Sunday, April 30, 2000
Okay. Done lots of reading. Still have essay to do. Panic.Make tea. That normally helps.
- posted at 23:50 :: feedback
Crap. I have an essay to do about property rights after divorce for tomorrow evening. Help.- posted at 21:58 :: feedback
We saw the trailer for Man in the Moon last night before Galaxy Quest. Big problem: we don't know who Andy Kaufman is. At all. No idea. Managed to work out from the trailer that he was in some American TV show Saturday Night Live as a comedian or something. You Americans are going to have to explain to us Brits exactly who this guy is, otherwise we're just not going to be interested in the film at all. And we're already boycotting that new U-Boat / Enigma machine debacle of a film...- posted at 20:29 :: feedback
I like to go off on tangents. I like to say weird, provactive things, because, well, they're weird and if no one else said them then the world would be a much more boring place. And anyway, sometimes they tend to be quite funny, and if people laugh then that's a good thing.Today's weird provocative, or sheer off-the-wall thought was during dinner at college: Bryan Adams as Jesus. Not exactly sure how we got onto this one, but it came after talking about how fish breathe (i.e., they absorb dissolved oxygen, they don't splitting water). I think we somehow started talking about Bryan Adams, and how his song Everything I Do, I Do it for You was a very noble song. And then I thought that was a good basis (okay, admittedly rather flimsy) for him to be a messianic figure. Whatever. Weird conversation about Bryan Adams feeding people at his rock concerts.
Okay, I admit it. It was bizarre and weird.
- posted at 20:28 :: feedback
Daily Doozer: scours the UK papers "and likes Billie and Black Box Recorder. Nice one." - Blue Lines.- posted at 20:12 :: feedback
A very hastily put-together law section with some essays and old material, ostensibly under the lame reason that I'll be able to check the essays I've written from the faculty without having to carry pesky disks round.- posted at 17:23 :: feedback
... and emmajane.net is cool, too.- posted at 16:34 :: feedback
Stuff and Rot looks really nice.- posted at 15:54 :: feedback
After Barbie indicates she'll be running for President, my brother interviews everyone's favourite six-inch high plastic, anatomically incorrect doll.- posted at 15:08 :: feedback
Funny. Looks like I've given the crossword bug to Sheryl...- posted at 14:58 :: feedback
Radio One - One Big Sunday, live webcast from Bristol Downs: "Unfortunately due to technical difficulties the webcast is unavailable at present". I'm listening to the broadcast of the show on the radio at the moment, and it's really funny:"Hello, this is RADIO ONE!" - Presenter
"woooooooooo!" - crowd
"How are we Bristol?"
"woooooooooo!"
"This is Moloko!"
"woooooooooo!"
"You're not listening to what I'm saying!"
"woooooooooo!"
"Are you?"
"woooooooooo!"
"Can you say anything apart from "woooooooooo!" loudly?"
"woooooooooo!"
- posted at 14:25 :: feedback
Hmmm... this feels a little like a "state of me" address to the thousands and thousands... well, tens and tens, I suppose, of people who visit this site. What's been happening lately? Not much. Exams and stuff are looming on the deceptively far-away horizon. They're not so much looming, really, as peeking out round the corner in a particularly menacing way. Wait. That's looming.Got in an argument about that cuban boy with a couple of friends today, but managed to defuse the situation by suggesting that we all go out and watch Galaxy Quest. That seemed to work quite well, because we haven't mentioned that cuban boy since.
The last couple of days have been weird. Thursday night we were up until one in the morning playing frisbee in the middle of the street and had some great fun. Friday night we played Monopoly until about two in the morning, and tonight we watched Galaxy Quest, sat around and talked and stuff. Mostly about cake. A bit about quantum physics (two of my friends are physics undergrads and were trying to explain things about cats and observers).
I've been single since September. That's the longest I've been single since... well, must be a long time. I think I've gotten used to it now. If I had to admit it, I'd say that I used to be an annoyingly needy and dependent person (see the doozer entry on ptypes) but that now, although I'm not exactly not an annoyingly needy and dependent person, I like to think I'm less annoying and needy. Which is good. And instead of reacting to being single with some form of shock-mock-horror-slapping-hands-to-cheeks "oh my God I'm single what am I going to do now?!", I think I've pretty much laid back and had to take resigned acceptance of that fact. As in: "I seem to be single. Huh.".
Anyway, I've always found that whenever you're actually looking for someone or at least being proactive in the whole find-a-relationship area, nothing seems to happen. In fact, most of the time anything's happened to me, I've been completely oblivious to it until it hit me in the face. So to speak. As in: "Dan wouldn't know if a girl was interested in him unless she came up to him and kissed him on the face". Which has pretty much happened before. And I still don't know what was going on...
I think "Bleh" pretty much sums it up.
Anyway, off the subjects of relationships, it seems that my brother has taken the seemingly unilateral action of deleting Billie Piper's new single Day and Night off our home desktop just because Napster users are perpetually downloading it. After listening to the single, he concluded that it was a BritneyClone (tm) and "Said song is consigned to the Recycle Bin and permanently deleted with extreme prejudice."
Bah. He wouldn't know teeny pop if it came up and kissed him on the face.Them thar song's gonna go straight to the UK number one...
And Finally... a big hello to Katie from portrait of a katie, since she has such a nice blog.
- posted at 02:03 :: feedback
Saturday, April 29, 2000
Now that a Welsh village is going to have its website address on roadsigns, I'm proposing that ICANN create a .geog top-level domain... Nah. Not really...- posted at 17:29 :: feedback
A momentary lapse of concentration from reading about property rights for spouses and cohabitants (the only boring bit of family law so far, in an entire year's worth of lectures and supervisions) has resulted in my watching about five wasps desperately try to escape my room. I've got all my windows open since it's such a nice day, and boy are those wasps stupid. Glass just fools them. It's funny.- posted at 17:24 :: feedback
Via Haddock, what the hell is going on with the UK airline industry?!- posted at 17:18 :: feedback
An interesting article on robotics tied to the evolution of CPU performance.- posted at 17:07 :: feedback
Excellent quote in the letters section of last month's Scientific American from Luke Soiseth, recalling and Emo Phillips quote: "Emo Phillips once said: "I used to think the brain was the most important organ in the body, until I realized who was telling me that."- posted at 17:06 :: feedback
Wow. A Smart Beverage Dispenser that hasn't been rebooted in over a year...- posted at 16:46 :: feedback
Those of you who've been seeing bad html around my goldfish (top left of the page, for the goldfish-blind) -- white lines cutting up said fish, shouldn't be seeing them anymore. I've fixed it. Sorry it took so long...- posted at 16:04 :: feedback
The weather in Cambridge is absolutely gorgeous today - check out this Panorama! Right, that's it. I'm revising outside... (Groovy pages courtesy of AT&T Research Cambridge)- posted at 15:44 :: feedback
For the kind of people who thrive on pub quizzes (i.e., me and my friends back home), the Guardian Unlimited Quiz is nothing short of revision...- posted at 15:39 :: feedback
Bruce sends me a link to The Ad Critic in response to my whine "Why can't I download tv ads over the net?". Cheers!- posted at 15:36 :: feedback
The Black Cab series of shorts looks promising, the series starts on Monday the 8th May.- posted at 13:53 :: feedback
A good Times review for Black Box Recorder's new album The Facts of Life.- posted at 13:51 :: feedback
Saturday Times book reviews covers Amy Jenkins, creator of This Life, new novel.- posted at 13:49 :: feedback
Pokemon craze 'led my son to steal' (The Times).- posted at 13:47 :: feedback
Friday, April 28, 2000
New Scientist reports that NASA is exploring the feasibility of a black-box recording system for its Mars craft.- posted at 15:07 :: feedback
Why is it that I can't find television adverts to download over the web? You'd think that companies would be falling over themselves to let me download copies of their adverts to my computer so I could watch them again and again and again...But, good mother of God, there is a website that'll tell you what music/voiceover is in an advert you just watched...
