Mashable recently posted an article about the game Lose/Lose where the game player shoots aliens that are each tied to an random but actual file on the user’s computer. When the alien is shot down by the user, the random, corresponding file on the computer is deleted. That file could be something inconsequential, or something very important, but the innocent action of shooting aliens in a video game will destroy it. Surprisingly, despite knowing the potential consequences, players are still willing and able to shoot the aliens even knowing that doing so will destroy their computer’s files.

Or is it surprising?

We all make these choices everyday.

From eating fish to driving cars, human choices are having a known and negative effect on the earth. We know what we’re doing, but we do it anyway. Is it ignorance or are we just ignoring our effects on the world around us?

Just as in the game, we often cannot acknowledge how our seemingly innocent daily actions can have a negative affect on the world beyond us until it is too late.

Rhizome.org and the New Museum are offering artists the opportunity to recover their art that is currently stuck on obsolete media before it is too late.  Through September 8th, they’re offering transfers from archaic storage such as floppy disks to a more stable format with the option to transfer them to the Internet Archive as well.

The art world has always had to deal with the issue of preservation but the severity of the issue is intensified by magnitudes for the born-digital materials.  This is not just true for art, but for other documents that made hold historical value.  In a world where it is so easy to Select All and Delete, how do we ensure that our history will be preserved?  Is it up to the digital archeologists of the future to comb through caches and log files to piece together the remnants of history forgotten?  I’ve had several desktop computers die on me and their carcasses sit dormant in the basement.  I simply re-installed the software on my new computers but the images, papers, and other memorabilia lie lost on those hard drives.  The exact makeup has long been forgotten so who knows when and if I’ll ever get around to recovered what was on those old drives.

In the age of the smartphone snapshot, how much digital history is banished before it can be preserved?  We snap away in our smartphone cameras and pick and choose what gets posted to our social media circles.  How many interesting beautiful cast-aways never see the light of a computer screen?  How many memories are forgotten when we upgrade our phone?  Physical prints are rarely created by the average person anymore, so how much family history will be lost in private Flickr accounts or locked down Facebook albums when someone passes away?  Is the age of stumbling across your grandparent’s old family album fading away?

This has nothing to do with art, digital or otherwise, but does involve the internet. 🙂

I recently purchased a 2006 pink Genuine Buddy Scooter. This color combination is no longer being made and I wanted to ensure that I got a color matched topcase. Luckily, I was able to find one at Scooter West.

Unbeknownst to me, but beknownst to others, these things DO NOT come with instructions. I was able to find a forum-based general walkthrough at Modern Buddy but figured that picture-based instructions may help someone, somewhere. These instructions may very well be incorrect, but hey, I used up all the provided components and the top case seems attached well enough.  NOTE:  You must already have a rear rack installed on your buddy.

Components

Your top case kit should’ve contained
1 top case
1 large, black plate
2 long brass brackets
4 long bolts
4 short bolts
4 nuts
4 flat washers
4 dished washers
2 keys
a foamy insert liner thingy (not pictured)

If you’re missing any of these…um..good luck.

Additional Tools

A 10mm socket wrench.

Instructions

Step 1. Install the large, black plate to your rear rack using the two long brass brackets, the 4 long bolts, flat washers and nuts.  The wider end of the black plate should face the front of the scooter and laid down on the rear rack so that the lipped edges face down onto the rear rack.   The bolts should be inserted from the top of the black plate, through a washer, through the rear rack, brass brackets and nut, in that order.  The rear brackets should be positioned so the bolts are on the outside of the center bar on the rear rack and so the black plate is flush with the back bar of the rear rack.  Tighten the bolts so that there is no wiggle room – everything should be solid.

Step 2. Attach the top case through the black plate with the 4 short bolts and 4 dished washers.  My topcase fit the best use the the 4 rear-most holes in each of the four pairs of holes on either side of black plate.

Step 3. Insert the foamy insert liner thingy into the top case and optionally lock the case and take a picture.

Here’s a picture of Arcee with her rear rack, top case, windshield, extended mirrors and side crash bars.

Hello and welcome to Dedd Pixel.

What’s a Dedd Pixel?

Well, a Dedd Pixel is a blatant misspelling of Dead Pixel, which is a term used to describe a defective LCD monitor pixel that remains unlit. It is also the name a fictional band that my friends and I had in college. In a programming class, we were AlScSh and the drum machine, then became Flux in our Electromagnetics class, before transforming into Dead Pixel for reasons unknown. We finally settled on Dedd Pixel after realizing that truly edgy bands misspell things. Since the band is fictional in the first place, I’m using it as the name of my artBlog.

What is the intent of Dedd Pixel?

Although I rarely have time to create art, I still love to learn about art. So while I don’t necessarily create a lot of art, I do read about it and bookmark/link to it. This blog is intended for me to share some of the neat art-related websites and news that I find. I may stray at times and talk about politics,  food, or my cats, but the main focus will be on art that relies on the internet, gaming and technology.  I can’t guarantee how often I update; I’m aiming for at least one post a week but am finding that nothing promotes procrastination more than a schedule.

Who are you?

I’m a web developer. I graduated from CU Boulder in 2004 with a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a BA in studio art. I have several avatars; this is one of them.