Missing out

I've neglected this journal for a little while partly because of work and partly because of one of those occasional tidal waves within online communities where they are washed away and a certain amount of time has to be spent with the flotsam and jetsam and wondering where everyone else is.

Sort of.

I was peripherally involved in the Chris McKinstry suicide announcement and its fairly petty aftermath online. For those that don't know Chris (and those that do will be bored enough by now to close their eyes for the following paragraph or two), he was an AI researcher of varying degrees of reputation depending upon who was doing the repping. He had more than his fair share of peculiar ideas (so have I but I generally call them fiction and story ideas), and a significant appetite for self advertisement. All of which probably had nothing to do with prompting him to announce on his blog and a couple of discussion boards that he was in the midst of ending his life.

A number of people from various places attempted to get someone to him in Chile but failed and the Monday before last he was found by his cleaner, gassed.

I had no idea of most of this during that weekend, I'd seen a few postings on the Saturday but by then all the toing and froing between him and others on the board had finished.

The board that I was aware of was the Off Topic semi-detached annex to the Joel On Software Discussion Forums (I'll not bother doing a link you can find them if you like), and I was one of the moderators of that Off Topic annex.

Again I was away from the computer (just sleeping normally), when the next event happened which was that Joel Spolsky decided to close the ?off board completely for a set of reasons which, I think its safe to say, are at variance with the ones published on his blog.

Anyway, I woke on the Wednesday morning with a fairly neglected site of mine (Ectopia) fairly jumping with activity as a number of those normally on ?off clung to Ectopia as a life raft whilst an entirely similar craft to ?off was being built (Crazy on Tap). That clone site is now up and running.

It prompted me to clean up and fix some of the bugs that Ectopia did have to make it easier to use and I guess that was worthwhile. There's still the occasional flurry to make out that there is some kind of competition between the two sites but that was never really the case. If Ectopia continues to be used, that's all well and good, Crazy on Tap will be the one that has to suffer from being just like the previous place but different and that's a much harder task than simply starting from scratch.

As for what Ectopia is? Well its a kind of blog for anyone to make a posting without any real restrictions other than breach of copyright and attempts to monopolise it.

The new way to get rich

or not.

• Think of an idea, a service.


• Sell the idea to customers.


• Collect the money for the service.


• Don't bother performing the service.


• Wash and repeat.

A Tall Tree Falls

The oldest man in Scotland and the last survivor of the Christmas Truce 1914 and the games of football that broke out in No Man's Land between the British and Germans has died in a nursing home.

As S said last week whilst watching a program on the few remaining WWI veterans (there are now just three British survivors), this isn't history it's real.

Language was this that we well communicated with

In some far future when the ancient SMS and email archives are discovered by the elongated fingers of an archaeologist slowly delaminating the history of the NSA or MI5 they will stratify our society by the language different sections use to communicate with and come up with some quite bizarre ideas as to what we are and how we think.

I wonder how they'll take something like the following fragment of spam I received.

Sir/Madam,
Your present circumstances has been calculated to the compulsory peoples, and upon precise care, we are able to tender to you the next opportunity.

Based upon precise care you certify to acheive a abundant benefit on your first property investment.
...

With kind salutations,

Yvonne Brown

Restaurant Update

Instead of Pearl, we're going to Babylon which might be more apt and it looks as if we'll be daughterless as she has her Presentation Show that weekend at her drama/dance/singing school thing. She doesn't seem bothered about us not going but was considerably bothered about not doing the Presentation as she has a solo.

This update was prompted by Belial.

Buying the Childhood Home

I can't imagine wanting to buy any of the houses I lived in as a child, even the last house a detached house built only a few years after the one we live in now. Our three bedroom semi is larger than all of them. But then I didn't grow up in a log cabin as Mark did.

So he is trying to buy it but, as it is made of logs, banks and lending institutions are a little nervous of lending against it and his best deal means a deposit of $7K of which he is light $5K. Now in my age and maturity my instinct is to walk away and buy a house that's immediately affordable and make it a long term goal, the house will come up again and there doesn't appear to be a large market for this particular house.

