Digital Dreams
Hi. I still use LJ, follow my friends and similar, but I've moved my main host to Dreamwidth now, and am crossposting everything to here, but asking people to comment there.
Mat Bowles.
It's still fully interoperative, the OpenID comment functions there are good and improving, and I can follow everything from both sites easily.
Mat Bowles.
It's still fully interoperative, the OpenID comment functions there are good and improving, and I can follow everything from both sites easily.
-
There are elections next week across the UK. In Britain, the votes are counted using the D'Hondt closed list PR system. This is one of the few electoral systems I've encountered I consider to be worse than the one we use for Westminster, when you get critics attacking "PR", they're having a go at this pile of arse, which no one sane suggests for Westminster (and Labour had to force through the Lords after a lot of opposition). If you're not sure who to vote for, and don't want to spend too much time thinking about it, go out and vote either Lib Dem or Green; there's a small chance the BNP could win a seat in the North West. Giving Nick Griffin a tax funded salary and the ability to hire a bunch of staff just doesn't appeal. It's unlikely he'll get in, but it could happen. So just go vote, please? Even if the system is arse, the EU parliament does actually have power these days, even if it's not as much as would be liked.
-
Not a bad bit of viral marketing this: what happens when the stuff on the display screen starts falling over. A nicely animated product catalogue as it slowly blows itself up.
-
I pretty much agree with this. Most of us writing our own personal blogs and journals are copying the old small press pamphleteers and chain letter writers. We're just doing it with better technology. Most of the established newspapers grew out of various small presses—the biggest blogs online now have copied this model, bringing in lots of individuals to create a more coherent whole.
-
Some of them really are a bit daft, yes, but still worth thinking about. What the antis always seem to miss is that most supporters of EU membership also constantly argue for reform of the system. That it's a bit crap isn't disputed, how to improve it is. Bit like everything else in life really.
-
A UKIP campaign slogan that doesn't make sense and is based on unfounded and uncosted hyperbole? really? Never would've guessed.
-
There are Euro elections due. One of the issues the EU legislates on is software patents, the Free Software Foundation thinks we should ask the candidates their views on this. Makes sense to me, go do it...
-
The underdog can always win if enough effort is put in. Being able to put that effort in is the main barrier. Does this apply to any walk of life, if at all?
-
Makes sense to me: a successful web technology will have cute cats, porn and activism. If it doesn't have a mix of the three, something isn't working right.
-
This, however, is one of the crazier ideas for solving the EU governance issue—when the paranoid fringes talk about 'plots to break up Britain'? This is the sort of thing they're referring to. But, y'know, interesting idea, even if he does make godawful beer.
-
Apparently from a Spitting Image annual from the mid 80s. It's really quite funny and rather accurate. Note to those supporting Cameron's modern Conservative party (or even those that can remember Major). Yes, Thatcher's Tories really were like this. Some of them still are. That the majority of MPs after the next General Election will be 'untainted' by this association doesn't mean those of us that can remember will trust them.
-
If your identity has been used by a fraudster, and you're required to log all your movements, the authorities will keep trying to arrest you. And a national mandatory identity scheme WILL get cracked by a fraudster almost instantaneously. WebOfEvil shares a personal anecdote
-
Dear Warner. Getting YouTube to remove your subsidiaries officially posted music vids because they infringe your copyright means that people won't see your videos. You know, the ones you paid for to advertise your product? Is there a chance that, at some time soon, the recording industry will grow up and get a clue?
-
Paging George! This bloke seems perfect for you girl...
-
Heh—banning books from teens makes them more likely to want to read them. So a kid running a library of banned books is encouraging her schoolfriends to read more. Cool
-
I never did understand the whole "he'll grow out of it" approach to my liking of SF and fantasy when I was a teen, why would I WANT to grow out of it? Just because I like Asimov and Stross doesn't mean I can't appreciate Nabokov (who wrote some SF anyway) or the likes, just as liking Therapy doesn't prevent me also liking Dvorak or Gershwin. Silly elitist snobs. Still, at least we're winning...
-
Really. It's a hoversnail. It's cool. Go look.
