November 30, 2003
Full Laptop Crochetication - tasty laptop sleeves, hand-crocheted. I'd get one, but €60 seems a little steep.
Australia Adlib - an interactive guide to the wild, the weird and the vernacular in Australian music. [via MonkeyFilter
With a click at useful knick-knack specialists Mojo, my Christmas shopping is complete! Except for one person, who is utterly impossible to buy for.
November 28, 2003
50 pence (In da pod) - some bloke called Geoff is trying to raise the cash for an iPod by asking visitors to his site for a 50p donation. The 'progress-o-meter' is a nice touch.
November 27, 2003
RSS Reader Panel - a Firebird extension that does what it says on the tin.
Decoding the New Cues in Online Society - a profile of Friendster-researcher Danah Boyd in the NYT.
A Short History of the Future of Walking [via Purse Lip Square Jaw]
November 26, 2003
WiFi on GNER - The service will be open to the public from December 1 and will be available, free of charge, to first-class passengers on three daily services on the east coast mainline operated by GNER... GNER has not yet revealed prices or whether standard-class passengers will also be able to enjoy internet connectivity. - Hmmn. Charging on top of a First Class ticket? Fuck that. Let's hope Virgin get with the programme soon.
Submit Response's best pal Hannah McGill is talking about films on Radio 4's Front Row at 7.30pm tonight. Tune that dial, or make use of Listen Again later this evening.
Dan Hill makes good points, handsomely illustrated, about Olafur Eliasson's Weather Project at Tate Modern.
Vegetal and mineral memory: The future of books - Umberto Eco on literature and memory.
November 25, 2003
Lost and Found Sound: Audio Artifacts [via Things Magazine]
Ultrasound 2003 - an electronic music festival in Huddersfield. See especially: rand()%, a related internet radio station.
Our Customers' Advice: Michael Jackson Number Ones
Mohammad Ali Abtahi, Vice President of Iran, has a weblog. It's in Persian, obviously, but I'd be interested to see what he posts about - what he had for lunch, or matters of state? An About page is pretty much the only part of the site translated into English. (I still think that weblogs are an ideal format for politicians to engage with their constituants, like a 24-hour surgery.) [via MetaFilter, via IranFilter]
DVD Ripping on OS X - is there an easier method than this one?
November 24, 2003
The entire Warp back catalogue is being made available as pay-per-track MP3 downloads. Wow. If the quality of encoding is high enough, I'll be spending a few quid there. I wonder if they'll be making cover art available too? (Aside: Pitchfork, please get with the RSS programme. No one with any sense reads regularly updated websites in browsers any more.)
Real Bush 'At Odds with Media Caricature' says Menzies Campbell, of all people.
iPod's Dirty Secret - a nicely made little film documenting a disgruntled iPod owner's ad-jamming campaign against Apple, after he was frustrated by the company's policy for replacing his dead 'Pod battery. Listen for the line from customer services: At that price, you might as well go get a new one.
Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack - presumably his PR wonk was in the loo at the time these comments were made.
Architecture on 3 [via Peter Lindberg]
November 22, 2003
Some questions, mainly rhetorical: How can there be 6.2 GB of files in my 'Unlistened/Unwatched' folder for downloaded songs, telly and films? The hard drive on my last computer was smaller than that. How do I back up awkward things, like the settings for pairing my 'phone and computer, or my location settings? I can work out which files I need to copy, but can only access some of them via the Terminal. Does Backup actually work? Why don't I just do an upgrade instead of a full installation?
England win World Cup - yay!
The Guardian and Observer Digital Editions
November 20, 2003
CSS Editor - pixy previews his new CSS tool. Bloody good stuff.
How do you know it's midnight at Michael Jackson's house? When the big hand touches the little hand.
[spotted on MeTa]
BBC Reporters' log: Bush in Britain
Goatse case mod - how a(ss)musing. [via Boing Boing, and I repeat the warning that if you don't get the joke, Googling 'Goatse' will lead to an unpleasant corner of the interweb]
Avon and Somerset Constabulary - Examples of real 999 calls. People are, in case you hadn't noticed, as thick as mince.