But I can understand, dimly at least, the need to have it and the need to have it now when its available. It becomes a measure of self worth almost, or if not self worth then luck and fate. If the house is acquired, it was fated, and he was fated to succeed and he'll feel that much better about life in general and perhaps go on to finish all those other things.

If he doesn't get the house then its going to be hard to shrug off and not make it a measure of lucklessness.

He has a Paypal contribute button on his site and people have contributed to the tune of around $260 right now and perhaps they are contributing because of his promise to contribute forward to others in similar need over the coming years.

As the girl in the sandwich shop said this lunchtime when I was getting my hot pork with everything including gravy baguette, "When a Mini comes along you just have to get it.".

Indeed.

And the Nobel Prize for Literature is....(long pause)

Harold Pinter.

Now I'd certainly not begrudge Pinter his Nobel, he did after all change forever modern theatre in English moving on from Brecht. Just so long as he doesn't get the idea that its for his poetry as well, we could do with less rather than more Pinter Poetry, even if it is of a similar political hue to mine own.

Le Disque Blue c'est mort.

Although its nearly twenty years since I smoked I did smoke for around 18 years and for a good deal of that time it was strong tobacco that attracted me much as strong coffee does now. Camel rather than Marlboro, Old Holborn rather than Golden Virginia but Disque Bleu was probably my favourite and I can still taste them twenty years later.

It certainly wasn't just the throat seizing bite of breathing in the smoke and the after glow throughout the mouth it was the culture that permeated the smoke, the packaging, the Frenchness of it. The skill required in even getting a cigarette out was part of the process, much as rolling a good Rizla paper with one hand was a part of rolling your own. Tear off one corner of the silver paper of the pack, roll the pack gently in the fingers to loosen the packed tubes and then a jerk of the hand and a single cigarette pops up to be taken directly into the mouth and then lit.

I don't miss smoking at all, but the mechanics and ritual can still stir a feeling of bereavement.

Slavery Day

I've designated today Slavery Day, as all citizens of the USA (and the foreigners they invite) celebrate Independance Day the rest of us should mark the same day as symbolic of our enshacklement to the USA.

Get your twangers out and play with your balls

I didn't get to see much of the Apprentice last night, I was too absorbed in Liverpool drawing the sting of Chelsea but having James' website pointed out to me by MarkTAW I followed his Personal Links to here which had me in stitches all the way through. They say it was actually broadcast but I seem to remember Rainbow being on for far longer than this at a time and being horribly turgid. I think its an end of term tape for the Christmas Party myself.

You'll have to go to the site and run the clip to see what I mean, but the Subject of the posting gives a rough approximation.

An Apple with Love

Just to complete the set of Apple posts here's news from Kashmir.
SRINAGAR: Apple growers of Kashmir have sent a gift of 12 cartons of apples to Pakistani and Indian leaders with a message "From Kashmir With Love."

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress party president and Chairperson of the National Advisory Council, Sonia Gandhi will be among the recipients.

Apple growers are sending six cartons of the world famous apples to Pakistani leaders as a thanksgiving gesture for starting the bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad on April 7, which will link divided parts of Kashmir for the first time in 58 years.

Six other cartons are being sent to New Delhi for Dr. Singh and Sonia before both leave for Srinagar to inaugurate the historic bus service next week.

Perhaps Sharon should send oranges from Jaffa to Mahmoud Abbas, well perhaps not as Jaffa, now a part of Tel-Aviv, was seized in 1948.

Charles has Blair Pie for Breakfast

Not content with mumbling about Nicholas Witchell (whose only crime I can see is that he has too many freckles and red hair), earlier in the week it seems that Prince Charles has also decided that his wedding is more important than deciding who is to be the next government, or more accurately when it gets to be announced and thus the management of Parliamentary business this week.

It appears, according to the Sunday Times, that Blair was intending to announce the proroguing of Parliament and the date of the General Election on May 5th on Tuesday this week. However, the Palace didn't like that plan as it meant that the House would be sitting on Friday, the same day as Charles' Wedding, sorry Registry Office thing and then Blessing. It would also mean that they'd be talking about the Bill allowing Female accession in its normal place replacing the current male primogeniture rule.

