This entry was posted on
Friday, May 2nd, 2003 at
9:27 am and is filed
under Uncategorized.
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Date
20030502
Riding High on Blogdex
Time
09:27
Dante’s Inferno Test owns teh zone today, with the core URL and a number of results from the quiz hogging the top ten. The related server is doing its best to deal with the traffic, but your mileage may vary.
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Date
20030502
Time
09:30
Looks like someone’s out to shut down the Boycott Hollywood site. See what happens when you try to oppose a cash machine? (Sorry I’m in a mood today. More on this later.)
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Date
20030502
Time
09:33
“In November 2002, a telemarketer called my home in D.C. at 5:24 a.m. This is the story of how that call cost him $500.“
A tale of sweet revenge that includes some great resources should you wish to take similar action.
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Date
20030502
Time
09:35
Why Blogs Haven’t Stormed the Business World.
Not sure if I agree entirely with this. I see the main problem to be overwhelming ignorance of most people in charge of marketing. Someone else build audience. Me buy media. Gain access to audience. Grog understand.
Heh. Petty? Moi?
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Date
20030502
Time
09:39
KFC is considering gassing their chickens. This way to the shower, ladies.
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Date
20030502
Time
09:41
Did you enjoy watching George Bush hitting his head on the door of the helicopter as much as I did?
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Date
20030502
Time
09:44
Editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary are considering a new entry for “Shut up!” in the next edition. Not the ‘be quiet’ version, but the ‘how interesting, do tell me more’ version.
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Date
20030502
Time
09:46
Slightly more than one of our sex offenders is missing.
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Date
20030502
Time
10:01
The photo report from the May Day protest will be completely complete in a few minutes. I’m coding like mad here, people.
I’m also as mad as hell after being grabbed by a cop and hurled inside the cordon for daring to mess with one of their favourite intimidation tactics.
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Date
20030502
Time
10:38
Here’s a nice shot of ‘patient policing’ and here’s a picture of a guy with an Out Of Order sticker on his forehead. One for the scrapbook. Please let me know of any other sightings. Right now it’s time to go and check the newspapers.
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Date
20030502
Time
11:28
The Guardian: ‘For the first time in years, all McDonald’s outlets stayed open throughout the day.’
Oh really?
BBC: ‘Police have criticised a minority of May Day protesters who they say attempted to wreak havoc in London amid peaceful demonstrations.’
I’d like to criticise the minority of police for goading many into violence.
And the final showdown?
The Independent: ‘Most of the 300-strong crowd initially gathered there were determined to make their protest peacefully.’
Damn right. And then call it a day afterwards.
I actually met one police officer who took great joy in telling the crowd – in all sincerity – that he and all the other officers had been provided with a SARS vaccine before coming out. Now what’s the point of making a statement like that?
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Date
20030502
Rebranding
Time
12:19
George Bush declares May 1st to be ‘Loyalty Day.’
Please excuse me while I throw up.
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Date
20030502
Time
12:20
It’s not the first application of its kind, but the design and execution on this one is wonderful:
The Weblog Fire Escape
Should develop into a nice little link-builder.
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Date
20030502
Viral Marketing
Time
13:34
The Sun has decided to spread further confusion about this issue and benefit from other people’s work without credit or payment by launching their own ‘viral’ chart, which is even more dismal than the one at Lycos if you can believe it.
Remember folks, if it arrives by email; it’s yours free to do with as you please. So long as you give credit to the person who sent you the email, of course.
(By the way, for a small fee you too can be guaranteed inclusion at the Lycos chart, perhaps even on their list of featured items. How viral is that?)
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Date
20030502
Yet Another Lame Quiz
Time
14:37
Find your Star Wars twin.
‘Luke and Leia were seperated at birth; maybe you were too!’
Ho-ho. This is a looooong quiz, folks – but the results are quite comprehensive and put in a very interesting context that I won’t spoil for you here (expect to say that – in terms of agreeableness – I’m Emperor Palpatine and my sibling is Obi-Wan Kenobi).
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Date
20030504
Time
08:28
I don’t know what you folks are like with sleep, but I can function on 6 hours. 8 hours makes me feel dandy. 12 hours? Doesn’t happen often, but it happened last night. I may just take Monday off, after all.
