Archives for August 2003
On the book of the Baghdad Blogger... (August 31, 2003) I have managed to get my hands on an advance copy of Salam Pax, The Baghdad Blog, which is coming out in paperback on September 5th. During the war, I have to confess that I found Dear Raed essentially unreadable....
On Dan's Change of Address... (August 30, 2003) By the way - if you looking for Dan Hill's cityofsound weblog, then you should probably start looking at cityofsound.typepad.com instead, since he has - rather unceremoniously - moved. Dan is my boss at BBC Radio & Music Interactive, but...
On the Immorality of the Ten Commandments... (August 29, 2003) From a highly entertaining article on the Ten Commandments: "It's obviously too much to expect that a Bronze Age demagogue should have remembered to condemn drug abuse, drunken driving, or offenses against gender equality, or to demand prayer in the...
A camera-phone retrospective... (August 28, 2003) Down the side of the sofa is the blue widget that connects my iBook to my phone. Since Vodafone or Sony Erickson or London's weather or radioactive space emissions interfere so regularly with my ability to send picture messages, this...
I am not a tuber... (August 28, 2003) The only other thing that I really really feel is important to say about the Guardian article is that the photo they have decided to use alongside it makes me look - at best - like a total drooling inbred....
On Guardian "Second Sight"... (August 28, 2003) So there's an article in today's Guardian Online supplement that I wrote about weblog culture. I'm pretty happy with it - I think I managed to say most of what I wanted to say. I'm not sure it'll convince anyone...
Dumb links for a Thursday morning... (August 28, 2003) Safari is close to mental collapse. I have far too many "must write about this" links hovering perpetually in my multi-tabbed browser. Safari is not perfect. It will throw a strop if I don't take some of the strain away....
On the 'one big site'-ness of weblogs... (August 28, 2003) Here's a weird quote about weblogging: "I believe in my heart that people should come up with their own publishing methods. Frankly, it's boring to surf the blogosphere and see so many sites using the same, tired weblogging tools. The...
On "plogging"... (August 27, 2003) There seems to be a current obsession with the language of weblogging coursing through print. First things first we got Technobabble in The Times being all random, and now we have "ploggers" (from the Guardian's Backbencher e-mail): Readers who have...
Tories would close BBC website... (August 26, 2003) I'm going to just report this without much in the way of comment while I try and work out what my professional relationship with the BBC means about my ability to give my personal opinion about things like this: Tories...
The OED's draft definition of a weblog... (August 26, 2003) The Oxford English Dictionary's draft definition of 'weblog' from March 2003: "A frequently updated web site consisting of personal observations, excerpts from other sources, etc., typically run by a single person, and usually with hyperlinks to other sites; an online...
Hal Hartley on Quality... (August 25, 2003) Here are a couple of good (brief) quotes from Hal Hartley - who is one of my favourite directors. These quotes were found on Way Down Here: There's a right way and a wrong way to do things. If you...
The Ugly Wiki (Part Two) (August 21, 2003) A few months ago a conversation emerged across the net about whether or not wikis were ugly (see also Many to Many) (and moreover whether the fact that they was ugly affected how useful they were). Obviously, the whole issue...
A new definition of social software... (August 19, 2003) Can I just recommend The Devil's Dictionary 2.0? There's a particularly insightful definition of social software: social software, noun Any arbitrary collection of algorithms, protocols and metadata that allows friendless agoraphobics to pretend otherwise. "I’m having trouble deciding which node...
On album sales and piracy... (August 18, 2003) I'm not particularly in the mood to get too involved in this discussion at the moment, but I just thought it interesting that the music businesses hysteria about piracy destroying the music business doesn't seem to be being borne out...
Guardian launches new weblog... (August 18, 2003) If you go to the front page of the Guardian today, the third story down isn't a story at all. In fact it's nothing less than a link through to a new weblog that the Guardian are supporting - KickAAS...
What I do in my spare time... (August 17, 2003) Everybody has a space alien twin - who watches over us day and night: "For every human being on Earth, there appears to be an alien counterpart who takes care of them when times get tough, who shares the same...
Here be monsters? (August 16, 2003) A selection of weird "it's been in the back of my head for a while now" posts about trying to find my biological father: Looking for Tom Coates (Jan 2002), On searching for 'father' (Nov 2001), Ring random people with...
On the distribution of gay teenagers... (August 16, 2003) Yesterday (via new-favourite-weblog Let Me Get This Straight), I stumbled upon an article about a Bronx senator and a conservative legal group in Florida who are suing the Harvey Milk school in New York with discrimination. The Harvey Milk school...
The Disposable Happy Trash of Fun Love Stuff! (August 16, 2003) And here we are at the end of our tour of the best and worst that Theme Park World has to offer. We've experienced the intellectual highs of science, the corrupt dismal depths of current affairs and the gleaming happy...
The Sage Beauty of Apple Computers! (August 16, 2003) Our penultimate ride today (ladies and gentlemen) will be a sedate and elegant one indeed. Clamber about your transport - the translucent white ones are slower but I think more elegant - and prepare to see the view from above...
Thrills and spills in Current Affairs! (August 16, 2003) Don't give up faith, my children - our epic journey is reaching its conclusion! But first it's time for the thrills and spills of the dark and dirty depths of current affairs, journalism and politics. Will you lose your very...
