mercredi 17 mars 2004

If you think I'm a 'braindead fuck', be bolder about it Francis, bless him, thought to keep me a copy of 'El Pais' for the Kid's eventual 18th birthday collection (the Faithful Five ¾ know what that is by now). Perusing the paper after my nightly stop by his shop, I felt tremendous admiration for the courage and resilience of the Spanish people, picking up their "lives as normal" after last week's atrocity. This bravery and contempt for the bombers is also manifest in some e-mail I've had from Madrid. I've already made clear, one way or another, what I think of the simple-minded clowns who've used the Net and other media to equate the outcome of the Spanish election with "cowardice in the face of terrorism". However, some of the stuff coming out of the United States in the past two or three days, such as an editorial by Wesley Pruden in his 'Washington Times', has been of a kind to make me feel both annoyed and disheartened. Being angry will get me nowhere, but I really don't like the feeling that a number of the people for whom I once felt a degree of respect, even friendship, have gone to live on a different planet, where almost intolerable arrogance and a total refusal to give even a moment's thought to the real origins of the behaviour they find unacceptable is the norm. Meanwhile, it's intriguing to see what some people use the search box on this place for -- the Atomz people being kind enough to send me a weekly report. So far this month, "sex" tops the list with 62 searches, presumably attributable to spiders rather than people, but who the hell's going to come here expecting to find "pictures of torture instruments" ... or "corky's lost car keys"? Some of my recent reflections have earned me hate mail, if only a little. This neither surprises me nor troubles me, but I do wish at least one of the four people who bothered to send it had been able to spell properly. If you want to insult me, you're welcome to do it right here on the blog! That's what the comments box is for and there's slightly more of a chance I might see some point in replying. To keep it private and personal smacks of ... well, you know what. As to the nice mails also piling up, I'll reply as of Friday. Sorry, but it's been a busy week. And by then, the mini-heatwave we've been enjoying will be over. Right now, there are good reasons to stay out late. 10:51:52 PM  link   your views? [] Use and abuse in the 'morning paper' Just occasionally, the Kid has been known to eat popcorn. "Health officials insist people who microwave popcorn and eat it at home are not in danger, although the Environmental Protection Agency is studying the chemicals released into the air when a bag of microwave popcorn is popped." Chemicals? In the air? The stuff isn't good for you, that we knew. But I had no idea how awful it could be for the people who make it until I saw Eric People's story on the BBC: 'Popcorn victim wins $20m damages'. zzz "No longer can we sit in grubby geek glee, protected by our avatar shields, wearing only uniforms of underwear. Endangered are the days where we can pass digital transmissions and gas simultaneously, picking our noses with one hand, and stuffing pizza down our throats with the other." Well. During last year's heatwave, I was certainly clad in little more than underwear when I was working at home. And yesterday was warm enough, at last, to wonder what this summer will bring. They can't insist on trousers at the Factory -- can they? True, I prefer to have an idea what people I'm talking to look like. And since this may be reciprocal, I allowed the Kid to snap me with the 'phone camera last weekend, to adorn -- or otherwise -- my "about" page here. But video conferencing is not my thing and I've done with chat. For those who have made the leap, with iSight or whatever, Nitrozac and Snazzy are really trying to be helpful, offering hi-tech tips on making you look your best: 'You Sexy Thing!' (MacDev Center). zzz As if that were not enough, Apple plans to be seriously more helpful to disabled computer users with a 'Spoken Interface' for OS X. Some of us have only just upgraded to Mac OS X 10.3.3 (I went that way last night once I was sure it was safe), but the industry speculators reckon the new technology is in hand for OS X 10.4 (MacRumors). zzz As to the iPod, Apple's last exercise in genius, it wasn't meant to be killer technology: "A Memphis woman was arrested and charged with first-degree murder after she bludgeoned her boyfriend to death with an iPod." ('Liquid Generation') Via OxDECAFBAD. zzz "PARIS -- The European Parliament approved a controversial piracy law that would allow local police to raid the homes and offices of suspected intellectual-property pirates, search their financial records and even freeze suspects' bank accounts." This includes "fake Chanel and Viagra", 'Wired' reports. zzz OK. Now we've seen iPod murder. How about iPod bribery dating? "Hi, I’m having my parents come visit me sometime in the next two weeks and have lied and told them I am dating someone I am in love with. You will only have to come to one dinner. In exchange for this I will buy you an IPOD - yes new - we walk into the store together and buy a new IPOD. Let me know if this interests you, and if you want to be in a loving relationship with all the benefits it brings ;-) I want to pretend we are totally in love." Any interested women might read on here ('Engadget). Jeremy Zawodny told me about this, via 'Hot Links'. 11:14:51 AM  link   your views? []

nick b. 2007 do share, don't steal, please credit under artistic licence terms; contributing friends (pix, other work) retain their rights.