Volume 68
21 Nov 2005
Looks good to me - unfortunately the Overseas subscription rate looks rather too high. Ten pounds an issue is probably not worth it for 96 pages even it is on archival quality paper. Stand price is $9.95 - maybe someone should buy up a few copies and ship them over in bulk.
RIP Link Wray
This volume is much too long - I menat to hit "new" this morning and got distracted. Oh well. Bumps up the average to more than 602.7 links per page, so more confusion ahead.
Try a google image search for "Britain wind farm" - a couple of odd hits.
20 Nov 2005
Made our xmas cake today. The Kenwood turned out to be not working properly so creaming the butter was a little tricky but we got it done. (I should add that the Kenwood belonged to P's mother so is doing pretty well all things considered)
19 Nov 2005
Huh? This is somewhere near Newcastle (looks like Wallington way possibly) I have no idea what it's about though.
Nice (from the man who just got the patent on the spaceship that everyone has been linking to)
Last week I forgot to say anything about the Guardian's article about "Britain's most influential bl***ers" - I suspect that if I don't my web licence will get revoked or something (I probably need to post some cat pictures too and my favourite 'fox extensions). Anyway, I hadn't heard of any of them so there wasn't anything to say really.
I blew up 150 balloons this morning (And I just found something about guy breaking some balloon blowing record - it gives a figure of 520 which seems way too low to be a record)
18 Nov 2005
Oh, I really hate filling forms in on incompetently designed websites : I just got one that wouldn't let me use my .name email address, didn't allow spaces in phone numbers and wouldn't work at all in Firefox.
Ok, these coloured bubbles are definitely worth a link even if everyone is on them at the moment.
Oh good heavens, good grief and bloody hell Possibly the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen.
17 Nov 2005
Tangram (I got 988 but I got confused on the last one for some reason so it ought to have been higher)
Cylinders - there's some Fred van Epps on there. Remarkable recording considering the techology involved. (Some nice ragtime pieces to be found as well) I hadn't realised that van Epps's sons were all Jazz musicians (George played a 7 string guitar which I think is interesting. YMMV)
16 Nov 2005
I made paella (or at least a veggie equivalent with quorn representing the chicken and broad beans the prawns...) tonight. It was good. Then I made zabaglione which was also good.
15 Nov 2005
I hope you all spent sometime perusing that men's underwear site I linked to earlier today (I hestitate to call it gentleman's underwear). Some quite remarkable constructions (and I'm not talking about the models)
14 Nov 2005
13 Nov 2005
I can't make up my mind if these are twee or whether they would look really good. I suspect that they are a mixture of both.
12 Nov 2005
I wish I could make this site look better. Bloglines hides all that design goodness from me by being ugly but when I do visit actual sites, so many of them have that understated, wabi-sabi gorgeousness. *sigh*
Weird Copperfield trick (I can't be doing with the dancers and the pomp though)
11 Nov 2005
Firefox 1.5 seems to have hit the ground.
Visit Beautiful people with Firefox, have a laugh and then go in. I am guiessing it is some kind of dating agency, but who knows.
The clunkiest site in the world? Note(if you can find it) the detailed description of how to use the site and the apologies for the mess that it is. And all this numbers for your front door.
10 Nov 2005
I just got some email in German as a result of a a purchase. Thank goodness for Babelfish. "To fulfill with hope your expectations in the best way." (Mit der Hoffnung Ihre Erwartungen bestens zu erfüllen)
I've been after something like this for years! Don't seem to be available in the UK yet though.
Muther Grumble - before my time in the North East, but I was involved in similar things in Edinburgh at the time. In fact I probably ought to dig out some of it and put it online.
9 Nov 2005
I went on to the Tyne Tees Televions website looking for news and the news page says "There are currently no news stories". Huh?
Blue Ball Machine - doesn't work in Firefox (for me - 1.5RC1, YMMV), but is worth running IE for.
Swarming with police here this morning : a body found in the building next to ours. No further information though.
8 Nov 2005
Has Bloglines changed their CSS? Or has something else gone wrong? I got a page load error and then after that it all looked different.
I have even better idea - why don't you all practise your psychic skills and make a psycast where you predict what is going to be in it. Of course we could all get drunk and have a plastercast.