I didn't look at the title, so was trying to guess how old this interview with David Pritchard from Macromedia Europe was. I guessed about '94, so I wasn't that far off.
- posted at 14:48 :: feedback
xrefer.com is a cross-referencing engine built on the web, integrating a whole load of published works to provide what promises to be an absolutely amazing search engine. They are accepting beta-test applications.- posted at 14:45 :: feedback
Simon Waldman, head of the Guardan Unlimited network, The Guardian group's online presence, is incredibly critical of News International's Internet Division, News Network. You'd think that with brands such as The Sun and The Times, they really could do better, but no. News Network really is that crap - and Waldman is entirely justified in his analysis. Bit of sucking up to The Register, though...- posted at 14:25 :: feedback
The Friday Review film reviews from The Guardian includes Sunshine, In All Innocence, Million Dollar Hotel, Galaxy Quest and Scream 3.- posted at 14:05 :: feedback
BBC News is reporting that in Zimbabwe, veterans call halt to violence. And not a moment too soon. Though sooner would've been preferable...- posted at 13:56 :: feedback
There's a lot of controversy in the UK over the completely "bungled" handling of the car manufacturer sell offs and closures of Ford and Rover. Yesterday's article in The Times by Anatole Kaletsky seems to pretty much hit the nail on the head. In the big scale of things, and in such a dynamic economy as the one we find ourselves in at the moment, it only matters that more productive jobs are created in the long run:"The hallmark of a dynamic capitalist economy is what the Austrian economist Josef Schumpeter described as "creative destruction". Ultimately, what matters is that the jobs and businesses created are on balance more numerous and more productive than the ones destroyed. In the past five to seven years, Britain has passed that test more successfully than any other major economy in Europe."
- posted at 13:40 :: feedback
Free content! Get your free content from The Guardian here!- posted at 13:16 :: feedback
I can't say how much I disagree with Chris Emery, who wrote into the Guardian's Online (IT supplement) Feedback section. What did he say that annoyed me? "I do not see why mouse navigation is set as standard. I am sure that use of function keys could be added to sites as well as mouse use. This would make web TV surfing easier, and I personally prefer not using the mouse on my Windows system, as I find keyboard navigation easier. I doubt that using a mouse on your lap while trying to read a web page on TV would be a rewarding experience.". What sites does this guy visit? Try navigating through sites with just the tab key and you'd start to go mad. And making sites easily navigable with a tab key would result in you having to drill down how many levels?- posted at 10:55 :: feedback
There's a great quote in today's Wrap from the Guardian, about Heseltine's intention to leave the Commons: "True, he stabbed Mrs Thatcher, the Telegraph comments, but at least he stabbed her in the front." Hilarious!- posted at 10:52 :: feedback
Teeny pop is scary (The Times).- posted at 10:44 :: feedback
I never thought that I'd seriously be thinking of applying for a policy position in this organisation... Well, I'm going to an ethnic minority fast-track civil service talk on Wednesday, so this should be interesting... The job sounds cool, though.- posted at 10:39 :: feedback
We played a bit of frisbee today. It all went a bit weird after we went into Dave C's room and started playing basketball with an inflatable ball. Lydia deflated it, so we resorted to playing basketball with a beanbag Gromit, of Wallace and Gromit fame. Of course, it didn't take long until we were soon playing Gromit-ball, a curious game in which you use tennis, squash and badminton rackets to hit Gromit into a basketball hoop. And from there, it was naturally a short leap to move to going outside to play frisbee. We went out at about half eleven, and only just got in at one in the morning. We have to do this more often...- posted at 01:10 :: feedback
Can anyone tell me why when I do a search for www-stu (or, for that matter, doozer)on weblogs.com -- normally a good way to find out which blogs are linking to mine as Doozer's address starts http://www-stu -- I get a result for Dark Currents?- posted at 01:04 :: feedback
This week's feedback in New Scientist has got two funny articles (well, funny to me at any rate) - the Viagra inhaler and the Sonic the Hedghog gene. Bizarre sense of humour probably explains it.- posted at 00:58 :: feedback
Hell, being in space isn't all it's cracked up to be if there's no Mercy Point to back you up when you pass out. Worried about the state of the NHS in the UK? Think you pay too much for healthcare in the US? Well New Scientist covers the the growing concern over inadequate healthcare facilities - in orbit.- posted at 00:56 :: feedback
Thursday, April 27, 2000
I can't believe that there's actually a market for eBay for Dummies.- posted at 16:48 :: feedback
Well, now that we've established that we're not heading for a big crunch, I've got heat death to look forward to in as many billion years... Yay. Oh, PS. The universe isn't flat (BBC News). I know this is a little late, but hey...- posted at 16:46 :: feedback
So now that the average paid for a third generation mobile licence has picked up to about four billion pounds each, how much money are the network operators going to have left to actually build the network?- posted at 16:45 :: feedback
A google search on Ian Rankin for the Inspector Rebus series of crime fiction turned up this Ian Rankin Web site - I'd recently read Black and Blue and I picked up a copy of The Black Book today from WH Smith. That's my time gone out the window, then.- posted at 15:03 :: feedback
s u m e a is a nice graphics and java applet codeshop that has stunning - and I really do mean stunning - Java demos. Go check out the turtle, halo and flower demos. Amazing.- posted at 14:58 :: feedback
Excellent Onion story - Neighbors Believed Murderer Only Capable Of Rape.- posted at 14:56 :: feedback
The Guardian offers a quick and dirty guide to ADSL in the UK.- posted at 14:22 :: feedback
It still looks as if The Guardian knows what it's doing on the web. Congrats.- posted at 14:20 :: feedback
The Times article on restricting young children's exposure to computers is pretty much a recital of common sense, but dressed up to be, well, this is The Times, after all, (too many commas) pretty posturing and conservative.- posted at 14:19 :: feedback
The Times puts the British Passport to the test.- posted at 14:16 :: feedback
Good one for Spice Girl Mel C as she hits back at tabloid accusations that she's "put on weight" - saying "This sort of thing is so irresponsible. It can have a lasting effect on people, especially when they are at an impressionable age".- posted at 14:15 :: feedback
Mother saves daughter from internet paedophile. I wonder how the scare-mongering tabloids covered this story...- posted at 14:13 :: feedback
We covered this under Criminal law, but the issue has come up again through the Martin case - Judges really do need discretion when the defendant is charged with murder, since it is rapidly becoming obvious that a mandatory life sentence without judicial discretion is not the best way to approach the problem.- posted at 14:11 :: feedback
More "work" today. I seem to be getting distracted quite easily, so I might just ship out and spend days on end in the library. Like everyone else. Apparently, the college library has been packed out since last week, so it looks like the wonderful law library for me... This morning I hacked together a bookmarklet script so that staff can submit the website of the week to the site more easily. Inspiration from Blogger, of course...- posted at 14:02 :: feedback
Catchiest TV tune? It's Hawaii Five-O! (BBC News).- posted at 13:58 :: feedback
Yesterday, for the uninitiated. Well, since I pulled a three-o'clock last night doing something rather stupid with ASP, I only managed to get up at about half ten. I had a tutor interview at quarter past midday, which turned out to be as useful as they always tended to be. I looked at some textbooks. I checked out a potential summer internship, and then downloaded an IMAP client for my housemates to use to check their email. And then we went to dinner. Life doesn't get much more fun-filled than this.Oh, and I shot Daniella and got shot by Julie...