November 19, 2003
Kottke redesign - I've been planning something similar for the thrillingly pointless jackmottram.com, aggregating everything I post here, comments on other sites, contact information, CV, biog etc. (inspired by Xian's Monolog among other things). More on this later at Submit Response...
Forgotten Forefather: Paul Otlet - In 1934, years before Vannevar Bush dreamed of the memex, decades before Ted Nelson coined the term “hypertext,” Paul Otlet envisioned a new kind of scholar's workstation: a moving desk shaped like a wheel, powered by a network of hinged spokes beneath a series of moving surfaces. The machine would let users search, read and write their way through a vast mechanical database stored on millions of 3x5 index cards.
Kodwo Eshun- Abducted by Audio (Live) [via Abstract Dynamics]
November 18, 2003
del.icio.us - a linking system with a whole shedload of potential uses. [via webgraphics]
Brain scan 'identifies race bias' - the interesting bit being that folk who displayed the relevant brain activity when shown images of black people went on to perform 'poorly in a task designed to test mental resources' after meeting real black people. Proof that racism makes you stupid!
Red Ken: Bush is 'greatest threat to life on planet.' That should help smooth his route back into the party no end.
Send Them Back!! - American readers, return your downloaded files to the RIAA. I like the fax and postal options best.
Mo Morgan: Turning posts into threads
November 17, 2003
An overview of the work of the late Mark Lombardi, he of the pencil drawings of (mostly political) social networks [via ]
Research on Place and Space - dauntingly large repository of links and information on matters spatial. Fascinating stuff - I'll probably resurface in a week or two. [via Matt Jones]
A fine riposte to Tom's post on the Tricorn. I too found Rodney Gordon's claim that 'if people don't notice it, it's not architecture' odd, if only because of Brutalist architecture's roots in social theory, and the movement's tendency toward public building. For me, the best architecture is noticable and usable, and there's plenty of Brutalist stuff out there that matches both criteria. (And if folk are going to be linking to the St. Peter's mini-site, I'd better finish it pronto - Toby Paterson is up for contributing something, and hopefully architect Isi Metzstein will too.)
Jenn Theater: Social Spam - Clay Shirky identifies a 'spam weblog.' I got the same email, and it's an odd one. It remains to be seen whether this is just a wee trick to make weblog-keepers click a kindred link (thereby verifying an email address), or if Jenn will show up in comment spam so as to minimise the risk of a comment being deleted. Either way, it's a new tactic. (And one I doubt the decidedly fabulous Mars Volta are in on.) Update: there's much more information at idly.org.
What's your G Quotient? - Where the 'G Quotient' reflects the maleness or femaleness of links from a weblog. I haven't got a clue. Because I don't check the gender of the weblogs I read, and because I assume that they are folk, not menfolk or womenfolk. Coo, amn't I just the most modern? (Come to think of it, I'm more likely to note the sexuality than the sex - are queers and dykes disproportionately represented in what people persist in calling the 'blogosphere'?)
November 16, 2003
Vinyl - Noel Jackson on inheriting a crate from his brother. I wonder if Noel (who is just heading for university) is of the last generation to give a shit about the format their music is stored on, and close to the last to own objects that have to be physically searched through, picked up and played. Does it matter? Is there a difference between drag 'n' dropping a playlist together and picking a pile of 7"s, 10"s and 12"s to listen to? (Answers: yes)
November 15, 2003
Over Miami, captured on South Beach, Satan later escaped. His demons and the horrible Bloody Mary are now killing people. God has fled. Avenging angels hide out in the Everglades. - report on the amazingly sophisticated post-Christian mythology and folklore of homeless children in Miami, as moving as it is fascinating.
What to do if your Mom discovers your blog - 'technical support' from Blogger. (My Dad reads this weblog, and is yet to disown me.)
iPod for the holidays - Apple's iPodRocks.com goes so far as to include a 'Convince your parents' section in their bid to make 'Pods the big Chrimbo gift this year.
Advanced CSS Ornamentation - bloody hell!
November 12, 2003
November 11, 2003
Come Jine We - MetaFilter post on the sea island culture of the Gullah.