Well fuck 'im would have been my response. I can't imagine the Vatican is going to delay the funeral for Pope John Paul II for the sake of Charles and Camilla so I don't see that we should change our political diary for him either.

Charlotte makes an Apple pie of itself

Another little gem from I Just Heard

The iMAX cinema in Charlotte N.C. has reversed its decision not to show a film called "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea" because of the amount of interest shown in seeing the film. They'd originally decided not to show the film because many of their patrons were creationists and it might have frightened young children.

Quite how they knew the beliefs of the their audiences and how they could run an iMAX cinema at all without at least giving the kids vertigo I can't possibly say.

Just the Balls Ma'am

It's the nature of scientists to chip away at the constraints placed around them, whether they're ethical or legal. Professor Twink Allen, the father in law of jockey Frankie Dettori, has gained permission to perform cloning experiments on horses.

Given his connection to the racing industry it isn't surprising that he really wants a licence to commercially clone champion geldings but so far this hasn't been granted.

The best quote from Dr Allen is “The value of the cloning there would be to recreate the champion gelding, or at least his testicles.”

Indeed.

Original link from I Just Heard

Oh Dr Johnson

I'm moderately amused by the modern coffee shop as donated to us by those from Seattle. In the original coffee shops of 18th century London they were bustling premises of argument and debate that became, amongst other things, the foundation of the insurance and stock exchanges. I can't help feeling that if they'd all sat not communicating with one another and scrawling in their notebooks that nothing except 'She Stoops to Conquer' would ever have come of it.

Did he go to the Moon?

Jonathan King has been released on parole about half way through his sentence for indecently (as if you could do it decently) fiddling with young boys (14-15 at the time).

He's continuously protested his innocence which may, for all I know be true, though if he is he could do his case greater good by not giving photo opportunities such as this one.

One quote at the bottom of the BBC news piece puzzles me. When asked how he got on in prison he said.

"I have had no complaints at all about my time inside, apart from the food at Broadmoor."  

I name this ship...

Neil Gaiman recently auctioned on Ebay the right to name the cruise ship that figures prominently in his new novel Anansi Boys. At the time there was some foreboding that this would be another opportunity for a certain online casino company to gain cheap advertising. The beneficiary of the auction is the CBLDF, supporting free speech in comic books basically.

So it was interesting to read on Neil's blog that the winner was Squeakland, an educational software methodology company. It rang a bell somewhere in the back of my head and a few clicks later it dawned on me. Alan Kay is President of Viewpoints Research Institute Inc which produces Squeak and Alan Kay is one of the fundamental developers in the industry, a founder of PARC, the developer of 3D algorithms that underpin everything we think of as graphical and an all round good person.

So, I suggest, as they haven't decided yet, that they name the Cruise ship The Alan Kay. If Rice can be an oil tanker then Kay can be on a ship of pleasure.

Edit..
And the thing I forgot about Alan Kay, momentarily, was that he is the inventor of Smalltalk, one of the branches of object processing.

Lawyers don't do it.

Over the past few weeks there's been a slight furoré in the English Legal Profession. Not the Clementi report talking about allowing legal services to be liberalised (giving us Tesco Law), and the regulation and complaints arms of the Law Society being split. Not anything remotely serious such as that.

No, the storm is all about a recruitment ad with the graphic on the right here. You might think it witty, you might think it rude and apt but a certain staff member of the Law Society thought it brought the profession into disrepute and Xceli, the Recruitment Agency, took the disgust in its stride. The next week's ad is just over the link...

Which I think should get the award for 'Fuck You' in advertising.

For those in peril Underground

Thanks to I for this.

This just has to be played, though given how it progresses you may need to wear headphones in an environment where the word Fuck and others are considered far too rude.


http://mirell.org/swf/london_underground.swf

Make way CSI, standaside Cracker and Wire in the Blood

In wittering a bit about the Microsoft search plans on Off Topic it came to me that with all the demographic data, the buying patterns and the MSN Messenger activity and Hotmail stuff that Microsoft has about an individual that they, Microsoft, now know where all the serial killers are.