- posted at 00:03 :: feedback
Wednesday, April 26, 2000
Okay, so I spent ages reorganising my college room last night at the behest of my housemates. Julie'd been complaining that my room looked exactly the same as it did last term, where everyone else had introduced subtle changes to their rooms -- throws, lemurs (yes, lemurs), and even the odd millenium baby. So I moved everything around. The problem is that it's glaringly obvious that my room needs a sofa now, and it's not fair that everyone else has got one and I don't...Sorry. That's just me complaining at the injustice of it all. At least I've got a sink, though...
- posted at 15:52 :: feedback
Another boost for the private space enterprise: supplies on the way to Mir (BBC News).- posted at 15:15 :: feedback
Embarrased about your health? Don't want to talk to your GP? Then isn't the anonymity of the net great? (BBC News)- posted at 14:41 :: feedback
More on the beleagured Tory party from the Guardian as Hague plans to, well, be more populist following the Martin Trial. Best quote: "To announce such a major policy within days of a court case will also lead to criticism that Mr Hague's circle have few ideas of their own and are happy to follow the latest fad.". Yeah. Pretty much.- posted at 11:20 :: feedback
Why is asking children what they want to tell boadroom members news? Admittedly, it's a fun story and made great reading, but was it news? Hmmmm.- posted at 11:04 :: feedback
No! Of course we're not holding back on ADSL development in the UK, cries BT. That's why we're pricing it a ridiculously high rate, you see, because we know how important it is to a developing economy. That's why it's going to cost £39.99 per month (US$64), and £150.00 to install (US$240). Oh, and while we're at it, who needs 2mbs speed, anyway? 512kbps is just fine. BT's current advertising push is You Can. Well, they've firmly demonstrated that You Can squeeze as much money out of a captive market for ADSL.- posted at 11:03 :: feedback
At the risk of being pedantic, of course half-time pep talks don't win matches, goals do (The Times).- posted at 11:00 :: feedback
The Times has a feature on Kevin and Perry, the two stereotypical British teenagers who now have a film of their own. The devilish spawn of Enfield and Burke, these two characters have been poking fun at teenagers for the last few years here in the UK.- posted at 10:59 :: feedback
In my opinion, Hague is just desperate for votes (The Times).- posted at 10:54 :: feedback
Okay, I was up until three last night trying to remember how to do stuff in ASP for my old school's Student Intranet that I helped build about a year ago. For those who care, subject link submissions now automatically create a news item for the front page. I bet you all understood that.- posted at 10:52 :: feedback
I just spent an hour going through some ASP code for my old school intranet that I helped build. I haven't done this kind of thing in ages, but it sure felt good when I got the thing working. For those who care, I tied the subject-link database mechanism to the news mechanism so new links are automatically put up on the front page. A feature that should've been there ages ago, but I only just got round to doing it. Not live yet, I don't trust my own code as far as I can throw it...- posted at 02:52 :: feedback
One issue about adoption is the fact that it looks like the UK government would dearly love to make sure they know who's going to become parents. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many checks on adopters and IVF patients.- posted at 01:15 :: feedback
Tuesday, April 25, 2000
Looks like Harry's found a must-see episod of Buffy.- posted at 17:30 :: feedback
I really do despair at our MPs... (The Register)- posted at 17:17 :: feedback
MI5: whoops. These guys just don't get the web/net/thing.- posted at 17:13 :: feedback
I accidently turned up exactly 24 hours early for my tutor interview today. That explains a lot of confusion that was had.- posted at 17:05 :: feedback
The April issue of SciAm has a short article on distributed computing.- posted at 17:00 :: feedback
To go with the world's tallest top hat, the world's oldest hat is revealed. Today is a good day to wear a hat, obviously (BBC News).- posted at 16:58 :: feedback
How tall do you think the world's tallest top hat is? Go on, guess. I bet you'll be surprised. In fact, I bet you don't even care (Guardian).- posted at 16:56 :: feedback
Looking for nuclear waste? Then make sure that UK scrapyards are on your checklist, because we've got loads of the stuff over here (Guardian).- posted at 16:54 :: feedback
Since weblogs.com is down due to Userland's pacbell t1 line to Conxion, maybe we should take a look at... FailSafe from Conxion- posted at 14:23 :: feedback
A new issue of the Rapidly Changing Face of Computing is out.- posted at 14:18 :: feedback
After having read this article on the I'm-not-mentioning-the-small-Cuban-boy's-name-photo conspiracy, I'm convinced the American right is just out of its mind (Salon).- posted at 10:24 :: feedback
The UK doesn't have an embargo on losing high-security laptops: the US State Department is playing the game, too (The Register).- posted at 09:25 :: feedback
FilmUnlimited (guess where links are coming from today) interviews Stephen Frears, director of High Fidelity. Frears doesn't like English films: "England is all they're ever about, and if they're not, they're even worse. This country is just not a very interesting subject. It's terribly limited."- posted at 09:13 :: feedback
Ballet school - scarier than a horror movie - FilmUnlimited interviews Neve Campbell. Bizarre quote: "Without make-up, Campbell is freckled and studenty, pretty in an unobtrusive way and prone to an earnest frown that comes from a determination to see things positively." Exactly what does studenty look like? Not wearing makeup?- posted at 09:11 :: feedback
... but Galaxy Quest still hasn't been reviewed.- posted at 09:06 :: feedback
Having not been to the filmunlimited site much, I like the way they do their stuff: links to both the Guardian and Observer reviews, links to related stories and how well/badly the film was reviewed in other papers. Anyways, here's Kevin & Perry Go Large, which is on our go-see-it list.- posted at 09:04 :: feedback
Via the Guardian Weblog (still reeling from that one), the U.N. Catnap Guide.- posted at 09:01 :: feedback
If you were going to build a brand new athletics stadium, say, next to an incinerator, would you expect to damage participants' health? Of course you would. That's what makes this story so tragic (Guardian).- posted at 08:57 :: feedback
Go on holiday! But remember to visit your favourite supermarket (The Times).- posted at 08:47 :: feedback
