It became hard to maintain the ill-tempered, disabused mood when almost everybody was cheered up by watching the blip of the planet of love glide across the sun (BBC for all the links, along with Ars Technica) on a glorious late spring morning.
The coincidentally well-placed science department's little corner of the Factory happened to give us a splendid view. Something that slightly amused me in reports by hacks nearly everywhere, from Europe to Australia, was the remark that each had the "grandstand view" of the celestial kiss, which made Gina comment that "Planet Earth is a heck of a big stadium".
Spirit and poetry prize of the day goes to Fienie in Pretoria who sent us a colourful story about the historic Venusian role in African rain dancing and traditional ceremonies in southern parts of the continent. Even in Grand Zimbabwe (Trek Earth).
Astrologers in India, however, dourly warned that all this palaver could entail a dramatic rise in the number of "sex crimes".
While back in what seems to have become a quasi-permanent state of arousal and transgression, Joe has declared Phuket, Thailand, added to a World Tour he's threatening to foist on us.
Personally, mate, I find one seasonal outbreak of lust passion and a heart-stopping encounter quite enough at a time.
But when it comes to the weather, the warmer it gets the happier I am (though I know I dared to moan just a tiny bit when we hit the 40°C mark last August).
This view is "totally not shared", as one absolutely fabulous American I'm dying to know better might put it, by Cass, who thinks that "hot sunshine was just something invented by those who owned dark air conditioned bars in an attempt to drum up trade" ('Hotness' at 'cancergiggles').
Ars and Reuters beat AFP by a day to another piece of glad news: that the iTunes music store will be launched in Europe a week from today. However, if the Factory's correspondent is right, Apple will be asking about 1.30 euros per track, which is scarcely going for a song when you remember that -- as per bloody usual -- this is around half as much again as the Americans pay.
The tidings were welcomed by a few Factory hands from the majority who will insist on using Windows, but I'm not sure how much progress on that front has been made since Ken Fisher warned that there might be drawbacks when he considered the "new challenges" for the Ars' 'Wankerdesk' last October.
If the iTMS comes to France, I'll not be among the first to put my toe in the water since doing my month-end accounts for May warned me that while June may prove to be good for romantic pursuits, it's also the moment to rein in my spending.
What I like to think of as my "cultural" allowance has made a dangerously big dent in the "camembert" picture I've finally learned to make with the computer's budget programme since I've been won over to DVDs, if never the telly.
Meanwhile, Brian, one of the fellows who makes top-notch Mac software, has acquired a "new toy lust" (Unsanity blog) of his own. Gosh, yes, it looks tempting, but for me even to think of AirTunes right now would be true insanity.
Whatever.
I doubt Apple will ever be offering anything like the "Dirty Kuffar Jihadi rap video" (courtesy of John Robb).
But the Airport Express & Airtunes have also got fine 'cityofsound' blog writer Dan Hill all excited (via Tom's plasticbag -- the link taking you to some news from his own delightful corner.
I don't know which is worse: murder virtually on the front doorstep or a girlfriend "probably" pulped ... again!
Remember what those Indian astrologers said).
At 'Hack the Planet', Wes starts out complaining that the Express does "too many things", then cheerfully proceeds himself to sci-fi and singularity.
Now there's a man whose brain works in as singular ways as my own tin of peas. Next thing you know, we'll all be telepathically doing it by way of something similar to the "effort to allow two users of a common communication channel to create a body of shared and secret information", otherwise known as "quantum cryptography". Never heard of it?
Neither had I. But it's caught the eye at Grafyte.
Where were we?
Oh yes. Money (hateful subject). Or the lack of...
...but the Kid's planning a cheap summer. While the pictures and poetry she's posting on belcatja2 are making for darker reading than ever, I'm happy to find Marianne no less cheerful a youngster than usual and she's busy working on her first...
-- but it's up to her, not me, to announce what in the fullness of time. In any event, it's increasingly difficult to unglue her from her PowerBook even in marvellous weather, and the disease appears to be catching. I had to do a reality check on my lugholes when her mum very recently told me, "Nick, I think I must get myself a Mac."
Will wonders never cease?
"Imagine it," I said to the Kid. "Your mother could be driving a Panther before you are."
"Well, I'm still quite content with Jaguar, thank you," she insisted, but perhaps I may not regret paying the extra for a "family pack" version of the new operating system after all. If Apple thinks it's invalid for divorcees (or, since you never can tell in miraculous times, lovers out of wedlock), they can damned well think again as well as different.
I promised politics is now out of it. Enough. Nevertheless ... when Norm finds Chirac saying something sensible, it's worthy of note: 'Lessons of History' (1gm).
A lesson history has taught me is really to fall in love with people in my immediate vicinity instead of thinking I might be doing so by virtual means.
For those who disagree or have seen happier outcomes, consider the "googler, the blogger, the sniffer and the stalker": Wired cracks their codes. Thanks to LinkMachineGo for a "whole new universe of creepiness".
Again personally, I'll settle for Venus, Gaïa and beauty closer to home.
Chad's Uncertain Principles are strangely troubled by his own pleasure in "living vicariously".
He finds that "becoming weirdly invested in the personal lives of people I've never met" in the blogosphere is just "a little creepy".
Not me.
Without wishing to start affairs with them, I find the personal lives of real but physically unknown individuals a source of endless fascination. And even highly instructive sometimes.
If you don't, then I wonder what half of you are doing here.
Moreover, as Tim suggests, "If you're ever really bored one day, instead of just reading my blog, read the comments of the Linux kernel. There you can pick up all sorts of geek vernacular juxtaposed euphonic swear words."
Potty-Mouthed Programmers is also a 'Wired' thing.
But, though I'm one of the foulest-mouthed people most people know in two and a half languages (three if you include my groping in American), I wouldn't have thought of turning euphonic about it if Tim hadn't had a "case of the Mondays" (Doctor Recommended).
11:40:16 PM link 
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