Archives for October 2003

Political clarity... (October 31, 2003) For many recent Labour voters the last couple of years have been a bit of a troubling time - with some of the actions of the government (particularly with regard to the War in Iraq) seeming to be violently and...

A few recent Everything in Moderation posts... (October 31, 2003) For those of you who haven't been keeping up, there are a few more pieces up on Everything in Moderation: Tagging Difficult Users with Infectious Markers On Killfiles / Ignore User Functions in online communities Kuro5hin's "Notes Towards a Moderation...

Aula Exposure book for sale... (October 30, 2003) If reading (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything on the web wasn't good enough for you then it looks like the Aula Exposure book which includes that piece, loads of other stuff from other attendees as well as...

Make your world a better place! (October 30, 2003) So here we go - something to do. Are you a web developer with some time on your hands that wants to do something creative, useful and potentially world-impacting? Then Tom Steinberg's charitable web incubator MySociety.org might be an ideal...

The world adapts to Cory Doctorow... (October 29, 2003) My theory regarding the awesome O'Reilly-sponsored wifi at Foyles café on Charing Cross Road goes a little like this: Tim O'Reilly: "Hey Cory, how you doing?" Cory Doctorow: "You know what sucks? Wifi in London." Tim O'Reilly: "Hmm..." {thinks}...

On "Feedbag Error 17"... (October 27, 2003) A couple of days ago I noticed that I couldn't add Azeem Azhar to my iChat AV contacts list. I kept getting returned "Feedbag Error 17" which seemed entirely unexpected and unpleasantly phrased. Was I a feedbag? Had iChat eaten...

Share your nice little Panther tricks... (October 27, 2003) So here's a nice little Exposé trick that some of you might not have found yet. Press F9 or F10 to show either all the windows you have open or only your current apps windows. Now press TAB to cycle...

First thoughts about Panther: Address Book... (October 25, 2003) Address Book under OSX has never been a particularly impressive application, but it's just about worked as a system wide piece of kit. Panther brings with it a number of changes and improvements and a couple of nasty unprovements too....

A post/pre-emptive apology... (October 25, 2003) I'm hoping to really plough through a lot of ideas in the back of my head this weekend, so please forgive me if they're not as clear and well-formed as they might otherwise be. All responses gratefully received, all comments...

The Power Law, iCan and Weblogs... (October 25, 2003) So the BBC has launched a public pre-beta version of iCan - their attempt to help people re-engage with and self-organise around politics at an local/national/international level. The early stage makes it almost inevitable that there are going to be...

First thoughts about Panther... (October 25, 2003) After a highly enjoyable Panther install party around Mr Webb's house, I'm now in a position to give my first impressions of Mac OSX.3. In no particular order (and with no claims made towards total accuracy): The new chrome Apple...

Apologies for down-time... (October 21, 2003) I'd just like to apologise for the relative lack of posting over the last few days on both plasticbag.org and Everything in Moderation. Looking around me I see a near infinity of "things that need to get done", very few...

Two early views of income tax... (October 21, 2003) Thanks to Radio 4 for these two early positions on Income Tax. Nicholas Vansittart, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1816 put the case for the tax: "This tax would press less on the lower orders of society than...

Aaron Caffrey didn't break into my systems... (October 18, 2003) According to a good friend of mine, I spent a good five minutes in the Warner West End's first-floor loo with Aaron Caffrey - a (tall, enblondened) nineteen year old who was acquitted sometime in the last few days of...

Found objects: Social Software Mind-map... (October 17, 2003) I've not got an awful lot to say about this this fantastically interesting mind-map of social software, but I think it's slightly too important and interesting to be left loitering in the linklog....

On stealing authenticity... (October 16, 2003) So I'm sitting at my new Powerbook watching The Man of Law's Tale when Cameron Marlow IM's me to say that he's in this conference watching a paper called, Visual Factors In Constructing Authenticity In Weblogs and they've just started...

Where's the Powerbook? (October 16, 2003) Ack! My baby's in London. But when will it arrive in my hands?! DateTimeLocationStatus16 Oct 2003 07:37 London City Import Received 16 Oct 2003 04:46 London Stansted Airport Consignment Received At Transit Point 15 Oct 2003 22:25 Brussels Hub Consignment...

On The Emperor's Animals... (October 16, 2003) So here's a concept for a new Typepad weblog, inspired by the quirky and immensely pleasing post categories on a friend's weblog. The concept is called The Emperor's Animals and is basically a collection of funny animal links and stories...

Oh Powerbook adventurer! (October 15, 2003) My new Powerbook was shipped way earlier than I expected and I now find myself routinely checking its progress across the world every two or three hours. It started off in Taipei - a place I've never been - and...

Increasing transactions costs for e-mail, redux... (October 15, 2003) There's another round of discussion going on post-FOOCamp about combatting spam by increasing transaction costs for e-mail. I'm not going to get too involved in it, because I've had many of the arguments before - most often with the lovely...

Introducing "Everything in Moderation"... (October 15, 2003) Today I'm launching a new site - my first full new site under my own steam for a couple of years. Everything in Moderation is a new site designed to find creative ways to manage online communities and user-generated content....

Political economies in self-moderating communities... (October 13, 2003) Derek Powazek wrote an interesting piece last year about rating-based moderation systems: Gaming the system: How moderation tools can backfire. One of the most important lessons in online community management is that top-down management is seldom particularly successful in forcing...

The final solution for persistent trolls? (October 13, 2003) So what do you do when nothing else has worked and you're left with a board that is at the mercy of a persistent troublemaker? There aren't very many options. Firstly there's taking the situation to the ISP or workplace...

Caterina and Tom, together at least... (October 10, 2003) In lieu of real content, while I try and drag my lungs back together from the scrabbly little bits I can see around my sitting room floor attached to scraps of tissue paper, here's a picture of Caterina and me...

I am (officially) ill... (October 8, 2003) So I've been feeling really run-down for the last couple of weeks, but - hey - you know - who doesn't. Anyway I thought if Matt and I stopped working so hard for a couple of days and just let...

On niche weblogging, Google and Adsense... (October 6, 2003) Matt Haughey writes about putting Google AdWords on PVRBlog: Make no mistake, last month PVRblog made a lot of money from Adsense. When was the last time you heard someone say they received a check for advertising on their hobby...

On conversations with Cameron Marlow... (October 6, 2003) While BloggerCon has been ongoing in the States, I've spent most of the weekend attending mini events with the charming Cameron Marlow of Blogdex infamy. Cameron came over to the UK to talk at a conference at the Oxford Internet...

A Victorian responds to comment spam... (October 5, 2003) Today - after receiving a few more pseudo-comments from people whose home URLs contain the word "blowjob" - I also received the following: If you don't want certain types of homepages listed such as ones about sex then you need...

Vote Alex! (October 4, 2003) I can't quite believe I'm doing this, but if you are in the United Kingdom and if you're not going outside and getting drunk or having a big party of something, could you please ring 09011 212 210 and cast...