The issue of reasonable self-defence in English criminal law crops up after the Tony Martin trial, and is looking to become a political issue (The Times).- posted at 08:45 :: feedback
I have no problem with the British Security Service if the end result is this - MI5 alerts ministers to the rise of the far right if the immigration race issue is played too highly (The Times).- posted at 08:42 :: feedback
Sheer capitalism versus education results in a headteacher speaking out against Pokemon... (The Times)- posted at 08:40 :: feedback
Access to firearms in the US is still a bad idea. Gun control is good.- posted at 08:36 :: feedback
Monday, April 24, 2000
Best sentence in the Independent film reviews section is about Pokemon - The First Movie: "Pokémon – The First Movie – and that, incidentally, is the most depressing use of the word "first" in cinema history".- posted at 13:06 :: feedback
The Independent wonders why Americans like the film version of High Fidelity so much...and right in the first paragraph is the giveaway: "The big surprise is that the American version is even better than the novel.".- posted at 13:02 :: feedback
That's what I love about the law. Once you think that you've learnt it, someone has to go and change it - the UK government is considering a sperm donation register to allow offspring to trace their parents (The Independent). That said, this was a really interesting topic when we covered it in the autumn term.- posted at 12:58 :: feedback
We don't have enough time.- posted at 12:56 :: feedback
Student wins tens of thousands of pounds by saying that he'll give it away (The Times).- posted at 12:54 :: feedback
Oh, please, Mr. Large Multinational Company, please employ people in our country? (The Times)- posted at 12:52 :: feedback
You'd have thought that telecommunications companies would have been prepared for the UK number change. But they weren't, were they.- posted at 12:51 :: feedback
Argh. I really should be getting more sleep, or alternatively, not going to bed at around four in the morning. Everyone is now back in our house ready for the start of term now, with Julie, Laura and Natalie arriving yesterday and Dave B arriving next door as well.My head hurts.
- posted at 12:34 :: feedback
I've just started reading Peter Hoeg's Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, so Eleven Seconds's Peter Hoeg have come at an opportune moment. Everyone who's passed through my room so far has picked up the book and told me I should read it.- posted at 11:58 :: feedback
Sunday, April 23, 2000
I've got unmetered access working! Okay, so it didn't take me too long. I just couldn't let it lie. See? One side effect though, and I don't know if it's just my isp, but accessing www.blogger.com returns a blank page. It's as if someone's deleted the site. ex.blogger.com, however, works. I don't know if I'm supposed to be updating via ex.blogger, but hey, I needed a fix.- posted at 00:23 :: feedback
Saturday, April 22, 2000
Okay, a few things:I've just arrived back in Cambridge, and dicovered the schedule for my year two exams. I've got Contract, Land and International law on the 30th May to the 1st June, followed by Family Law and Legal History on the 8th and 9th June.
What this means is that I have about five weeks of intense revision to do. I'm not going to be able to blog since, well, I've got more important things to be doing (shock horror!) I'll be updating, just not as frequently as I have been. The other reason why I won't be blogging so much is because I now don't have unmetered access at my computer and will be having to use faculty facilites to do blog updates. I guess I'll just have to write them on disk and then take them in or something.
Upshot? I'm going to be gone for a while (if you want to call that an upshot). There will still be interesting stuff here, just not as much. That means please still come and visit, because my reward in seven weeks time is as much blogging as I can do without passing out, so hey, there's an incentive for me to be good right now.
As it currently stands, I think that the blog entries for the next five weeks or so are more likely to be journal-style than blog style. While I don't necessarily have the time (or money) to go out scavenging for interesting links for you all, I do, for some reason, have the time to sit down for about five minutes and write about whatever's on my mind. Like now, for instance.
It might not be short and to the point, but it'll be something. I hope you come by and visit.
One of the things I mentioned above is that I don't currently have unmetered access in the room that I'm living. This is a bad thing. I've actually got a CD in front of me that will let me have unmetered access, it's just that the damn thing doesn't run under Windows 2000, and every attempt by me so far to get the thing working has resulted in something resembling more or less dismal failure. I can't do it. Short of installing Windows 98, I can't do it at all. I'll probably end up installing the software on a friend's 98 box and see if we can clone the settings.
That said, if I don't have unmetered access, I'm sure I'd get much more work done...
I'm also feeling pretty good because I got an essay back from my International Law supervisor in which I think I got a first. If not, I've got the impression that I did pretty well. Anyways, here's the closing statement of the essay for posterity:
International Law Essay, Acqusition of Title
The Traditional methods of acqusition of title to territory are far less important than textbooks suggest. Far more turns on which of the rival claimants to a piece of territory has exercised effective control over that territory
[conclusion]
... since both occupation and prescription are at root based upon the notion of effective possession, the main thread running through both modes is that of effective control. In the current international climate favouring stability, it is esay to see that such a doctrine as effective control is conducive to such a goal. Through effective control, an element of preserving the status quo is retained, mitigating the occurence of sudden unanticipated change through acquisition of title.
Heavy, huh? Anyway, it made me happy. See? I can do Law!
Anyways: more tomorrow (ish).
- posted at 23:28 :: feedback
Friday, April 21, 2000
I wonder what Caroline over at prolific is going to think of this booklet.- posted at 18:39 :: feedback
Email from sherylog about today's 12:10GMT entry:"Looks like you are getting noticed!
Heehee, so maybe you are not thinking of redesigning so much?
:) and how does wanting your page to be long make you shallow?
didn't get it... :P
lap it up!"
