Here’s VectorTown, a site I’m keeping under close watch for now, since it may become an interesting venture:

Vectortown.com is aiming to be a global community of serious illustrators, designers and artists who have a desire to showcase their vector artwork. Our goal is to promote the artists within community and to further the exposure of this exciting and vibrant art form. Our mission:

In the past years, my own work has turned more and more toward the vector style, and thus I’m always on the look-out for such places and websites. This one probably still looks a little empty for the moment; however, for the interested ones, you can read there an interview of Cristiano Siqueira, which art is pretty much representative of the good kind of work that is found in the vector world.

This will be of interest only to people who can understand spoken French, but I decided to post it anyway. Fortunately for me, I stumbled by chance this morning on a recent entry on Pointblog.com, titled “Questions autour de la Blog-mania sur France Inter”) and pointing to the page of Radio France Inter’s broadcast Le téléphone sonne. On Thursday, July 29th, said broadcast was focused on blogs, and even though I had missed it at the time, it is still possible currently to listen to it on France Inter website.

From what I’ve listened to so far, the confirmed blogger probably won’t find there any exclusive information; however, for anyone who appreciates having access to varied points of view, even if this implies going back to the bsis of the phenomenon at times, this broadcast will probably turn out to be an interesting one (it notably raises questions on the importance of comments, or the way marketing talk is perceived here).

True or not? She sure looks like it. Seen on the BBC News online page, this article mentions how Japanese develop ‘female’ android:

Japanese scientists have unveiled the most human-looking robot yet devised – a “female” android called Repliee Q1.

She has flexible silicone for skin rather than hard plastic, and a number of sensors and motors to allow her to turn and react in a human-like manner.

She can flutter her eyelids and move her hands like a human. She even appears to breathe.

Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University says one day robots could fool us into believing they are human.

Putting aside all the considerations that can be had regarding how technology in that domain has progressed, going from barely able to stand pieces of metal to an almost human-looking one, I can’t prevent myself from thinking furiously to Philip K. Dick and to his Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. There are implications and ramifications here, that could ge way beyond what one would expect. Real androids, that could one day pass for humans and fool even the most observant minds… perhaps even starting by their own. Fascinating and yet frightening thought, too, for us who are so bent on our identity.

For the moment, though, perhaps it’s best to simply take it as what it’s meant to be — technical progress in action?

Today, I changed my “Current Read” in the sidebar, to reflect what I’ve indeed been reading since yesterday evening. This made me realize that in the past few weeks, I’ve read quite often about blogs, blogging, how it all started and evolved… Let’s check: I first started with Rebecca Blood’s The Weblog Handbook, back in June (Rebecca writes theblog What’s in Rebecca’s Pocket). Almost immediately after having finished it, I jumped on Biz Stone’s Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content; I had never read Biz’ blog before that, but it didn’t matter. Now, I’m onto his second book. Among my regular reads, I follow several blogs “about blogging”, in order to keep in touch with what happens in this little world, and because I find these interesting (as long as they’re not the only thing I read). Am I obsessed?

I came to the conclusion that it may, all that simply, be my usual tendency to want to go deeper, to the roots of a phenomenon. Yes, blogging has skyrocketed in the past two or three years, compared to what it was in the beginning. Yes, I am myself quite a “newcomer” to this scene, given that I haven’t really blogged before 2004 (except for some “online diary” on AMV.org that doesn’t present much interest for anyone else than myself). Yes, this may explain why I like knowing more, because it teaches me interesting things, how to behave, what not to do, and what gave birth to all of this. In all of this, there’s a real social analysis; bloggers are, after all, social creatures, in a way (how can one write that much if they never communicate with others — and why would they blog in first place?)

Obsession? Perhaps. However, I’m learning a lot regarding internet behaviors, and this remains pretty interesting no matter what. I’ll die a little less stupid, I guess.

In a few words, here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the matter:

“Blog client (weblog client) is software to manage (post, edit) blogs from operating system with no need to launch a web browser. A typical blog client has an editor, a spell-checker and a few more options that simplify content creation and editing.”

Truth be told, my first introduction to such tools was done through the excellent Semagic for LiveJournal. Semagic just has one huge flaw: it’s meant to update your a LiveJournal blog, and no other, which was leaving me somewhat in the cold regarding all my nice WordPress-powered blogs (and others, in case I’d like to try different ones). This is the reason why I went looking for a a blog client, and evidently a good one.

What would be the interest for these, might one ask? Depending on the people, the answer will range from “none” to “plenty”. All blog systems available out there come with a posting interface that will basically let you write and save your entries before publishing, thus seemingly making such editors a moot point. The thing is, it’s really about comfort, and this can be quite important in the process of writing (after all, I blog for my own pleasure, not to see it turn into a chore with a depressing interface on top of it).