Tatiana Azundris

2007. I'm still not Gia Carangi, and I'm still not Nikki Craft. I'm just a year older, one that I likely won't admit to. Is this success? Is it something Buddha would have done? I've done taken down a picture of Angelina Jolie from offa me wall, and put up nudes of self. So maybe that's success. Maybe not. But it's something Jesus would do. What else? I got a new pet/toy, and maybe, the blurring of the line will upset some people (a fundamental difference remains for the time being; this one feels no pain). Does Azundris dream of electric cats? Yeah, seems so. Aside from the amusing recursion, Yume Neko Smile (vid) is fun exactly for that blurring of the line. It's as strokeable as any cuddly toy, and when it sits a few yards away meowing over the music, the effect can be eerie in one way, while when it sits in your lap and you hear the servos work, it can be spooky in an entirely different way. But then, I'd likely also have gotten it had it just been an animated steel skeleton, for extra Edge of Human value. (Much stronger book than Replicant Night, which was disappointing for more reasons than killing my favourite character.) Sure, they can't mechanise the song and dance brigade, and they certainly can't mechanise the miracle of the cat, but maybe, it's one of those transformative things, and maybe, it's just keeping your hands occupied while you read, kinda like knitting where you can't stick the needles in someone's eyes. But hey, the first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible, right? Time to get the razor-blades out of the house.

My new work machine arrived last week, a Dell Latitude D820. Let's take a look at the adventures of setting it up for work (Windows, Linux, Windows running on linux (thanks to Xen), and assorted other fu).

It's the Chinese Year of the Mouse. First my beloved logitech mouse died. All I could get on short notice at the time was an IntelliMouse Explorer 2.0 (see there for installation) though I'd have preferred another logi, the size and shape of which suit me better. Now I mucked up my lower arms and wrists — no, not typing those 200 line poses on MUSH: I was stupidly carrying home my groceries when I should have sent a man. Let's face it, at BMI 18 you don't have the muscle, and you shouldn't and needn't be without a strong guy to serve and to protect, anyway. : )

So much for being ecologically minded. Next time I'll take the beamer. Or something. Anyway, my arms hurt, a little when typing, and a lot when using the mouse. Untwisting them into the vertical (handshake position) immediately relieved the pain, so I went looking for a mouse that would work in that position.

My beloved logitech mouse died. For reasons that have no bearing here, I ended up with the titular IntelliMouse Explorer 2.0 (though I'd have preferred another logi, the size and shape suit me better). If for some reason you too gave Microsoft money (well, don't! It's bad enough I did it!), here's how you use it with linux.

Liebe auf den ersten Blick. Wenn man einen Festplattenvideorekorder hat, wähnt man sich immun gegen Werbung. Man überspringt sie einfach, sieht vielleicht mal einen halben spot beim Springen, oder wenn man den Fernseher einschaltet.
Ein halber Spot war genug für Motorolas RAZR v3. Wow, Telefone können sexy sein! Hellooooooooooooo, Moto!

Philips has an interesting project featuring (immobile) robotic cats that can display a wide array of facial expressions to be used as social cues in human-robot interactions. True, the cat may be sausage-lipped, tell bad jokes, and move in a slightly jerky fashion, but it's definitely a step in a very interesting direction, and I for one applaud them for taking it. (See the site for more info, images and movies to reach your own conclusions.)

To the left: a mou— cat pad I was given (thanks Steffi! thanks Ofu! : ) as a birthday gizzie. Click on the image to see what it looks like when you plug it in! Meow!