Thanks, Gary!
Edge Life - some article titles "Osmosis and Your Energy Body", "Healing and expanding your personal light frequency with the mind", "Rebirthing My Personal Vibration through Depression", and to cap them all "Mediterranean Cous Cous Salad"
Messages from the the hosts of heaven (Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - read in particular about the change of plans and remember "<i>keep your inner radio tuned to our frequency band as much as you can and pay attention to those subtle messages that seem to arise within you</i>", but don't forget that it might just be me telecasting stuff.)
I've decide to skip podcasting and vidcasting and go straight to telecasting - no, I'm not going to play a Telecaster (my electric is a Strat copy anyway), I'm just going to sit and think hard about what I want to say and everyone can just tune in using telepathy. Cheap too.
7 Nov 2005
I got a letter today offering me the option of having my site posted to 8 major search engines and to get page ranking reports quarterly for only 65UKP! How generous and cost effective.
Another Criss Angel trick - ludicrously over the top response from the audience to something that is not particularly intellectually taxing to work out how it is done.
6 Nov 2005
It's quite fun ego-surfing on Google print!
Made gnocchi for tea (flour/butter/eggs/cheese not potato ones) in a slightly sweet and sour tomato sauce (lemon juice & muscavado sugar). Served with garlic bread and rocket salad with parmesan shavings. Nice Ozzie red wine. Chocolate torte (Tesco's) to finish. It was a nice meal.
5 Nov 2005
I got Hooteroll? today. Excellent stuff. The sleeve notes however are terrible : "Without losing a certain continuity each song stands out on its own as straight-up, good improvisation". I think they may be translated from French.
4 Nov 2005
I really can't bestir myself to download the new flock release. In other non-news, got a new Dell laptop to play with today : makes even more convinced of the superiority of Apple.
I've always wanted to try playing vibes and last night I had a go! Fantastic, now I really want a set, but they are somewhat expensive sadly. Someone suggested that it would be relatively simple to build an entirely electronic set of vibes and I think it would, though I don't know enough about how you would work the "bars" to detect how heavily they were struck. Might be a fun project though. If anyone understands the technologies taht might be involved do fill me in on them.
3 Nov 2005
Another neat trick - clearly some palming going on, but I can't quite work out where. (I wonder where you get hold of conjoined polo mints?)
I haven't had a rant for, oh, nearly several posts now, so, wrt the previous item, why do people insist on talking about "logging on to the Internet". I don't ever recall having to log on to the Internet ever. (I don't recall ever logging on to the BBC website either, though that's what they always say) What's wrong with "go"?
2 Nov 2005
Good trick - no idea how he does the salt shaker. I wonder if he could do it if he took off the huge watch that he is wearing?
1 Nov 2005
I wonder if I should start charging $5 to post comments? I wanted to post a comment to a thread on Metafilter that was as usual going on about Edison inventing the lightbulb. As you all know of course he did not invent the lightbulb, and, as you also know, I get really, really annoyed by the fact that people keep claiming he did. Anyhow, I was going to sign up to Metafilter to post a comment and they wanted $5. Bugger that for a pound of tomatoes. And this is nearly turning into the sort of long rambling post about nothing that you find on weblogs that are not "old style". Maybe I should give it a title. How about Duke?
So Safari now passes Acid-2, but it still doesn't do fieldsets correctly so what is the point?
31 Oct 2005
Prophecy House "Our books break new theological ground, and raise the bar where accurate biblical teaching and prophetic discernment are concerned. We guarantee it." I'm saying nothing.
Jesus Dressup - I actually think is rather offensive, because it makes no real point about anything and is just puerile and unfunny.
Clearly to stay ahead of the field, I'll have to announce Web 8.0 Camp (though this clearly an invitation only, zeitgeisty, event for A-listers, and you'll have to leave your ego at the door (there'll be a *big* cloakroom), though this is mostly because there won't be room in the hall for your egos and the egos of the speakers who will of course be the usual suspects, probably announcing their latest VC supported beta project called something like DoggeeDoo or cap.ricio.us or iwa.ntto.vom.it)
Not seen this book which surprises me, unless it is not out in the UK. Except that it is published by Headpress which is a UK a publisher. Hmmm.