Oh, thanks to Martin for the bloggage of the May Day stuff. Worth quoting:
“Now I’m still not convinced about the use of the Mayday protests, but Tim’s adventures in London have pretty much convinced me that the police are at least half the problem here. That’s not to say that there isn’t a hardcore minority determined to smash things, but there definitely is a peaceful majority and as this account makes clear the Police aren’t all that interested in them. Neither are the media.”
I’m not convinced of the effectiveness of these protests, either. They have a carefully-built reputation and close to zero coverage (until well after the fact, when ‘suspected anarchists’ are paraded by willing tabloids).
Some new ideas have occurred to me in the last few days, but I’m still mulling it over – and will probably need to do so for a few more weeks yet.
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Date
20030505
Tony Blair’s Email: Birthday Special
Time
09:01
Tony Blair turns 50 today, and while there was a fair whack of email urging him to grow up a month or so ago, there was only one email sent to tony-blair@prime-minister.co.uk this morning. That either shows that these pages are finally doing their job, or that very few people care.
I’m hoping it’s the former and not the latter.
If you would like to send birthday greetings to the PM, this email-to-facsimile address will transmit the body of your email message and spit it out on his fax machine.
Repeated below is the one email that arrived at the wrong address this morning – and the one email that I sent to the correct one.
Enjoy your bank holiday, folks.
—– Original Message —–
From: poor scientist
To: tony-blair@prime-minister.co.uk
Cc: president@whitehouse.gov
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2003 2:34 AM
Subject: Re spectfully addressed to Sir :
–> Re spectfully addressed to Sir :
–>
–> My name is : Mai Sy Xuan Lam
–> Sir ! I need help . I manufactured the money not fake . That is e-money
–> (electric- money) This e-money easy to use , secure , not filch . If
–> filch , filcher not use . because e-money have safe system . This safe
–> system include : you’re a picture , password , fingerprint flash system
–> and some number . Besides , e-money system have special a public money
–> transfering computer . when tranfered a money similar send a e-mail .
–> Because We use software of e-mail . But we would repair some structure .
–> e-money functions . example :
–> It is half one’s personal papers half money , etc … . When used
–> e-money : You won’t use paper money . Paper money easy fire , e-money
–> when fired or lost , We can buy other e-money . When bought new e-money
–> , We will say your old number card for a bank agent . Money which you
–> have of old account will transfer your new account . Your money won’t
–> lose . In case you bully , and after you rob . You can recover one’s
–> money who rob . And robber will engaol . You can use your e-money at
–> other country , you will tranfser monetary value . I need help from sir
–> . In 4 next day , if I pay not house employing , I and my mother will
–> become tramper . I like very researching . And I find out 40 biology
–> formular (gene finding formular), 10 integral formular . And I
–> discovered a new microscope from a (one) magnifier ,enlarge degree
–> changing equipment of magnifier . If I was a tramper , I can’t research
–> . And Sir can for me live on Sir’s country. I am Vietnamese . I am poor
–> very . Live at Viet Nam I can’t free researching . Let help me . and let
–> help my formulars .
[address snipped]
–> If can , let Sir write vietnamese . Thank Sir ,Goodbye .
From: Tim Ireland
To: Tony Blair’s email-to-facsimile address
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2003 8:58 AM
Subject: Happy Birthday
Dear Tony,
My parents taught me to respect my elders. Right now that’s about all you’ve got going for you.
Happy birthday.
Tim Ireland
www.bloggerheads.com
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Date
20030505
Can Weblogs…?
Time
20:21
I have some fabulous ideas for distributing one very important message in particular, plus some legally-entitled mischief we can all get on with to bring at least one media mogul down a peg or two.
Normal bloggage will continue tomorrow. There’s still some thinking to do.
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Date
20030506
Time
08:43
I’ve finally got a few extra minutes available, so I’m going to download and trial Spamnet, the community-driven spam filter from Cloudmark. I’ll let you know how I get on.
(Found via Countersink.)
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Date
20030506
Time
08:51
Lots of fun stuff over at Headwindow today. In fact, too much to list here. So go there.
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Date
20030506
Time
08:53
References to this will end up chasing Bonsai Kitten everywhere it goes, if there’s any justice. I can taste the outrage from here.