- posted at 18:35 :: feedback
BBC News covers tonight's derby Liverpool v. Everton match. Liverpool'd damn well win. We lost last year...- posted at 18:30 :: feedback
I want this page to be really long. Does that make me shallow?- posted at 12:12 :: feedback
Yay! Digital Swirlee mentions Doozer: "I really really like this blog -- beautiful design, quality content. Yum. Now if only I knew what a "Doozer" is.", along with Bits&Pieces: "Mmm is right. What a great-looking weblog.".- posted at 12:10 :: feedback
Thursday, April 20, 2000
Another "woo" -- stats4all tells me that I got over 100 hits for the first time today. Now I feel loved.- posted at 23:54 :: feedback
Woo. New pictures in the gallery section (helen b's 20th and spring 2000).- posted at 20:35 :: feedback
Crap -- only four scoops, and ten "scooped" for the Doozer via the scoop index.- posted at 18:44 :: feedback
Eleven seconds gets a C&H style makeover.- posted at 18:40 :: feedback
Today's picks from this week's issue of New Scientist: regulars will know how I feel about creation "science" (did the quote marks give it away?), so here's a story on the frightening and growing trend, along with another example of nature inspiring scientists.- posted at 18:35 :: feedback
Wednesday, April 19, 2000
Bizarre thought. If you could work out the range of (say) blue and orange colours in hex, do a search for them in the source of blogs through something like weblogs.com, then you could count all the orange and blue blogs. In fact, you could categorise blogs by their colour. Now that'd be cool. Pointless, but cool. Hey, aren't most cool things pointless?- posted at 23:59 :: feedback
Today was the first time I visited Digital Swirlee. Partly because I think the Swirlee bit is pretty funny. First impression? I like.- posted at 23:55 :: feedback
Julie and Dave C were proclaimed inaugral winners of the Times 2 Crossword Competition today (okay, the winners were proclaimed by Julie herself, but that's merely an aside), with me getting a "special mention as best runner-up!", i.e. I was the only runner up... When we all get back to Cambridge, I'm gonna kick their ass at them thar crossword... Sorry. Don't know what came over me.- posted at 23:52 :: feedback
I actually listened to the lyrics to Bjork's It's Oh So Quiet today while flicking through MTV. Bizarre. And now, the song actually makes sense to me. Am I so behind or what?- posted at 23:49 :: feedback
Okay, a brief story about cereal. Yeah. Cereal. I had a talk with Mary, I think it was on the way to a movie or something, and due to the rather sporadic and rambling nature of my brain and the way stream of consciousness sometimes takes charge of the bit of my head that looks after the sounds that come out of my mouth (or, for that matter, the words that get typed on a keyboard), we got on to the topic of kids' cereal.You see, I thought I'd grown out of kids' cereal before I left for uni. I'd been switched to that kind of healthy bran and yoghurt stuff, or at least fruit and fibre. That kind of thing. With lots of raisins (for the sugar, you see. I still need the sugar). Anyways, by the time I got to university, it seemed as if everyone had regressed. People who would be fine having just plain bran flakes started desperately craving Frosties or Ricicles or any such kids' cereal (hell, here's a link to Kelloggs).
So again this year, in my second year at university, the whole you're twenty but you're eating kids' cereal debate came up again. The average age of my housemates must be about twenty by now, with Adam being the oldest at twenty one. He eats Frosties. In fact, I eat them as well now. A few of the girls go for Nestle Cheerios. I think Natalie must be the healthiest cereal eater.
Anyways. Mary's theory was that once you get away to uni, you're allowed to be as childish as you want in your choice of cereal.
PS. This post was in part inspired by [[name coming soon]], a thoroughly excellent blog, with the wonderful premise of being a blog about the daily existence of a college student (description from Blogger). I think blogs like that are going to catch on. Big style.
- posted at 23:46 :: feedback
New review in the Media, Books section - Ian Rankin's Black & Blue.- posted at 23:26 :: feedback
Christ, I can't believe it. The Guardian weblog. If they ever needed prove they were with it, I think they've done it now. How the hell am I supposed to pitch an article about weblogs to them now?- posted at 23:19 :: feedback
According to weblogs.com, five blogs have the phrase "dreamer-minstrel" in them, thanks to the Kingdomality personality test. Make that six. I just got dreamer-minstrel as well... what is this saying about bloggers?- posted at 21:52 :: feedback
The rules for the BBC kids message boards are a great example. In fact, all rules should be as easy to read as this. I particularly like the "have fun" rule.- posted at 21:14 :: feedback
Okay. While watching Blue Peter this afternoon (I admit it, I'm a bored and lazy student), I saw the report on Simon taking part in the London Marathon. And from my (admittedly comfortable) vantage point sprawled on the sofa, I actually considered taking part in the marathon before I die.Actually, I think the actual taking part will be the cause of my death...
I need to shape up...
- posted at 21:10 :: feedback
It scares me to think that there's a bible belt in the UK (The Times).- posted at 20:46 :: feedback
Want a good school for your kids and live in the UK? Got a bit of money? Then you'd probably send them to a private school. Want a good prison for your darling kids to go to? Then you'll probably want to send them to a private prison as well - it's the best! (The Times).So again, for all the classless Labour party posturing, the best schools are still the private ones... and the best prisons are the private ones. There we go. Wonderful. I find this a little funny...
- posted at 20:42 :: feedback
Nice to see that fourteen year olds are still being as inventive as ever: this one's managed to create a new brake lighting technique (The Times).- posted at 20:36 :: feedback
Coming Attractions has a review of new film Frequency. Go check it out.- posted at 20:26 :: feedback
Via Pyra, Stratus plans to bring out high availability Windows 2000 servers. When do we get that kind of reliability on the desktop?- posted at 20:21 :: feedback
One thing that I really don't like about Windows 2000 so far (the rest of the experience has been quietly, unobtrusively pleasing): the fact that before I installed the recent March/'February fixes, I could play MPEG1 movies back fullscreen at 1024x7768 no problems in 32bit colour. They looked great. No skipped frames at all. However, something happened on Sunday that means I can no longer do that without dropping down to 16bit colour.Grrr.
I think I've narrowed it down to the servicepack-like-fix that I installed on Sunday, but which cunningly came with no uninstall option.
- posted at 20:14 :: feedback
The reason why I spent fifteen minutes trying to find the TV show The 10th Kingdom last night and failed dismally was because I searched for Ten Kingdoms... regardless, the series has now started on UK digital tv channel Sky One, and the pilot looked pretty good...- posted at 20:11 :: feedback
Woohoo. Holographic storage technology is nearly here. How would you like to store 140GB of data on a cd-sized disc? Love to? Bet you would. Here's a backgrounder on the technology.- posted at 20:04 :: feedback
BT, the UK's favourite telco, has managed to get itself into hot water again for not getting the net. Actually, what I suspect is that BT does in fact get the net, they just want to squeeze as much money as possible out of its consumers. Which it's doing admirably. The pressure's on though: not only are rivals saying that BT is holding back the development and rollout of xDSL based technologies in the UK, OFTEL, the UK telecommunications watchdog today slammed BT for anti-competitive behaviour concerning its unmetered internet access package (ZDNet UK).- posted at 19:59 :: feedback
Salon covers the Napster backlash. Thing is, when I download an mp3, I normally end up buying the CD album or single anyway...- posted at 19:47 :: feedback
A school starts asking parents of lazy pupils to pay a deposit to make sure they take their exams. Good idea? I think I agree... Kids have to work.- posted at 18:37 :: feedback
Explore space - not drugs, impores Nasa.- posted at 18:28 :: feedback
At least Microsoft's About Pocket PC site is big, bloated and takes an age to load, so you don't feel too far away from Windows when you get one...- posted at 18:27 :: feedback
BBC News covers the blue marble.- posted at 18:22 :: feedback
Tuesday, April 18, 2000
One of the nicest things about summer term in Cambridge is that once the horror of exams is over, you get to generally mess about and have a fun time.Things to do after exams have finished:
Punting (google), which is kinda like a gondala, a little boat and a big long stick. Especially fun if you bring a super soaker and shoot at targets such as ducks (shoot to miss, please, they get annoyed if you hit them), and tourists (shoot to kill).
Um, what else... join a tourist group and heckle. Hell, we like doing it. Anyway, tourists in Cambridge always ask silly questions.