November 10, 2003
Sharing the Groove Bittorrent Tracker - bookmarked here, because I can never find it in my browser bookmarks. Leon - fancy posting your current fave trackers? All the ones I use seem to be offline.
invisiblog.com (beta) - anonymous weblog publishing
Comment Spam Manifesto - Adam Kalsey urges people to take on the comment spammers. Couldn't agree more. If you have Movable Type, start with MT-Blacklist.
November 09, 2003
November 08, 2003
Wired News: Will Microsoft Wallop Friendster?
November 07, 2003
Now that the Palace have issued a denial of his involvement in an incident that no one can publically discuss in the UK, I wonder if it is legal for me to say that Prince Charles definitely does not shag his male staff members, never has done and certainly won't in the future?
John Travolta lives in an airport. Really. [via MetaFilter]
November 06, 2003
Is Macedonian a language? - the Mozilla Firebird localisation in Macedonian has caused quite the socio-geo-linguistic spat, with Greeks and Macedonians (or people from the Former Yugoslavic Republic of Macedonia, if you're a certain sort of Greek) arguing about the validity of the language most people call Macedonian. It seems to have something to do with Alexander the Great. And I thought Scottish and Irish folk had long memories... [via Anil Dash's Daily Links]
Prague Literary Review is a new monthly arts tabloid from Prague which aims at being both regional and internationalist, with essays, reviews, commentary, photography, art, philosophy, politics, theatre, fiction, poetry. I've only scanned a couple of articles, but it looks pretty good. [via Artsflow]
'We' are holding off on Panther for the very same reasons...
November 05, 2003
New radio Hitch-Hiker's - a six part adaptation of Life, the Universe and Everything. Most of the original cast, and a posthumous appearance from Douglas Adams (thanks to Audiobook recordings), but no Peter Jones, of course.
The Scotsman has an exhaustive list of RSS feeds. Brilliant. I wonder if there is anyone out there subscribing to both the conjoined twins and deep vein thrombosis feeds.
birdhouse.org: Speeding Up Movable Type
Further proof, if proof be need be, that cats are evil. [via Aaron Swartz]
Localfeeds: Glasgow - posts from GeoURL-equipped and Glasgow-based weblogs aggregated. Handy. Or possibly not. [via Solitude]
November 04, 2003
Bluejacking - website documenting 'craze,' believed by media. But has anyone actually been Bluejacked? Maybe, but the whole thing is certainly generating publicity for Esato, a shit site that flogs ringtones. Hmmn.
International Art Blog - cleverly unreadable design.
Mo Morgan returns to weblogging after 365 days off.
November 03, 2003
In a sudden flurry of tin-foil hattery, a certain Muadin gets comment-happy on the Submit Response post More on PNAC. Planetary unification seems like a bit of a stretch to me.
An introduction to weblogs - save head scratching when asked, 'So, what is a weblog' by pointing to this handy entry-level guide.
November 02, 2003
PhoneAgent 1.1 - In demo mode, you can transfer multiple pictures from the t610 to your Mac! Yay! Other than that, there's a bundle of good features, although probably not $29.95's worth. Also, slightly laborious installation process.
Sonny Bono Is Dead - a music project that asks artists to liberally sample from works that would have fallen into the Public Domain by the year 2004 had the Sonny Bono Act failed. Artists are also encouraged to create new works by sampling Sonny Bono's output (or other artists who embraced the notion of copyright lasting forever.
Bye-Bye Data: Glitch in Panther. Hmmn. My copy of Panther is in the hands of striking postmen, and I probably would've unplugged my external drive while installing. Just the thought of possibly maybe coming close to losing the contents of my external drive is enough to bring me out in a cold sweat though. Apple's response is out of kilter with users' experiences.
Tom Watson, the weblogging MP, presents a list of reasons to dislike Michael Howard. In brief: grimly homophobic, anti-abortion, pro-Poll Tax, anti-Human Rights Act, anti-immigration, often incompetent, liar, hypocrite. In other words: Tory scum, of the kind one can easily hate. And, of course, the kind that the voting public kept in power for nigh on two decades. More loathsome, and more dangerous than Hague or that other fellow they had recently. You know, the bald chap. He was on the television once or twice.