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Date
20030506
Time
08:57
I want to see Rubber Boy meet The Lizardman live on stage. Why? Because it’s sure to spice up the world’s weakest ‘extreme’ stunt.
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Date
20030506
Christianity Watch
Time
09:02
A fabulous profile of Jack Chick.
Found via The Ultimate Insult, who found it via LinkMachineGo, who found it via BoingBoing. It probably also appeared at Fark about a thousand times, so I’ll reign in the credit links at that and be done with it.
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Date
20030506
Time
09:13
Every manned Russian spacecraft since 1976 had carried a sawn-off shotgun on board. True or false?
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Date
20030506
Riding High on Blogdex
Time
09:16
Bill Bennet has been a bad boy. Who?
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Date
20030506
Time
09:22
One of our missing planes in missing.
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Date
20030506
Time
09:23
Melbourne’s Swinburne University offering a course in make-up for drag artists.
That’s got to be a first. I mean, Melbourne before Sydney? I ask you…
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Date
20030506
Time
09:25
Secret Joe McCarthy hearings opened after 50 years. Coincidentally, it’s also the centenary of George Orwell’s ‘1984.’
This article/essay on 1984 from The Guardian is getting some serious linkage today.
Scaryduck emailed me ages ago suggesting that we get together to make sure that this book charts well in the BBC’s Big Waste of Licence Bucks, but there’s just too much to do these days. Perhaps if I win the lottery, or spend less time reading government-approved pornography…
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Date
20030506
Time
09:35
Just what we need: a new venereal disease. This could well mutate into the Big One, folks. You know, where you stick your dick where it’s not supposed to be and it explodes…
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Date
20030506
Time
09:37
Jakob Nielsen and Don Norman on Making Web Advertisements Work.
‘Unfortunately, most current Web advertising approaches are aimed at taking what doesn’t work and making it ever bigger and more annoying, continuously fighting user behavior.’
It also doesn’t help that text ads in search engines (that get a pretty easy time of it in this short article) are being sold as a form of search engine optimisation. Take my word for it, ignorance is widespread on this matter. Disturbingly so.
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Date
20030506
Time
09:41
San Francisco hosts ‘Masturbate-a-Thon’. No, masturbateforpeace.com does not appear to be involved. Yet.
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Date
20030507
Time
09:07
God, how I hate pop-ups. Pending pop-ups had my connection hanging for damn near 12 minutes just now. Did I ask for 9 new browser windows to load? No, I didn’t.
Interestingly, one of the worst offenders this morning was The Anarchists Cookbook. Not too anarchic to take a little coin, now are we?
BTW, The ??? Project now has a name – but I’m not going to tell you what it is yet. I first have to go out and Do Stuff so can bring together a decent ‘show and tell’ on the idea.
You’re going to love it.
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Date
20030507
Time
09:13
Tom is right. I think this is well out of order (if, indeed, it turns out to be true).
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Date
20030507
Time
09:20
Read some horror stories from the front-lines of food service.
I was a waiter once. 24-hour joint in western Sydney. The Lebanese Mafia pretty much had the run of the place from midnight to dawn, but the ribs were to die for.
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Date
20030507
Time
09:25
Cloudmark’s Spamnet chugged along nicely in a short test yesterday, but it’s only configured for Outlook at this stage. I’ve put myself on the alert list for when it’s available on Outlook Express.
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Date
20030507
Time
09:30
Associated Press Puts Violent Words in Iraqi Protesters’ Mouths
Truth has been a major casualty, as the cliche goes – and that goes for both sides.
Oh, and Bush could have landed on the Lincoln in a helicopter if he wanted to. But no, he just had to arrive on a jet. So he could benefit from a ‘realistic experience,’ you understand – nothing to do history-making photo opportunities.
He had his chance for a realistic experience back in ’72, but chose to dodge military service. He didn’t inhale, either. Oh, wait, wrong president. George was a snorter, not a toker.
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Date
20030507
Time
09:41
Judge rules that “Do I get to see my attorneys?” is not actually a request to see a lawyer.
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Date
20030507
Time
09:43
It’s not me. I wear a rather dashing green cape.