Oooh. Barbecues. Now they're cool. Will be having lots of those...
- posted at 23:35 :: feedback
Anybody who's read or seen the film High Fidelity will know how nice it is to make music compilations for friends. So I find it a great comfort that whenever Mary gets into my car, I usually end up giving the tape that's in there to her. So far, she's had about three compilation tapes and one cd made for her.I like making them. It's nice putting together collections of music for other people...
Anyway, she leaves for Durham tomorrow, so the next time I get to see her is about the 20th June for my college ball. Which should be fun.
- posted at 23:23 :: feedback
Question one of the pub quiz tonight: Which country would you not want to be in if you were a white farmer? answer.A good turnout for the quiz tonight. I brought Mary and her brother along, along with my own brother and one of his friends. I think we came about equal fourth or something with a score of 44, but we really could have done better. Oh well. At least now we know that Seat name its cars all after cities in its country.
The whole bring-your-younger-sibling-to-the-pub thing was started by Pete and Vicky when they started bringing their respective brothers and sisters, carried on by me tonight and also by Mary who brought her brother Chris.
It's weird seeing them around. They're so much younger than us, but at the same time going to university this year, so they can't be that old. I guess they just seem young to us because we've known them, well, forever.
Sheesh. Younger siblings growing up...
- posted at 23:15 :: feedback
My old school's position in the UK secondary education league tables.- posted at 20:14 :: feedback
Pupil suicide after goldfish taunt highlights the danger of teacher-pupil sarcasm (BBC News).- posted at 20:09 :: feedback
Guns are bad. Again. Why do you need them? (CNN.com, since my ISP is being a bit arsey with BBC News)- posted at 20:06 :: feedback
UK white collar workers admit that they'd prefer a better job title over a 10% pay rise... (BBC News)- posted at 19:10 :: feedback
While having lunch at Tate Liverpool with Mary today, our conversation wound on to the topic of teen pregnancy. After idly flicking through TV yesterday, I saw an episode of the Maury Povich show where 12 year old girls were castigated for wanting to have babies.And then I remembered the story about Professor John Guillebaud who advocated that contraceptive implants be inserted as a matter of "social" policy in high risk teenage pregnancy areas.
We ended up agreeing with him.
You've got two arguments for disagreeing with him, really. One is that you're taking away the right of the teenage girls to make an informed choice by forcing the contraception upon them. The other is if you happen to be against that kind of contraception in the first place (the story mentions that an anti abortion group called for the Professor to be arrested for promoting under-age sex).
I don't know if I'm a bit harsh here, but I definitely see his point. You have an area, an extremely high risk area, of teen pregnancies. Accept the fact that the majority of those pregnancies are unwanted or unplanned and the victim of difficult circumstances, which, let's face it, they probably are. In which case, your aim of accomplishing a lower pregnancy rate is accomplished.
And anyway, if we're being realistic, if these kids are going to have sex, you're not really going to be able to stop them. No amount of in-school education is going to change what happens out of school. Such an implant won't encourage under-age sex on a large scale, in fact, I've the feeling that it wouldn't particularly encourage it at all. If they will, they will.
That said, I completely respect the principle of individual autonomy. At the same time, though the law doesn't necessarily recognise the autonomy of minors. Furthermore, the law doesn't necessarily recognise autonomy, in this country, at least, when it deems your behaviour repugnant or not conducive to the good of the rest of society.
We covered a criminal case called Brown as part of our first year in both criminal and constitutional law courses. The case involved a number of sado-masochistic homosexual men who utterly by chance happened to be caught by the police after a video was found. What they did, they did very carefully. Any instrument they used was sterilised, any wounds were dressed and treated. In fact, their general level of health was admirable. They just happened to be homosexual sado-masochists. But when the case got to the House of Lords, their behaviour was deemed illegal. You're not allowed to be sado-masochistic, even if you consent to it. You're not allowed. Autonomy goes out the window.
I have a feeling I had a point, but am becoming increasingly concerned that I've just completely lost it...
Anyway, make up your own minds. A wonderfully controversial subject...
- posted at 18:39 :: feedback
The Times reports on two debutantes' dreams of becoming models, while the Telegraph reports that girls are being encouraged to aim higher than hairdressing. We live in a funny country.- posted at 18:26 :: feedback
Today's trip to Tate Liverpool ended with us both being very impressed by Video Positive 2000, a set of installation video works. That said, we didn't get to see Vuk Cosic, who enjoys covering buildings in ASCII art.- posted at 18:13 :: feedback
Monday, April 17, 2000
Mary's back from Paris. Yay. But she's going to have to go back to Durham earlier than expected because Easter Weekend and Libraries don't mix well.- posted at 20:46 :: feedback
NASA and National Cancer Institute sign a Nano-Technology Agreement, agreeing to develop the technology for healthcare purposes. Cool. I just hope they can handle the press right. I can imagine tabloid headlines now:NASA to develop tiny machines inside your body shocker!
- posted at 19:28 :: feedback
Would you think that having a Metric Converter on a NASA website is kinda ironic?- posted at 19:03 :: feedback
Anyone who knows me, in particular Adam, and Dave B, will know that my computer's called Huygens. And everyone who's ever found that it's called Huygens has asked why. Well, here's the answer - Huygens is an ESA made probe for exploring Titan, and it has a pretty cool name. So there you go. Geeky enough?- posted at 18:59 :: feedback
Dodge this! Cassini survives the trip through the asteroid belt.- posted at 18:51 :: feedback
Just finished the latest batch of updates for reflux's pidc job. Hopefully reflux can get itself some work this summer... (big secret job ahead)- posted at 18:47 :: feedback
Sunday, April 16, 2000
If I'd heard the Black Box Recorder song Facts of Life about five years ago, it'd probably have sent me into a pit of depression and I'd listen to it all the time on single track repeat:A boy sits by the telephone wanting to call a girl but not daring to because she might say no at last he summons up the courage phones her and discovers someone else has asked her first and she said yes now's the time to deal with the fear of being rejected, no one gets through life without being hurt at this point the boy who's listening to this song is probably saying that it's easier said than done and it's true
See? I mean how much does that cry of "teen angst" to you?
The fact that I'm not listening to the song on single track repeat and that it doesn't send me into paroxysms of despair is probably a good thing. I'm listening to it because it's a good track with a great line. And also because I can smile and think it's ironic.
This is good. It makes me feel better about myself.
- posted at 23:40 :: feedback
Okay, a great night out with friends. Phil has come back for a week from his year out working for Unilever in Bedford, and it was great seeing him for the first time since Christmas.We (Bobobob, our pub quiz team) came second in the music quiz! Reasonably good on the Queen round, stormed the nineties round, but fell down by not failing to remember Was Not Was, did alright in the seventies round and managed to keep it up for the eighties.
I think I try to hard too be funny. It probably grates. I'm going to work on that.