The Magic Palace of Design and Fonts! (August 15, 2003) Come closer! Come closer! Our tour of the epic achievements of the interweb progresses! See as we approach the Palace of Design and fonts, inlaid with Mother of Pearl and Lapis Lazuli, filled with epic gauntlets as big as a...
Wonderful world of weblogging! (August 15, 2003) Gasp in stunned awe at the "wonderful world of weblogging"! See the strange solitary creatures scuttling around in their underpants in rooms full of empty coke cans and pizza boxes. Beware their strange and colourful stenches! MSN cites 'Tom Cotes'...
Awesome applications of Science! (August 15, 2003) Ladies and gentlemen, today I present to you six - count them - six "awesome applications of science and technology" from wooden mirrors to ships made of ice... Mass/speed ratio of a Delorean as it travels through time Pictures of...
Power-cuts in the States... (August 14, 2003) Thanks to Cameron from Blogdex for pointing this out - as America is hit by a massive powercut you can track New York power consumption in real-time on the New York energy market. I suppose it would be a dumb...
The Chamber Pot... (August 12, 2003) To start off with - I should apologise to the various people who come here for stuff about social software. I've been thinking in very different directions with the new job and I'm only just starting to get to a...
On 'two years' of weblogs... (August 11, 2003) Every single time I get asked by someone for my opinion on the whole "weblogs as journalism" thing, I give pretty much the same response. First things first - there are differences. That should be pretty obvious. One clear difference...
MP3 of FiveLive Thing.. (August 10, 2003) Let's bear in mind (1) that I was quite nervous (2) that I didn't really get a chance to get into my stride and that (3) I think it's quite embarrassing. Are you bearing that in mind? Ok. Then if...
On the bloody weather... (August 9, 2003) The English talk about nothing but the weather. We do this to avoid talking about ritual goat sodomy, which would otherwise be the first thing on our minds, I think. This is my honest belief. It would decimate my world-view...
The Quest for Fonts... (August 9, 2003) First thing I have to say is that Identifont is an extremely cool and really useful font-finding utility. The next thing to say is that despite the fact it's extremely cool, it didn't help me find the two fonts that...
Plasticbag.org's Top Posts... (August 8, 2003) The most read posts on plasticbag.org over the last thirty-one days (thanks to analog and pair.com are: The Internet is not shit On the existence of God On permalinks and paradigms The Balkanisation of Blogdex On empty dreary bitching Tiny...
A question about password length... (August 8, 2003) Right. So here's a dumb question about password length. There are a great many sites where you have to register to use the service. Most of these sites require you to provide a user-name and a unique password. In order...
Cybermen in Television Centre?! (August 6, 2003) So after the FiveLive thing, I went for a bit of a wander around TVC to meet with a friend who works on CelebDAQ. Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush... Anyway, while exploring the Design Building, I...
An introduction to weblogs for radio listeners... (August 6, 2003) Hmm. That was a bit of a disappointment. I mean all things considered, that could only be described as a little bit of a disappointment. Basically, FiveLive's morning show was over-running and the weblog feature was stuck right at the...
Radio Days... (August 6, 2003) I'm nervous about mentioning it just in case I stink up the show but - just in case you're interested - I'm going to be on John Pienaar's morning show on FiveLive this morning between eleven-thirty and midday (UK-time), talking...
Shop-soiled linkages... (August 5, 2003) A few shop-soiled weblog-related links, since I'm in the mood: Battle of the Blog The boiling fury that bubbles continually behind RSS (in all its versions) and 'Echo'/'Pie'/'What-ev-er' is extending into mainstream media space and is becoming ever more frustrating...
On tiny, tiny superheroes... (August 5, 2003) This week I've done a little tiny amount of work for the very smallest of sites. Ickle.org has been running for quite some time now (although it's a luridcrously small amount in geological time). It celebrates the teensiest of eensy...
Xfm meets 20six... (August 5, 2003) So I've got my hands on an excerpt from a press release that announced that Christian O'Connell from Xfm (a UK alternative radio station) was starting a new weblog for his breakfast show using 20six's service. Whatever you may think...
It's Sunday afternoon entertaining link time.. (August 3, 2003) A few entertaining links to compensate for the religion piece: A tribute to Linda McCartney Gigli focus groups demand new ending... Insane Brazilian ISP's advert (thanks to Cameron) I use Introvertster...
On the existence of God... (August 3, 2003) I'm an atheist. I have been for nearly twenty years, and before that I wasn't really anything - I didn't really have a position on God vs. No God. I suppose I just hadn't thought about it properly. I can't...
No prostitutes in Broadcasting House! (August 3, 2003) There are no prostitutes in Broadcasting House, and why? The reason is explained in a brief aside in an altogether more serious article about The BBC's relationship to architecture and property. Nonetheless, the bit that stuck in my brain was...
Gratias tibi ago, Domine... (August 1, 2003) Gratias tibi ago, Domine. Haec credam a deo pio, a Deo justo, a Deo scito? Cruciatus in crucem. Tuus in terra servus, nuntius fui; officium perfeci. Cruciatus in crucem - eas in crucem....
Quick thoughts about global undo... (August 1, 2003) If only I had time to give this the attention it deserves - but alas, I must soon get drunk. Neat Chris from anti-mega has brought into public attention that massive and aggravating UI problem that is what happens when...
Let it all out, Tom... Just let it go... (August 1, 2003) Here's a few things that I've found on the internet recently and really wanted to be able to write about in something vaguely resembling detail, but let's just face it, it's probably not going to bloody happen. Which is a...