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Date
20030507
Headlines of Glory
Time
09:45
Man carrying severed head through town arrested
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Date
20030507
Time
09:46
U.S. to Release About 15 Detainees at Guantanamo. It’s not all good news. Read it in full, then have a little browse between the lines.
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Date
20030507
Time
09:49
There’s more, but that’s about it for now. I’m doing my first project with Flash, so it’s head-down-arse-up time for most of the day.
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Date
20030508
Time
08:38
Pravda: American students think that it was the USA that won WWII.
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Date
20030508
Time
08:39
Authorities in Wisconsin have been on the trail of a mystery dumper for months, suspecting many things but never quite nailing down the nature, or the source, of bags of mysterious green slime. Last Friday they found the culprit and the answer they were looking for. They didn’t like it, and neither will you.
(Is it lunchtime where you are? Best skip the above link, then. You’re better off not knowing. Really.)
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Date
20030508
Time
08:48
Walter Cronkite is listed among a number of broadcast journalists who have been hired to appear in videos resembling newscasts that are actually paid for by drug makers and other health care companies (requires registration). Trusted faces mean trusted brands, folks.
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Date
20030508
Time
08:51
Listen to authentic porn music when downloading your share of the filthy stuff today. I’ll have something else on this front soon. Hang in there.
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Date
20030508
Time
08:54
Chewing gum stuck on end of ruler retrieves $1.825 million
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Date
20030508
Time
08:56
Get into shape this summer with housegymnastics.com (via FunJunkie).
I used to be a nut for this kind of thing when I was 8 years old. I could get from one end of the rumpus room to the other without touching the carpet once. This wasn’t easy – even the toy boxes were topped with a luxuriant blue shag pile.
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Date
20030508
Time
09:02
5th-grader given patent approval for brilliant idea that will lighten your wallet. No, not that way – it’s an ingenious way to minimise the number of loyalty/reward cards you carry.
I’ve got an even better way. Don’t carry them at all.
Remember that old adage about it not being worth your time to bend over and pick up a penny? I’ve done a few calculations, and have worked out that it’s not even worth carrying these things around, much less fishing them out every time you make a purchase. Now the store owners are fighting back by asking me every time I go in if I have such-and-such a card – so I have to waste breath saying ‘No!’
Wankers.
If they want my loyalty, they should simply charge less for a can of chopped tomatoes – and remove the bloody great big toy section they’ve just put in, so I can take the kids grocery shopping again.
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Date
20030508
Time
09:11
Activist takes pro-pot argument to Canadian Supreme Court. This article contains the quote of the day, from the man who actually had a modest hit of hash to focus his mind before facing a panel of 9 judges:
“I was happy, hungry and relaxed, but I was not impaired.”
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Date
20030508
Headlines of Glory
Time
09:18
Man Slices Own Head Off in Supermarket Suicide
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Date
20030508
Time
09:19
Well, what do you know? The White House has changed their story regarding the jet landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln. It seems they planned for a landing waaaaaaaay out to sea, but by the time they were ready to leave, ‘the carrier had come hundreds of miles closer to shore than expected because of the weather.’
Right.
Senator Robert C. Byrd (who, you may remember, has been blogged here before for making surprisingly sensible comments) told the Senate that he was ‘deeply troubled’ by Bush’s actions, going on to say:
“I do not begrudge his salute to America’s warriors aboard the carrier Lincoln . . . but I do question the motives of a deskbound president who assumes the garb of a warrior for the purposes of a speech.”
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Date
20030508
Time
09:29
Yay! I like a good 404, me.
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Date
20030508
Time
10:08
The wife and I were supposed to use our free plane tickets to Paris this past weekend, but we couldn’t go for a number of reasons (an expired Passport being one of them).
Now I have to get something solid together for our 10th wedding anniversary (less than two months away). Any ideas? Help!
Also on the subject of travel, I’ll be heading to Boston in June to play a modest role at this weblog conference. I’ll be spending a fair amount of time with Scott, who has kindly agreed to put me up for the few days I’ll be in town, but if any other readers are in Boston (or are planning on attending the conference) and want to hook up, just drop me a line.
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Date
20030509
Flash Games
Time
09:20
Yay! Psycho Bondage Bunnies rule!