It's the revised 'preferred' version, so it's long for a Heinlein and, apart from the obvious
not aged very wellproblem, it seems to suffer in some way. I'm not, actually, enjoying it. I'm about 1/3rd of the way in for those interested. So I thought I'd ask you guys what you think of him and the book.
Poll #1340941 R A Heinlein
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 38
Stranger in a Strange Land
View Answers
Read the original
18 (50.0%)
Read the revised unedited version 6 (16.7%)
Liked the original 13 (36.1%)
Liked the revised version 5 (13.9%)
Disliked the original 2 (5.6%)
Disliked the revised version 0 (0.0%)
Have heard of but not read 11 (30.6%)
Have never heard of 4 (11.1%)
What is this reading thing? 1 (2.8%)
Heinlein
View Answers
Have read some of his books 25 (65.8%)
Have read all of his books 5 (13.2%)
Agree with his politics 3 (7.9%)
Disagree with his politics 18 (47.4%)
Find the politics sometimes gets in the way of the book 17 (44.7%)
Can't read his books because of his politics 1 (2.6%)
Can enjoy his books despite his politics 17 (44.7%)
Who is this Heinlein guy anyway? 7 (18.4%)
[1] The only books by
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
autopope that I haven't yet read are currently waiting for me to go pick them up. If you're not sure, let Crooked Timber explain Why you should read Charles Stross as part of their Stross book event which I linked to earlier in the week but perhaps didn't push enough. I've not had time to read all of it yet, but what I have read is cool. Especially the Nobel Laureate geeking about the parallel worlds fantasy books...[2] I read Citizen of the Galaxy and I think a couple others as a teen, and enjoyed what I can remember, I mean to reread at some point. I've read Starship Troopers both as a teen and an adult, and find it a great fun entertaining book with some dodgy politics; I'm one of those rare beasts that prefers the film because of the politics, even if Verhoeven did mess that up quite a bit. Farnham's Freehold is, however, a bit of pulpy trash best consigned to the dustbin of outdated books.
autopope's Jennifer Morgue. It's a damn fine James Bond pastiche with casinos, yachts, a submersible car and Great Old Ones—I commend it to the By random chance, It was revealed today that my good friend
innerbrat, despite being a smart, educated Brit in her mid twenties, has never seen a Bond movie. Now, while I am tempted to complement her parents for managing to raise her and not once have ITV on on a bank holiday, I am completely and utterly amazed that she has managed to never see a Bond movie. Given that I am always aware of the potential problems caused by the small numbers fallacy, I thought I'd find out if she's actually less unusual than I think. Poll time:( Poll: Bond, James Bond )
See, I read the books mostly when I was a kid (I distinctly recall reading a fair few while on the caravan holiday in France, which dates it to 1986 just before I turned 12 and started grammar school). I can remember both enjoying reading them and being surprised at how different they were to the films—Bond got married in one, and was getting over her assassination in the next, there was distinct character development and Moneypenny was a bit part.
They were, without doubt, a product of their time, which is why the new films are even further away from them, even if elements (Bond's character) do seem closer than the earlier films. At times I consider going back to reread them, then decide life is too short and I've got far too many other books to read (like the rest of
autopope's books for a start). Anyone else read enough of them as an adult to have an opinion one way or t'other?Jennie posted a slightly different poll rating the movies awhileback for those of you that are poll obsessed or merely didn't see it.
I registered (painless process all on computer), but forgot to ask how many books I'd be allowed. Given that when I grew up in Devon it was 4, Exeter uni was I think 6, and Merton in Wimbledon was similar, while browsing I chose a pile, then put several back on the shelves.
When checking out, I did ask the question. 20.
You can take out 20 books at once
Plus it's a gorgeous building, in a nice park setting, and it's less'n ten minutes walk. I need to remember to return my books on time and not get banned from this library. Plus, as SB discovered, they seem to have a complete set of Asterix books. Shrub's likely a little young for them. Probably. Anyway...
( Here be a poll )
I did see it on the shelf, and made her take it out to read. Pretty sure I leant
susannah_banana my copy, else I'd have put it top of her pile already.Shrub's already read the two books she took out. Which means given it's half term I might have to take her back for more. What a shame. I'll have to force myself.
-Choose a book genreNice'n simple. I pick history:
-Choose five books from that genre
-Tell me why I should read them.