- posted at 23:36 :: feedback
sherylog is on hiatus. I guess exams are as good an excuse as any, so I'll let her off... Speaking of which, it's nearly exam season for me as well. Maybe I should take some time off too...- posted at 23:29 :: feedback
New record set for the London Marathon today, and pictures (BBC News).- posted at 19:49 :: feedback
Seattle Weekly interviews Prince of Darkness, quote: "I've got big plans for the future."- posted at 19:02 :: feedback
Call to UK readers: has anyone seen the current Boots commercial for invigorating, um, shampoos and stuff featuring lots of slow-motion jumping women? Yeah? Okay, does anyone know what the music is? Who it's by? Maybe where I can nab the mp3/buy the cd?- posted at 16:51 :: feedback
When did flat ericdie?- posted at 16:39 :: feedback
Okay, I did something really interesting yesterday. It was thrilling. It was, as they say, armchair-gripping stuff, if it was a TV programme, it would have been labelled must-watch and a few million people would have set their VCRs (to the right channel as well...)I bought a new iron and kettle.
Yep, that's what the communications revolution lets me do. It lets me let you, dear reader, know that I've bought a new iron and kettle. I might as well supply some background story as well...
I need them.
Enough? Nah, didn't think so. I need an iron because, well, I don't have one at college and I'm going back there in six days (and besides, Daniella, Julie, Natalie or Laura always end up lending theirs to Adam and me). I don't necessarily need a new kettle, but I kinda like those cordless ones, seeing as the one I've got is a crappy travel one.
Anyway.
So, I got one of these (the iron). Though I suspect with that kind of colour scheme you'd really want to be calling it an iRon. Hah.
Oh, and the kettle? Well, there was a great translucent blue one of those as well, but it fell into the heinous design category flaw of not having the "boil" switch under your thumb as you pick it up.
Bad kettle. Placed the switch in the wrong place.
Exciting blog entry, huh?
- posted at 14:13 :: feedback
Um... something's up with blogger and my site. They're not talking to each other. No big deal. Anyway, don't you hate it when you tape something overnight, wake up the next day and find out you've set the vcr to the wrong channel?- posted at 14:03 :: feedback
Don't you just hate it when you try to tape something overnight, wake up the next day and find out you had the thing set on the wrong channel?- posted at 14:02 :: feedback
Damn. What's blue and orange, is a weblog and has a goldfish on it? No, not Doozer. It's Bluishorange. An aside: are there any webloggers who don't like High Fidelity or Nick Hornby?- posted at 13:59 :: feedback
Thinking about seeing recently released (in the UK) Erin Brockovich? Want to find out more about the story behind the film? Salon's got it covered.- posted at 13:56 :: feedback
The Independent covers Apple's Darwin, what could be a cross-platform OS.- posted at 13:47 :: feedback
Charlotte O'Sullivan at The Independent goes against the wind and admits to liking Mission to Mars.- posted at 13:38 :: feedback
I much prefer Joanna Dark to Lara Croft...- posted at 13:27 :: feedback
Apparently, the acceptance and teaching of evolution has corrupted me. I particularly enjoyed:a) the fact that every paragraph header contains an exclamation mark, just to make sure I had understood the incredibly important point;
b) the wonderful jump from "Darwin was a racist" to "Darwin taught racism - pure and simple!"
c) the belief that a lot of people were killed in the name of religion is an untruth.
- posted at 12:51 :: feedback
Doozer linked on yooZoo.- posted at 12:25 :: feedback
I caught a new show on BBC Choice tonight - Good Evening Rockall, a bizarre cross between the Nine O'Clock news, Have I Got News For You and The Eleven O'Clock Show (though substantially funnier than the Eleven O'Clock show). Funny. Good. Excellent titles.- posted at 00:10 :: feedback
Saturday, April 15, 2000
BBC, the highly acclaimed public service broadcaster has yet another service on its news site - new for people who prefer to look at pictures.- posted at 19:56 :: feedback
How could the UK government possibly say no to hundreds of children asking for a ban on physical punishment? Kids sure are politically savvy these days. To think I said kids were apathetic these days, as well...- posted at 19:52 :: feedback
Wipeout Fusion hits the PlayStation2. Way back when I picked up a budget copy of Wipeout 2097, I couldn't put the thing down. This looks good, though.- posted at 16:30 :: feedback
Breaking news from the BBC: two die in US shooting. See? Guns bad.- posted at 15:52 :: feedback
Buy, buy, buy! No! Sell! (BBC News).- posted at 00:45 :: feedback
Friday, April 14, 2000
Cambridge tops Times good university guide.- posted at 22:34 :: feedback
Sweet mother of God: two two hour long, made for TV Reboot movies. Quite possibly one of the best kids' animated TV series ever.- posted at 22:25 :: feedback
If, along with the rest of the world, you've been wondering where Billie Piper has been for the last year, then you can rest assured that she's been busy reinventing herself as a better Britney than Britney. With the video for her new single Day & Night, Britney stands no chance at all, even with a school uniform. Yay for the Brits.- posted at 22:20 :: feedback
I bought a new mouse today, an IntelliMouse with IntelliEye. Aside from having a stupid name, it's quite good. Even works on my trousers. Now how's that for technological progress?- posted at 22:17 :: feedback
I have two things to say about the preview release of Netscape 6: Buggy and Fast. Buggy, because it crashed three times on the initial "register Netscape" screen that it throws up. Fast, because, well, it is. Damn fast. Amazingly fast. Oh, one more thing. I don't like the way it looks. But I guess that's okay, because it's a skinnable browser...And what's the deal with the RAM requirements? I've got the Blogger edit my blog page open with the preview release, and Taskman reckons netscp6.exe is feasting on 18,852k? Isn't that rather a lot? I suppose it is a preview release...
Having said that, the Sullivan skin is very nice.
- posted at 21:54 :: feedback
Ha! I finished today's Times Two crossword (no. 2004)...
- posted at 20:54 :: feedback
Drivers suck. They sucked under Windows, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, sucked less under Windows 98, but suck bigtime in Windows 2000. Example?We used to have a modem. It was a nippy ISA PnP US Robotics Sportster 33600 that came preinstalled with our home workstation (itself a nippy Dell number), and was subsequently upgraded to 56k (v.90) compatibility. That was fine. Worked fine under Windows 98, we got about 46k connectivity, which isn't too bad, considering line conditions.
So, what happens when you upgrade to Windows 2000? Well, you get a maximum connect speed of 33.6k. It autodetects the modem as a 3Com WinModem TI, and stubbornly refuses to accept anything else. Taking this (over two weeks later), as a sign from the Gods that it's finally time to upgrade, I spec a PCI PnP 3Com 56k Voice modem in the hope that maybe it'll work a tiny bit quicker.
Like that was ever going to happen. The thing arrived today, I installed it, and... our connect speed is up from 33.6 to... 38.2! Wonderful! I'm beside myself with joy! It's not a hardware problem, because the damn thing connects at at least 42.6 under Windows 98.
Blasted drivers...
And then there's the drivers for our combined firewire/scsi card...
Grrrr.