30 Oct 2005
"Most of the people in Texas are also going to hell - that's a fact." (The comments at the bottom provides one of the finest collections of bad grammar and poor spelling I have ever seen)
I mentioned atiki the other day - I tried it and got very poor quality resutls from it, so so far I am not impressed, though I may need to go and do some work on the queries. I was going to say something (negative!) about another site I am trying out but I just remembered in time that they asked people not to say anything about it.
Now I need to work out a way of indicating that there are trackbacks (I know: why? Well, just because...) since there are now three (one of them a recursive one from me though) And when the trackback spam starts then they'll go away anyway.
Open Heart I haven't worked out which cult is behind this yet. (The 80,000 rings a bell : I'm sure the TM people were throwing that number around so it might be them)
Bifurcated Rivets seen at Beamish Notice the large cardboard box behind the tin! I don't have one of those. I wonder what the box underneath the tin is - I don't have one like that either. (Cardboard packaging is hard to get hold of - people sling it out, whereas the tend to keep tins which have other uses) I shall have to go down to Beamish and have a look in person.
The little trackback thing is just supposed to be the source of the URL to which you should trackback - if you click it, you get an error because what is sent is not a trackback. I'll make it do something different.
Seems Web 4.0 is taken let me welcome you to the future with Web 7.3
29 Oct 2005
I wonder if I should make the little footprint things make a popup that sends a trackback. In fact nobody has sent a trackback since I added the feature. Not one. I suppose if I had titles and long rambling posts about my life and other stuff....
Let me be the first person to mention Web 4.0
28 Oct 2005
Tonight I made a ratatouille of courgettes, yellow tomatoes and artichoke hearts. I added a teaspoonful of ginger cordial to it which gave it an interesting kick. Served with lemon flavoured pitta bread and green lentils cooked with onions garlic and mushrooms, I added sage to this as well as cumin, ginger and turmeric and P. said that it tasted like stuffing to her, but I liked it.
Good trick, though what's with the OTT reactions from the "audience"? It's a trick not some kind of miracle. Now, if he did it without the paper being held up in front of it that would be something. And how many shills? The guy inside with him must be one, and presumably the people holding the paper too since they're going to see or feel something about how it works.
Hmm, Hooteroll all sold out on pre-order at Spin in High Bridge, but they are keeping me one for next week.
Anyone who is near Durham (Gary this definitely means you) should pop into the DLI museum to have a look at the retrospective of the late Richard Hobson's work - some lovely pictures, though a couple of my favourites are not included.
Interestingly it seems that Hooteroll has been re-issued on CD this very week!
27 Oct 2005
Over at Boing Boing they are raving about some new SF book but the sample given seems to suffer from a large number of the faults that were on that list doing the rounds recently. Why would someone in the future be called Magister? Why do we need the little economics lesson? Why all the (unlikely) invented terminology? I suppose this is why I never read science fiction.
Damn, I ordered Howard Wales/Jerry Garcia's Hooteroll from Amazon and they have been unable to source it after many months. How annoying. A great favourite of mine.
Hey, welcome to an "older style weblog" (and quoted by the Guardian weblog, though without a link). I am deeply flattered to be mentioned in the same breathe as Robot Wisdom! I must confess to be against the idea of titles for the kinds of posts that I make - only long pieces deserve titles.
26 Oct 2005
Sex ID - I was slap bang in the middle of the scale between male and female. (I also got all the rotations right)
Good point (though how many of those amateur movies will be worth watching? Possibly more than the rubbish that comes out of Hollywood I suppose)
Orange Man project - idiot, Vitamin A is poisonous (mind he doesn't seem to me to be eating enough carrots by a long way if he wants to turn orange)!
25 Oct 2005
24 Oct 2005
I hadn't seen American Dad before - not as good as Family Guy I would say but entertaining none the less.
I see that there is a new move to get the soldiers executed for "cowardice" in the First World War pardoned (reading their stories makes me genuinely angry). I ferverently hope that this time it is successful - it won't do anything to help anyone much but it will at least get governemnt to admit that there was great wrong done.
Has anyone else found that clicking on links stops working after a while in Firefox 1.5 beta (or perhaps it is clicking on javascript: links)?