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Date
20030509
Time
09:20
From Deep Thinking About Weblogs:
”…fundamentally, weblogs encourage publishing by making it really easy to publish.”
It’s spot on about this and a few other points, but like many articles that broach the subject of actual cash generation, it assumes the only money to be made from weblogs is in some form of e-commerce, affiliate deal or tip jar. Oh, wait, no – it does touch on reality with the following throwaway sentence:
“Finally, for many individuals and businesses, the self-promotional benefits of weblogging are reward enough.”
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Date
20030509
Time
09:24
Cats ‘farmed for skins in EU’ says the headline. ‘EU chock-full of primitive savages unlike our American cousins’ reads the subtext. BTW, some people have taken to hating Americans lately. Me, I just hate cats.
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Date
20030509
Not Safe For Work
Time
09:31
The Porn Banner Showcase displays and reviews some of the worst in porn advertising.
On the subject of porn, Paypal will stop taking payments for most adult-themed merchandise over the next five weeks. So, who will win the inevitable battle for porn-specific e-currency supremacy?
(Take a look at your money, BTW. It may very well say ‘In God We Trust,’ but does it also say: ‘Not to be spent on hookers’?)
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Date
20030509
Time
09:40
From today, crappy plastic shopping bags are illegal in South Africa.
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Date
20030509
Murdoch is a Bastard
Time
09:43
The House of Lords has been granted extra time to debate controversial changes to the media ownership rules. One of the proposed changes would allow Rupert Murdoch to buy Channel Five, which would pretty much be the death of terrestrial television in the UK.
Oh, and the Fox News Channel (that’s the one closest to Murdoch’s black heart, not Sky News, which is pretty much Murdoch-lite until he gets his way on terrestrial) is under investigation by television regulators in Britain for alleged bias.
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Date
20030509
Time
09:56
As usual, Microsoft arrives late at the party, and will no doubt expect to be the one doling out drinks and choosing the music.
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Date
20030509
Time
09:58
Enjoy the full transcript of James Baker being stung by Ali G (requires registration).
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Date
20030509
Time
10:50
El Reg: Google to fix blog noise problem
Don’t be thrown off by the headline and the bullish tone of the article. I’ve read a number of articles about blogs on The Register. There haven’t been many of them, but most of them have been critical and nearly all of them have been by the same journalist – Andrew Orlowski.
Rich said it best this morning:
“I’ve been getting more and more annoyed with his partisan approach to weblogs. Its like he got bitten by a weblog when he was a kid or something.”
Heh.
This latest article by Andrew starts off by making one hell of an assumption and bases the rest of its case on the same kind of idle chatter that he criticises blogs for indulging in.
How can Google discount blogs when it’s slowly but surely becoming the norm? I wouldn’t be surprised by – or worried about – a cleanout of some automated linkage, but the announcement from Google reads to me like the proposed introduction of another useful tab providing a service not unlike the oft-overloaded Daypop (and quite possibly in the beta stage based mainly on Blogger users).
I certainly can’t see Google or Google users benefiting from the forced segregation of those who dare to publish more than once a month.
Anyway, enough idle chitchat. Let’s talk about you. How are you? Did I mention that I hate cats?
UPDATE – That said, I have noticed in the last few days that Google has been indexing many sites daily/regularly, but not announcing as much in the search results. Something new is ticking over in the background – but I still can’t see it being anywhere near as extreme as Andrew makes it out to be. He just wishes is all.
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Date
20030509
Photoshopping
Time
15:18
“Yeah? Well, you *better* be sure, Egon!”
You see what happens when someone makes one harmless remark when they don’t think anyone is listening?
As usual, a larger version is on display over at B3ta.
The Star Wars Photoshopping Project is now into its 12th page.
The latest version of the screensaver is terribly, terribly out of date, though. I’ll see if I can’t update it sometime soon.
UPDATE – Well, that was pretty painless. A new screensaver had been made with 40 of the best images to date and is now available for download.
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Date
20030509
Time
15:29
This Sunday is May 11th. Again.
Click here to prepare an appropriate activity for this very special day.