An Utterly Impartial History of Britain (or 2000 years of Upper Class Idiots in charge)
--John O'FarrellThe Glorious Revolution (1688--Britain's Fight for Liberty)
--Edward VallanceBattle Cry of Freedom (The American Civil War)
James M. McPhersonThe long 19th century
--Eric HobsbawmJohn Stuart Mill (Victorian Firebrand)
--Richard Reeves
( Everyone should know at least the basics of the history of these islands )
Pop quiz: When was Britain last successfully invaded?
( Well, have a guess. The late 17thC is )a crucial phase in British history, and this is an excellent primer into it.
( knowing how America came to be the way it is is essential for everyone ).
( The modern world was created by the 19th Century, economically, socially and politically. Understanding it is probably a good thing. )
( If you already think you're a liberal, you ought to have read this book. If you don't think you're a liberal, you should read this anyway )
OK, that was longer than I expected it to be.
ginasketch's meme got me geeking about both books and history. Which has got me writing properly again. I'll try to keep it up. Guess I'd better cut the bulk of the text then...-
Oh my. This is so very silly, StrangeFrontier pointed me at it in comments to the previous post, the rest of the site looks amusing as wel
Poll #1193737 25th May
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 54
Wearing lilac?
View Answers
Of course, it's the Glorious 25th 5 (10.4%)
No, I wasnt there, and neither were you. 33 (68.8%)
WTF? 10 (20.8%)
Towel awareness
View Answers
I know where it is 44 (88.0%)
I'm carrying it 3 (6.0%)
I've lost it 0 (0.0%)
Why should I care where my towel is? 3 (6.0%)
Happy anniversary John and Frances
Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull
View Answers
I have seen it and liked it 11 (20.4%)
I have seen it and disliked it 3 (5.6%)
I have not seen it but plan to 17 (31.5%)
I have not seen it and don't plan to 7 (13.0%)
I might rent it 8 (14.8%)
I hate it and all it stands for 2 (3.7%)
Meh 6 (11.1%)
Mat should
View Answers
Drag SB to see it even though she's not keen 7 (13.5%)
Respect her wishes and see it independently 22 (42.3%)
Not bother and wait until the DVD is out 5 (9.6%)
Stop using polls as a way out of decision making 18 (34.6%)
Also, am watching Sunshine on DVD. It's shit, unfortunately, I'd heard that people that liked Event Horizon liked it and others didn't, as I liked that film, I thought I'd give it a go. Ah well.
ETA: It's stripped out the link to John's Wedding speech from the anniversary bit, silly LJ.
-
Looking at various sources and I was reminded of this result - is it possible Labour's headed for a wipeout of these proportions unless they sort themselves out?
-
to be produced by Sam Raimi. That slurping noise? That's a thousand brains melting at the idea. If you haven't read the book? Don't. Really, don't.
-
Heh: staff and customers at a pub in Tunbridge Wells reported seeing a UFO with "red and green flashing lights" moving across the sky. When asked to describe the direction of movement their answer was "Gatwick".
rhodri's new book is available for pre-order at Amazon:FWD This Link: A Rough Guide to Staying Amused Online When You Should Be Working
It's only £6 (and if you reserve it on pre-order then bookstores will stock more which helps him, right, no obligation to actually cough up later), although given most of my posts at the moment are already linkblogging...
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif){kind=small}
that bastard Duncan tagged me for it anyway, so might as well.1. The rules of the game get posted on the beginning.So, to business:
2. Each player answers the rules about himself [or indeed herself].
3. At the end of the post, the player tags five people and posts their names as a linkthen goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they’ve been tagged and asking them to read his [or her] blog.[because if you're not checking your incoming links you're crap and off topic comments are rude].
( What I was doing ten years ago )
( Five things on my To-Do list today )
( Things I would do if I were a billionaire )
( Three of my bad habits )
( Five places I’ve lived )
( Five jobs I’ve had )
( Five books I’ve recently read )
Five people or communities I’m going to tag:
OK, I normally leave these things open but I'll make a change.![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
Jennie, Alex, ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
Debi, Justin and you. Yes, you.-
It'll either be great or awful. But I do want to know who'll play Servalan.