I just mentioned Mao Ze Dong in a class today and almost none of the students knew who he was (excluding the Chinese of course). Several of them had no idea who Lenin was either. *sigh*
On my hunt for the perfect browser experience I am now trying the preview of Opera 9. (I don't like the layout of the opera screen though).
I uninstalled Flock - I really couldn't find anything that it gave me above what I already had. Of course, I'll try it again if they do manage to find some magic fairy dust to sprinkle on it.
23 Oct 2005
22 Oct 2005
RIP Larry Moore (great surf photographer) and Ronald Pearsall (author of many interesting books)
Qinopio asked about tea in a comment, and in particular the Twining's Prince of Wales' tea that I linked to an advert for. I have never come across that tea before so I have no idea what it is like. Clearly it's in a teabag, which I only use when camping anyway! (I'm wondering now how many people didn't get the joke in the advert - it may be a rather British joke now I come to think of it!). I did discuss my tea preferences before, to recap : I use a 50/50 blend of Nilgiri and Darjeeling A which I make myself. (Which is probably the most pretentious thing you will hear anyone say today) Of the commercial teas, I do like Earl Grey. I am not keen on the smoky Lapsang style of tea.
21 Oct 2005
Flock is really just a cutdown Firefox at the moment. It runs fast (presumably from being cutdown) but the extra features it claims to make it different aren't really that useful : since I don't use del.icio.us, flikr or a blogging service, integration of these gives me nothing. (Indeed, many people are saying the firefox plugins for these systems work better) I certainly can't see any magic Web 2.0 fairydust sprinkled round it anywhere.
So, of course I have to go and try Flock just like the rest of the herd (we're sheep not birds). I'll let you know what it's like. As if you care.
Monk/Coltrane (watch the video about the discovery of the tape, and listen to the tunes of course)
20 Oct 2005
Prime Time Clock - to be frank (and it was Frank that told me about this), I can't be bothered to try to understand this.
The little feety things give you the trackback URL for an item. Why you should want this I don't really know, but never mind. And of course, as always, if you don't know what I'm talking about then you don't need to know. (Though of course that rule doesn't apply to my lectures, quite the reverse - it's me who doesn't know what I'm talking about in those)
iTunes is throwing up a lot of recent stuff at the moment rather than the usual "nothing later than 1950". Bjork has a fantastic voice.
e-closure (which for some reason made me think of that Northern Enlgish exclamation "Eeee, Jack, your late!" which occurs in a song by someone who I can't recall off hand. But I do recall the name of the song which leads me neatly to the Mike Absolom Lyrics page, the song in question being WPC Sadie Stick, which rather unneatly is not the version of the song that I am thinking of which is rather a puzzle)
I Unsubscribe - good piece. I am starting to see way too much stuff. Bloglines is good in that it aggregates all my stuff in one place that I can connect too from the different machines I use (if I used only one machine I would prefer a proper application though). But what it doesn't do is the essential filtering : removing duplicate items (or aggregating them) and not showing me stuff I have seen before. This alone would cut down stuff by 50% I reckon. Do I have to sit down and right this myself I wonder? (Hey, this might be the killer Web 2.0 app!)
Hmmm - do you get the impression that she might have perhaps cut some of those garment illustrations from a catalogue? Heaven forfend that a good christian woman would break the copyright laws! (Of course this may just be my nasty, athiest, corrupted mind at work and she is without blemish in this respect) Great, easy to type and remember domain though.
19 Oct 2005
18 Oct 2005
Well I've never heard it called a phoon - we've been doing this for years in our family. Never seen anyone else do it though (till now of course).
I want to know why I haven't been selected as one of the 30,000 people testing the new Llpyd's bank access gizmo. I'm insulted.
17 Oct 2005
Chy (or indeed anyone), try generating a trackback to one of these items. (They seem to be working)
Ridiculous - you cannot have more than 100 items on your "saved for later" list at emusic.com : what is the point of that I ask you?
Ooooh, I think I make most of these (and this post on its own breaks most of them). JN clearly doesn't quite get the point of weblogs I would say, or at least weblogs like this one, or indeed the lack of point of weblogs like this one. Of course, he talks about b**gs and that's clearly something else entirely.
16 Oct 2005
Atiki - looks intersting, except that I don't really have a particular set of searches that I do all the time.