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Date
20030511
Time
19:45
The next project is ready to role but – typically – my FTP access is on the fritz. Plus I have to rush out in the morning to move furniture. I’ll do what I can to clear the problem and upload the whole shebang before I leave.
PS – Today, I chose a car completely at random and followed it. It went to the local rubbish tip, where I found some much-needed empty CD cases and a 12-volt transformer that is sure to come in handy when I least expect it. The attendants at the tip were not without a sense of humour, and allowed me to walk off with my booty.
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Date
20030512
Time
08:31
‘Klingon interpreter sought for mental health patients,’ reads the headline – the thrust of the story being that a mental care facility in Multnomah County, Oregon requires a translator to help process new inmates that are convinced that they’re dispossessed Klingon warriors.
It’s at The Sydney Morning Herald, MSNBC, CNN… I could go on, but it’s too damn depressing.
What? You didn’t know that journalists were fallible human beings? (Well, fallible anyway…) Have a crack at this, then:
A New York Times journalist has been busted for fabricating, filling or faking the majority of his stories. The Washington Times has the story, as does (*ahem*) The New York Times (requires registration).
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Date
20030512
Time
08:32
Coach suspended after kids find, watch adult video. The kids found the video in his desk drawer when they were mucking around in his office.
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Date
20030512
Time
08:37
Read about the funding to fight sea lampreys and other such last-minute additions to the war bill rubber-stamped by Congress.
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Date
20030512
Time
08:42
Hans Blix and the UN team aren’t being allowed back in, and it looks like the U.S. inspection team is going home empty-handed. So where are those pesky WMDs?
BTW, the latest line on why they weren’t used by a heartless regime under extreme threat is as follows:
‘The weapons were so well hidden that they couldn’t find them in time to use them.’
Well, these things can happen when you hide your WMDs in a parallel universe.
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Date
20030512
Time
08:52
Two Oakland students, in a class discussion about the war in Iraq, made remarks that were interpreted by their teacher as a direct threat against the president. So she called the Secret Service. The students were duly questioned. I’ve no doubt the brown-trousers moment was also entered into their permanent record.
The fight for freedom goes on…
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Date
20030512
Time
08:54
You just have to take time to meet The Phil Kent Family today. Phil puts the ‘fun’ into fundamentalism.
Does a husband have the right to discipline his wife? No, he has a responsibility to.
‘Once you start allowing women to spiritually teach and have authority over men, you have opened the door to homosexuals.’
And so on…
BTW, new legislation in the UK will allow faith schools, churches, hospices and other religious employers to sack lesbian and gay staff. The big clue is in the ‘other religious employers’ bit. You don’t have to work for a religious organisation to be under threat, you just have to work for a company run “with an ethos based on religion or belief.”
In other words, owned or run by a man like Phil Kent. Or Brian Souter. You get the picture.
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Date
20030512
Time
09:22
Hmmm. Lots of politics in today’s batch. Sorry about that. If you want some simple fun, pop over to Headwindow, which has another excellent crop of goodies today.
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Date
20030512
Riding High on Blogdex
Time
09:37
Make your own safety sign. Heh. Now that would have been really handy for The Out Of Order Project. Too bad that it’s time to move on in 5, 4, 3…
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Date
20030512
The ???? Project
Time
09:50
Argh! I’d really hoped to have the new project live before leaving, but my FTP access is still down.
I’ll have to post it later today. Hang in there.
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Date
20030512
The Humanity vs. Anarchy Project
Time
13:53
OK, folks – it’s live:
The Humanity vs. Anarchy Project
Will it be as successful as the Out Of Order Project?
If so, which word will win out in the end?
Let’s find out.
All feedback is appreciated.
Emails to the usual address.
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Date
20030512
Richard Desmond is a Pornographer
Time
15:03
Google Announces UK News Service. Actually, I found the generic news service useful enough as it was.
Oh well. Let’s use it to see what Richard Desmond is up to.
Ah, much joy today.
A leading media buyer accepted payments from Richard Desmond’s Express Newspapers in return for putting advertising into the company’s publications.
Also, Richard seems to have ideas above his station. He’s worried about being compared to Jesus.
“There has been so much rubbish written about me and I’ve kept quiet. It’s not nice being constantly vilified and attacked,” he said.
Desmond is being attacked? Heavens, no!
