show off what it can do.

Ok, fine… it probably won’t *kill* Google, but considering that people are turning to Google more and more to look up dinky facts and definitions because it’s such a damn good search engine, Wolfram Alpha stands a good chance of biting a serious chunk out of Google’s mind share when it comes to settling useless trivia disputes.

This is such a totally fresh and radical approach to using the internet — I can’t imagine this not having a massive impact on the everyday user in the next 3-5 years.

Yes, these are business cards made with two things: meat and lasers! What a fucking brilliant idea.

“Hey man, great to chat with you today. Let’s keep in touch.”

“Oh, your business card is made of meat? That’s odd.”

“Not really.  Grab my contact info and then enjoy the snack.”

“Is it safe to eat the ink?”

“It’s not ink, my friend.  It’s seared into the meat with lasers.”

“I know I only met you 15 seconds ago but I’m going to offer you our CEO position right now.”

I went to Toronto for FITC… and we won an award! Also got a super cool gift from Relish for the whole famn damily. Gosh you guys are clever.

I became an uncle. I just missed meeting Dylan Matthew (no Facebook profile to link to yet) by an hour and change. He was literally born as I my plane was taxiing on the runway to head back to Vancouver. To be honest, I’m kind of mad that my sister couldn’t push him out sooner but I’m sure I’ll forgive her in time.

Mish and I went to see night #2 of the Weakerthans and Constantines 2-night stand of the Rolling Tundra Revue at the Commodore. That was a seriously good show. It’s probably been 5 years since I’ve seen the Cons play (I’m pretty sure it was with the now-defunct Royal City at Babylon) and they quickly reminded me that they are a smoking live band. Huge sound and tight as hell. Even though I think I’m an album or two behind I forgot how many of their songs I knew.

Monday night we went to the Showbox in Seattle to see the Shins. I find those drive-there-and-back-the-same-night shows always sound like a good idea on paper when you buy the tickets but not so much when you’re jet-lagged and have to hit the road at the end of a long work day. All that aside, the show was great and it was super sweet to see the band in a cozy venue like that. It was all ages and Mish and I ended up standing next to David Bazan (who is – or was – Pedro the Lion) and his little daughter… who was dancing up a storm. The set finished at midnight, which was decent, but the drive back was especially painful. Since I was tasked with driving I loaded up on a concoction of sugar and energy drinks designed to keep me awake for the required 2 hours. I think my sugar buzz was just trailing off as we entered Vancouver but I managed to hold it together and not launch the car off the road into a ditch. Lesson learned… stay in a hotel room next time, cheap ass!

Last night we went to see a screening of the documentary film Objectified at the Rio, which is a great old (recently restored) theatre in town. The director/producer Gary Hustwit was there and answered questions afterwards. Pretty good film all in all… it’s a nice overview of the massively huge topic of “design” and how it fits into our everyday lives. Obviously he featured designers from great brands like Braun and Apple but there’s a notable absence of any kind of analysis into the IKEA phenomenon — “high” design at low prices that basically falls apart if you ever have to move it. Mish was going to ask him why he basically glossed over IKEA but was way too chicken to put her hand up and ask it in front of everybody. Fortunately somebody else asked a simliar question and his response was basically that IKEA is a bit of a touchy topic in design circles and he didn’t want to take sides. Fair enough. Here’s the trailer… enjoy.

Looks like the verdict has finally come in and it’s bad news for the Pirate Bay — guilty.  While this is definitely a landmark case in the realm of piracy, torrents and the distribution of copyrighted materials, it’s expected that the defendents will appeal the decision and that it could be years until the final decision is made.

It’s interesting to note that the guys behind Pirate Bay were convicted on “intent” rather than on the technical workings of the site.  I’m no lawyer, but I think that’s always been the legal safety net for the webmasters in these situations — dubbed the “King Kong defense”. Since they’re not actually storing the copyrighted materials on their servers or initiating the transfers they aren’t committing any crime. The users are. According to them, at least.

If this verdict sticks then maybe we’ll see Canadian and American courts taking notice. I’m sure they’d just love to put the screws to those pirates.