- posted at 20:27 :: feedback
Microsoft, well known for doing stupid things, has admitted to planting a back door in its FrontPage98 server extensions, allowing access to server administrator functions. Last time I had any experience with FrontPage, it was at my old school about two and a half years ago:"So, do we want to install FrontPage server extensions?" - Chris D
(we both look at each other and laugh)
"Yeah, right." - Me. And click no.
- posted at 20:19 :: feedback
The Hubble Space Telescope, once derided for its less-than-perfect vision and the fact that it has to wear glasses to see properly, may well be able to see further than anything else (BBC News)- posted at 19:12 :: feedback
Thursday, April 13, 2000
Today's gratuitous pop-reference lyric:let me be the one you call if you jump i'll break your fall lift you up and fly away with you into the night if you need to fall apart i can mend a broken heart if you need to crash then crash and burn, you're not alone
I've been watching 7Up 2000 (and have been trying to find the website, there seems to be no mention of it at all at the BBC), as should everyone in the UK at the moment. And if you're not in the UK, try and get hold of a copy. In the sixties, a documentary was started called 7Up, charting the lives of seven year old children, intended to be representative of Britain. The documentary returned to the children through the course of their lives, in seven year intervals, with the project finishing in the year 2000. The BBC has now started its own 7Up, entitled 7Up 2000, following nineteen seven year olds, the first programme of which was shown tonight.
A number of differences between the new series and the old were pointed out by reviewers: of the nineteen children, a high proportion are in single parent families. The programme also reflects the ethnically diverse nature of Britain now, with Romanian, Jamaican and Muslim children. All the children come from a wide range of social classes. One boy has cerebal palsy.
There's been some great quotes as well: to the question "who runs Britain?", the answers ranged from "The Queen of London", to "God, who is the King of the World." Quite a few of the kids have got boyfriends or girlfriends, though one boy, when responding to the question "do you have a girlfriend?" said "what do you take me for? Why are you so rude?"
The next time 7Up 2000 visits these children, they'll be fourteen, four years away from being able to vote. I can't wait.
The Times: London gets its own Bladerunners, that is, police on rollerblades. PC Janice Jarvis is now being trained by the British In-Line Skating Association in the art of grabbing hold of suspects and staying upright at the same time. Great to see that the Police have got a sense of humour and also get to innovate as well... Excellent picture as well:
New review in the Media, Books section - William Sutcliffe's The Love Hexagon.
Sheryl finally got round to seeing the Crash and Burn video. Glad she liked it...
- posted at 22:56 :: feedback
Via Rachlog, a great journal site and associated weblog. Today's journal entry: "do you ever fear that the person you love will stop loving you? i have this fear all the time. why does she like me? is it the way i smell, touch, or speak? pheromones? am i just lucky"Boy can I empathise.
Why is the fact that Monica Lewinsky lost her job considered news? Do I know her? No. Do I care that she's lost her job? No. Do other people care? Well, obviously, some do otherwise it wouldn't have been considered newsworthy. Well, to those people who read that story because they're interested - what the hell are you doing? Why do you care? Go find something interesting to do. I bet you're the same people who mourned Diana when she died, railed at the press and paparrazi and then bought the magazine specials. Hypocrites.
- posted at 20:39 :: feedback
Great quote on BBC News from Hansie Cronje, the disgraced cricketer: "I always played to win". His definition, of "win" then, would involve the reception of about US$15,000. Of course, he wouldn't put it in his bank account. No. That'd make it too obvious.- posted at 20:30 :: feedback
According to The Register, Apple is considering licensing Mac OSX to Wintel vendors. Whether The Register is to be trusted on this one is entirely open to question, since The Register is quite happy to mix rumour, fact and fiction all together into the same bowl of reporting without differentiating between them. Regardless, if Apple are doing this, then it's a good thing...- posted at 20:21 :: feedback
The BBC's London Live site has an impressive array of city-wide webcams, in particular, Jamcams, which might be useful if you want to miss rush hour traffic. Or just want to watch it.- posted at 19:21 :: feedback
Nanotechnology gets that little bit closer, thanks to two advances from Oxford University and the University of Massachusetts (BBC News).- posted at 19:01 :: feedback
BBC News online is adopting a much more casual attitude towards reporting, evident in its Gagging the net in 3 easy steps article. Handy, though, if you ever want to censor someone...- posted at 18:56 :: feedback
A nice email correction from Hal O'Brien about my August 27th entry in the 1999 Edinburgh Festival weblog: "Imbruglia's version is actually a cover. The original group who sang and wrote "Torn" was a Boston, Mass, group called Ednaswap. Not a big deal, I know, but what can I say, I'm just a little bundle of anti-entropy." -- so there you go. Learn something new every day!- posted at 12:22 :: feedback
So, sat in the pub, and we decided we need an excuse for a really big party. A really big one. Like we used to have when we turned eighteen. With hundreds of people. Then, we worked out we don't know enough to invite hundreds of people, because eighteenth birthday parties tend to be "invite everyone in your year at school" events. So, someone needs to get married. I don't even want to think about getting married. Text to Chris P today:"It's a crap day at work." - Chris
"I've got cold feet." - Me
"What, figuratively or literally?"
"Well, literally, cos they're bloody freezing, and figuratively, cos I'm not too sure about marriage."
Maybe they'll have abolished marriage by the time I'm thirty...
- posted at 00:00 :: feedback
Wednesday, April 12, 2000
This week's pick of New Scientist stories: another opening for wormholes in interstellar travel (also covered by BBC News), Apoorva Patel puts forward the idea of quantum computing in biology and damn fast planes.- posted at 23:47 :: feedback
My group of friends seems to have a thing about pub quizzes. We missed last night at the Black Horse (which is a rare, if not altogether impossible occurrence), but when we turned up at the Railway today, they sprang a quiz on us there. Forced into taking part...- posted at 23:41 :: feedback
Distillation of The Times's Oxbridge University Guide - talk to people who go there (we're normal), don't fool yourself into thinking it's not hard work it is - we do more than other universities in less time and visit. Read that prospectus, and look in the chart at the back to see how many applicants apply for that subject at whatever college.- posted at 20:12 :: feedback
The Times reports that Girl Power is a bit impotent.- posted at 20:06 :: feedback
The slashdot q&a session on artificial intelligence has an interesting take on the "it's ten years away" quote that we've been dogged with for the last forty years...- posted at 20:01 :: feedback
Spoke to sheryl last night on icq. Fun. Anyway, go check out Netbaby (via Sherylog).- posted at 19:53 :: feedback
Move away from London for a "quiet life", get a car through your bedroom (BBC News).
- posted at 19:44 :: feedback
Okay, I get it. Someone dared NASDAQ to go limbo dancing, right? How low can you go...- posted at 19:41 :: feedback
What the hell does "susceptibility" mean in the Physical/Environmental technical specification of the Netbook? Susceptibility to what? Spontaneous combustion? Total probability failure? Or, even, EN50024?Is it just me, or does listening to the theme from Wayne's World have something inherently early nineties about it? (You can tell someone's just ripped his Wayne's World soundtrack CD). I bought it for Bohemian Rhapsody, okay?