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Date
20030512
Time
15:40
Well, what do you know? That is a weird picture.
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Date
20030512
Time
16:42
Clare Short has resigned. For real this time. And, some would say, 9 weeks too late.
Still, there was no guarantee that her resignation would have swung enough votes to stop our involvement in the Iraq war – and the point over which she has resigned is just as important, if not more so.
Duyba’s team is setting up a system that would see the country stripped clean well inside 12 months. It also undermines the authority of the UN and sets the stage for more terrorist attacks, not less.
In her resignation statement she made quite a few good points, but the best one went more or less as follows:
The UK should have drawn the line over this, not provided cover – for the good or Iraqi, and for the good of the U.S.
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Date
20030512
Time
16:51
A friend and associate of mine, Martin Lloyd, has been blogging almost specifially to chronicle ‘the process of applying for and taking an MBA.’ You can read the article that appeared about him in The Times here, because it sure as hell doesn’t appear anywhere on The Times’ website.
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Date
20030512
The Humanity vs. Anarchy Project
Time
16:56
Ladies and gentlemen, our first foreign city to enjoy coverage is Oslo. The word chosen is humanity.
BTW, I’ll be in London for most of tomorrow and busily chalking away. I’d tell you where, but I don’t want to find a dozen police waiting for me.
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Date
20030513
Flash Games
Time
08:33
How steady is your mouse hand? Find out with this cool robot game.
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Date
20030513
Time
08:35
Computer traps Thai minister in his car. Thankfully, it wasn’t this car.
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Date
20030513
Time
08:36
Blogmatcher makes pretty good use of incestuous linkage, but loses points for a crap attempt at looking like Google.
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Date
20030513
Time
08:40
Confessions of a former spammer. Wow, we actually reached one! After months of being tracked down and confronted by anti-spam campaigners, Duncan Shiels had this to say:
“I realized I didn’t like to sell anything that nobody wants or needs or despises. I started to realize people just hate this so much.”
I’m so happy about this, I’m even going to plug his new business site. If your heart just skipped a beat at that, worry not – help is on the way.
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Date
20030513
Time
08:48
Peter rescued a black bunny from a car park and took it home. Take a look at the damage it then did to his computer.
Those demonic eyes should have been Clue No. 1 – he’s got nobody to blame but himself.
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Date
20030513
Time
08:53
Finally, an Interwebnet Timeline we can relate to. This link is pretty much everywhere this morning. The creator looks to be Farker, BTW.
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Date
20030513
Time
08:56
New York Post: Disgraced ex-New York Times reporter Jayson Blair in hospital dealing with “personal problems”
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Date
20030513
Time
09:01
Imagine being confronted by a bully and running way, only to find the same bully waiting for you around the corner. That’s quite a story. It’s not often that both twins are evil.
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Date
20030513
Time
09:06
I’m sure it won’t surprise you at all to discover that JFK had a 19-year-old intern who traveled with him on official trips.
“Apparently, her only skill was to provide sexual release for JFK on those trips and maybe in the White House,” said Robert Dallek, author of yet another Kennedy biography.
The third paragraph will make you snigger.
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Date
20030513
Time
09:10
Typical. The Federal Communications Commission intends to lift restrictions on media ownership that could allow your local newspaper, cable provider, radio stations, and TV channels in the U.S. all to be owned by one company, but most folks are more worried about a ban on the sale of Oreo cookies to children.
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Date
20030513
The Humanity vs. Anarchy Project
Time
09:14
I’ll be busy chalking (and perhaps doing a bit of work) in London for most of the rest of the day, but I’d love to come back and find lots of lovely email waiting for me. Join us. Join us now.
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Date
20030513
How Weblogs Work
Time
18:10
I was having a casual browse through Tom’s site (and was quite impressed by the effect of one small comment, BTW) when I followed static linkage over to VoxPolitics and saw that yet another MP has chosen to question Tony over his continued lack of email address.
It’s all very exciting, isn’t it?
Get in touch with your MP today, and tell them to get blogged up or prepare to make way for a rival who does.
Politicians have had to adapt to radio and TV; they now have to come to terms with online communication.
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Date
20030513
Time
18:30
Hey folks. I’m operating remotely, so I can’t access email right now (and may not be home until quite late). I’ll catch up with what I can tomorrow.
