The other day, for no reason in-particular, I was thinking about Mac FTP programs. I had used Interarchy (formerly Anarchie) for years. But around version 9 Stairways sold it to Nolobe (employee buyout) and after that it started to crash. So I switched to Transmit. Anyway, I was thinking about FTP programs and wondering what had happened to Interarchy, since it hadn’t been updated in a while, when I got an email form Nolobe. They’re having a fire sale. Literally. Their offices were destroyed by fire two years ago. So that’s what happened to Interarchy…

Last week I tried to visit my local DVD store only to discover it under construction. It looked like they were building more shelves to house their vast stock. Today I discovered the purpose of the shelves. They’re a false wall. I walk into the place and discover it is now a quarter of its former size and only stocks Chinese movies. But then an assistant beckons to me as she pushes on one of the shelves. It opens to reveal the rest of the store with all the regular stock.

Here’s a game you can play along with at home: cover design for free English language listing magazines in Shanghai.

Every so often Shanghai goes through various schemes to improve how it looks. For example, we’ve had the ban on the hanging out of washing and a general disapproving eye turned on the wearing of pajamas in the street. These schemes usually take hold when they’re first introduced for a few weeks then gradually everything goes back to the way it was. Take spitting for example, during SARS there were lots of public service posters about spitting, it declined a lot. The problem is a Shanghai male cannot pass an ashtray or a urinal with out feeling the…

The Shanghai Daily is reporting that Shanghai will build three large emergency shelters. 4000 sqm each! Infrastructure investment or preparing for something? Hmmm. Presumably these will be underground. This together with the expansion of the metro system leads one to wonder what’s left underground to hold Shanghai up.

Jim Pavloff has put up a couple of videos up on YouTube that re-create two Prodigy numbers in Ableton Live. He starts from a clean slate and gradually builds up the songs from samples and loops. It’s fascinating viewing.

Two generative art examples.

Ever seen this on a menu?