-
See, it is good for you: Studies on animals have shown that carcinogens like 3-methylchloranthrene can be harbored in the prostate. Frequent ejaculation encourages the cancer-inducing fluids to \"flush out.\"
-
Lunatic is modding his PC. Looks quite cool though
-
I keep telling people to never read the CiF comments, but I break my own rules every so often. Mines not published yet, but even so. I see no reason at all to not give Brian first pref if you live in London, he's definitely better than the other two fro
-
Linking and storing because a huge chunk of it is rewrites of discussions in the comments there involving me, it's a very good post and I want to reference it.
-
An excellent examination of the London voting system and how to use it to stop Boris, equally applies if you stop Ken. The \"excellent\" bit may be related to the bits they've quoted from an \"expert psephologist\". I'm an expert. Weird.
-
Vince on the banks and money markets. Looks like a sound analysis to me
-
Jennie writes the post I've been meaning to for ages about Brian and the voting system
-
Some good stuff in here, alongside the incredibly predictable. Two Cities should be much higher but you can't have everything
-
Annoyingly, some of this stuff still needs to be said to some people (from Debi)
We wandered a bit after that, I wanted to get hold of a book. Smiths didn't have it, but they did have a nice pile of DVDs on offer and, well, we couldn't resist, so more classic Who[1] and a few other things, including a boxed set of wooden board games[3]. Waterstone's didn't have it either, but they did have an import of Android's Dream so that's ok. We decided that out of Borders and Waterstone's, Waterstone's wins, could've spent all day there, easily. Instead we just spent money we don't really have. Ah well, books are never bad.
So, given she's off galivanting in York and I'm not in the mood to go back out, it's me, the dogs, a wide screen TV and a glass (or three) of whisky. After a nice long bath that is. What should I watch first then?
Poll #1162622 DVD watching plans
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 15
What would you watch tonight?
View Answers
Essential research for my next post on Liberal Conspiracy 2 (15.4%)
Bug Eyed Monsters destroy Earth 3 (23.1%)
Zoe's arse in that spangly catsuit 8 (61.5%)
A review of the Thundercats DVDs we bought last time:
View Answers
Write it Mat, go on! 11 (73.3%)
Nah, you can't write reviews anyway. 1 (6.7%)
Thundercats? Why would I want to read a kids cartoon review? 2 (13.3%)
guido_was_taken 1 (6.7%)
[1] And some 5th Doctor stuff, does that count as "classic"?
[2] our first proper 'date' as it happens
[3] Does anyone actually play backgammon properly? Never actually tried it.
RIP Sir Arthur.
ETA: ( More linkage. ) Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.
Thus Spake Zarathustra
Have loads of stuff I kinda-sorta want to post about, including a few damn fine books I've read or am reading (Vallance's The Glorious Revolution being top of the list, a book about events in 1688 still has many many modern echoes that nearly inspired a post or three). But, well, actual inclination to do so lacking. A bit of a meh mood really—when I'm in Yorkshire, I'm either working or wanting to spend time with SB, when I'm down here I'm recovering.
OTOH, very busy week this week—just got back in from the London leadership hustings for the Lib Dems, and, um, yeah—two damn fine candidates that I'd be happy to see as leaders, both very very good. Consensus in the pub from those who've been members longer than me is that both were better than any of the three from last year. Given that one of them was a candidate last year, well, competition + experience = bonus in this case.
Tomorrow I go, hopefully, to see/hear Iain M. Banks get interviewed at Imperial, although timing on that one is difficult, it starts at 6pm and I technically finish work at 6p. Ah well, finish early I guess.
Then Thursday I have tickets for the
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
now_show. Friday, probably, going out somewhere, then Saturday back oop north. Memo to self: book tickets for journey. Am reading entries, just not commenting much, spending a lot of time haging out on various Lib Dem places trying to see if anyone can persuade me &c. Also, my attept to port my twitterings to Facebook has worked fine, but they're not showing up here, which is annoying.So I guess the questions are: Are the Wheel of Time books good, should I try to read them, how far from completion were they, and will someone else be hired to finish things off?
Hawking hath kids book? Written by him and his daughter? How cool is that?