At which MarkTAW considered it as a new TV drama.

So this is just me putting down the stake in the idea, oh and Mark gets a piece too I guess.

Now all I have to do is write a treatment.

The Democrat Strategy

The last two nights I watched Supervolcano on BBC 1 and other than it being a slightly worthy documentary and a little wooden it was fine and dramatised the science very well. But it did make me think this morning that although it might have been funded by the BBC it could have been by the Democratic Party (the USA one that is), since when the caldera erupts from underneath Yellowstone apart from the 80km wide crater the ash ejected obliterates the middle of the continent as far as east of Chicago, pretty much everywhere except the two coasts. So, that would be one sure way to get a Democrat President and maybe the only way in the near future. Texas would be intact as well, but that would probably secede.

Tracking back

I Just Heard had its first legitimate trackback in February which I only just realised.

Perhaps the beginning of a real rumour mill.

:-)

It's good not to be popular

One of the advantages of not being a popular blogger is that I don't get into stupidities such as this a Slashdot about bloggers hammering on wikipedia's entry for Poker, all because there's a propensity for some gambling sites to spam comments on blogs.

Tarring all those that blog with the same brush is a fairly typical /.'ism.

Art Mirroring Life

He referred to the presence of late chief minister E.K. Nayanar at the function and called K. Karunakaran Karunakaran Nair instead - central minister T.R. Baalu just got everything wrong here Wednesday.

Addressing a gathering at the foundation laying ceremony of the Vallarpadom Container Terminal here in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the shipping minister was at sea in more ways than one.

While complimenting people who worked for the success of the long awaited project, Baalu referred to the presence of former chief minister E.K. Nayanar in the function. Nayanar passed away last year.

And when he was corrected, he came up with the name 'Karunakaran Nair' for veteran Congress leader K. Karunakaran, one of Kerala's most high profile politicians. All this, while Karunakaran was seated in the front row reserved for MPs from Kerala.

After these gaffes, it appears that Baalu, who is also minister for road transport and highways, needs a crash course in Kerala's contemporary political scene.

This reminds me of the novels of R. K. Narayan whose novels deal with the detail and petty politics of Indian life. I'm not sure which amuses me more, the confused politician (and who wouldn't be confused with the multitude of similar names), or the unconsciously pompous journalist.

As seen on IJustHeard.com

Gossip, gossip, rumour and news

Apart from wrestling with printers and the like I've spent some time revamping IJustHeard.com. I've replaced the Squishdot / Slashdot lookalike with a CoreBlog.

To feed it with content I've set up a bunch of Google Alerts which I then mangle with a bit of perl and then mail into the blog.

The snags were all about picking up the content I wanted in a structured way. Now, if I want a different kind of feed I just set up a different alert and add that as a Category on the blog, if I don't set the Category up it just shows up as a Rumour anyway.

The style of the site will likely change and I'm expecting some fun graphics and icons along shortly.

Comments welcome...

A slice of disgruntled of Worcestershire

I sent a copy of the Open Letter to MPs to the Any Answers programme on BBC Radio 4 and Jonathan Dimbleby read the second and third paragraph very nicely and didn't make me sound like Fascist Swine of Worcestershire which is always a risk on Comment programmes.

Time Machine slips again

This is interesting, but if you scroll down to the bottom of the page it is even more so, it seems "This column ran on page 1 in the 1/24/2005 edition of The New York Observer. Even given the American habit of writing their dates down backwards this is a feat indeed.

Just don't FCC with Greek Love

Gianna Angelopoulos has warned the FCC not to try and censure or fine NBC for broadcasting the opening of the Olympic Games in Athens last year. There are around nine complaints on the FCC site (given there were around three and a half billion watching) which only has jurisdiction in the US anyway.

But I understand her concern, if the FCC is going to fine US broadcasters everytime they happen to show the human body in anything other than clothes the rest of us are going to also suffer the same censorship in world events. It's ironic that the public attitude of the US to places such as Iran is that they're repressive and suppressive regimes and at the same time they can't cope with a single nipple with a star clamp.