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Date
20030514
Time
16:51
Sorry, folks. A busy day yesterday, and an even busier day today. Sleep happens now. I’ll be back on deck with the full magilla tomorrow.
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Date
20030515
Time
09:00
‘Buffalo Spammer’ arrested on four felony and two misdemeanor counts. Don’t expect the cops to turn up on Ronald Scelson’s doorstep anytime soon; this early case is mostly about stolen identities.
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Date
20030515
Time
09:03
Some stills from the withdrawn Madonna video for you to enjoy, courtesy of The Memory Hole.
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Date
20030515
Time
09:12
A great article on the dangers of private media ownership. It requires registration, but here’s a quote straight from the guts of it about your friend and mine, the ever-lovable Mr Rupert Murdoch:
In the United States, Mr. Murdoch’s media empire — which includes Fox News and The New York Post — is known for its flag-waving patriotism. But all that patriotism didn’t stop him from, as a Fortune article put it, “pandering to China’s repressive regime to get his programming into that vast market.” The pandering included dropping the BBC’s World Service — which reports news China’s government doesn’t want disseminated — from his satellite programming, and having his publishing company cancel the publication of a book critical of the Chinese regime.
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Date
20030515
Time
09:14
The iLoo wasn’t a hoax, just a very bad idea. Now canned. And confusing the hell out of conflicting PR departments.
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Date
20030515
Time
09:17
The handsome chap from wifeodyssey.com is seeking the perfect missus. Prospective candidates whould have ‘a nice sleek, flat little chest and a nicely rounded little poochy tummy.’ Oh, and an appendix scar. No tattoos.
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Date
20030515
Time
09:23
Another ‘drugs sold in drive-through’ story? I’m getting pretty tired of these. Try instead the crackhouse police can’t tear down because it’s a protected historic site.
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Date
20030515
Time
09:27
Senator Bob Graham has accused the Bush administration of engaging in a cover-up of intelligence failures before and after the September 11th attacks. Seems it’s all just too embarrassing. But enough about that – let’s talk about the weather.
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Date
20030515
Flash Music Video
Time
09:37
I can take or leave the song, but the show did give me at least one belly laugh: take a look at all the short people in Hollywood.
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Date
20030515
Time
09:57
The Star Wars Kid has been found! Who is the Star Wars Kid? Just some chubby Jedi wannabe who practised his lightsaber technique in front of the school video camera – and then forgot to take the tape with him. The original ended up on the Interwebnet, and was soon remixed with full saber and sound effects. Both videos can be found by following the link at the top of the destination page – and both will make you laugh like a drain. The related Fark thread – somewhat inevitably you might think – includes a mention of our search for Mustard Man.
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Date
20030515
Time
10:23
So is Blogosphere just another aggregator? Yes and no. Mostly yes.
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Date
20030515
Time
10:24
Shades of ready.gov abuse:
How To Communicate With A Deaf Hooker
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Date
20030515
The Humanity vs. Anarchy Project
Time
12:08
I had a quick and quiet moment of stunning clarity the day before yesterday. While out and about in London, I decided to stop by the location of the incident that inspired this further action. This photo was taken at the very spot where I was grabbed by police and shoved inside the cordon. Here’s a bigger picture actually taken on that day. Have a closer look at the statue. You may have to squint to read what it says on the front, but then again you may just be able to guess.
Not bad shakes as far as shivers go. I really have to keep a closer eye on my subconscious.
Now, onwards with the updates. The Humanity vs. Anarchy Project has been updated to include photos of London activity. Did I get carried away? Well…
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Date
20030515
It’s War! And There’s Medals For All!
Time
12:25
WTF? How did I miss this?
Bush, Blair Nominated for Nobel Prize for Iraq War
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Date
20030515
Time
12:38
Oh, I like this: Join the London Riot Re-enactment Society today. Their aim? ‘To stage re-enactments of noted riots from London’s history, with some attempt at historical accuracy’. Heh.
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Date
20030515
Time
15:26
Planning on seeing Matrix Reloaded? The AintItCool reviews are kind of harsh and chock-full of spoilers. I much prefer the Landover Baptist review.