Point two. Hopefully, if del.icio.us and LJ talk to each other, tonight at some point will be a linkspam post, because I'm regularly working at different PCs, my old way of storing links and posting them when I had time isn't working, so instead I'll just tag em on delicious and in theory they auto post here--it works for others, we shall see. There's a dedicated feed,
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif){kind=small}
matgb_links_fd if you want them direct, and the crosspost is now three hours late...Point four.
Happy Birthday foxfirefey!
Point five. Question--how many times d'you think it's necessary to tell people where you live while making a point? ( Many many times it seems... )
I think that last is the best one though...
G'night all. Oh, tomorrow evening (Weds--tonight really), going to be in town, probably in the Wetherspoons next to Victoria at some point around 9.30ish if anyone wants to meet for a drink.
You're A Theory of Justice!
by John Rawls
In the beginning, you lived in a town. The town had many problems! Rather than moving, you decided to come up with the idea for the best town ever. Going all the way back to the original position, you created the idea for the best town ever! Lo and behold, the best town ever looked almost identical to the town you lived in. You decided to stay in the town. Now you resent people mistaking your refined thought experiments for "the wall of stupidity" in high school debate rounds.
Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.
And yes, the code output for the quiz is so awful it's really awful, so I cleaned it a lot. Still, beats Ulysses. Nice that it's a book I a) own and b) like.
chrisdolley has organised what should turn out to be Europe’s largest signing event in Europe’s largest book shoptomorrow (Thursday) evening, 5.30pm till 7.30pm at Waterstones Piccadilly. It'll include Chris himself,
steph_swainston (who's looking forward to it), Jon Courteney Grimwood (gotta love how Waterstones have spelt his name wrong on the website, right?), Robert Holdstock, Steven Savile, Andrew Dennis, Eric Brown, John Lambshead and David Devereux. No, I've not heard of the others before either, but who cares, there aren't many authors I have tags for, two at once in the same place? Yeah baby. [1]Steph's in full on publicity mode for the new book at the moment (read it last week, very good, not sure I liked the ending but overall a nice end to that specific sequence), and there's a decent interview with her at UKSFBN, which I found from this post from
talvalin in which he highlights an apparent inconsistency in her dislike of 'magic' as a plot device. Not 100% sure I agree with him, but there is a point. Oh, and ninebelow has a linked poll on the impact of New Weird as a genre and the impact fandom has on the industry, comments are worth a read. [1]
tyrell (and any others reading this planning to attend) - Let me know if you fancy going to a pub before or after the event, if I'm going to drag myself into town might as well do something while there, right? Contact details for those on my friends list.
There are so many more on that page and in the whole project. I will now stop clicking to read more, so very cool.
tyrell gives us an interesting quote: When asked about the quality of television today he made a comment that "Nothing on TV has ever been as good as (the new) Battlestar Galactica."!Who said that, you ask? Joss Whedon. The guy who made Buffy, Angel, Firefly. The one that Uncle Rusty is trying to copy, rather than learn from and build upon.
Joss Whedon thinks BSG is better than anything he's ever done for TV. And I agree with him. Re watched a fnumber of episodes over the weekend with
miss_s_b, and it was great to remember how good some of them really are.Back home from Yorkshire, knackered, had a great weekend, spending time with
miss_s_b is of course going to be good, meeting burkesworks was cool, trying many many beers at the beer festival was interesting, and I even found a few I actually liked as well, although disappointingly, the cider named Strawberry Fields was far too sweet. Finished reading Macleod's Newton's Wakeon the bus up, and am now about half way through
steph_swainston's The Modern World, loved the former, any Charles Stross fans not already reading Ken should do so, and the latter is proving to be interesting up unitl this point.
Have backread my "people I actually have met" filter, but not really commenting much, far too knackered and incoherent, so I shall simply turn in, work tomorrow.
Feeds
Introspection
There probably ought to be a Creative Commons licence in here somewhere but in the meantime consider this permission to quote me (link) & link to what I write.
If you decide to keep reading, please do say hello, let me know where you found me from, etc. I promise not to bite (well, unless you want me to...)
| Blog: |
| Mat Bowles |
Topics: |
| politics, humour, miscellania |
Designed by matgb
matgbProfile
- matgb
- Mat Bowles
- Mat Bowles